Posts Tagged ‘news’
In case you doubted the US Passport Agency could do their jobs with that paltry budget they have hanging over their heads all the time, put those doubts to rest. They’ll soon be getting an influx of cash.
On July 13th the cost for getting a new, renewed or child’s passport, will take a flying leap. The price for a new adult passport will rise from $100 to $135. The price to renew your passport will be $110, up from $75 and for your child (those under 16) you’ll now spend $105.
Ah Facebook, that place we spend some 8 billion minutes everyday. Even if that’s not quite your total, take a look at the AirTreks page next time you’re aboard and give us a “like”. We’re not asking for 8 billion minutes, all it takes is one.
If you’re a traveler, especially a worldly one, and want to keep up to date on news and information related to international travel with beautiful pictures and trip suggestions, you’ll like the feed. Did we mention it’s free?
Join us. You can reach the page by clicking on the screenshot below.
Indeed!
We’ve got a seriously amazing offer for travelers who buy their tickets during the month of June.
Buy your tickets between now and June 30th, and AirTreks will send you a gift card valued at up to $150. ALSO, as an added bonus, anyone who purchases qualifying airfare by June 17th, 2010 will recieve a $US50 instant rebate off the cost of their tickets. (No forms to fill out, no waiting, just a cool $50 off the top). For more details see below, or here: Continue Reading
A quick note of public information: for the remainder of May until mid-June the AirTreks travel blog will be on a period of reduced activity in order to focus on the launch of our new website and me going to celebrate my marriage with a honeymoon in Croatia.
Until mid-June updates to the blog will be scant. But never fear, the AirTreks user experience will be back to form soon, and better than ever as soon as it does. We’re really liking our new look. We hope you do too.
Stay tuned for the new AirTreks.com. Looking forward to seeing you all back in June!
After 4 days of an almost surreal standstill of the European airport network, things haven’t gotten much better for travelers there. The ash cloud remains settled over much of northern and central Europe and doesn’t appear to be doing much in the way of dissipating. Twenty countries have now closed their airspace with specialists saying there may not be much in the way of improvement until later this week.
However, there is some good news: the rumors of a second volcano erupting in Iceland are purely that and because the density of the cloud appears to be diminishing, British Airways has announced they could be resuming their flights as early as tomorrow local time, with more European airlines likely to follow their lead.
But because volcanic ash is still dangerous for jet engines and since the passenger backup has spread so deeply into airline operations worldwide no one is completely sure how long the situation will take to resolve itself.
To help our customers in affected destinations around the world, I turned to our in-house insurance specialist Jeffrey Fell to answer some questions travelers may have about protecting themselves and their money during this sticky situation.
Ash cloud from Iceland volcano rises to 22,000 feet. Photo: REUTERS/Ho New
An erupting volcano in Iceland has caused the biggest disruption to air traffic worldwide since September 11, 2001. The volcano under the Eyjafjallajökull (ay-yah-FYAH’-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier has caused severe flooding in Iceland, and the cloud of ash from the eruption has grounded flights across the globe as major airports shut down in the UK and Europe.
This Associated Press article gives us some pretty good reasons why volcanic ash in the air means flights should be grounded:
The highly abrasive, microscopic particles that make up volcanic ash pose a threat to aircraft because they can affect visibility and get sucked into airplane engines, causing them to shut down. The ash can also block pitot tubes, which supply vital instruments such as air speed indicators, or latch onto engine blades, forming a glassy substance that may cause engines to surge or stall.
Ash will also damage all forward-facing surfaces on an aircraft, such as the cockpit windshields, the wings’ leading edges, the landing lights and air filters for the passenger cabin.
Unfortunately, it seems that forecasters don’t know how long to expect this ash cloud to be a problem. If you’re scheduled to travel in the next few days, AirTreks recommends that you reconfirm your flights with the airlines directly no matter where in the world you’re flying, and if you’re scheduled to fly to one of the airports you know has been affected (as of now, all London airports, Paris airports, and airports in Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, and Norway), here are your options as an AirTreks client:
1. If you need to travel as soon as possible, contact the airlines directly to have them protect you onto the next available flight. The airlines will be reshuffling hundreds of passengers directly through their inventory systems, so they will have more information and be better equipped than we will to get back on track as soon as possible.
2. If you want to rebook your flight for a later date in the next few weeks, or if you want to look into the possibility of refunding your affected ticket, please contact us at customercare@airtreks.com.
UPDATE: Please feel free to contact us with any questions as the situation develops over the next few days. If you are due to travel over the weekend, and you find that the day of your flight the airports are still closed and your scheduled flight is not operating, please contact the airlines directly for rebooking.
UPDATE (as of 9:30am PST, 4/16/10)
Looks like the flight logjam into and out of the UK and Northern Europe will continue into the weekend with no signs of letting up. Airports in UK, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands, northern France and Germany among other Baltic countries are either completely closed or partially closed this morning.
On a positive note, specialists say the volcano is still erupting but producing less ash, which means things could get back on track if the trend continues. Here is BBC news’ most recent story about the situation including what airports are currently affected.
To add a little perspective on the whole affair, Eyjafjallajökull is doing it’s part to reduce CO2 emissions!
Red Shirts on the roll
Trouble is looming over the weekend in Bangkok as the “United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship” assembles its largest protest in recent memory, predicting up to 600,000 protesters will be in the capital by Sunday. According to CNBC:
“Anti-government demonstrators prepared to launch Friday what they hope will be one of the country’s biggest protests ever, aiming to force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to call new elections.
Leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, called the Red Shirts because of their hallmark garb, have vowed to keep their “Million-man march” protest nonviolent. Demonstrators will start meeting around the country Friday, and converge in the Thai capital Bangkok on Sunday.
The group’s last major protest in Bangkok in April last year deteriorated into rioting that saw two people killed, more than 120 people injured and buses burned on major thoroughfares. The army was called in to quash the unrest.”
There’s been a lot of to-do over the last couple years about Airbus’s new A-380, the world’s largest passenger airplane. Since Airbus is headquartered in France, I suppose it’s fitting that Air France should get on board and outfit some of these planes with their signature tricolore.
Air France marks the first superjumbo to depart from Europe, taking off at 1:30pm from Paris Charles de Gaulle on Friday heading to JFK with 380 passengers on board. As with Singapore Airlines’ inaugural A-380 flight, the ticketed passengers’ fares for this flight were auctioned off and donated to charity, generating $450,00 for the Air France Foundation, an organization that helps children in difficulty
A lot of news has come out of the gulf region’s airline industry of late. In the past ten years, four separate high-quality airlines have come out of that part of the world and are all vying for the title of number one. While Emirates has a business model that pretty much puts the others to shame, there’s several national carriers that are headquartered in that area doing what they do very well.
A little piece of literary travel history will be squeaking its last brakes, and with hardly a whimper. The last piece of the proverbial Orient Express, the legendary sleeper train that once connected Calais, France and Istanbul in high fashion and efficiency, will, as of December 12th, cease to exist.
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