Brits ban credit card fees on travellers



  Just back from a few days R&R over Christmas and was surprised that one country - Great Britain - has given its travelling public an unexpected gift by passing a bill into law that bans fees on credit and debit card charges "made up" by tour operators and airlines.

Consumer groups were quick to claim a "victory for travellers" but the bill was squarely aimed at one particular airline - Ryanair, which has raised its credit and debit card fees 15 fold over the past seven years, according to British newspaper reports.

Example: If a bank charges a $1 credit or debit card usage fee, Ryanair charges $20!

So much for being a "low cost" airline. Of course, we all know Ryanair is just a low class airline which eliminates bathrooms to squeeze in extra passengers.

More than 50,000 supported a London Telegraph newspaper campaign which was launched in support of the bill.

British travellers are some of the most taxed in the world - the Air Passenger Duty which every British citizen must pay when departing from  the U.K., has risen 333 per cent in the past seven years.

No wonder so few Brits are travelling these days and big tour operators like Thomas Cook are facing bankruptcy.

When Air Canada and WestJet eliminated cash payments on their flights, I warned people that they could be gouged with credit card fees. So, can we expect the Canadian government to follow the British lead. Not bloody likely! This, after all, is Canada - pity!

Holland cuts tourist staff in New York

Amsterdam has few equals when it comes to beauty.

The economic troubles in Europe are having a devastating affect on the continent's tourism sector with many countries being forced to close offices abroad because they lack the funds to operate them.

The latest victim is the Netherlands Board of Tourism (NBTC), which yesterday handed lay off notices to most of its staff in New York after having its budget cut 65 per cent by the Dutch government. Half the NBTC's staff worldwide has now been dismissed thanks to the cutbacks.

Holland's New York offices oversaw all of its North American tourism operations.

European countries are facing unprecedented cutbacks thanks to the economic chaos now gripping  dysfunctional members of the European Union - the most costly and useless government body in the world - and other countries have notified their tourism boards abroad to get ready for major layoffs as well.

European countries closed their Canadian offices years ago and now with the shutdown of their U.S. offices, which oversaw the Canadian tourism market as well, the job of selling overpriced and overtaxed Europe will be much tougher.

Sadly, there's a human cost to all this. People like Brigitta Kroon-Fiorita, the NBTC's manager of media relations in New York, one of the best in the business, was notified this week that her job has been cut.

The talented Brigitta, who did a great job promoting the Netherlands to the North American media for 22 years, will be missed!

Europeans taxing foreign tourists

Seeing Berlin's iconic landmarks will soon cost you more.

Cash-strapped European governments - at all levels - are hoping new "tourist taxes" will help them get out of their hopeless debt situations.

As if Europe wasn't already too expensive!

Berlin is the latest city in Europe to be "considering" a tourist tax which would add about $10 CDN to a tourist's hotel bill.

Last month, Venice added a $10 per night tax to a tourist's room charge and that followed similar moves by cities in Ireland, Greece, Great Britain - actually, almost every city in Europe now has new tourist taxes!

Which is why I think it's ironic that the European Commission - the world' s most useless and expensive government body - is bitching because the United States has introduced a new surcharge for travellers arriving from Europe.

The U.S. now collects $14 from Europeans as well as Australians, New Zealanders, Koreans and Japanese upon arrival - Canadians, so far, have been spared the expense.

Japan tourism recovering fast

Japan will soon be celebrating
cherry blossom season.

After spending most of the year reporting bad news about Japan, I finally have some good news to share - international tourists are returning to the land of cherry blossoms faster than anyone expected.

While scanning a World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) report that landed on my desk today, I noticed figures that shows tourism to earthquake and tsunami-ravaged Japan has rebounded faster than anyone ever expected.

In a report the WTTC entitled "The Tohoku Pacific Earthquake & Tsunami: Impact on Travel & Tourism - Update December 2011", analysis shows that domestic and outbound tourism in Japan is now back to pre-March 2011 baseline, with inbound well on the way to recovery.

In a separate report I read today, the Japan National Tourism Organization says Japanese domestic and outbound tourism has recovered ‘losses’ to levels consistent with or better than forecasts made prior to the earthquake.

Due to the dominance of domestic tourism relative to inbound tourism, this implies that total Japanese tourism demand and GDP will have recovered by the end of 2011.

Furthermore, airline data from Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways suggest a quicker recovery in demand for long-haul destinations than for travel to other Asian destinations.

