Category Archives: Sidebar

Sex Toy Scare Down Under

A vibrating sex toy in a rubbish bin sparked a security scare and closed a Mackay airport in Queensland, Australia for almost an hour.  An emergency was declared at the airport after airport staff heard a strange noise coming from the bin. “It was rather disconcerting when the rubbish bin started humming furiously,” cafeteria manager Lynne Bryant said.  Police evacuated the terminal and were about to call in bomb experts when an unidentified passenger came forward to identify the contents of a package left in the bin.  Police later said the package was identified as an “adult novelty device”.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Airline News: October 2004

United Airlines plans to launch daily flights between San Francisco and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City in December 2004, becoming the first US carrier to resume direct air links since the end of the Vietnam War.

Singapore will build Asia's first dedicated low-cost terminal for SGD$45 million (USD$26.4 million) by 2006 to cater to growing numbers of budget airlines.  There has been a huge increase in the number of budget airlines across Southeast Asia following the success of no-frills carriers such as Malaysia's AirAsia, challenging the dominance of carriers such as Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.

Tiger Airways, the budget unit of Singapore Airlines, plans to launch services in September, three months ahead of schedule.  Tiger, a venture between Singapore Air and the founder of Irish discount airline Ryanair, will be the second budget carrier to fly from Singapore's ChangiAirport after Singapore's ValuAir.

Continental Airlines said it is imposing new fees on tickets bought at US airport counters and reservation centres, as it aims to encourage online bookings and cut costs.  The Houston-based carrier said it will charge a USD$5 fee for tickets bought through its US call centres and a USD$10 fee for tickets bought at US airport ticket counters, effective immediately.

Continental wants more travellers to book tickets online, saving on personnel costs.

US Airways imposed similar fees on Tuesday, and Northwest Airlines has also implemented them.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Companions2Travel.co.uk

Companions2Travel matches up like-minded single people looking to travel.

Companions2Travel.co.uk is a unique UK website allowing single people to combine their travel plans by simply going online and filling in a form. The site can match a couple or a group of people with similar interests and preferred destinations. You can join for free as a trial member, just to see if you like it or not!

Whatever your status, Companions2Travel.co.uk will match you with people that are looking for the same as you. The site also offers a safe place to download your holiday snaps, a message board and chat rooms, up-to-the-minute travel news, tips for safe travel, practical travel links and special offers.

www.companions2travel.co.uk

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Travel Jokes

And from the Pilot during his welcome message: “Delta Airlines is pleased to have some of the best Flight Attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!”.

Heard on Southwest Airlines just after a very hard landing in Salt Lake City: The Flight Attendant came on the intercom and said, “That was quite a bump, and I know what y'all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the Airline's fault, it wasn't the Pilot's fault, it wasn't the Flight Attendant's fault. It was the asphalt.”.

Overheard on an American Airlines flight into Amarillo, Texas, on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain was really having to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Amarillo. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!”.

Another Flight Attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing. “We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal.”

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Mt St Helens Risk

Scientists have warned that Mount St Helens volcano in Washington state is likely to erupt again very soon.  Federal authorities are evacuating everyone from a five-mile radius around the mountain.  In 1980, 57 people were killed in an eruption.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Fancy a Trip into Space?

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has signed a £14m agreement which will allow passengers to travel into space.  Branson has commissioned five “spaceliners” built in the US by the team behind the SpaceShipOne vehicle.  The rocket plane will became the first privately developed carrier to go above 100km in June 2005.  It will cost around £100,000 to go on a “Virgin Galactic” spaceliner, and the first flights should begin in about three years' time.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

New Tunnel under the Bosporus

Work on a tunnel and rail system under the Bosporus Strait connecting Europe and Asia in has just started in Istanbul.  The tunnel will be 13.7 kilometres long, (8.5 mile) tunnel and 1,400 meters of the tunnel will be underwater.  The Bosporus Strait, a 32 km waterway connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, separating European Turkey from Asian Turkey.  It bisects Istanbul as it flows by historic Ottoman castles, mosques and parkland.  The tunnel will become the third link between the city's European and Asian sides.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Electronic Ticketing

Paperless and ticketless bookings made more attractive by incentives, discounts and offers of air miles are fast becoming the way to travel.  Airlines are planning to stop issuing paper tickets in the next three years, a move that could save the industry up to $3 billion a year in running costs, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).  Some carriers are already ahead of the game: In the past year, more than 18 million customers have used e-ticketing services on Continental Airlines.  The move isn’t limited to airlines, hotel chains such as the Hilton, InterContinental, Sheraton, and Hyatt, are starting to automate processes too.  In Malaysia, you can make air ticket enquiries by SMS to a travel agent and in the case of budget carrier AirAsia you can book tickets by SMS.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

French Card Fraud

France has been ranked as the place where British holidaymakers are most likely to become victims of credit card fraud.  Barclaycard’s annual world fraud index shows that France is the top credit card fraud hotspot, accounting for 43% of spending on stolen cards.  Second is the USA, 3rd Spain, 4th Ireland and 5th Germany.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

New Iran Island Resort

Iran is to build a 1.7 billion euro ($2.0 billion) luxury tourism project on the Gulf island of Kish designed to rival nearby tourism hotspot Dubai.  Kish is a small island with relaxed rules on women's dress and mingling of the sexes although women are still required to wear headscarves and cover their bodies when swimming, and alcohol consumption is banned.

