Testing Electronic Travel Companions

WHEN BEDS FLY

Has the battle for business-class travellers come down to a good night’s sleep? Maybe that’s why most of the major airlines are rolling out multifunctional business-class sleeper seats. Talk to business travellers anywhere in the world and you’ll find that most of them, once they board an overnight flight, just want to curl up and snooze.

In April 2004, British Airways became the first airline to launch a Sleeper Service. It allows its Club World passengers on the Toronto-London route to dine buffet-style before taking off, then use the better part of the six-hour flight to sleep until it’s time to land. Cabins are made more serene by minimizing announcements and a breakfast-in-bed option truly provides the celebrity treatment.

While British Airways may have offered the first Sleeper Service with flat beds, Singapore Airlines offers the “biggest” bed in business class (at 27 inches, it’s certainly the widest) and Lufthansa boasts the “longest bed in its class,” stretching out to 6 feet 7 inches. With features like adjustable lumbar support, built-in massage and tables that also serve as privacy screens, these ergonomically designed seats are more comfortable and private than ever before. Depending on the airline, seats also feature such perks as personal reading lights, noise-reducing headsets and memory function buttons for presetting your preferred positions.

Sleeper seats have become the most important defining feature between business class and economy. But are they worth the extra cash that business travellers have to dish out? Let me just say this: Once you’ve flown business class, it’s very difficult to go back to economy. Especially on those excruciatingly long flights.

On a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Toronto, the onboard promotional material declared that its Private Bed has about 100 different positions. I didn’t bother counting. I was too busy sleeping.

I’D LIKE TO RESERVE YOUR BRAIN SUITE PLEASE

Four Seasons New York spa therapist Geri Ryan began my Thai massage using her fingers, elbows and forearms in acupressure manoeuvres mixed with yoga-like limb stretching. She then applied hot herbal bags along the body’s energy lines to improve circulation and detoxification. So far, other than having the treatment take place on a therapy bed instead of a Thai floor mat, it’s pretty traditional stuff. But then comes Four Seasons’ latest touch of technology.

Reopened last September after a $3-million (US) upgrade, the Spa at Four Seasons New York has a fresh new menu and a forward-thinking concept that combines cutting-edge technologies with classic services. The spa calls these new technologies “sensory enhancers” and offers them free with any treatment.

I’m booked for the Brain Wave Suite. It’s not actually a suite at all but a pair of high-tech goggles powered for ambient, New Age sounds and pulsating light therapy. With paisley-patterned arcs, curves and colours swirling to ethereal sound waves, this is more reminiscent of the psychedelic ‘60s than a spa treatment in 2004. A few deep breaths and a couple of minutes later I’m elsewhere — figuratively speaking, of course. Surprisingly, it does have a calming and meditative effect.

SURFING AT 38,000 FEET

A little over a year ago, I was on a British Airways Boeing 747-400 flying from New York to London, Heathrow, for the launch of the airline’s high-speed Internet service.

At about 10,000 feet, the British Airways Connexion system was activated and before you could say “fasten your seatbelt,” the Web was right there at my fingertips. It was clear surfing. Real-time, high-speed Internet access and email from my ground-bound ISP way up there above the clouds.

I later filed my column and a high-resolution image from 38,000 feet and delivery was about four times faster than with dial-up. If the trial proved successful and financially viable, the airline said it would begin installing the system on all long-haul aircraft by early 2004.

Well, we are in the year’s final quarter and I was hoping high-speed Internet access would be as common on airlines as bad movies and turbulence. Disappointingly, the feature has been a little slow to take off following British Airways’ three-month trial. “We did receive good customer feedback,” says Honor Verrier, the airline’s vice-president of communications, “but the business case is still being evaluated.”

Over at Lufthansa Airlines, however, its progress buoys hope. That airline’s FlyNet was introduced last spring on the Munich-Los Angeles and Munich-Tokyo routes. Until October 2004, Canadian travellers can enjoy a preview of the service before it officially launches on Toronto and Vancouver routes next spring. Lufthansa’s New York-Frankfurt route will be equipped with FlyNet this fall.

At Cathay Pacific, the entire fleet now boasts the Netvigator Inflight email service but no Web access just yet. The high-speed service allows passengers in first and business classes, and the front rows of economy class, to send and receive messages using their own laptop computers and email accounts.

According to Connexion by Boeing, the next airlines to log on will be Singapore, SAS, ANA and JAL this year, followed by China Airlines and Korean Air in early 2005. On behalf of all need-to-be-connected business travellers who cannot possibly endure a long-haul flight without the convenience of email connectivity — let’s get on board already!

IS IT A TANNING BED OR A HUMAN CAR WASH?

I’m walking through Amsterdam’s Schiphol International Airport preparing for the final leg of a nine-day airline marathon that will take me through four continents, eight time zones, eight airports and about 60 hours of flying time. Understandably, I’m a little jetlagged. In that rather hazy state, I’m drawn by a capsule-looking contraption parked conspicuously in the arrivals terminal adjacent to the Ryks Museum shop. Other curious travellers have gathered here too. The attraction is the Aqua Massage — a sleek container that looks like either a tanning bed or a car wash for humans. Hoist yourself onto the table, lie face down and the attendant hands you a protective headset before closing the semi-transparent glass top. A rubber sheet protects you from getting wet as several dozen water jets with adjustable pressure, temperature and pulsating frequency (from soothing to invigorating) massage your toes right up to your shoulder muscles. And no, you don’t have to take off your clothes! Jason Jayson of Houston emerges from his 10-minute session completely dry. “Excellent,” he says. “I use it everywhere I go, every time before I get on a plane.” The attendant turns to me and asks if I’d like a turn. Well, in this jetlagged state, I could certainly use a blast of energizing water jets. But with some things, I prefer a little privacy.

Anne Dimon is Digital Journal‘s travel technology columnist. Don’t miss her columns about the latest in travel gadgets and great destinations featured in each issue of Digital Journal magazine.