CD Traveller » Travel rumblings

Should Virgin Atlantic permit passengers to make mobile calls?

kaye — Tue, 22 May 2012 05:00:35 +0000

So Sir Richard Branson’s airline, Virgin Atlantic, has announced that has announced that it will be the first British carrier to allow passengers to use their mobile phones on board.

Anyone flying from London to New York on Virgin’s new Airbus A3330 will be able to make calls, send and receive text messages and use the internet via GPRS.

According to Steve Griffith, Virgin Atlantic’s chief operating officer, this is what we want: “Connectivity in the air is always on the wish list,” said Griffith.
I am not sure who Griffith spoke to but it certainly wasn’t the CD-Traveller team! I, like many of my colleagues, would think twice about booking a flight with Branson’s airline when it introduces its mid flight mobile phone system later this year.

One of the reasons I favour planes over trains and buses is because they offer an escape from Blackberry smart phones, iPhones and other go-anywhere, always-on gadgets. Virgin’s director of corporate communications disagrees. Indeed Greg Dawson is on record as saying: “Many people will have experienced that moment when you’re about to take off on a 10-hour flight and you need to send an important message to the office, or even reminding a family member to feed the cat!”

Regardless, I hope Virgin reconsider their plans. Modern air travel is stressful enough as it is without being forced to listen to a noisy neighbour’s conversation when up in the air.

Ryanair and our money

adrian — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:54:35 +0000

Ryanair flies away with our money

The profits announced by Ryanair this morning clearly show that the airline’s policy of charging for every single thing they can think off is paying dividends. Or at least dividends to their shareholders!
They will receive €483 million (about £389 million) as a special one-off dividend. Which is not far short of Ryanair’s declared profit of €503 million. This shows where I have been going wrong. Instead of flying with the company I should have been investing in them!
So what do passengers get from this Ryanair success? Well they have “donated” €886 million (about £714 million) by paying by credit card and being charged; by taking bags and being charged; by booking online and being charged. In fact there aren’t many ways that Ryanair hasn’t managed to add on a bit more so that it can still claim that its basic fares are still cheap. 21% of all its revenue comes from these add-ons.
It moans bitterly at any airport or country that raises landing charges or causes its costs to increase. It removes flights from routes claiming it will not be pushed around by authorities yet it seems to have no compunction to pushing us around.
Can we be charged for much more? The answer seems to be yes as an American airline Spirit Airlines, plans to charge from November, $100 (say £62) to take on board carry-on luggage if you leave it as late as at the gate to buy that. It is also planning a fee of up to $199 if you want to buy in advance what it calls a “Big Front Seat.”
Can this fleecing of the passenger continue much longer?
Maybe that is where there is a glimmer of hope for us poor passengers. Two recent studies compared fares between low-cost airlines and traditional ones on some routes and traditional airlines were cheaper in more cases than previously. It could be that some low-cost airlines will not be able to increase their ability to empty wallets much further or they will lose business to others.

Congratulations Boris, but now it’s time to tackle the Tube delays

kaye — Mon, 21 May 2012 05:00:27 +0000

So Boris is back. The blonde buffoon has been appointed Mayor of London for another term and as someone who positively galloped to the polling booth to vote for him – despite not being a Conservative – I am pretty pleased.

As a Londoner, I love Boris’ bikes for hire scheme and am not adverse to his Boris Island airport idea. But the fun, if foppish, Etonian needs to wise up when it comes to the Tube. Only this week Mr Johnson hailed figures showing that the Tube is more reliable than ever – as passengers, including myself, suffered one of the worst weeks of signal failures and track faults, resulting in severe delays.

Case in point? A 50 minute journey on the Metropolitan line last Tuesday, ended up taking close to two hours. I wish I could say it was better on Wednesday, but – you can see this coming a mile off – it wasn’t. Nor on Thursday. Or Friday. A friend, who incidentally is not a commuter, mentioned in passing that the delays were perhaps because of all the rain we have had. Possibly, but while that might explain the slack services, it doesn’t excuse them. After all, this is England where rain is guaranteed no matter what the season.

Boris Johnson

It’s not often that I find myself agreeing with the odious RMT leader, Bob Crowe, but this is one of those rare instances. “It is all very well for TfL to boast of record services, but passengers are still suffering delays every day,” the demon of the London Underground recently remarked. And with the 2012 Olympics just around the corner, I fear journeys are only going to get worse for commuters.

