Well this airport has come leaps and bounds since my last visit a few months ago. The arrivals area still needs work – the temporary toilets are *temporary* thank goodness – is is a mess between car rental drop offs and departing. Theses are short lived and over looked once you enter the main building, it is stunning! Well done all, this certainly is going to be majestic airport to be very proud of. After a quick efficient check in we were off to the departure lounge, we Raphsody’s – excellent efficient service, lovely meals and a wow – awesome departure lounge – there are loads of seats, panoramic views of the beautiful mountain range and the runways, this is what it feels like being at a top class airport. Great work Cape Town! One small comment and critic about a store in the departure lounge – went all out to spoil my boys with a gift from CPT, sure R390 and the goods were stuffed into a flimsy plastic bag that should not have even fitted a part of the boys gift. You are going to have people spend thousands of rands at your store, your products are over priced, sure, however lets try and give value for money and walk away from your store satisfied with some sort of feeling of great value – this could quickly be achieved with a 90c paper bag.
Latest on the Travel wire is an email from Qantas:
Due to the high volume of enquiries and demand for overseas holidays during the World Cup 2010, QANTAS has opened availability from V class upwards for departures during June & July. Fares are being sold at published levels as follows:
PER - from ZAR 6720 low season (on/before 13 June) and ZAR 8200 shoulder season (on/after 14 June)
SYD/MEL/ADL/BNE – from ZAR 7910 low season (on/before 13 June) and ZAR 9420 shoulder season (on/after 14 June)
AKL/WLG/CHC – from ZAR 9560 low season (on/before 13 June) and ZAR 11070 shoulder season (on/after 14 June)
This I believe is the start of the onslaught of specials and *folding of hands* by the airlines to happen over the next few weeks. Airlines have kept their availability close to their chest in anticipation of ludicrous fares during the World Cup 2010. Timing is of the essence for the airlines and their yield management teams, if they hold on to long and not sell they will have empty seats. So question now is, is this just the start of the availability opening up? I certainly hope so for the sake of travellers looking to travel in bound and out bound during 2010.
LAG stands for Liquids, Aerosols and Gels. If you can POUR it, PUMP it, SQUEEZE it, SPREAD it, SMEAR it, SPRAY it or SPILL it, it is considered a LAG.
Notice that with the addition and changes in security with the airlines – here is a release from Emirates:
Please note LAGS restriction will apply to passengers transiting in selected countries adhering to the following measures:
If passengers are transiting through countries where they are required to disembark along with their hand baggage and go through security check, they will not be able to take duty free liquid goods past the transit security check.
Passengers travelling to Australia transiting through KUL/SIN/BKK are required to disembark and go through security check hence will not be allowed to take their duty free liquid goods. These items will be confiscated by airport authorities.
Countries where LAGS already implemented:
Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, European Union, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Mauritius, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, UAE, Uganda, USA, Yemen.
The routes between George and Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth to East London, Port Elizabeth to Bloemfontein and Nelspruit to Livingstone, Zambia will be permanently scrapped.
Paid For Seating Update – Preferred Exit Row Seat Booking Available Online
From 19th January, customers wishing to request and pay for Preferred Exit Row seating will be able to do so online at ba.com without contacting the call centres. (This date is subject to any last minute disruption, should this date change you will be advised in a further Update.) Customers will be offered this option in their confirmation email and the functionality will be available in either “Manage My Booking”, for direct-booked customers, or MMB cul-de-sac for Trade customers (to ensure that we do not drive direct sales through this initiative). We will be encouraging customers either directly or through the Trade to follow this process and not to contact the call centres.
Customers should only phone the call centre to amend or upgrade an existing Paid Seating booking, all other Paid Seating bookings and queries can now be made online.
Here is a TV report of the devastation on Haiti
NEW YORK (Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp plans to offer free Wi-Fi service at most of its U.S. restaurants, starting on January 15, a spokeswoman said on Monday.
Is that just not the greatest move for clients that will certainly own a new wave of service for clients. This is for the benefit of their clients certainly for the locals and travellers alike. Yes certainly I believe we are years away before we see anything of this magnitude here in SA. We are generally a few years behind such bold developments however as an end use I am certainly excited at the scope and bold step of Mc Donalds.
This is certainly what is called trend setting! Lets hope we see this trend at airports in the near future…
Nope that is not a spelling error in the title, this place certainly is a guest home. We are just wrapping up a week at this magnificent place. In the past I have always been a tad perturbed by guesthouses in that you expect to share the house with the owners and use the same communal areas as the owners. This may be ideal for a short stop over in a town or large city however certainly not ideal for a holiday.
This place is fantastic, the owners welcomed us when we arrived, showed us around and that was it ,we were 5 adults and 2 kids so we took over the whole house. The owners stayed across the road and seriously we hardly saw them, which is ideal. They give you the keys for the house, leave you alone and the house it yours, they were close on hands to sort out any issues. The house is located in the Koro Creek Golf Estate which is very peaceful and tranquil. – not no dogs allowed! (Your ideal breakaway from the city)
The house has 3 double bed rooms ensuite and can comfortably sleep 6 adults and 2 kids. The house is decked out with all the mod cons that can be expected from air cons to microwaves, double door fridge and many other extras that really made us feel at home in the luxurious place right from the first night. Their new addition of the pool was certainly used this holiday in the hot summer days that we spent here.
The hosts Lizelle and Ivan are very accommodating and have a great place here in the Waterberg suited to any larger family or small group that would like to break away at only 2 hours from Johannesburg. When we were deciding on holiday you can certainly see how amazed I was at how full the area was. We were disappointed we could not get into Forever however are really pleased things worked out this was as we found an excellent alternative that in future would trump any local resort. The privacy, luxury and security of this place is advised for any nature or golf loving family.
Not mentioned on their website is that they are located right next to a private game farm that you have access to we, we climbed on the mountain bikes and explored this area which will give an MTB nature lover 10 – 15 kilometers of dirt track. We saw giraffe, kudu, wildebest, impala, zebra, hartebeus, a flat tyre and a wipe out – it was fantastic.
Over the xmas period and generally throughout the year you have clients, certain clients that leave message, please call me back it is URGENT, or at the bottom of the email it says: URGENT. This is the same email that they have taken 3 days to respond to, or when you call them back the urgent flight they need is for 6 months time. The term URGENT could mean anything really and guess it is relative to the person/ company that you send it to. In Travel and certainly in my agency Urgent is generally for light leaving within an 1 for domestic or same day for international – or you know even within 24 hours or same week. Now for example if you send it to another field lets say Appliance repairs – a same day reply would be considered urgent, Government would be Urgent if you actually required a response. People and I know I do at times take it the wrong way, it can happen especial when a client takes 3 days to respond for an email and now it is urgent, who knows maybe they had problems and now it is urgent, I understand that however the same would come into play, ie flight is only for 3 months time. So please for certain extremely efficient people saying URGENT could imply that they do not treat all enquirer as URGENT and could get you off on the wrong footing with your client / agent right on the word go.