Discount Airfares Review

If the internet has made one big change for the better, it is that commerce has become a lot more competitive than it was 15 or 20 years ago.

For one, anybody who knows what they’re doing can start up their own business online, and without the need to be in the same neighborhood as their customers, people are free to shop around and find the absolute best deals available.

This pays off even more because, now that every vendor can sell to every customer, pricing becomes naturally more competitive. If you don’t like the price a used book is selling for on Amazon, there’s always eBay. When companies know that you can turn around and go to the next site over, they’re a lot more willing to give you a great deal.

One of the best side effects of this new economic model is that customers have so many more options open to them now. The prices people are paying on airfare today, taking inflation into account and everything, are generally going to be lower than they were several years ago, because the online travel agencies know that they’re not just competing with the guy across town. They are competing with every travel agent out there. This means that people who would never dream of a trip to Europe ten years ago may easily imagine themselves heading to Rome today.

But even if you could book an international flight for cheap right now, you could book it for even cheaper if you take a few tips into account.

1. Always Book Well In Advance
This is the Golden Rule, the One Commandment of booking an international flight. This rule is ONLY to be broken in the event of an emergency. One benefit of booking in advance is that you can browse several different dates and see which one would be the cheapest. The other is that tickets are just plain always going to be cheaper the further in advance you buy them.

2. Avoid the Big Travel Seasons
You’re quite a bit more likely to get a great deal if you fly after the holidays, or a bit before or after summer. It’s a simple rule of supply and demand. Airlines know they can charge more in the summer and around the holidays, because that’s when everyone is demanding tickets. Around the slower seasons, they lower the prices to sell more tickets.

3. Look for All Inclusive Packages
If you can book a flight and a hotel room in the same package, you just might end up spending less than you would buying them both separately.

4. Pack a Lunch
If you want to get the lowest price available, you’re probably going to have to settle for a flight with a lot of layovers, and some of those layovers can be pretty trying. This means you’re going to spend a lot of time in airports with nothing to do. You’re kind of trapped when you’re there, so unless you want to pay whatever the airport restaurants and shops are charging, it’s a good idea to keeps some non-perishable food in your luggage, as well as something to do to keep you from going nuts.

5. Check for Online Coupons and Discounts
Online travel sites and coupon sites offer frequent international flight deals. Kayak.com is a great travel site to save you time and money as it allows you to search more than 140 different sites at once. Vayama.com is a site that’s dedicated to international travel and they offer occasional coupon codes, so check this site out before you book, as well.

Cats Sing 'Luton Airport'

Ryanair boldly predicted that the recession could lead to just four European airlines surviving. Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has said that as many as five to six European airlines could go bankrupt between now and Christmas.

He went on to forecast that only British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France and Ryanair would survive. He said that Europe needed a recession to rid the industry of loss-making airlines.

The deepening recession is encouraging many Britons to stay at home and take their holidays in the UK. Bookings for UK breaks are higher than they were in 2008 as the price of overseas holidays continues to soar.

One South East UK airport that appears to be bucking the trend in falling passenger figures is Luton. The airport attracted a record 10.2 million passengers in 2008 which is 2.5% up on 2007.

Thirteen new flights were launched from Luton airport during 2008 taking people to popular destinations in France, Italy, Poland and Romania. The airport was also the first to launch low cost flights to the Ukraine. Luton airport marketing director Natalie Raper said that ‘The figures show a continuing trend for travellers to choose London Luton Airport in the highly competitive South East UK market.’

For this year, 2009, Luton airport have already announced more new flights to Lvov in the Ukraine, Prague and Jersey. The airport’s continued focus on low cost flights is likely to support its continued out performance of its London rivals. The most popular destinations during 2007 included Edinburgh, Malaga, Glasgow, Warsaw and Belfast.

London Luton Airport was officially opened on 16th July 1938 as ‘Luton Municipal Airport’. The airport was originally, and still is, owned by Luton Borough Council. The airport is a significant local employer with over 500 people directly employed and another 8,000 indirectly. The airport provides everything that today’s demanding air travellers require. Luton airport parking facilities are particularly good with no less than five operators providing secure on-airport and off-airport parking.