However, inbound travel to Japan has yet to fully recover and for 2011 as a whole, foreign visitor arrivals are expected to be around 25 per cent lower than in 2010.

That said, it's good to see tourists are feeling much more confident about returning to one of my favourite places in the world.

Airline to sell Mini cars onboard

Latvia's airBaltic to sell Mini Coopers on board.

Airline passengers who fret if the rental car they've reserved online will be waiting when they land have no worries if they fly airBaltic.

Latvia's national carrier announced this week it's now selling cars on board - custom designed Mini Coopers, to be exact. 

This takes on board duty-free shopping to new heights, folks!

And, no, this is no joke.

The airline's CEO, Martin Gauss, said in a statement: “airBaltic is the world’s first airline to start selling cars on board. Naturally, we still believe that flying is smarter than driving whenever possible, and that is why we will offer the airBaltic Mini in a stylish aircraft livery, chosen by the most active of our 60 000-plus Facebook fans.”

This is how the car buying in the sky works: Passengers wishing to purchase the car, pay the equivalent of $60 CDN. to the airBaltic flight attendant and receive a voucher. After landing, the passenger visits www.airbalticshop.com and completes the purchase. Then he or she will receive a call from an airBaltic representative and be invited to see the real car, take a test drive, and then choose payment or leasing options.

The Mini Cooper R56 is valued at about $33,000 CDN and comes with a 1.6-litre, 120hp engine and an automatic transmission. The car will be available for purchase aboard all airBaltic flights from December 16, 2011 until January 15, 2012. See full specifications at http://www.airbalticshop.com/en/airbalticmini

In the past, the airBaltic was the first airline in the world to sell such items as shows and roses in flight.

Young people back Baldwin: Poll

I've been bombarded with lots of comments re. my blog last week in support of Alec Baldwin's refusal to turn off his cell phone while on a parked plane, which eventually led to his removal from that plane by the "airline Nazis" employed by bankrupt American Airlines.

A majority of the comments were in support of my position that the entire "turn off all electronics or the pilot won't be able to talk to the tower" lecture we get aboard flights is total nonsense and the pilots are probably on their cell phones arranging a tee time in the next city as they taxi.

Well, it turns out a lot of young people think the same as me.

According to the Atlanta-based polling firm Poll Position, which conducted a phone survey right after the Baldwin incident, 70 per cent of people between the ages of 18-29 said "yes" when asked "Do you think passengers on a plane should be able to play electronic games with others while on the runway awaiting takeoff?"

On the opposite side, 56 per cent of Americans 65 and over agreed with the airlines and said passengers should not be allowed to play games on cell phones or other electronic devices while awaiting takeoff. What the poll did not show is that probably 90 per cent of that 56 per cent number wouldn't know how to play a game on their cell phone.

For his part, Baldwin had some fun with the incident. On Saturday Night Live this past week, Baldwin, dressed as a pilot, apologized to himself.

Don't we all wish airline employees had a sense of humor like this?

See a breakdown of the full Poll Position survey at http://media.pollposition.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/Poll-Position-Crosstabs-Electronic-games-on-plane.pdf.

Ryanair gouging the public again

Ryanair, maybe the worst airline in the world when it comes to gouging passengers, will start charging customers $160 per check in bag starting next summer, according to British media reports.

That would be the highest baggage fees in the world and you know if people pay it, other airlines will soon up their fees.

So, let me get this right - Ryanair charges $10 for a flight from London to Paris but with bag fees and taxes the fare quickly jumps to well over $300 - about what British Airways charges its customers.

During the low season, from October to May, Ryanair says the cost of the first bag will go up from $50 to about $95 and in the summer it will rise to $160. A second checked bag will cost you as much as $215.

The airline, which also plans to remove bathrooms and give passengers a plastic bag just in case, says they are introducing the new fares to discourage people from bringing too much luggage.

If this latest stunt by the world's worst airline doesn't discourage people from flying it, well then, the Irish and Brits who keep it in the air deserve what they get.

American Airlines is out of touch

The problems at American Airlines just keep piling up.

After declaring bankruptcy last week and starting this week by tossing actor Alec Baldwin off a flight, the troubled carrier closed the week by losing four of its top executives, including CEO Gerald Arpey.

The executive defections came after all four, and especially Arpey, disagreed with the airline board's decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - a ploy used by its competitors to strip airline employees of negotiated contract deals, claw back or eliminate pension plans and deny suppliers of money owed.

I'm not sure whose dummer, banks who lend money to airlines or ones who lend money to European countries. The result is always the same - bankruptcy.

