No More Business Travelers

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As I explained in a recent column, business travelers who take high-priced, premium-class flights and book expensive hotel rooms are the financial glue that holds the system together. As business has spiraled downward in subsequent weeks, more and more companies have put the brakes on their T&E spending. And many of us who are still on the road have been asked to fly less frequently, travel less elegantly, and pinch every available penny. The new frugality has even spawned its own thread at the FlyerTalk.com discussion boards.

"Business travelers are not fools," the corporate travel manager of a major computer firm told me by email last week. "They know that their bonuses, maybe even their jobs, depend on us cutting costs and riding out this bad patch. Some of them have even come to me with ideas for getting T&E costs down. They know this is no joke."

Of course, even such a dark cloud has a proverbial silver lining.

Travel will be easier for those of us who'll still be on the road in the coming months. Airports will be less crowded, security checkpoints will be less frenetic and, miracle of miracles, more and more flights are running on time. Last year I was writing that nationwide on-time performance had slid to schedule-destroying levels. But last month 84 percent of the nation's flights arrived on time, according to FlightStats.com. It's the fifth consecutive month airlines have improved on-time performance.

And if you need a silver lining that actually involves silver (or at least negotiable financial instruments), airfares and hotel rates are beginning to decline noticeably.

"We've been told to start thinking out of the box, come up with promotions to get people on planes, especially up front," one airline executive told me last week. "We're going to see a lot of creative discounts in the next few months."

In fact, the discounting has already started. OpenSkies, the British Airways boutique carrier I raved about three weeks ago, has slashed its prices. If you purchase tickets by November 21 and travel before the end of March, flights from New York to Amsterdam are just $550 one-way in the prem+ cabin and $1,050 in business class. Flights to Paris are just $50 more each way, making a business-class roundtrip to Paris just $2,200, about 75 percent off standard walk-up rate.

At those prices, I can afford to go all Humphrey Bogart on you. You know: "We'll always have Paris…"

The Fine Print… The market has decided that fees for checked bags are okay. As I explained back in September, four airlines (American, United, Northwest, and US Airways) were charging luggage fees on domestic flights. Continental Airlines fell into line last month and Delta Air Lines, which completed its merger with Northwest Airlines late last month, said it adopted Northwest's policy of charging most non-elite fliers $15 to check a bag. The only wrinkle: Continental doesn't charge the first-bag fee to travelers who carry Chase credit or debit cards tied to the Continental OnePass frequent-flier program.

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