Letter from Schiphol: Anyone who’s in customer service should read this
It has rekindled my faith in chatbot-meets-human-intelligence
WHEN my boarding pass blipped at the gate for my KLM flight from Amsterdam to London, my heart jumped. “What’s wrong? Are they going to deplane me?” I immediately thought.
Such is the paranoia of travelling in Europe these days [...]
Letter from 5lasserre: Where time is as fluid as the wine and as silent as the cats
I AM writing this as I overlook the vineyards of St Emilion, a French medieval village in the heart of Bordeaux. Since I’ve been in France the past week, I’ve experienced a heatwave – two days of temperatures that made me think I was in Oman, instead of Brittany – and a hailstorm, with stone [...]
Letter from 30,000 feet: Why worry, be happy, and dreaming of digital twins
I AM writing this on a flight bound for Amsterdam where I will connect to Nantes, France. I am a tad anxious because everyone is warning me what a mess travelling in Europe is these days – harrowing stories of delays in even Schiphol, in my book, one of the best airports in the world.
It seems [...]
Letter from Northumberland: Hello, New World
“WHAT’s life like in Singapore? Is it expensive?” asked my Albanian driver on the way from Manchester to Newcastle, roughly a three-hour car ride. He was complaining about the high costs of living, and rising fuel prices, in this land which he moved to almost 15 years ago.
I told him Singap [...]
Travel in transition – a reshuffle of leadership taking place before our very eyes
Wilson to AirIndia, De Schepper to TrustPilot, Peller leaves AWS, Agoda's Morgenshtern on the rise – watch this space
I WAS never a big fan of Sheryl Sandberg so the news of her leaving Meta (formerly Facebook) leaves me somewhat cold. But her departure did put into stark relief the transition [...]
Letter from Thailand: Take it slow, make it sustainable, be well – a destination in transition
I HAD waited more than two years for this moment and when it arrived, it was almost bitter sweet. This week, I got on a flight to Bangkok, a place I fell in love with at first sight decades ago and stayed in love with through the passage of time.
I had visualised it so hard – the moment when I [...]
Travel is roaring back – Yum Seng
I attended my first wedding in Singapore this week and what a joyous occasion it was. I had forgotten how raucous and noisy a Chinese wedding can be – yes, there were still rules around intermingling between tables and masks on (when not eating and drinking, rare moments indeed during a wedding ba [...]
Positively speaking, Asia is arising
The battle to recover begins
LITTLE did I know that when we set April 22 as the date for our “Asia Arising” event to share stories of our region’s travel recovery, that would be the day Thailand and Singapore both decided to scrap all testing for vaccinated travellers.
That these two major [...]
Letter from Manchester: At the end of the tunnel, this is what awaits
Singapore rolls out plans to recover, airline chiefs gather in Chester to talk about the future of flight
THE day Singapore Tourism Board (STB) rolled out its plans to bring back the destination with a vengeance, only better and reimagined, I was on a flight from Singapore to the UK which might her [...]
Letter from a “near normal” Singapore: Queues are back, travel is taking off
I never thought I’d say this but when I saw queues at immigration at Changi airport last night, my heart leapt with joy. It felt almost back to near normal.
Firstly, the Singapore Airlines’ VTL flight from Penang was pretty full – the crew told me 90%. Everyone just seemed so cheerful infli [...]