My message for the Mayor? Congratulations on defeating Labour’s Ken Livingstone: I’m thrilled that you will be flying the capital’s flags for the next four years. However now that the party is over, it is time for promises to be kept: namely tackling the tricky problem of the Tube.

Heathrow isn’t heaven, but it’s not hell either

kaye — Sun, 20 May 2012 05:00:11 +0000

I flew into Heathrow recently with a certain amount of fear and trepidation having read all the horror stories about immigration control. Indeed the queues are said to be so bad that Joan Collins took to Twitter last week, to tell her 68,000 followers: “Arrived LHR after great trip on @British_Airways but 100s waiting at passport control – listen up Ms. May – need more officers!”

Little wonder then that I touched down fearing the worst but, much to my surprise sailed, through in about 10 minutes (and it would have been sooner if the kiosk that is supposed to be able to read passport chips had been open). Having texted the friend who was meeting me at the airport to advise her not to bother arriving on time as I was bound to be delayed, I found myself killing time at the T5 branch of Costa Coffee.

But while I had a favourable Heathrow experience, the same can’t be said of San Diego where last month, I easily spent two and a half hours stuck at passport control in a line that reminded me of queuing to get into a night club during my teens.

Joan Collins

The truth of the matter is that the Heathrow delays, while frustrating, aren’t as bad as those in America or the Middle East – where I lived and work for close to three years. Put simply, post 9/11 extensive security checks have become part and parcel of modern day air travel around the world – not just in London.

Oakland is on the up

kaye — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:01:35 +0000

The writer and poet Gertrude Stein, who was born in Oakland, once remarked about her California birthplace: “Oakland? There’s no there, there.”

Fast forward to today and few would agree with Gertrude. Indeed The New York Times no less, ranked Oakland as number five on its 45 places to go in 2012 list ahead of big name North American locations like New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

The Times sung the praises of the city’s “sophisticated restaurants” and “upscale cocktail bars” which, it claimed, have helped turn “once gritty Oakland into an increasingly appealing place to be after dark.”

We asked Lindsay Wright, PR & Communications manager at Visit Oakland, for the lowdown on five dining destinations – from $5 food trucks to Michelin-Star restaurants – that have helped put Oakland on the map

Oakland city centre

Brown Sugar
Head to Brown Sugar Kitchen in West Oakland, a neighborhood that is home to industrial arts studios and shipping ports, for some authentic southern cuisine. Chef Tanya Holland is somewhat of a celebrity chef here in Oakland, recognised for her buttermilk fried chicken and cornmeal waffle combo. http://brownsugarkitchen.com/

Commis
Chef James Syhabout was named Best New Chef in 2010 by Food and Wine Magazine, largely due to his Michelin star restaurant, Commis, on Piedmont Avenue. This upscale eatery serves only five-course, prix fixe dinners. Just this year, Syhabout opened Hawker Fare, a more casual Asian eatery and a welcome addition to the Uptown neighbourhood
http://www.commisrestaurant.com; http://www.hawkerfare.com/.

Flora
Uptown Oakland has become a destination for entertainment and the arts in the Bay Area, but a number of culinary hot spots have also contributed to the popularity of the district. Try Flora for an experience reminiscent of the Prohibition Era. The Art Deco building is a fantastic option for creative cocktails and house-made charcuterie http://floraoakland.com/.

Pizzaiolo and Boot & Shoe Service
Oakland restaurants and locals take pride in utilising sustainable ingredients, even for cuisine as simple as a pizza. Pizzaiolo and Boot & Shoe Service, two sister restaurants in Oakland, specialise in eclectic, wood-fired pizzas with toppings that may include rapini, nettles, spring onions and capers. http://bootandshoeservice.com/; http://www.pizzaiolooakland.com/.

Wineries
Many visitors to Oakland may also be surprised to find that there are a number of urban wineries here. Head to JC Cellars or Urban Legend Cellars to get a taste of the local wines produced right here in Oakland: http://www.jccellars.com/; http://www.ulcellars.com/. You can also tour all of the wineries by bike with East Bay Winery Bike Tours, who offer urban wine tasting on two wheels: http://eastbaywinerybiketours.com/.

Thanks Lindsay! For more on what to do in up and coming Oakland, check out www.visitoakland.org

London 2012 organisers allow babes in arms in, after all

kaye — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:31:58 +0000

So Olympic organisers, Locog, have done a U turn and declared that babies and infants under 12 months will be allowed free entry into London Olympic venues – provided they are seated on their parent’s lap.

