Non-travel related content

As Tim Saunders has just said that it's "nice to have technology....stories", I'd be keen to have additional reviews of tech equipment that the typical business traveller carries. News and reviews of lightweight laptops, phones and other travel gadgets are always read carefully by me.

I love your site, but I have to agree that I don’t find articles about cars, whisky, and watches that interesting (and if I had more interest in these topics I would seek a dedicated website). On the other hand my biggest criticism of the site is the lack of content so I think you could be more creative with the content.

Just thinking off the top of my head:

- You could write regular profiles of people within the business community who could share their travel habits, tips, etc.

- Interviews with airline/loyalty executives about trends, innovations, etc.

- You could run competitions.

- There could be more content about hotels.

- There is almost no mention of the Ibis hotel brand. Yes it’s not a luxury hotel brand, but it is still geared towards business travellers. I’ve had very positive experiences at Ibis. In contrast I am constantly frustrated by the rules and red tape when staying at so called 5 star luxury hotels (things like slow check-in, credit card authorisations, room clutter, smoking floors that stink out the entire hotel, having to sign in to use the gym, x-ray security machines just to enter the hotel, terrible coffee, huge hotels with slow elevators and hoards of people, stampede breakfasts, etc) that when I stay at a more basic hotel it is often refreshingly pleasant.

- You mentioned that your site is geared to people who appreciate good wine and spirits. I worked in the alcohol industry for 14 years and loved a good drink. However two years ago I decided to give up drinking for the health benefits and it is one of the best decisions I’ve made. I doubt I will ever drink again. Working in the industry I saw how alcohol affected people physically and mentally and how high levels of drinking was completely normalised even though it is extremely unhealthy. Drinking while flying was always something that felt fantastic at the time, but left me feeling terrible afterwards (especially after long haul flights). It’s interesting flying economy on long haul and seeing people in business stumble groggily off the flight who have obviously spent the entire flight drinking, while people in economy typically look much fresher. You could write about the benefits of not drinking while flying (I’d be surprised if there weren’t many more non-drinkers than meets the eye and I imagine many senior business travellers don't drink when travelling for work).

- Taxes, I am always confused about taxes when travelling to different countries (eg sales tax, service charges, hotel taxes, etc). So profiling the different tax rates in the most commonly visited countries would be welcome. I’m currently in Malaysia where the tax rate is extremely low, however last month I was in Dubai where tax and service made up close to 30% of the hotel bill!

- Status credit crediting. I am confused how long I should expect status credits to credit when flying Qantas partner airlines. Sometimes it is 24 hours, sometimes it takes several weeks. The Qantas website doesn’t really provide much details on what to expect from all the different airlines.

- Loyalty Lobby runs a regular ‘compensation clinic’ and while I don’t propose you do the same, some insight into the sorts of compensation Qantas and virgin offer when things go wrong would be very interesting. My experience is the compensation varies widely even for exactly the same issue.

- Articles about manners and etiquette while travelling.

- More pictures (taken by the journalist and not provided by a marketing agency)!

- Australian Consumer Law... My experience is that the travel industry in Australia constantly flouts consumer law (which are often poorly understood by the consumer). An overview of consumer rights and some case studies would be really interesting, particularly if you could interview some experts. The ACCC already put the industry on notice last December and I wouldn't be surprised if there is an enquiry/scandal/crackdown in the coming years. This is an issue the ABT should definitely stay on top of.

- Video reviews (which would help build your profiles). David and Chris, I barely know what you even look like.

- You could have a weekly reader question segment.

- You could profile travel to a different country each week which covers things like flights, hotels, transfers, taxes, shopping, currency, atms, transport, etc.

I like the increase in related stories. Especially the watches and tech. I also think the annual survey gives AusBT a very good idea of what interests visitors to the site. Keep up the great work.

I skip a lot of the extra content but occasionally take a look so don’t mind it being there.

As a longtime reader and commenter I have certainly noticed the change in AusBT's content over the years, it started as 100% airlines, travel and aviation but the site has been around for 8 years now and I don't know of any website which has not changed over the years. Most businesses changes and adapt and grow, websites certainly do! I think in the early years any website is in 'start-up mode' and then matures and works out what works and what doesn't and what they can do better and differently. I honestly don't mind the changes to AusBT over the years. Sometimes the lifestyle content is more noticeable but some days the site is very heavy with airline news. As long as I am still getting the business travel news and info that I want and have always enjoyed then the lifestyle stuff is 'free' bonus content which I am also enjoying, especially the wines and spirits.

A larger cohort of companies no longer allow business class bookings, and have policies that stipulate economy only for business travel. So I’m at a loss as to why that doesn’t get covered here given the title of the magazine.

Sounds like a great reason to start "Australian Economy Traveller." I look forward to not reading it.

Liken it to this this scenario. I'm a Mercedes driver, have been for years, Mercedes magazine comes out quarterly, and it's been full of entire page adverts for watches, I don't know if i need the page 1 watch, the page 10 watch, the page 20 watch or the rear cover watch. What I really want to read about in that magazine is what Mercedes are putting out in new cars, I do love there lifestyle stories and locations, but just how desperate are we to be able to tell the time correctly....