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EXPERIENTIAL REWARDS Hotel loyalty is moving away from rewards in the form of room upgrades and free stays to money-can’t-buy experiences and hyper- personal gifts. Small Luxury Hotels of the World, for example, redesigned its loyalty scheme in September, renaming it Invited and introducing preferential treatment to elite members in the form of birthday giſts and invitation-only events. Intercontinental Hotels Group,
meanwhile, has joined forces with Opentable and Grubhub to allow guests to earn and redeem points on meals in restaurants. Global Hotel Alliance’s Discovery programme offers “local experience” rewards for Platinum and Black members, such as seabob snorkelling in the Maldives or scenic cycle rides around Bali. The scheme also applies to Kempinski hotels. The hotel group says: “Whether it’s a rare elephant ride in the jungle, a private tour of a Geneva watch factory usually closed to the public, a traditional Adumu dance with Masai warriors in Kenya, or a tour of Malta’s presidential palace and gardens, these experiences present the best of local gastronomy, culture and craftsmanship.”
ABOVE: Commuters are adopting new travel methods RIGHT: In-room fitness makes exercise more appealing
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FACIAL RECOGNITION The iPhone X isn’t the only employer of facial recognition as a means of identification and added security. Airports and airlines are increasingly integrating the technology into their biometric boarding and immigration systems to help reduce queues, paperwork and the required staffing levels on checkpoints. While you may be anxious that this undermines your privacy, there is no way to turn the tide, so you may as well accept the benefits of a less stressful journey through the terminal as recompense. Last summer, Delta Air Lines introduced
its first biometric bag-drop stations at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, requiring a facial scan at the self-service points to verify the passport holder. Last October, Singapore’s Changi Airport opened its new Terminal 4, which features biometric screening at check-in as part of its focus to become a fully automated end-to-end terminal. Dubai airport, in partnership with Emirates, is going further by creating camera- lined facial recognition tunnels that you walk through without pausing to stare at a screen. The first tunnels should be in place at Dubai’s Terminal 3 by the end of summer 2018. Meanwhile, British Airways is the first
airline to use self-service biometric boarding gates on international flights out of the US,
starting with Los Angeles International. BA has been using biometric gates at London’s Heathrow Terminal 5 for domestic flights since March 2017. Amsterdam Schiphol airport and KLM are working on a similar initiative, as is JetBlue, which has replaced boarding passes with facial scanning at Boston Logan airport. British Airways said that its new
technology, created by Vision-Box, “will create a smoother journey for customers, as they will no longer need to present their passport or boarding pass at the gate – only at check-in and security. Instead travellers can simply look into a camera prior to boarding, wait for their biometric data to be verified, and then walk onto the aircraft.” In the US, Customs and Border Protection
is trialling its Biometric Exit US in a handful of airports (such as Chicago O’Hare and Las Vegas McCarran), but there are plans to install it at every airport in the country within three years. The endeavour is being pushed forward by President Trump, who wants to use facial recognition to track visa holders as they leave the country (or not).
ALTERNATIVE COMMUTES With congestion on roads getting ever worse and train services frequently unreliable,
bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
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