Virgin Atlantic Airways and Lufthansa German Airlines have recently devised some creative ways of ferrying passengers to two of Europe's busiest airports.
Business-class passengers on Virgin Atlantic Airways now have a novel, if potentially hair-raising, way of avoiding the limo-lock that can make the trip to Heathrow Airport as long as 90 minutes. Specially adapted motorcycles zip through traffic, whisking the traveler from central London to the airport in less than half an hour.The new Virgin motorcycles are fitted with hands-free telephones, heated leather seats and running boards, and intercoms that allow passengers to communicate with drivers.
But they are short on storage space - passengers are allowed only one small suitcase - and, of course, roofs. Passengers are provided with weather-proof clothing.
The motorcycles are available free to passengers traveling Upper Class (business class) on the line's flights to New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo.
As with Virgin's limousine transfer service, which remains available free to business-class passengers, the motorcycles will pick up passengers from anywhere in London or the surrounding counties and take them to Heathrow.
Since last May Lufthansa has been using regularly scheduled German Rail intercity trains, so passengers now have a choice of 16 trains daily to and from Frankfurt airport (stopping at the Bonn, Cologne and Dusseldorf main railway stations).
An additional four trains link Frankfurt airport to Stuttgart's main railway station.
In the past, Lufthansa ran a special airport train four times a day between Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne and Dusseldorf.
To get a seat in the first-class rail compartments reserved for Lufthansa, passengers should book their rail tickets when they book their flights.
Those flying out of Frankfurt can check their luggage at Lufthansa counters at Aschaffenburg, Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Coblenz, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Wurzburg railway stations, up to 24 hours before their flights are scheduled to depart. Passengers receive their airplane boarding passes at the train-station counter.
Travel in China
China may still officially be a Communist country, but the law of supply and demand is being felt in its travel industry. With the number of visitors steadily rising in the last few years, the cost of visiting China has increased, in some cases by as much as 20 percent.
This year a two-week tour offered by Chinasmith, a New York-based tour operator, cost about $3,840 a person, double occupancy.
The price included air fare from the East Coast and hotel stays in Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Guilin and Hong Kong.
Clarence Lu, president of Journey to the East in Flushing, N.Y., also said he expected a 15 to 20 percent increase in hotel rates. Prices of some tours that rose this year will rise next year.