FREE breakfast at The Quadrant Hotel

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day right? Being the caring bunch they are at The Quadrant Hotel, they want to help you get off to the best start possible, by throwing in one FREE Quick Start breakfast with every booking made from now to the end of July. When you book your stay at The Quadrant Hotel, just mention BREKKIE and they will include one FREE Quick Start Breakfast in your reservation. Who says there’s no such thing as a free meal!

Winter has The Quadrant Hotel in a cosy bubble of busyness – they are working their way through a hotel wide re-furbishment which sees LCD TV’s in every room, new art work, soft furnishings, new Kartell chairs (they really are the business!) and loads of other chic updates. They have also been re-awarded the Qualmark Enviro Gold, green really is the new black!   Feel free to pop in and visit them soon, it might be cold outside, but it’s toasty at The Quadrant Hotel.
 

Move to half Tasman check in time

Air New Zealand this week unveiled a new kiosk checkin experience for passengers flying to Australia, aimed to halve the time it takes to check-in.  In a first for passengers departing from New Zealand, people travelling to Australia from Auckland International Airport are now able to check themselves in. There are 18 new self-service kiosks in the economy check-in area, and six new kiosks in the premium checkin area.
 
The process is similar to that introduced at the carrier’s main domestic terminals from 2008.  Trans-Tasman passengers simply scan their machine readable passports at a kiosk to be issued with a boarding pass, and bag tags if they are checking in bags. They then take their bags to the ‘bag drop’ area, where Air New Zealand staff scan the bag and check the passenger’s ID.

“We set ourselves the challenge to transform our customers’ experience of the airport, so they have a seamless experience from checking-in through to walking off the plane at their destination,” says Air New Zealand group general manager international airline Ed Sims.  “Currently passengers must check-in at least 90 minutes prior to their Australian flights, but if the new process succeeds in reducing check-in time as expected, then Air New Zealand will look to reduce the 90 minute deadline.”  Air New Zealand passengers able to use the new checkin process are those travelling to an Australian destination with:

• a New Zealand or Australian passport;
• any passport with a machine readable zone, or
• any passenger on another passport type holding a validelectronic travel authority (ETA).

The airline will be progressively introducing new kiosks at its Wellington, Queenstown and Christchurch international check-in areas over the next nine months.

Millennium Hotels & Resorts loyalty programmes

Millennium Hotels & Resorts offer exceptionally comprehensive yet uncomplicated loyalty programmes available to reward those who utilise Millennium, Copthorne and Kingsgate Hotels and Resorts nationwide.  Their programmes are designed to reward not only the traveller but also the travel booker.

As a traveller with a "Stay 10 card", when you accumulate (within a 12 month period) 5 nights, you will recieve a complementary drink voucher and after 10 nights you will receive your next night absolutley FREE!  Your stay can also earn you Air NZ Airpoints or Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

As a travel booker, become a "Key Club Member" and after you have booked 5 room nights you will be entitled to a great range of rewards.

Click here for more details or talk to our Executive Travel team and start turning business into pleasure.

Give the gift of travel

Looking for the perfect gift, but running empty on ideas? Look no further.  Whether you are looking to reward a member of your team or hunting for ideas for your mothers birthday, Executive Travel gift vouchers are the perfect present for someone who has everything, and for everyone else as well!   After all, who doesn't need a holiday?

Whether it's a weekend shout or a contribution towards a larger trip, an Executive Travel gift voucher will always be a well received present. You choose how much to put on the voucher from as little as $50 to $10,000, and your recipient can then choose to spend their gift as and when they wish.  Alternatively we can put together a holiday package to suit your recipient enabling you to give them a voucher without a dollar value.  Talk to your Executive Travel consultant to organise your next gift.

Disruptions to continue?

A British volcanologist is warning that business travel could be affected for up to a year because of the Icelandic eruption.  Professor Bill McGuire, head of hazard research at University College, London says 'it's perfectly possible' that there will be further problems with new bursts of ash.  "It hasn't gone away," he says.  "Previous eruptions have emerged over a year, so it can carry on for a long time."  However McGuire says without a new vent forming we won't see a repeat of last month's problems, where flights accross Europe were cancelled for five days.  "Certainly the prospects don't suggest that's on the horizon."

Melbourne – a winter wonderland of cultural delights

This winter, Melbourne will feature a show-stopping line up of international exhibitions, theatre productions and musical spectaculars, festivals, events and cultural delights.  The city will host two of the country’s largest exhibitions as part of this year’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series.  In a Melbourne exclusive, European Masters: Städel Museum, 19th-20th Century brings to the National Gallery of Victoria more than 100 works from 70 masters, including Monet, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas and Picasso,
as well as some like Munch, Beckmann and Klinger whose work is rarely seen in Australia. Opening on 19JUN, this is the first time this collection will have been displayed outside Europe.  A second artistic coup sees Tim Burton: The Exhibition opening at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on 24JUN, coming direct from New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). 

The latest blockbuster show from Disney and Cameron Mackintosh: Mary Poppins, takes centre stage at Her Majesty’s Theatre from 29JUL.  Elsewhere 1950s street gangs, ‘80s leg-warmers and sixties-style beehive hair-dos will take to the stage for popular musical classics Fame – The Musical (Regent Theatre), West Side Story (Regent Theatre) and Hairspray (Princess Theatre).

A feast of over 300 films from over 50 countries will screen over 18 days during the Melbourne International Film Festival (22JUL – 08AUG).

Other exhibitions and events include
• Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition at Melbourne Museum (14MAY – 17OCT)
• Melbourne Art Week (02-08AUG)
• The Melbourne Art Fair (04-08AUG)

Sports fanatics won’t be left on the bench either:
• Bledisloe Cup (31JUL)
• Four Nations England vs Australia clash at AAMI Park 31OCT
• The 2010 UCI World Road Championships (29SEP – 03OCT)
• Phillip Island’s MotoGP (15-17OCT)

So, why not add a couple of nights to your next business trip to Melbourne and make the most of what the city has to offer.

Air NZ next with in-flight text and e-mail

Passengers on selected Air New Zealand flights will be able to keep in touch via text and e-mail in-flight from the end of the year. 

The carrier has unveiled plans to roll out the in-flight option on its new 777-300 aircraft that will enable passengers to use their iPhone, Blackberry and GSM mobile phones to safely send and recieve e-mails and text messages in-flight.

Air NZ says the new in-flight service will also enable customers to use their netbooks or laptops used in conjunction with their mobile broadband connections (eg. Telecom's T-Stick and Vodafone's Vodem) to access their e-mails and internet.

Air NZ is partnering with Areomobile to offer the new service and says customers will be billed by their own mobile service provider, as with any other international roaming plan.  Standard in-flight roaming costs will apply on the enabled Air NZ aircraft (with Telecom XT it is 80c per outbound text and no cost to receive them).  The cost for mobile broadband is $40 per megabyte of data.  Other mobile phone providers will confirm pricing in the coming months.