2001 Business Travel Poll results

These are tough times for the airline and hotel industries. And our survey reflects this. Over 64% of our 282 respondents said they would be traveling less over the next year thanks to the worsening economy.

And 43% said they would make a point of traveling less due to their security concerns after the World Trade Center tragedy.

But tough times or no, our poll - now reckoned to be Asia's most definitive business travel survey - gives the verdict on the best airlines and hotels in Asia as voted by you, our readers. And you matter because you are among their highest margin customers.

Why? You fly business class (200 out of 282 said so) and spend an average of 50 nights in hotels per year. Only six out of our 282 respondents said that the most important thing for them when choosing a hotel was 'price'. That suggests to us that you are, therefore, the sorts of customers that hoteliers crave.

And the hotel you love the most is the Ritz-Carlton Millennia in Singapore, which was voted the Best Business Hotel in Asia. It must be those wonderful octagonal bathroom windows - and the service, of course.

This was the first time we'd asked you to vote for the region's best hotel. Otherwise, this year's poll saw only marginal change at the top. The top hotel in 13 out of 14 cities remained unchanged. The only upset was the Grand Hyatt's surge to the top in Shanghai - indeed, it was unplaced last year.

Likewise in the airline category, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific continued their duopoly at the head of the rankings. As with last year, Singapore was again the conclusive winner, cleaning up on Best Overall Airline, Best Food and Friendliest Cabin Crew.

Indeed, on the latter point one frequent flyer commented to us that one friendly Singapore Girl had struck up such a rapport with him on his many flights that one day as she was pouring from the silver service she said "What would you like today, sir - coffee, tea or me?"

Back on the ground, Cathay's excellent Wing lounge (love that long bar, love the noodle bar) held top spot in the best airline lounge category. However, one wise soul did comment, "Technically, the best lounge is the Wing, but the location is poor relative to the design of the airport."

Indeed, how many of us have had to make that run to gate 48, having lost track of time?

As usual we asked for your positive and negative comments on airlines, and as usual the negative comments outnumbered the positive by a colossal amount.

One balanced view that we could all agree with was: "Overall, nothing has been impressive. I would have to say that on a few occasions where I was upgraded, that was the best thing an airline did for me in the past year."

Almost all the positive comments surrounded upgrades.

One nice story that involved (no surprise) Singapore Airlines involved a frequent flyer whose wife left her coat in the departure lounge in Singapore. Says the happy passenger: "They had it delivered to our country hotel in Durham within 48 hours and checked whether we got it."

Another said she was given a Mont Blanc pen when business class was full and she was shunted into the screaming cesspit of economy.

On the negative front, comments ranged from "delivery of food by Pakistan Air" (we can imagine) to "Cathay Pacific continuously gives you the Wall Street Journal and International Herald Tribune from the day before on the first flights from KL, Singapore and Korea. This is extremely annoying and shows how cheap Cathay is by not buying papers locally."

There were also complaints that FinanceAsia could not be read in Cathay's business class (Cathay took it out when they decided from their profiling that passengers only wanted to read lifestyle magazines). However, members of the Marco Polo club can pick up copies in the Wing, where they are freely available.

A lot of us travel very frequently on Cathay, and to be fair many of us possibly have unrealistic expectations. But as one said: "My bad experiences all relate to poor delivery of information related to delays and cancellations. They are capable of better but simply do not deliver. (It's not just a pilot problem)."

Another airline that gets a bit of a beating from respondents is British Airways, with one saying: "It has the worst service I have ever seen. Overbooking of flights by 25% is the norm and their ground staff leave a lot to be desired."

But if Tracy from Romford is a problem, then what about those chirpy people at Qantas: "A Qantas flight attendant took a Wall street Journal out of my hands after I boarded and said rudely it was for business class passengers only."

Or United: "Three cancelled flights and two lost bags (in one day)."

Sounds like a Crowded House song.

And speaking of music, the winner of the lucky draw for poll participants goes to DJ Paul Kelly, who when he is not spinning discs, runs equity syndicate at ING Barings. He has won a weekend at either the Park Hyatt in Sydney, the Oriental in Bangkok or the Caravelle in Ho Chi Minh City.