The climbdown comes following complaints from indignant mothers who had given birth since booking tickets, on sites such as mumsnet.com, earlier this year. No doubt Locog’s ‘babes in arms’ policy will please many mothers up and down the country but nomos (no mothers) like myself aren’t quite so ecstatic.

On boarding a recent flight from San Francisco to London, I discovered that I had been seated next to a mother and baby. The next 11 hours reinforced what babies love – sleeping and yes, screaming. The idea of suffering through the same experience at Stratford this summer, isn’t one I’m relishing.

Chances are I’ll be red arrowed for this, but I don’t believe the organisers were ever being discriminatory. The way I see it, they were simply exercising good, old fashioned common sense for the bottom line is this: the Olympic Games are no place for new borns.

High end hotels need to stop charging for internet access

kaye — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:00:42 +0000

It may only be Wednesday but here at CD-Traveller towers, we already have our quote of the week. Take a bow US actor, Zach Braff. The Scrubs star - who has just finished appearing in his own play, All New People, at London’s Duke of York Theatre – said: “Charging for internet in a hotel room is like charging for napkins at a restaurant.”

We couldn’t agree more. The bank holiday weekend found me attending (yet another) wedding – this one in Hertfordshire. Did the hotel I ended up staying at, offer its customers complimentary Wifi? The answer (you can you see this coming a mile off, right?) is no. The next morning while nursing hangovers over a Bloody Mary fuelled branch, I asked friends who had stayed the night at neighbouring Hertfordshire hotels whether Wifi was included in their room bills. Again, the answer was a resounding no.

It’s not often I advocate following in America’s footsteps, but this is one of those occasions. I was fortunate enough to recently spend a fortnight in the US, staying in no fewer than six different hotels. All, bar one, included complimentary Wifi in their tariffs and even the lone offender permitted guests to surf the worldwide web for free in the lobby lounge.

Is there any reason why hotels in the UK, can’t do the same?

Shouldn’t we have true holiday and flight protection?

Editor — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:41:56 +0000

Last Monday the new regulations for bonding came into force. Now a report from MP’s on the Transport Select Committee welcomes what has been introduced but says it doesn’t go far enough. In fact, in some places, the report is very critical of the government.
To recap, the new rules mean that people who put together their own travel packages with travel agents or online are covered. However, the flight and accommodation parts must be put together within two days or each other or you will not be covered. But there is an exception and that is if your supplier agrees voluntarily to cover you even if the two day limit is exceeded. A new ATOL certificate must be issued with holiday bookings (from October 1st) so that a traveller will immediately know whether they are covered or not. Already covered are those who buy a package holiday from a tour operator who has an ATOL number.
The committee points out that those people not covered are those who just book flights or who buy from a travel agent who acts as an agent for the consumer. This last point is not easy to understand and one of the things the committee calls for is greater clarity so that it is clearer to the traveller as to what is covered and what is not. In addition they say that the £2.50 flat fee that we pay for this protection should be altered and that it should reflect the cost of the holiday or travel involved.
Some online travel agents and airlines objected saying that it would be costly to set-up new systems to monitor the new measures. Frankly, given the amount that is spent on systems by these companies – whose whole business is reliant on having good systems – I have no sympathy. Yes, there will be costs but I still maintain that we will end up paying with them so why not bite the bullet and agree? There are so many add-ons that the passenger faces, adding a further £2.50 – providing that all airlines do it – should quieten them immediately.
The government said that it cannot – under EU law – bring in rules for protection for flight only passengers. The committee says, “If EU legislation is a barrier, the Government should use its involvement in reform of the EU Package Travel Directive to press for necessary changes,” which suggests that they are not sure the government is necessarily right. But surely this is an area that does need attention. Should IATA –the body that airlines belong to – consider a world-wide system or do we have to rely on using credit cards and obtaining refunds from our supplier? Debit card payers have no protection. It highlights again the importance of travel insurance and that the policy has a clause covering the collapse of any type of airline.
It also says that whilst industry has been consulted, the views of the traveller have not and it urges the government to undertake some research into what travellers think. They also think that future reforms should be funded by the travel industry but, let’s face it, we are going to end up paying anyway so we might as well have our two pennyworth of thoughts considered as the committee says.
Where I disagree with the committee is where it says that consumer protection is essentially a private matter. We have protection for things we buy in shops through the Sale of Goods Act. We must have insurance for driving cars and so should we have them for holidays and flying. The ATOL scheme is essentially an insurance policy anyway.
Whether we are left to buy it ourselves or whether we have a government imposed scheme is a matter of politics. But some all-encompassing scheme needs to be introduced. And one that everyone understands.

