Business Travel Management

The State Department has announced plans to raise passport application fees by $35 to $135 per adult. The plan also calls for a new $82 fee to add visa pages to passport books, which is currently a free service. These changes could take effect within weeks after the required public comment period, so if you need passport services, now's the time to act. According to the Los Angeles Times, this increase would be the third in five years. Washington has based its fee-increase proposal on a survey that it commissioned in 2008 to determine the cost of providing services that are funded by passport fees. These fees include not only issuing passports but services such as assisting Americans who get into trouble overseas and countering identity theft. Based on that survey, the State Department feels the $135 fee is justified.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Continental Airlines announced Wednesday that passengers seeking a little more leg room can pay for it beginning March 17. The fees for these exit row seats vary depending on the route, market and day of the week. Continental’s elite frequent-flier members and their traveling companions can continue to assign themselves exit row seats in economy class without charge.

New York’s JFK Airport has closed its longest commercial runway for four months of construction and repair work. According to ATW, this closure will reduce the number of arrivals and departures by nearly 20 percent. The Port Authority said airlines "are adjusting schedules and operations to mitigate delays, and the airport's three remaining runways will be utilized to their full capabilities during the closure." The closed runway normally handles about a third of the airport's operations, including more than half of all departures.

What’s a YOTEL?  Well, that would be an airport hotel offering small (170 square feet) pod-like rooms for inexpensive stays or layovers. These purple mood-lit properties are already in London at Gatwick and Heathrow airports, and in Amsterdam’s Schipol airport. Today, YOTEL announced they will be opening a new 669-pod property in New York’s Time Square in 2011. Rather than offering brief stopover accommodations, this YOTEL will be much more of a conventional hotel, charging  $200-$250 for capsules twice the size of a standard airport YOTEL cabin, plus it will also have a business lounge, bar, restaurant and outside terrace.  YOTEL CEO, Gerard Greene stated, “A solution to boring and expensive hotels, YOTEL uses radical design to offer the customer an exciting product and better value for the money. Not satisfied with airports, we are now transferring a successful brand to city centers across the globe."

(Source:  Yotel.com)