Find out how the winning leaders and innovators in the Executive Travel readers’ poll remain at the top of their game.


This year, Executive Travel polled our readers to learn which players keep giving ultra-impressive performances. The resulting mix of winners includes some companies that rely on continuity, and others that thrive on innovation. In this year’s awards, we include updates from select winners, as well as a list of the entire supporting cast. Together, they make travel what it should be.

Congratulations to our 2007 Leading Edge Award winners.

Best Hotel Customer Service: Four Seasons

From its start in 1961, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts sought to distinguish itself with personal service. That objective has done the 74-property group well, as Four Seasons enjoys an unrivaled reputation—not only with this magazine’s readers and our panel of judges, but also with the traveling public at large. To wit: A recent thread on FlyerTalk’s Luxury Hotel forum gave Four Seasons the thumbs-up as the best luxury hotel chain. The chain comes in at the top in other surveys as well.

Barbara Talbott, Ph.D., executive vice president of marketing for Four Seasons, recently deconstructed her company’s service culture in an article for Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research. The September 2006 report quotes everyone from Thomas Friedman to Helen Fielding, author of the popular Bridget Jones books, and includes eye-popping factoids like this one: At a 200- to 300-room hotel, there will be as many as 5,000 interactions between guests and staff per day. In other words, thousands of chances to get it right or blow it.

Four Seasons seeks employees with an innate desire to serve. The chain firmly believes that trait cannot be taught. This “thoughtful recruiting,” as Talbott terms it, also involves multiple interviews that run all the way to the top (including with the general manager or hotel manager).

Standards play a huge role at Four Seasons. Check-in should only take four minutes total, including queuing time; the receptionist is required to actively greet guests and make eye contact. Four Seasons also emphasizes creative, personalized treatment—those special touches that guests will remember, from a seamstress surprising a little girl with a crib for her doll to a general manager sharing her cell phone number with a nervous guest, just in case. Last but not least, Four Seasons aims to innovate, with ideas like family-friendly programs. Some Four Seasons have teen concierges. And that, as today’s teens might say, is the bomb.

2nd: Marriott
3rd: Ritz-Carlton

For a full list of Leading Edge winners in the hotel category, click here.

Best U.S. Airline: Delta

They don’t make airline ad jingles like they used to: Delta’s peppy “Delta Is Ready When You Are” from the 1970s and 1980s endures, at least for travelers old enough to remember it. That promise may even ring truer today than when the ad first cling-a-linged onto the airwaves. Delta emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization this past April. Like many U.S. carriers, the airline struggled in the wake of September 11, 2001, and the wobbly economy; it filed for Chapter 11 in 2005. Several days after emerging from bankruptcy, Delta regained its listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In July, Delta posted its fifth consecutive quarter of operating profits.

But these business triumphs wouldn’t mean squat if Delta weren’t so likeable. As airline personalities go, Delta’s got something affable, even infectious. That said, good service and likeability only take an airline so far. What’s remarkable about Delta’s turnaround is that the airline now flies to more destinations, both foreign and domestic, than it did several years ago—only using fewer aircraft. Prior to filing for Chapter 11, Delta’s mainline fleet consisted of 522 aircraft, compared with their current 440. Before its reorganization, Delta flew to 202 U.S. cities. Now it flies to 223. Its international service has jumped from 60 destinations to 109. In addition to its other charms, Delta is clearly flying smarter.

2nd: American Airlines
3rd: Continental Airlines

Best Foreign Airline: Singapore

Singapore Airlines has always had a stellar reputation. In fact, it’s one of five airlines that merit five-star status from SkyTrax, an airline rating system. (The other four are Asiana, Malaysia, Qatar and Cathay.) In addition to offering sublime service, Singapore sits on the cutting edge as the leading ultra-long-haul carrier. It currently offers the world’s longest commercially available flight. Timewise, the lengthiest is Los Angeles to Singapore: 18.5 hours from takeoff to landing. Distance-wise, the longest is 10,371 miles, from New York to Singapore.

Gaining yet another superlative, later this year Singapore Airlines will become the launch carrier for the Airbus 380, the world’s largest commercial jet. The inaugural route runs from Singapore to Sydney. Shortly thereafter, the airline will start flying the 380 between Sydney and London. Plans for U.S. flights using 380s are in the works, but have not yet been announced. For several months, Singapore Airlines will have the distinction of being the only airline operating 380s.

