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New Hyatt Regency opens in London
I have often said that Hyatt offers the best top-tier status, but for those outside the US is can be trickier to maintain status as there are fewer Hyatts outside the US in comparison to other brands.
Nevertheless, Hyatt has been working on this with a whole tranche of UK and US openings such as Hyatt Place London City East, and Hyatt Centric in Cambridge.
Today marked the opening of Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment which is the eighth Hyatt-branded property in London.
The hotel is conveniently located; it is a five-minute walk to Westminster with all the key landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and Big Ben. You are also not far from the South Bank area. In terms of transport, Vauxhall tube is under 10 minutes walk away and it is also convenient for Waterloo.
Many rooms feature floor-to-ceiling windows that provide views of London’s iconic skyline. On the 14th floor, a range of executive suites offers king-size bedrooms, spacious, modern bathrooms, and lounge areas, accompanied by a private balcony for guests to enjoy the panoramas across London. The on-site fitness centre is fitted with the latest Technogym equipment.
POTUS bar and restaurant offers a menu of North American classics alongside traditional British favourites. I’m also excited by the sound of the rooftop restaurant, cocktail bar, and shisha terrace Mezemiso which serves authentic Lebanese and Japanese cuisine. I love a rooftop bar, and the food also sounds great too! I will definitely be popping in there for a look.
Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment will be the 13th Hyatt-affiliated hotel in the U.K. and the eighth in London. I have linked to our reviews in case you want to compare before deciding which hotel to choose.
- Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill;
- Great Scotland Yard Hotel, part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt portfolio;
- Andaz London Liverpool Street,
- Hyatt Place London City East,
The next openings in the UK will be the Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars and Park Hyatt London River Thames.
FAA outage traced back to single mistake
The outage that caused all flights to be suspended on Wednesday 12 January has been initially analysed and linked back to a single error.
The system that failed was the NOTAM system which warns pilots of important information for the flight route ahead such as hazards.
It turns out that the incident was started by a damaged database file which corrupted both the main system and its backup. The outage happened when an engineer swapped a file over without realising the consequences of his action. I can only imagine the horror he felt when he realised what had happened.
A senior official said to ABC News that “It was an honest mistake that cost the country millions.” Well, I’m sure that made the engineer feel much better!
Latest trend in business and first class meals? – no meal at all
The latest thing to hit business class catering has started with Japan Airlines who are now offering passengers in all classes the opportunity to turn down a meal in advance in order to save waste. The new Ethical Choice Meal Skip initiative appears as a pop-up during the booking process, according to an article in the Independent. This tells the customer they can visit the JAL website up to 25 hours before the flight to decline a meal to save waste. Previously a trial was conducted on one of their short-haul routes but it has not been offered on long haul before.
This could be an environmental saving both in not producing food that will be thrown away but also in the additional fuel to transport the weight of unwanted meals.
Although I am sure this will quickly spread to other airlines as it is a cost-saving for them, I actually think it is a good idea overall. It really infuriates me that some airlines like BA have still not brought back pre-ordering for business since the pandemic, as it is a win-win for everyone. You know you will get your first choice of meal and the airline doesn’t waste as much. This new initiative is really just a step on from pre-ordering a meal.
However, I can see problems developing with this idea. Passengers on connecting flights may plan to eat in the lounge on a long layover, but then their flight is delayed, and they don’t have time. I can’t see a passenger in this circumstance being very happy if there is no meal at all. Or someone changes their mind or selects no meal by mistake. There are definitely some issues that cabin crew could have to deal with as a result.
Do you think it is a good idea to offer a “no meal” option? Would you use it, or would you be worried you may change your mind? Let us know in the comments below.
9 comments
Completely agree with you regarding pre-ordering main meals in Business Class. It is such a win-win for both the customer and the airline. The customer gets their choice, the airline saves costs by not having to load as much ‘buffer’ meals and also ends up with better customer satisfaction. I love it when airlines offer this service and always take advantage of it.
There’s nothing more irritating than paying for a business class seat to find out that you can’t have your preferred meal. Virgin Atlantic also has additional choices with its pre-order – which is good. But this only applies to the main course I believe. I’d like to be able to choose the whole meal in advance. No waste at all then. Sounds like BA needs to step up its game.
I’m not sure that any airline are doing more than the main course but it would definitely reduce waste and keep people happy. It would be interesting to see if they proactively contacted everyone to pre-order, how many would.
As cabin crew for a major airline, I am always facing the fact that a lot of passengers change their minds. I agree with the preordering as I think it usually works well, but the no meal option a bit tricky…First as the article says, you may feel hungry on the day or not have the time to eat, than you come onboard asking for a meal that has been removed from the flight…Airlines already cater so short, that extra, different options most of the times are difficult to find…
It’s the “I have ordered a vegetarian meal, but prefer something from the menu” situation, when you have to explain that because you order that meal, a normal meal was taken out and therefore not enough to do that…
Thanks Joe. That confirms my thinking. I do sometimes wonder if Japan Airlines base some decisions on Japanese passengers as I think different markets may be less polite if they suddenly decided they wanted a meal and found they could not have one!
On a recent Club Europe flight, despite being in row 3 BA had already run out of my husband’s first meal choice. The second – a curry was cold- resulting in my corresponding with Customer Services. They advised me that they were bringing back the ability to pre order on long haul flights, but I am yet to see it. It is such a good, relatively easy matter to administrate surely…
They were doing this when we flew with them London to Tokyo in October – we must have been almost first out of the traps! I went Japanese meal, Mrs went western meal and picky teenager skipped it altogether. Saving the waste and, for her, the embarrassment of declining meal service. She ate in the lounge and then had a much smaller meal at a time that suited her from the dine anytime menu. I have to say I thought this was excellent.
BA CE catering is just the pits for meal choices. They hand out a menu now; why?!? Just infuriates passengers in a “Here’s what you’re not getting” way. Also BA could easily take meal orders while finishing boarding and at least give prior warning that your preferred meal isn’t available. Not helpful on BA domestic routes when you don’t get served in row 5 till the plane is starting its descent, then it’s too late to get you an alternative from the buy on board economy supply.
I love pre-orders; especially important for Swiss as their starters are always quite odd and fussy.
Re the new Hyatt, maybe I missed it in the article but this is the existing Crowne Plaza that opened in late 2018. An excellent CP room furnishing, maintenance and general finidh wise. The breakfast used to be truly excellent in 2019 but had been subject to cutbacks for cost (the Netherend butter was first to go).
Pre ordering has been around on many airlines for years – 20+ on Singapore Airlines. On short haul in Europe, Aegean offer it and IME it works 100% of the time and they also have long included the choice to opt out of service too.
This is nothing new and presuably those airlines who don’t offer it simply don’t want to or in the case of BA, they will be worried that too many people choose a pricier option rather than slop.
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