Hamdi Yazici, a Turkish 41 year old, has been sentenced to 4 months in prison after he walked to the front of a plane with a bag while chanting 'Allah'.

The Turkish plane was flying from Istanbul to Stansted Airport when the man, who was drunk, got up and walked to the front of the plane chanting 'Allah'. In court, the judge was told how it took 6 members of flight staff to restrain the man and then hold him down until the plane could land and the police arrived.

Laura Harris, the judge in court said: “I am quite sure it was extremely distressing and alarming for those passengers.

“They didn’t know what you were planning to do when you started to walk down to the front. For all they knew you could have been a very dangerous man.”

The man admitted that he was drunk on the plane and he has now been sentenced to 4 months in prison.

So, this got me thinking, what are the top 10 things you shouldn't say on a plane? After some Googling and some chuckling, here is my top 10 list of things you shouldn’t say on a plane:

1. It’s not like I have a bomb.
2. Allah.
3. Hi Jack! (ensure you say ‘Hello Jack’ if you’re travelling with jack)
4. Is it time yet? (repeatedly)
5. That’s not my bag beeping, it’s me
6. You may not want to drop my bag
7. Will Osama be proud of me?
8. Explode
9. 3…2…1…boom
10. Go..GO..Go!! (while yelling)

So, that’s my top ten list of things not to say on a plane, that Turkish guy should have done some Googling to know he shouldn’t have said that. Just ensure you don't uetter any of those words next time you fly, it could land you in some trouble.

For a great service and price, visit Gosimply.com for Stansted Airport Parking.

Airport car parking is a funny beast; we all take car parking for granted, but is this wise when you are travelling to an airport on your way to a flight departure. If you are not a regular visitor to the airport it may take you time to find an airport. I nearly had the problem of missing a flight at Stansted Airport once simply because I had not pre-booked my airport parking.

The airport driver was given a disciplinary warning for taking a wheelchair passenger. Why you may ask was that? If I had waited the 25 minutes for the special transport I would have missed my flight, knowing this the airport bus driver allowed me onto his vehicle.

When reaching the terminal one of his superiors saw me disembarking from the bus and issued the driver a warning. Who told me? It was on my return to the airport where time was not a problem that I arranged special transport the driver who took me to the car park informed me of the warning received.

Incredible to believe an airport worker would receive a warning for helping someone in a wheelchair catch a flight. That was a lesson learnt, and to be fair an expensive lesson, as the car parking for two days was not cheap I can tell you.

That was back in 2002; since then airport parking has become a lot easier to organise and book via the web. You can save money with airport car parking costs through dedicated booking websites through pre-booking.

GoSimply is a great site for disabled travelers as it offers information on what car parks are disabled friendly. Within the car park details listed on the site, I can clearly see if the car park offers disabled access, which not all don’t. The other excellent feature on the GoSimply site is the amount of reviews from other travellers

Booking airport parking in advance makes sense for the following reasons:

• It gives peace of mind
• You can reduce costs
• You can park closer to the airport
• Take the worry out of finding a suitable parking
• Major car parks are monitored 24/7

My subsequent travels to Stansted airport have all resulted in me pre-booking my Stansted Airport Parking in advance. as all disabled travellers should.

Why leave finding a suitable car park at an airport to chance! If you are delayed by traffic whilst travelling to an airport, the last thing you want is to be scurrying about looking for a suitable car park and then finding a 20 minute transfer time to the terminal will make you late for your flight.

After being delayed for 5 hours recently at Sydney Airport, it made me wonder, what is the most delayed airport in the world and what is the most punctual.

All data used to build the list below is from Flightstats 2008 data.com site which records flight information from every airport around the world.