To make those epic flights pleasurable, Singapore Airlines reconfigured its Airbus 340-500 Series. The aircraft, originally designed to hold 330, now seats 181—that means more leg room and wider seats. The airline also reintroduced an amenity not seen since the early 1970s: passenger lounges in economy class. Singpore’s flight attendants receive five months of training, and its in-flight entertainment systems are among the most sophisticated in the industry. No wonder the airline has such loyal fans.

2nd: British Airways
3rd: Virgin Atlantic Airways

For a full list of Leading Edge winners in air travel, click here.

Best Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean is all about pushing the envelope, with theme-park-like amenities such as rock-climbing walls and ice-skating rinks on some of its ships. The cruise line’s current fleet of 21 ships includes the globe’s two largest: the Freedom of the Seas, which launched last year; and sister ship Liberty of the Seas, which launched this past May. Amenities on these two ships, which carry over 3,600 guests, include a surf simulator (the kind involving a surfboard, not a computer), a boxing ring, a water park and cantilevered whirlpools suspended 112 feet above the sea. With all this excitement, it’s not surprising the Royal Caribbean loyalty program has more than four million members.

Royal Caribbean also seems to keep up with every trend imaginable. In January, the cruise line announced it would be the first in the industry to start removing trans fats from its menus in the spring, and would have trans fat–free menus by year’s end. If that’s not a departure from the old days—feasting on cruise ships is such a time-honored expectation, standup comics crack jokes about it—we don’t know what is.

In another leading move, Royal Caribbean became the first cruise line in the world to name a female captain of a major cruise ship. Her name is Karin Stahre-Janson, she’s Swedish and her charge is Monarch of the Seas. Royal Caribbean also participates in environmental stewardship, an area more and more travel companies have begun to embrace. Since 1996, the cruise line has been giving grants to environmental causes through its Ocean Fund. In April, Royal Caribbean announced it had awarded 15 marine conservation grants totaling $796,000. One
$100,000 grant went to an Alaskan land preservation program; another helped fund efforts to protect Caribbean biodiversity.

2nd: Norwegian Cruise Line
3rd: Holland America Line

Best U.S. Airport: Hartsfield Jackson

There’s plenty to report from the leading business airport. This past May was the first anniversary of the opening of Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson’s fifth runway. The $1.28 billion addition has helped minimize flight delays and reduce costs for airlines—good news for the airport’s average daily 230,000 passengers. The new 9,000-foot runway gives air traffic controllers more flexibility and allows more flights to take off and land. In addition to the new runway, the airport added a taxiway that enables airplanes to taxi to the arrival gate without crossing active runways. This has also improved on-time arrivals at Hartsfield-Jackson.

Also in the works is a consolidated rental car facility. Currently, car rental offices are scattered throughout the airport. This project aims to put them in a central location and open up more parking closer to the terminals. But the biggest project at Hartsfield-Jackson is the new international terminal. It’s still in the early planning stages—the airport has yet to announce the architectural firm that will design the building.

In the midst of all these grand plans, Hartsfield-Jackson still knows how to have fun. For much of the year, a pianist plays live tunes in the atrium of the Main Terminal, from classic standards to a little hip-hop.


2nd: Denver
3rd: Dallas/Ft. Worth

Best Carry-on Bag: TravelPro

It’s not surprising that a commercial airline pilot, the ultimate frequent flier, invented the original Rollaboard. In the late 1980s, Bob Plath, a full-time 747 pilot and part-time tinkerer, took carry-ons in a whole new direction by designing one that rolled vertically. Another critical innovation: The Rollaboard was lighter on one side than the other, so as not to tip over so easily. He sold a few to his fellow pilots at Northwest Airlines and quickly realized there was a market. Thus TravelPro was founded.

Nineteen years and 25 patents later, TravelPro is an industry leader, with 10 collections of luggage and some of the most popular carry-on bags on the planet. (Plath is no longer affiliated with the company he founded; he sold it in the 1990s.) How popular? Today, more than 500,000 flight crews use TravelPro products.

The company’s product design folks seem to have thought of everything: In 2001, TravelPro received a patent for its one-screw removable wheel, which allows owners to replace the wheel with a single one-turn screw. A year later, TravelPro received a patent for its ProGrip handle. The ergonomically configured and medically endorsed handle relieves stress on the passenger’s arm. Then, in 2003, the company received a patent for its no-tip foot, which helps prevent carry-ons that have been expanded from tipping over.

And the innovations just keep coming: In July of this year, TravelPro started shipping its newest line, the lightweight TProExtreme, a casual collection of pieces that each weigh just over eight pounds.


2nd: Tumi
3rd: Samsonite

To see a full list of 2007 Leading Edge award winners, click here.

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BARBARA BENHAM is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.