The “Flower of the East” project , Iran’s largest tourism project since the 1979 Islamic revolution is aimed at attracting foreign money and diversifying its economy away from oil.  A German company has won the bid to develop a tourism, recreational and residential complex in KishIsland which lies some 125 miles (200 km) away from Dubai to the south. 

The complex will include a 7-star hotel to rival Dubai's 7-star Burj al-Arab, a marina, 27-hole golf course, sports clubs, shopping malls and 4,700 luxury apartments.  The project is largely aimed at Iranian expatriates seeking a holiday home in their native land, will be completed by the end of 2009.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

New Airport Planned for Madrid

Spain, which attracts 50 million tourists a year, is building its first private airport 200 km (125 miles) south of Madrid in a bid to lure budget airlines away from the capital and develop a deprived mining area.  The airport is expected to be operational from the second half of 2006, is being built on the plains of La Mancha, best known for Cervantes's Don Quixote and will be named after the windmill-tilting knight. 

The new airport has been nicknamed “Madrid's Luton” after the British airport outside London which challenges London's Heathrow and Gatwick, particularly in the budget flight market. The Don Quixote airport will try to woo low cost airlines with lower tariffs and flexible timetables. A high-speed train link connects Ciudad Real with central Madrid in 45 minutes, making it a viable alternative to the capital.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Tours to Iraq

Budding British travel operator Don Lucey is proposing to offer tours to Iraq.  Never mind the troops, killings and kidnappings, Don Lucey, a former soldier and policeman who worked in Iraq in 2003 has set up Bann Tours in Swindon, western England. “It has a lot to offer, a lot of history. It's not just all war and people killing each other. Obviously terrorists scare a lot of people, but people like myself want to prove that they are not in control,” he said in a telephone interview.

 

Lucey said tourism in Iraq had to start somewhere, and that he and his clients were determined to be the catalyst. The 10-day trip, which will take in some ancient sites, costs 1,200 pounds ($2,192) per person, not including insurance.

 

Take a look at:

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Newsletter on India

If you want to keep abreast of events in India, catch the latest news on hotels, airlines and events, then take a look at this free India Newsletter.

India Newsletter

The US government is dropping a plan to collect personal data on airline passengers to assess security risks because of privacy concerns.  Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said officials had all but scrapped plans for the controversial Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System, known as CAPPS II, which has come under criticism from privacy advocates and some members of the US Congress.  The program, which has never been tested fully, was launched after September 11 2001 to refine electronic techniques for using personal information to identify and rate potential threats.

Ridge said a new program with a different name might be developed to replace CAPPS II. It could be replaced by a new “registered traveller” program if enough people volunteer to provide personal information, the report said.

Discuss this article and give feedback in our online forum

Great Lakes Ferry

A new high-speed, high-tech ferry has just started a crossing Lake Michigan, from Milwaukee to Muskegon, a 76 nautical miles journey in about two and a half hours. The ferry is an affordable alternative to flying to Muskegon and is faster and more relaxing than the six-hour 286-mile drive through Chicago traffic and around the southern end of Lake Michigan. The Lake Express has a capacity of 250 passengers and 46 vehicles. Officials from the new Lake Express car-passenger ferry say thousands of tickets were pre-sold. Local attractions include Muskegon’s Pere Marquette Beach and Michigan’s Adventure amusement park, which is just north of town.

Thanks to Globetrotters

I want to thank all the members who helped me in my research for a novel I was writing set on the liner Queen Elizabeth in the 1960s. ‘ Cherry Ice’ has recently been published by Penguin and it carries the following message in the Acknowledgements: – ‘Thanks are also due to the worldwide membership of the Globetrotters Club – very helpful via the Web in my search for the precise amount of the British Sterling travel allowance circa 1964, when no amount of studious research could provide me with a definitive answer. Not even Her Majesty’s Treasury nor Customs and Excise could provide the solution – in fact the latter came up with five different possibilities in a hilarious letter I shall always keep to make me smile in times of angst.’ – from Jill Laurimore

Channel Tunnel Offer

Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel is cutting prices in its latest bid to compete with high speed ferry operators. The latest offer is £100 return tickets for a car and passengers travelling to France until December 31. To get this price, you must travel from the UK to France after 2pm on the day of the outward journey and to return before 2pm on any subsequent day, bookable at least one day in advance. Eurotunnel is facing tough competition from ferries and high speed catamaran services on routes from Dover to northern France. The latest rival is Speedferries.com, which recently launched a low-cost catamaran service offering to carry cars between Dover and Boulogne for £50 return.

Have you got a tale to tell?

If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites

New FCO Travel Warnings

The Foreign Office says it will in future be more selective about issuing travel advice on the risk of terrorism. From now on, people will be warned against travelling only in situations of extreme and imminent danger. The UK government announced that blanket warnings against travel to an area would only be used only when the threat to British citizens looked “acute, large-scale and specific”. The move is likely to be welcomed by foreign governments like Turkey and Kenya who had complained that warnings issued after terrorist attacks had seriously damaging their tourist trade. The Beetle hopes that this applies to Bali, as she has just come back from a wonderful trip, but few UK travel insurance companies will insure trips to Bali because of FCO advice.

Travel Quiz: Peru

The winner of last month’s Moon’s Guidebook on the Four Corners is: Paul Roberts. Congratulations!

This month, win a Rough Guide on Peru. See www.roughguides.com for info.