Most delayed departures airports

1. Beijing Capital International, Beijing, China - percentage of on-time departures: 47.86%
2. Manchester Airport, Manchester, UK - percentage of on-time departures: 49.11%
3. Venice Marco Polo Airport, Venice, Italy - percentage of on-time departures: 53.59%
4. Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, Nice, France - percentage of on-time departures: 56.31%
5. Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino, Rome, Italy - percentage of on-time departures; 57.83%

So currently, it doesn’t look very good for Italy, having two of it’s airports in the most delayed list.

Most punctual airports

1. Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Japan - punctual percentage: 90.0%

Being the worlds fourth largest airport in the world and handling mainly domestic flights, Haneda holds the record for on-time departures at 93.3%, the airports on-time arrivals were 87% in 2007, giving it a total mark of 90.0%

2. New Tokyo International Airport, Narita, Japan - punctual percentage: 84.2%

This airport is the Haneda’s sister airport and was built to manage most of the international flights in and out of Japan. It has an on-time arrivals score of 82% and an on-time departures rate of 86% giving it an overall grade of 84.2%

3. Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei - punctual percentage: 80.3%

Taipei’s airport opened it’s second terminal in 2000 allowing it to handle 22 million customers in 2006. Taoyuan has an on-time depature rate of 82% and an on-time arrivals score of 78% giving it an overall total of 80.3%, leaving it almost tied with Sydney airport.

4. Kingsford Smith International Airport, Sydney, Austrailia - punctual percentage: 80.1%

Handling over 30 million passengers in 2006, the Kingsford Smith airport is the biggest and oldest airport in all of Australia, and this was where I had my 5 hour delay. It's on-time departure rates are very similar to it's on-time arrivals score. With a departure percent of 79.3% and an on-time rate of 81% giving it an overall total of 80.1%, making it similar to Taoyuan.

5. Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong - punctual percentage: 79.7%

This airport is the busiest in Asia and was voted airport of the year in 2007 by UK company Skytrax. it has on-time departure rates of 81.1% and an on-time arrivals score of 79.3%, giving it a overall score of 79.7%

It looks like Tokyo airports take the crown for most punctual airports, seeing as they pinched the top 2 spots, but overall, it looks like if you want a delay free holiday, you will have to visit Asia.

For a great price and even better service on airport parking, visit Gosimply.com for Stansted Airport Parking.

This year many thousands of people are going to be jetting off to far flung corners of the globe to lie on a tropical beach and soak up the sun, to trek through some of the most beautiful of the world’s wilderness areas, to witness some of the wonders of our planet or to simply explore new cultures and countries. And, unfortunately, tens of thousands of us are also going to discover that the first one or two days of our holiday are taken up with trying to recover from jet lag.

However does jet lag have to be an unavoidable part of modern long-haul travel?

The answer to this particular is very much dependent upon where you are flying to. For instance, if you begin your journey in Sydney, Australia and fly to Sapporo, Japan then you will not experience any jet lag at all because, despite the fact that you are traveling thousands of miles, your flight takes you due north so that both your starting point and destination are in the same time zone. If however you travel from say Brisbane to London, England then you will be traveling east to west across ten time zones and will definitely experience jet lag.

Jet lag is really nothing more than the result of your body clock being out of synchronization with local time and, while your internal body clock will naturally adjust itself to match the local time, any adjustment takes a little time.

If you fly over only two or three time zones then the time difference experienced will be small and you will probably not notice it greatly and your body clock will adjust reasonably quickly. However, if you travel across four or more time zones then the time difference will be noticeable and your internal clock will need more and more time to adjust as you fly across more and more time zones.

So, in our previous example of traveling from Australia to London your body clock will take a few days to adjust and, in the meantime, you are likely to find yourself suffering from insomnia, finding it hard to fall asleep at night and to get up in the morning, feeling tired during the day, possibly experiencing difficulty in eating with stomach upsets, nausea, a feeling of dehydration, a headache, and a great deal more.

So what can you do to counter this?

There are various ‘traditional’ jet lag remedies including jet lag diets, sleeping pills, over-the-counter medicines, melatonin and much more and each of these has both its enthusiasts and critics, but are these ‘traditional’ remedies the answer?

