Flights
From The Telegaph on June 25th 2010
The hidden charges of low cost airlines have been criticised by Which?, the consumer watchdog, as Ryanair and Thomas Cook come bottom in a survey of short-haul carriers.
The influential consumer watchdog has criticised low-cost airlines for not making clear the full extent of their charges when passengers first book a ticket.
It is particularly critical of airlines that charge a credit card fee per passenger, rather than per transaction. This can make a big difference for, say, a family of five travelling.
While easyJet charges £3.50 for the entire booking, Ryanair charges £5 per passenger for each leg of the journey. This means on a return flight a family of five has to pay £50 to Ryanair, but just £3.50 to easyJet.
Its strongest criticism was levelled at Thomas Cook Airlines, which requires full contact details of the passengers before it will disclose the final ticket price. Most of the other 17 airlines surveyed required any person booking the flight to give the passenger names before revealing the total price they needed to pay.
The criticism of the airlines came as Which? revealed the results of a customer satisfaction survey of 18 short-haul carriers.
Thomas Cook Airlines came last in its class, scoring just 37 out of 100 overall. Ryanair performed only slightly better, with a score of 43.
Swiss was the best short-haul airline, according to Which? members, with an overall satisfaction score of 72. Fliers were particularly impressed by the airline's cabin staff, baggage allowances and value for money tickets.
Aer Lingus came a close second, followed by Air Malta.
In the long-haul category, which surveyed 17 carriers, Air New Zealand with 86 per cent and Singapore Airlines with 85 per cent were the favourites, scoring highly with their cleanliness, food and drinks and in-flight entertainment. South African Airways was the least popular, scoring just 37 per cent overall.
The second worst was United Airlines.
Rochelle Turner, Head of Research for Which? Holiday, said: "Flying with a good-quality airline, such as Swiss or Air New Zealand, can really make a difference to your holiday.
"Our rigorous research shows that while the cost of flights is important to customers, it's things like friendly cabin staff and reasonable luggage allowances that leave a lasting impression."
I have flights from all the UK airports to destinations all over the world. Internal flights (British airways etc), European flights(Jet2, British Airways etc), USA and the Carribean (Virgin Atlantic, Delta, United), Australia (Quantas, Cathay Pacific etc), to name but a few.
All the prices, from the flight finder search box, include taxes and charges so you don't need to add extras. Prices direct from my advertisers may need you to add or remove some items.
So why book flights only? Well the simple answer is choice.
The thing is, some of us don't need accomodation, don't want to stay in a package resort, don't want to travel on a certain day of the week etc.
Business travellers may want to go and come back on the same day, football and rugby fans often want to arrive a couple of hours before
kick off and be away a couple of hours after.
Round The World Tickets
OneWorld call their Round the World Tickets, Explorer class tickets.
Features of a OneWorld Round the World Ticket.
- Your journey must include at least three OneWorld continents, or four from the Southern Hemisphere and Africa where three-continent itineraries are not possible.
- Your route from one continent to another must move forward in a continuous westward or eastward direction. However, there are no backtracking restrictions so you are free to roam locally at will within a continent as long as you don't go back to your point of origin.
- Please note, you may need to travel through a hub city to get to your desired destination.
- You are allowed to take two stopovers in total within your continent of origin in order to get to or from a gateway to begin or return from your international travel.
- After departing from your continent of origin, you are allowed to take up to four flights to explore each of the other continents (six flights in North America).
- You can book up to two additional flights per continent, at a set rate.
- You can fly up to 20 flight segments on your trip.
- Available in First, Business or Economy Class.
- Your fare is determined by the class you fly in and the number of OneWorld continents on your itinerary, including your continent of origin and any continents you just pass through.
- Fares apply all year round except some seasonal economy fares, which are calculated on two seasonal rates: high and low.
- You can stay from a minimum of 10 days and you have up to 12 months to complete your trip.
- You must have booked and received a ticket for your first international flight (and any preceding local flights) at least seven days prior to travel when your journey originates from the Americas.
- However, you can leave all your subsequent flights open-dated. You can then schedule your trip at no extra charge as you go along.
- All reservations and ticketing can be handled by any OneWorld airline.
Cheap Flights Only
A new phenomenon is the budget flight. If you can book in advance and have a plan to go somewhere within the range of a 3 hour flight, you can take advantage of very cheap fares. Booking about 2 months in advance will usually allow you to get the cheapest options, sometimes only paying taxes and getting the flight for free. Takie the example of a British backpacker, who books a budget flight to somewhere in southern Europe and explores, all for the price of a new pair of jeans. How do the budget airlines offer flights at this low cost? Theirs is almost the opposite business model to that of last-minute operators. First, the budget airline offers cheap tickets well before the flight date, getting passengers at low cost to ensure the flight will cover its costs and not lose money; then, as the date of the flight approaches, the fares rise,(this is where the profit comes from, the final seats to be filled will be at the same cost as on a traditional carrier). Additionally budget airlines save costs by having no in-flight entertainment, no meals, and a basic no-frills aircraft. The business model works and in Europe has revolutionized the holiday industry - who needs a meal on a 2hr flight? Take sandwiches if you do.A list of popular budget airlines:
Wizzair, German Wings, RyanAir, EasyJet.
One caveat is that often the baggage allowance is low, 15kg is typical, but for the weight conscious backpacker this shouldn't be a problem - your total weight target should be 15kg!
TravelTip! Make sure your day pack is small enough to be taken on as hand luggage, put all your heaviest (densest - small but heavy) items in your day pack, think guidebooks, books, and any electronic equipment. Ensure that nothing that could cause a security problem (sharp items, aerosols etc) is in this pack. On check-in your hand luggage is very rarely weighed, provided it looks sensible. This allows you to minimize the weight of the checked in luggage and avoid any excess baggage charges.
Mobile Phones
Many people now take mobile phones on their travels. It's something nice to have, to be able to send back a text message to friends from somewhere exotic, but in the end unless you are planning to stay in a country for a while, it is an extremely expensive way to stay in touch.TravelTip! - Take an unlocked phone, buy a local SIM card if you are staying for more than a few weeks. (a SIM card is the chip in the card that gives the phone it's number and network, they are usually cheap to buy and often include some money for calls). You should only sign-up to a "pay in advance" or "pay as you go" account.
Text messages/SMS are the cheapest way to stay in touch, sending international text messages is slightly more expensive than national ones.
One other thing to be aware of is that different mobile phone systems exist. If you are planning to go to an area where a different system is in use, you will have to obtain a phone that specifically works with more than one system, known as a TriBand phone, or buy a phone at your destination. Examples of different systems :
Europe: GSM900/1800
N. America: GSM1900/CDMA/TDMA
S. America: GSM1900/CDMA
Australasia: GSM900/1800/CDMA
Asia: GSM900/1800
Africa: GSM900/1800
More information on this: LAN's Travel FAQ
Find out about each airport
- click on your local airport from the list below.
Travel Blogging
Welcome to the revolution - travelblogging draws on the internet and the travel revolution, taking it a stage further. Journalising experiences during travel is nothing new, but blogging is one step further: your journals are published, alerts sent to your subscribers, and photos can be added, all presented stylishly and easy to use. The best thing (or possibly the worst) is your journals will be read by strangers! - possibly thousands of them.
TravelTip! - TravelBlog.org is the best travel blogging service out there - and it is free, already thousands of people are kicking themselves for paying for less adequate services. Play with a test journal and get involved with the community that has formed around the concept.
Looking for more travel blogs - Take a look at the brilliant www.travelblog.org
