European Business Travel in May
We are about to enter a perilous time for anyone planning a business trip to Europe. I am not talking about the constant risk of short strikes by airport workers, air traffic controllers or general...
View ArticleDeath in the sun – the murky world of Dubai
In April 2011, Lee Brown, an unemployed young handyman from Essex, travelled First Class on Emirates to Dubai and checked in at one of the world’s most expensive hotels, the Burj Al Arab. Allegedly, he...
View ArticleRoute News Stop Press
This month’s route news from Inside Traveller is available here. Here are some items that missed our editorial deadline: Anadolujet has cancelled its Ankara–Stansted service – it had returned to the...
View ArticleBA move fast
British Airways is keeping British Midland’s summer timetable in operation but they are moving fairly quickly to make sense of their purchase. The first of British Midland’s Airbuses is now being...
View ArticleWhat now for Air France?
Imagine you are a large French company in which the government still has a significant shareholding. You are losing money badly and have started a plan to bring employee contracts into line with your...
View ArticleBerlin’s new airport delayed
Lordy – Berlin’s new Brandenburg airport is NOT going to open on 3rd June after all. With less than four weeks to go it seems that fire protection services are not going to be in place in time. A new...
View ArticleLufthansa – not again, surely?
After the debacle of having to sell British Midland at a huge loss, you might have thought Lufthansa would have learned their lesson, but apparently not. According to the Financial Times, they are...
View ArticleBeware of so-called experts
There is an old Fleet Street joke that you can always spot the financial editor of a paper because he will be the one with the oldest car and scruffiest clothes. Unfair perhaps, but one must wonder, if...
View ArticleHow to buy Avios at a big discount
It is fairly common for airlines to run promotions selling their Miles at a special discount – 20-25% is a pretty standard figure – so it is not so surprising to see that British Midland have just...
View ArticleRoute News Stop Press
This month’s route news from Inside Traveller is available here. Here are some items that missed our editorial deadline: Aegean Airlines is launching a four-times weekly Athens-Gatwick service on 28th...
View ArticleTurkish Airlines on Slippery Slope
Turkish Airlines has fought hard over the last few years to build a reputation as a modern, secure, international airline but there are some rather worrying gaps appearing in the carefully created PR...
View ArticleNigerian air safety
Let’s face it, Nigeria has a pretty dreadful reputation. It is internationally famous for email scams, gross political corruption and being a major energy producer yet facing regular blackouts in its...
View ArticleTax and glasshouses
I am not enthusiastic about the tax affairs of public figures being paraded in public. Unless they have done something illegal, they surely have a right to privacy. Jimmy Carr fell into a different...
View ArticleWe’ve won an award…
Yes, we were rather surprised yesterday to discover this blog had been given the accolade of Gold Winner – Best Blog for Travel Advice category, in the MyTravelMoney.co.uk Travel Blog Awards 2012. Our...
View ArticleRoute News Stop Press
This month’s route news from Inside Traveller is available here. Here are some items that missed our editorial deadline: American Airlines is resuming service to Paraguay after six years’ suspension...
View ArticleEtihad putting eggs in too many baskets
The state of British Airways before its privatisation is often used as a classic example of a company that had grown in a hopelessly disorganised way. It was said that the company had so many different...
View ArticleLondon’s Olympic hotel mess
The rest of the world might have been hovering in and out of recession but London’s hotels have had a remarkably strong period over the last three years. Most were looking to a bonanza summer of high...
View ArticleFool’s Gold
I would like to think of myself as an optimist but there is a difference between optimism and gullibility. Maybe we are so used to good news that we have lost the ability to ask questions. Why did no...
View ArticleNo news from Heathrow
Yesterday was the first day of arriving Olympic athletes at Heathrow. The news channels had their reporters stationed on the Bath Road (with nice views of the runway but nowhere near the terminals)...
View ArticleCan you visit the Maldives with a clear conscience?
It is not just Premiership footballers who get into trouble using Twitter. The Maldives tourism ministry thought it would be a great idea to publicise their country on Twitter by getting users to share...
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