In simple terms the answer to this question is no. These ‘traditional’ jet lag remedies are not effective and, in some cases, can actually make your jet lag worse.

Dealing with jet lag is not a question of using formulas and pills, but requires you to devise a plan focusing on your specific travel plans and lifestyle that allows you to assist your body’s natural adjustment of its own internal body clock. This involves taking a number of steps in preparation for your departure, as well as en-route and at your destination. In some instances these steps are going to be enough for you to avoid jet lag altogether and, in other cases, they will certainly reduce the effects of jet lag greatly.

Continental 757 Takes off from Bristol Airport

Although UK’s Bristol Airport provides direct flights to only two US destinations many travellers are using the extensive Continental Airlines network to reach final destinations within the United States and beyond.

The top five destinations for business travellers from Bristol airport during 2008 were: Houston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Cleveland.

Leisure passengers were mainly headed towards Orlando, Las Vegas, Boston, San Francisco and Tampa during the same period.

Continental airlines has a long and illustrious history extending back over 70 years after having been formed, in 1934, by Walter T.Varney and Louis Mueller. In 1936 40% of the company was sold to Robert Six who went on to head the company for 40 years. It was Robert Six who, in 1937, changed the company name to Continental Airlines and moved the company headquarters from El Paso to Denver in the same year.

During the war years Continental Airlines were responsible for the maintenance of B-17 flying fortresses and B-29 super fortresses. Their pacific experience led to the formation of Air Micronesia providing flights to and from destinations including Japan and Honolulu. During the 1970s Continental airline’s list of destinations increased significantly including the introduction of new routes from Los Angeles to New Zealand and Australia. Continental Airlines’ list of destination airports extends way beyond North America and includes over 500 airports worldwide.

The Continental Airlines service flying between Bristol and New York has made it easy for travellers to book onward flights. Around 50% of the travellers flying from Bristol have used the Continental airlines network to reach their final destinations after picking up a connecting flight in New York. Since its introduction in May 2005 the New York service has carried over 250,000 passengers.

The Continental airlines network makes planning and booking a business or pleasure trip completely hassle free. And the convenience of starting out from Bristol is, for many travellers, an added bonus.

For some great savings always book your Bristol airport parking space in advance. And why not take advantage of one of the many excellent Bristol airport hotels?

Old files have recently been released by the Ministry of Defense about possible UFO sightings, and one of them contains information regarding Stansted Airport.

Stansted Airport had 7 members of public call the airport on June 30th 1990 after they saw a strange object above the airport at around 2.40am.

One person that did see the object was a member of the RAF while fishing with his uncle, why they were fishing at 2.40am is unknown to me, but he described the object as having “an oblong front, lit up with searchlights, flat around the back with two red lights to the rear”, he also said that it had “no engine noise” even though he said that it could have been no more than 200 yards from him.

When the man was questioned about what happened, he said it was “just sitting there over the top of me, no noise. It sat about 10 minutes, the lights went out and then it disappeared.”, also, “It didn’t shoot off - it just disappeared”.

This member of the RAF was one of the seven who called Stansted Airport that night, and when he called to see if there had been any strange aircraft activity, he was told that 6 people had already called that night about the same incident.

The report of the sighting was submitted to the Civil Aviation Authory at Gatwick Airport but no further action was taken.

This one just one of the files that the Ministry of Defense had released containing UFO sightings between 1986 and 1992. However, the chairman of British UFO Research Association, Robert Rosamond, has said that he doesn’t believe that any of the files released actually contain any sitings, he said that every one of them could be explained: “Some are everyday like aircraft, military or civilian, or astronomical phenomena like shooting stars,”.

So, are we alone in the universe? or is it just a military aircraft.

For great service and cheap prices on airport parking, visit Gosimply for Stansted Airport Parking.

Old files have recently been released by the Ministry of Defense about possible UFO sightings, and one of them contains information regarding Stansted Airport.

