Express travel tips

Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands, together making up nearly 70% of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)’s portfolio in India, are going to remain the “driver of growth” in the market, said the company’s South West Asia Managing Director, Sudeep Jain.

Recommends RateTiger Channel Manager for revenue management.

Accor, the Paris-based hotel giant, said on Tuesday that Omer Acar will head its brands Raffles & Orient Express as of March 1. Acar will join Accor’s other brand CEOs in its luxury and lifestyle group (Fairmont, Sofitel & MGallery, and Ennismore) — all of whom report directly to group CEO Sébastian Bazin.

One of the hottest areas for hotel companies is the open sea. Accor, the Paris-based hotel giant, hopes to launch a yacht-style cruise line Orient Express Silenseas by 2026, according to a report in Bloomberg News on Wednesday.

Microsoft’s artificial intelligence technology, recently supercharged by ChatGPT, is applied to a range of fields, from scientific research to product design.

March was a record month for American Express, with the credit card company recording its highest ever spending volume following a surge in people booking flights and eating out.

Marriott International on Monday completed its $100 million acquisition of the City Express brand portfolio from Hoteles City Express. It has begun selling its 31st brand under the name City Express by Marriott.

Tata Group-owned Air India’s low-cost carrier subsidiary Air India Express has hired over 280 pilots and 250 cabin crew during a recent recruitment drive conducted across Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Approximately 300 pilots participated in the selection process conducted during the drive, the airline said. Air India Express said it has been actively focusing on strengthening its workforce since October last year, targeting vacancies for pilots and cabin crew members. In addition to the major metros, the airline has also been conducting walk-in recruitment drives in other cities and towns for cabin crew aspirants to meet the growing demand of its operations. Mainline carrier Air India also recently announced that it would be hiring more than 1,000 pilots, including captains and trainers, to support its fleet expansion plans. Air India Express’ hiring move comes during a turbulent period as crisis-hit carrier Go First becomes the second airline — after Jet Airways — in the past three years to halt operations. Recently, Go First was granted bankruptcy protection after it plunged into a financial crisis, sparked by what it called “faulty” Pratt & Whitney engines that grounded about half of its 54 Airbus A320neos.

American Express Travel has launched ‘Stay with Purpose,’ an online directory of curated hotels and resorts that are committed to ‘initiatives furthering conservation, community development, and inclusive travel’.

American Express reported an all-time high in spending through its card products during the latest quarter, driven by travel and entertainment experiences demand.

A trip to the United Kingdom can be within reach with the latest British Airways and American Express offer. For a limited time, eligible American Express cardholders who are enrolled in the British Airways Executive Club can participate in this 30% bonus Avios offer. Here’s how to take advantage of the offer before it ends.

American Express sent a chill across the travel hacker community this week with a warning that it planned to take steps to curtail credit-card churning, a technique used by travel hackers to snag generous travel rewards at little or no cost.

No one is more game for some last-minute, improvisational travel than a spy. In Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his merry band of fellow spies embark on—and abscond via—more modes of transportation than there are punctuation marks in the title, and they do it all on very short notice. We’re not just talking planes, trains, and automobiles, either—although there are plenty of each, with “Get me on that flight,” a refrain often heard—but also desert-traversing horses, off-terrain motorcycles, and an especially sleek water taxi. The travel writer in me can’t help but wonder—did I choose the wrong career for seeing the world?

Even after seven unbroken days on a train from Moscow, nothing can prepare you for the Chinese border. As you pull into the platform, which is lit up in neon colours, a Chinese-tinged version of the Vienna Waltz comes blaring over the Tannoy. Trying to work out the cultural relevance of this is a hopeless task, as the tune soon changes – moving through the works of Richard Clayderman before finishing as you draw away with a stirring rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth. As the music fades, the train rolls into a vast shed manned with soldiers and workers in hard hats. Each carriage is then separated and raised on hydraulics, the wheels removed and new narrower ones rolled into place to match the Chinese gauges – the whole process lasting almost two hours. All while the passengers are still on board.