Just Rewards

Business travel is supposed to be a ‘rewarding’ experience. But today’s business traveller would have more than one interpretation of this statement. Not only is he looking for rewards from the actual business which he has travelled to transact but also for the rewards that ‘must’ accrue to him simply because he travelled. And make no mistake, a business traveller today is far more aware of his ‘just rewards’ than he ever was before. ‘Big business and big bargains’ seems to be the motto... while airlines and hotels are falling over themselves in a quest to satiate this need to rake in the ‘rewards’. Its probably as addictive as money today, and I must confess to being one of those millions of travellers who seek to optimise their ‘travel returns’. Frequent flier miles and hotel room nights have become the new travel currency, often dictating the dates and course of corporate and individual business travel. It’s small wonder then that we were all shell-shocked to find that the debate of whether to credit ‘mileage earned’ to the individual traveller or the corporate entity that he represents had reached Indian shores and was a topic of discussion among our Corporate Travel Managers. Thankfully (for all of us frequent travellers) this turned out to be a non-issue with the votes overwhelmingly in favour of the individual traveller... read our cover story in this issue to find out more. While you can continue to pile up the room nights and frequent flier miles in our Hot Deals section, this issue of Express Business Traveller also explores what Auckland and Pune have in store for you as business destinations, profiles an exotic experience in South Africa’s Blue Train and takes a walk on the wild side through the Periyar Sanctuary... all of which makes for a truly ‘rewarding’ reading experience. Enjoy your rewards!

Sheldon Santwan
Editor - ehc@vsnl.com