Stansted Airport had seven people contact them on June 30th 1990 after they saw a strange oblong object floating in the sky at around 2.40am.

One person that did see the object was a man from the RAF and his uncle while they were fishing, why they were fishing at 2.40am is unknown to me, but he discribed the object as having “an oblong front, lit up with searchlights, flat around the back with two red lights to the rear”, he also said that it had “no engine noise” even though he said that it could have been no more than 200 yards from him.

The man also said when questioned by police about the object that is was “just sitting there over the top of me, no noise. It sat about 10 minutes, the lights went out and then it disappeared.”, also, “It didn’t shoot off - it just disappeared”.

This member of the RAF was one of the seven who called Stansted Airport that night, and when he called to see if there had been any strange aircraft activity, he was told that 6 people had already called that night about the same incident.

The report of the siting was submitted to the Civil Aviation Authority at Gatwick Airport, but there was no further action taken.

This one just one of the files that the Ministry of Defense had released containing UFO sightings between 1986 and 1992. However, the chairman of British UFO Research Association, Robert Rosamond, has said that he doesn’t believe that any of the files released actually contain any sitings, he said that every one of them could be explained: “Some are everyday like aircraft, military or civilian, or astronomical phenomena like shooting stars,”.

So, are we not alone in the universe or is it just a shooting star or secret military aircraft, I’ll go with option B over A.

For great service and cheap prices on airport parking, visit Gosimply for Stanstead Airport Parking.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Air Travel

As the decades have passed air travel has continually grown in popularity.  This increase in popularity has been due to the convenience and safety one could enjoy by traveling by air.  The following are some of the positive and negative factors involving air travel.

Disadvantage: Airplanes Cause Pollution.

Pollution is the biggest problem caused by air travel.  Airplanes are responsible for sending greenhouse gases into our atmosphere and these gases contribute for things like global warming.  This is considered as a serious drawback by people who are keen to limit the effect of global warming on the universe.  In order to overcome this problem many airlines nowadays make efforts to become more environmental friendly. This can include them retrofitting their airplanes with a device called a winglet which improves fuel efficiency.  In addition, many airlines have started upgrading their fleet of aero planes to modern fuel efficient aircraft by spending millions of dollars.

Disadvantage: High Cost

High cost of travel makes many people avoid traveling by air. You may be able to travel by car to many destinations at a very cheap price as compared to traveling by flight. One way of solving the high cost air travel problem is to take advantage of discount
airline travel.  The main deciding factor for flying or driving is the type of deal you can get for airfare.

Disadvantage: Fear of Flying

Many people avoid flying for specific reasons. If anyone has travelled in a flight which has hit an air pocket you will see that they have gone through a lot of rough weather due to turbulence and this can be rather terrifying. 

Advantage: Speed of Travel

One of the major advantages in air travel is that it is able to take you to any of the places where airports are available at a much faster rate than any other forms of transportation.  Flying between two destinations in United States which are connected by air takes a few hours whereas going by car between these destinations might take a number of days. The savings obtained in this mode of air travel gives you an opportunity to enjoy your vacation for a longer period.

Advantage: Easy to Travel Long Distances

It is possible to cover long distances by flight in a reasonably short time whereas it is difficult to cover far off destinations by other modes of transportation. We can pretty much travel to any destination around the globe by air.  Flying to far off destinations takes longer duration; however they are still shorter than the time taken if you had to rely on alternative modes of transportation.

Advantage:  Safety

When you consider various modes of travel, you will find that travel by air is the safest. Every year you will find a lot of fatal accidents occur because of car travel. It is also not uncommon to read about train derailments as well.  As regards to air travel related accidents you will find that the frequency of occurrences is relatively minimal. For many people safety is the prime consideration for choosing air travel as compared to other form of transportation.

Choosing air travel is a personal decision, based on the factors discussed above along with a multitude factors not discussed here.  For most travelers safety, speed of travel and cost are the over riding factors.  As long as cost remains affordable air travel will continue to grow in popularity.