Restructuring the airline will be made harder because of the executive revolt but you can bet AA will find other cutthroat execs who will find ways to screw employees and creditors.

AA is not the first airline and won't be the last to misuse Chapter 11 for its own  advantage - think Wall St. greed here folks - but one wonders why the U.S. government, which touts standing up for the middle class, doesn't stop this nonsense which always results in higher costs to the middle class flyer.

Oh, but of course, the U.S. government's is also bankrupt - of money and integrity!

Baldwin right to challenge air Nazis

Sorry Superman, but I have a new hero - Alec Baldwin.

The grumpy old man of Hollywood took on the "airline Nazis" (a.k.a. flight attendants) today and got tossed off a bankrupt American Airlines flight in Los Angeles for doing so. (Getting kicked off an AA flight is the good news - that way you never have to experience the airline's incompetent service and the flight attendants' arrogance; the main reasons why this pathetic carrier is now on the scrap heap of a once dignified industry).



Back on board today's flight with Baldwin: The star of 30 Rock and countless Hollywood flicks, Baldwin, the one actor every common man like me can connect with, got into a verbal sparring match with flight attendants after refusing to turn off his cell phone - he was apparently playing a word game at the time but the aircraft was still parked at the gate.



The always gruff Baldwin apparently told the attendants to take a hike and continued playing his game. According to a statement released later in the day by the bankrupt airline, they are accusing the actor of being "extremely rude to the crew" (good, maybe now they now how it feels) and says he called them "inappropriate names" and used "offensive language." (Who among us has not wanted to yell at a rude flight attendant?)

Thank you Alec for bringing this whole "please turn off your cell phones and electronic devices" nonsense to the forefront. We all know now that electronic devices like cellphones and computers do not interfere with communications between pilot and tower during takeoff and landing - just ask any industry expert of you don't believe. If that was the case, then satellite transmissions that feed on board entertainment systems (which are on during takeoff and landing) would have the same effect. Ditto for online feeds that are now provided to many planes.

Oh, I forgot, the airlines charge to use those electronic services so that makes it okay.

What a lot nonsense and good for Baldwin for standing up to the "airline Nazis." 

Of course, the attendants on AA flights are so old, which Baldwin pointed out in his Twitter comment after being tossed off, maybe they no longer have to eyesight to see the latest data on electronic devices. I swear, the last AA flight I took, I was sure two of the grossly overweight attendants would reach retirement age before we landed.

Please, dear God, let American Airlines go out of business!

2012 Games costs out of control



Am I the only person on the planet who is outraged by the news this week out of London that security costs for the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in the British capital will now reach $1.6 billion U.S.?

With this new extra amount being committed to security, the total budget for the Games will now surpass $15 billion U.S. - and counting- according to British officials.

Have we all gone mad?

Wasn't this the same Britain where people were rioting in the streets a few months ago because they could not find jobs?

How many jobs would $15 billion create, anyway?

When will people start rioting in the streets because of this wasteful spending by governments?

Less we forget, the 2004 Athens Summer Games started Greece on the road to bankruptcy, and Montreal just recently paid off its Olympic debt - from 1976.

We're all overcome with national pride when our countries are "awarded" Olympic Games and we spend like drunken sailors trying to make our Olympics better than the last. However, the financial hangover that always accompanies these sporting orgies can no longer be tolerated.

Politicians should not be allowed to cut schemes aimed at job creation or social programs - like the British government has been doing for the past few years - yet be allowed to spend wildly on a two-week party that in the end benefits no one except those at the top of the Olympic corruption heap.

 Stop the insanity!

Auckland is indeed a 'Quality' city

Beautiful Auckland is indeed a quality city.

Auckland, a city I want so much to visit, is today celebrating being named the "Most Livable City in the Southern Hemisphere" in the prestigious Mercer 2011 Quality of Living Survey, which is conducted annually.

The New Zealand metropolis now ranks third worldwide in this Quality of Living category, right behind Vienna and Zurich, Switzerland, respectively.

The only other Southern Hemisphere city to come close to Auckland in the survey was Australia's Sydney, which placed 11th in the survey.

The news was welcomed by Gregg Anderson, GM North America, for Tourism New Zealand.

“Auckland is a city of great diversity,” says Anderson. “As the gateway to New Zealand for American and Canadians, it’s also a great place for visitors to explore when they first get to New Zealand.”

Vancouver placed 5th on the Mercer list, which evaluated 221 cities worldwide. Toronto ranked 15th.