First-class business travel: trends in the industry.

• Author: Turnage, Neal Webster
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A few years ago, Karen Johnston, a high-ranking executive at a major health care consulting firm, grew tired of the constant travel, the long flights between Anchorage and cities in the Lower 48. So she lobbied her team leader. The company opened wide the coffers and Johnston was off and running, one first-class flight after another. She could well be aloft at 38,000 feet as you read this, eyes at half-mast, a chilled flute of Tattingers in hand and a masseuse hard at work on her feet.

If it all sounds somewhat suspect, that's because it is. Karen Johnston doesn't exist. She's an invention. But her prototype is the stuff dreams are made of for airlines and others who hawk first-class travel within as well as to and from Alaska. The problem is those dreams have had a difficult time taking flight (no pun intended).

First, the U.S. economy tanked in 2008. Then came the layoffs in 2009. Then big businesses were outed for profligacy in both 2009 and 2010, which led to the ultimate travel Grand Guignal. Executive and employee first-class air travel turned into economy fare or worse--car rentals to drive instead of fly, a train trip, or, in some cases it may well be imagined, at least in the Lower 48, a Greyhound bus ride. In short, airlines and luxury outfitters were left holding the champagne and the in-flight masseuse was left to pass the time with a pile of trashy celebrity gossip magazines.

Not that much has changed, but the status isn't exactly dismal. Some ground is being reclaimed. According to Jack Bonney, public relations manager of the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau, while there are no first-class specific numbers, tourism was up in Southcentral in 2010 from 2009. "That says, we're still not back to the type of growth we saw back in 2008," he says.

The slight increase Bonney refers to indicates the economy is lurching forward in fits and starts. Perhaps some companies have quietly gone back to having a party with a big band and a few estate wines--and rewarding select high producing employees a feted first-class trip to Alaska. But full-blown George Clooney Up In The Air-style year-round first-class travel within and to and from the state? It would appear the answer to that question is best found in the ersatz Hertz commercials whose catch phrase was "not exactly."

BUSINESS AS USUAL

"Our first-class business has remained basically flat, especially in regard to travel within Alaska," says Scott...