Website entrepreneur Karen Hanton is a woman who won’t be pampered -
incredibly she doesn’t appreciate being upgraded to first class on flights
or put in a suite at a hotel.
“I like Virgin Atlantic but I once got upgraded to Upper Class and I didn’t
feel comfortable. I felt like a fish out of water and I felt over-serviced,
so I learnt from that. I don’t like having too much attention and I don’t
really like to have fabulous food and fine wine when I’m flying," she said.
“Also, on the odd occasion, I’ve been given a suite in a hotel and it’s a bit
like sitting in first class. It doesn’t work for me and it suits me better
to have everything in one room.”
Hanton, 49, is the chief executive and founder of toptable.com,
the restaurant bookings site that counts Sir Alex Ferguson and Gary Rhodes
as shareholders. The company represents 5,000 restaurants in 14 countries,
mainly in Europe, and brings in £100m of revenues to restaurants every year.
Hanton travels regularly to see clients and restaurants and to watch trends
among people who eat out.
So you actually prefer to fly economy on long haul flights?
Usually, I’ll buy an economy seat on Virgin and use my American Express points
to upgrade to premium economy. It’s enough to make me feel good without
getting on my nerves.
So how do you pass your time on flights?
Well everyone does a bit of work to start with. You do a few things to prepare
for meetings the other end. I’ll read up about the people I’m going to meet
and places I’m going. Then I might watch a movie. I’d watch something I
wouldn’t usually see, like a comedy. I also like factual programmes and I
watched that incredible film Man On Wire about the man who walked on
a tightrope between the Twin Towers.
I quite like to get through books quickly and you don’t want to be carrying a
great tome with you, so I’ll take something short and easy to read. On
flights, I’ve read the Tennessee Williams plays Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof and A Streetcar named Desire, which are bite-sized. You can
read them in a flight and I often leave them for someone else to read at the
other end.
Do you listen to music on flights?
I do and like most people have everything on my iPod. My taste is across the
board and it could be absolutely anything from The Killers and Babyshambles
to classical piano.
Do you eat or drink on flights?
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