Making the most of business travel - on a screen near you now

29 May 2009

Ever wondered how best to find your way around unfamiliar foreign places, or how to avoid leaving behind that vital item before flying off on a long business trip?  If so, oneworld®, the leading quality global airline alliance, has all the tips and advice you need in a new free-to-view series of videos, produced in conjunction with Lonely Planet, the leading travel information provider.

The oneworld Travel Series features five short videos - each just 60 to 90 seconds long - packed with advice and tips for business travelers and produced in a format for viewing on-line through your laptop, smartphone, iPod or PDA.

Each looks at a specific challenge for the frequent business traveler:

  • Going Local - how to find your way around in foreign and unfamiliar places.
  • Packing It In - how to travel light, pack smart and leave nothing behind.
  • Road Warrior - a guide to staying wired, mobile and working while traveling.
  • Stress Busters - how to reduce stress, keep fit and enjoy yourself on a business trip.
  • Saving Time - six tips to save time through new digital and travel services when on the road.

They are presented by experts from Lonely Planet, including its founder Tony Wheeler and anchorwoman for its television shows Asha Gill.

A sixth video focuses on oneworld itself, as seen through the eyes of a typical traveler, to show how the quality of the alliance's member airlines and the services and benefits it offers can make global business travel less stressful and more rewarding and enjoyable.

You can view them - or download them - from today at www.oneworld.com/ow/news-and-information/oneworld-videos

Meantime, oneworld's award-winning Travel Stations, offering travel tips and information in a format to suit the iPhone generation - with content again supplied by Lonely Planet - are reaching more airports, installed now at New York JFK's Terminal 8N and at Stockholm Arlanda's Skycity area.

They offer travelers guides, tips and advice on some of the world's leading destinations in a unique and innovative format - all for free. The highly engaging, interactive installations feature interactive, touch-screen technology similar to the Apple phone.  Travelers can use them before boarding a flight, to access data - text and pictures - and then download useful information, including language guides and audio casts, to their own smartphones, laptops or other devices.   

oneworld Charging Stations, enabling travellers to power up their mobile phones, laptops and other devices for free, have also been installed at Milan Malpensa for the first time, with 14 of the free-standing devices dotted strategically throughout the airport.   The charging stations also remain in place at Brussels.

For more information about oneworld's Travel and Charging Stations, see www.oneworld.com/ow/news/details?objectID=15211

oneworld Commercial Director Filip Lemmens said:  "The aim of oneworld's Travel Series is very simple - to increase awareness of oneworld and our member airlines among travellers - particularly those flying on business - in a way that is innovative and stands out from competition.  

"They videos enable us to illustrate the personal and meaningful quality service oneworld and our member airlines provide to our customers at every stage of their journey - in a completely different manner from traditional advertising."

The campaign has been developed for oneworld by its global marketing communications agency Imagination.

About oneworld

oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  Mexicana and its affiliate Click Mexicana will join the alliance later in 2009, and Russia's S7 Airlines in 2010. 

Between them, these airlines:

  • Serve almost 700 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 9,000 daily departures.
  • Offer nearly 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
  • Carry some 320 million passengers a year.
  • Employ 250,000 people.
  • Operate almost 2,500 aircraft.
  • Generate more than US$100 billion annual revenues.

It is the only alliance with any airlines based in Australia, South America or Asia's Middle East.

The alliance enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own.  These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges.   oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors.