Business travel
29 Jun 09
Facing the future
The trial of a facial recognition system at immigration gates, currently running at Stansted and Manchester, is to be extended to eight other UK airports in August.
The UK Borders Agency, which is leading the trial, has yet to reveal which airports will take part.
The gates work by scanning a passenger’s face and comparing it with the digital passport photo stored on the chip in biometric passports.
Supervised by an immigration officer, the system can pick out imposters and also distinguish between twins.
The UK Borders agency has recently rubbished claims that the facial recognition gates at Manchester Airport are compromising security. A spokesman for the agency says: “The gates are making the same high levels of checks on the British and EEA passengers using them as they were when the trials began in August last year.”
The separate IRIS recognition scheme, which allows registered passengers through automated gates with a quick scan of an iris, is already operating at Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham and Gatwick. Unlike this scheme, no pre-registration is needed for the facial recognition trial.
Expenses error
MPs may be over-inflating their expenses but, in the business world, it appears executives are going the other way.
A new business travel survey from Barclaycard has found that a significant amount of employees are failing to claim back all their expenses – 32 per cent of those surveyed said they do not claim all that they are entitled to. This amounts to £373 left unclaimed per person on average.
It seems that the more senior the employee, the more cash is left unclaimed. Also, men are lazier than women when it comes to filling out expenses forms, the survey found. It also discovered that staff in the private sector run up twice as much in unclaimed expenses as those in the public sector (£397 compared to £199).
in Berlin
to visit...
International Berlin Beer Festival (7-9 August 2009)
Ever sampled hell? Actually, “hell” or “helles” denotes a type of pale German lager. And it’s this variety, along with every other conceivable kind, you’ll be able to encounter at an event that’s more akin to heaven for pint lovers.
The beer festival takes place along what the organisers describe as “the longest beer garden in the world” – a 2.2km stretch of the street Karl-Marx Allee which will be given over to stalls and tents to showcase the beverages of 20 different beer regions. There are also 18 stages for music ranging from rock and pop to folk and country.
www.bierfestival-berlin.de
TO STAY...
Lux 11
When it comes to getting the best out of a destination, location can be everything.
As well as crisp design features, Lux 11 is situated in the heart of East Berlin, Mitte.
It is a mere stone’s throw from Alexanderplatz and the city’s showcase TV Tower (The Fernsehturm). It’s also a short walk from the bars and cafes of the district Prenzlauer Berg and museums along Unter den Linden. As serviced apartments, you get a fully equipped kitchen, which is helpful if you don’t want to go out for a bratwurst. Communal facilities include a restaurant, bar and Aveda spa. Rooms start from about €130 a night per person.
Web of deceit
airline advertising>
A number of airlines have had their knuckles rapped for misleading advertising of ticket prices on their websites.
As part of a crackdown by the European Commission, the websites of 15 out of 67 major airlines failed to get a “clean bill of health” in a “mystery shopping” health check carried out in March 2009.
The main problems the Commission found were that there was unclear information about price, where the price is split into a series of diverse charges and only becomes clear at the end of the booking process. Also, it criticised eye-catching special offers that were difficult to find, as well as unclear information on contract terms, either, missing, in another language, or illegible due to use of characters of another language.
Decisions, decisions... www.weather2travel.com
Umbrella or sunscreen? This site helps you decide what to pack thanks to its climate guides and weather reports. It covers thousands of destinations around the globe – and it’s all thanks to meteorological and academic data from sources such as the United States
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit.
Ups and downs>
Virgin flying high despite climate
While economic turbulence may be jostling many airlines, one appears to be bucking the trend.
Virgin Atlantic has increased its pre-tax profits – £68.4m for the last financial year, up from £34.8m the year before.
Passenger numbers have also increased to 5.77m.
British Airways has, however, been faring badly – in late May, it posted losses of £220m. In response, it will be parking up to 16 aircraft to reduce flights by four per cent.
eurostar>Seven new Swiss routes
Eurostar has launched connecting fares to seven Swiss destinations, including Geneva, Basel and Zurich.
Tickets will be offered in conjunction with high-speed operator Lyria. Prices start from under £100. Journeys, starting at London St Pancras, will connect either at the stations Gare de Lyon or Gare de l’Est in Paris. Journey times range from six and a half hours to about seven and a half hours.
Visit www.eurostar.com
Cool-er eBook Reader
It’s the classic packing dilemma for travellers – do you pack the weighty tome you’ve promised yourself you’ll read, or the slim but pithily-written volume?
Electronic reading devices, such as the new Cool-er from Interead, render such problems moot. The device is lighter than the average paperback as well as the rival device from Sony and can hold up to 300 average-sized books on the standard 1GB of memory. However, an SD card slot means many more could be packed in.
Also, the e-ink display, which can be viewed at different angles and in direct sunlight, shouldn’t give readers the kind of eyestrain associated with backlit screens.
Pick it up in one of eight colours for £189 plus VAT. Visit www.coolreaders.com