Being imaginative to reduce border entry queues

adrian — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:00:41 +0000

As I said yesterday, in all the discussions about the delays in border entry queues at airports, very little has been suggested as a way of resolving the problem. The announcement, yesterday, of eighty more staff is not a solution merely a sticking plaster. As passenger numbers grow, an alternative method of screening and checking passengers is needed.
We need different thinking rather than just considering more staffing at booths.
So here are some ideas from CD-Traveller.
Consider Ireland and passengers going to the United States. In Ireland, passengers go through passport controls before they leave the country not when they arrive in the US. When they do arrive, they enter the United States via the domestic flight system, just walking off the plane, collecting baggage and leaving the airport. Could we consider that? The biggest destination for passengers from the UK is to Spain. Could we not arrange a similar arrangement with that country so that returning passengers to the UK go through controls in that country? It would reduce our queues by at least 10%. In return we check this end for entry to Spain.
But let’s take it further by installing a passport checker on all short-haul flights. Over the flight time, that person should be able to check everybody’s passports. Surely a portable laptop could be configured to check the files, and, using the wifi that will become available on any flight soon, complete the formalities and log them back into the main system. With long-haul flights this idea might not be commercially viable since the officer could be sitting down doing nothing for hours
Here’s another possibility. Create an app for smart phones which allows us to forward a thumbprint, an iris recognition or something like that which corresponds with the record that has already been forwarded to the country concerned. A member of cabin crew is tasked with confirming that the person matches the passport and sends a confirmation code that only they know. Shouldn’t this at least be trialled amongst EU members states where a greater degree of trust exists? At least it would remove a good percentage of travellers going through border controls at airports.
So there are three ideas which CD-Traveller will forward to Damian Green, the minister responsible and David Cameron.
What other suggestions have readers got? We’ll send them along with ours.

The claptrap of Damian Green

adrian — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:43:18 +0000

In the last couple of weeks or so, the spotlight has turned on the lengthening queues at passport control as you re-enter the UK. In particular it seems to have taken much longer at Heathrow and Gatwick. Some MP’s say that “something must be done.”
But what?
Yesterday the minister – Damian Green – responsible for the Border Force (the arm that is responsible for checking us when we leave and return) had the temerity to suggest that the problems was due to the severe weather. What claptrap! The problem has been getting worse for months. It used to be that returning to this country took no longer than a few minutes for us to get through. Then all EU citizens were treated as UK subjects; the lines grew but it rarely took more than 15 minutes to get through.
But now 30-40 minutes is common and some people claim that it has taken as long as acouple of hours. I cannot vouch for this although I have been through Heathrow and Gatwick six times this year and it has yet to take me longer than 40 minutes. Make no bones; that is no acceptance on my part. It is far too long but compare that to the two hours I have had to wait in New York and Orlando to enter the USA on the only two occasions I have been there in the last two months and I may seem blasé. But there you have fingerprint and photographic evidence to give as well. In Mexico City – not renowned for fast and organised efficiency – it didn’t take more than 30 minutes. In Germany and Spain, just a few minutes.
But, as I have written before, often not all the booths are manned so manpower must be an issue. Now the Labour Party has found out that staffing has been cut by 10%. The Border Agency says that the booths will be fully staffed during the summer peak months thus leaving the impression that at any other time we passengers can just put up with it. Well passengers won’t. Cheering took place when one person stormed through. BAA which owns Heathrow objects as does British Airways. But so does everyone else. At least eighty more officers will be recruited. But given the number of shifts that exist plus the naumber of booths, eighty may not be anywhere near enough. What does it take to change things?
Why doesn’t “someone” do “something?” Both The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail have been great on reporting and playing up the issue but have been singularly lacking in ideas to resolve it. By the way has anyone spotted that is the Mail’s defence correspondent, Ian Drury, that writes their articles and not a news or transport or even travel reporter. Has this now become a national security/ fight the terrorists issue rather than letting normal holidaymakers return to their homes? Why? It cannot be due to an increased potential attack during the Olympics regardless of what the government says. This has been getting worse for at least 6 months. They are using that as a cheap excuse to hide incompetence.
Tomorrow I shall suggest a possible solution but in the meantime how about some MP asking the question as to how much of the extortionately high APD we pay is going to pay for staff at the Border Force to man these booths? Or, as we all cynically know, does it just end up in the Exchequer for the government to use on other things. I don’t suppose they would consider ring-fencing some of the cash so that the Border agency can efficiently do what it is supposed to do?