Passengers with e-tickets also have the ability to rebook between American Airlines and British Airways without having to obtain a paper ticket first. Previously, customers with e-tickets were required to convert to a paper ticket before transferring between carriers. Interline e-tickets can be issued by AA and BA through their respective reservation centers, and at airport locations, ticket offices, and travel agencies.

In addition to British Airways, American has interline e-ticketing with four other oneworld partner carriers - Cathay Pacific, Finnair, LanChile and Qantas. Within a few weeks, American plans to implement interline e-ticketing with oneworld partners Iberia and Aer Lingus.

American now offers interline e-ticketing convenience with 18 carriers, including most of the larger U.S. airlines - Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, American Trans Air, Aloha Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, Midwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways. American also has interline e-ticketing agreements with KLM and Copa Airlines.

More than 90 percent of all American Airlines customers today travel on electronic tickets, avoiding lines at the airport.

Located in Greater London, the 150-room Ramada Encore London West offers five meeting rooms and three on-site dining options, including Asian-fusion cuisine at Wok Around The World or a variety of snacks and beverages at 2go Café and Hub Bar. In addition, the hotel provides many amenities, including laundry valet and functional work space.

Within walking distance, guests can take the tube into Central London or Heathrow or drive to visit nearby attractions, which include The Royal Albert Hall, London Eye, West End theatres and shopping, Harrods, Tussauds Wax Works, Wembley Conference & Exhibition Centre, Ealing Studios, Ealing Golf Range, Kew Gardens, and many more.

Ramada Encore embodies lifestyle and multifunctional offerings to deliver comfort, style and innovation for the value-driven, savvy business traveler. In addition, Encore hotels feature informal, inviting space suitable for all hours of the day, contemporary guest rooms with ergonomic work space, and an ambiance that includes rich and vibrant color, attention-grabbing artwork, soft furnishings and flexible lighting.

Last week, Ramada announced the opening of its third Ramada Encore Hotel in Forli, Italy. Next month, Ramada will debut the Ramada Encore Swansea Bay in Wales. The first Ramada Encore hotel opened in York, England, in 2002, followed by Geneva, Switzerland, the following year. Over the next three years, the brand will feature hotels in Korea and Japan.

The service will introduce unprecedented in-flight comforts in all cabin classes and provide greatly improved connections for travellers from North America to the Gulf region, Africa, the Indian sub-continent and Asia Pacific.

Operating out of the ultra-modern Terminal 4 at JFK, the daily EK202 outbound flight will depart at 11:30 pm and arrive in Dubai at 10:30 pm the next day. The return flight EK 201 will depart Dubai at 8:00 am every morning and land at JFK at 2:00 pm the same day.

The service will enable passengers from New York to connect in Dubai to points east and south of the Gulf. On some itineraries, layover and overall flying times could be shortened, and that’s just one benefit. Travellers will discover that Dubai’s open skies offer them dozens of airlines to choose from – a luxury seldom seen in other major hubs, which tend to be dominated by a handful of carriers. Great diversity and sophistication in the American market is an opportunity for which Emirates, which serves 75 destinations in 52 countries, feels uniquely prepared.

Emirates’ A340-500 in-flight experience alone is certain to catapult the airline into the ranks of major carriers serving the Middle East and beyond. The airline flew in a complete First Class Suite for a demonstration, thus allowing a glimpse of just one of the many new creature comforts in store for American travellers.

The aircraft’s amenities include 12 fully enclosed First Class suites with flat beds and sliding doors that can be opened or closed at will for privacy.

Other features include quieter cabins, revolutionary lighting to help reset body clocks and minimize jetlag, the world’s most advanced in-flight entertainment, with 500-plus channels, and Room Service, an Emirates first. Customers phone the galley to order meals, served at their seat at the time of their choice. Inside the aircraft, the quietest in service, noise-cancelling headsets will help them enjoy the huge variety of in-flight programs, from classic films to opera.

Business Class seats are laid out 2-2-2, putting everyone beside either an aisle or window, and adjust at the touch of a button. Emirates Economy also has been redesigned to make cabins quieter and more restful, with wider, more comfortable 2-4-2 seats and nine-inch personal video screens -- larger than in almost every other Economy class. The aircraft can carry 12 First, 42 Business and 204 Economy customers, a total of 258 people, and some 14 tonnes of airfreight.

The new international procedure, which minimizes aisle congestion, follows Delta’s move earlier this year to replace customer boarding by rows on United States flights with a new staggered zone boarding procedure. Delta customers boarding at international destinations served by the airline in Asia, Europe (except Paris and Nice, France, and Zurich, Switzerland) and Latin America and the Caribbean now will be given a zone number during the check-in process that corresponds to their assigned seat. This zone number will be printed on the customer’s boarding card which is presented upon check-in at the airport. Boarding announcements will be made in the gate areas advising customers when their zone is ready to board. BusinessElite customers and Medallion members of Delta’s frequent flyer program, SkyMiles, and Elite Plus members of SkyTeam, will continue to receive priority boarding.

Delta’s zone boarding process has successfully been implemented on Delta’s U.S. flights since January 21, 2004. Song, Delta’s low-fare air service, introduced zone boarding during its launch in April 2003.

Delta operates services to the U.S. from 21 destinations in Europe, 24 in Latin America and the Caribbean and one in Asia including Brussels, Belgium; Lima, Peru; and Tokyo.

26.04.2026
Austrian Airlines: Launch of Direct Flights from Bratislava to London, Paris and Brussels on 1 May
"The countdown has begun – it’s now just 5 days until 1 May 2004, when the Austrian Airlines Group launches its daily direct flights from Bratislava to London, Paris and Brussels. In our role based on partnership with the core institutions of the Slovak economy, we have prepared ourselves comprehensively and intensively to begin operating the new route,” declared Chief Commercial Officer Dr. Josef E. Burger at the ceremony to mark the introductory fly-by of the Boeing 737 jet to be used in Bratislava. Dr. Burger went on to comment: “With the expansion of the European Union in coming years, Slovakia will increase dramatically in importance. As the pan-European specialist in Central and Eastern Europe and the market leader in Slovakia itself with over 30 % market share, we will actively contribute to improving connections into the country.”

The Austrian Airlines Group will launch its daily services from Slovakia to London, Paris and Brussels as of 1 May 2004, initially using a Boeing 737 based in Bratislava. The new direct connections, which the Austrian Airlines Group has incorporated into its wider flight schedule, are the routes with the highest passenger volume coming out of Slovakia.

The new direct flights departing from Bratislava will be available from a price of SKK 2,500 (approximately EUR 61) return, exclusive of tax and charges. Probably the greatest single benefit of the new service is the opportunity it will give passengers to combine flights from Bratislava with those operating through Vienna. In future, Slovak passengers will be able to fly from Bratislava at 07.00 in the morning directly to the capital of the European Union, Brussels, returning the same evening via Vienna International Airport (arrival in Vienna at 21.45). The carefully considered schedule has been designed to include an eleven-hour business ‘window’ during the day in Belgium, saving on hotel accommodation costs. Meanwhile, flights for London depart from Vienna at 07.05 a.m., returning directly to the Slovak capital in the evening (arrival in Bratislava at 23.15). This structure also creates an eleven-hour day in the British capital in which to do business before returning to Central Europe.

The Austrian Airlines Group has used its strategic programme Focus East to declare its intention to raise passenger volume into and out of Central and Eastern Europe by 50 % by 2008 (rising from the current level of approximately 1.25 million passengers to a new figure of 1.9 million). The company has been represented by a subsidiary in Slovakia since 1992, and has operated services to Kosice in Eastern Slovakia since 1996.