Holiday News and Vacation News
Regularly updated news on the latest developments in the world of travel. Have your say about the news items that most affect you in the Member's Area
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ABTA no longer to protect British holidaymakers?
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ABTA (The Association of British Travel Agents) have been paying out around £3 million each year in compensation to holidaymakers who have booked holidays with fraudulent ABTA registered Travel Agents.
This is where a Travel Agent takes your money but does not actually make your booking with the relevant airline, tour operator, hotel etc. There is often no way of knowing this has happened until you arrive at the check-in desk, only to be told that there are no tickets in your name.
ABTA say they cannot afford to continue paying out compensation at this level and have announced that they will no longer do so. As nobody can really tell in advance which Travel Agent is likely to act fraudulently this leaves British holidaymakers extremely vulnerable. Simply looking for an ABTA logo when booking a holiday may no longer be much of a guarantee. Thousands are likely to be in for a huge disappointment over the coming years unless they ...more
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UK Airport Taxes Doubled
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The chancellor, Gordon Brown, has double the rate of UK air tax from £5 to £10 for ‘cattle class’ passengers on domestic and short-haul European flights. For business class and first class passengers on these flights the tax will double from £10 to £20.
The tax on long-haul flights will double from £20 to £40 for passengers travelling in economy seats and from £40 to £80 for everyone else.
All these rises come into force on 1st February 2007 and are per person. This means that an average family with 2.4 children travelling economy class to a destination outside the European Union will face having £160 added to the cost of their holiday. (Forgetting the odd .4 of a child of course!).
Gordon Brown has justified this 100% tax rise as raising funds to cover the cost of fighting the effect air travel has on the environment (although the real level of the impact on the environment caused by aircraft has been hotly disputed by the airline industry – see the item Airlines Slated for Damaging the Environment).
With the fast rising cost of fuel now that this natural resource is running out it is easy to understand the airline industry as a whole being up in arms about yet another financial burden. However one would imagine that doing anything to combat the destruction of our environment would be welcomed with open arms by the ‘Green’ movement, but they have condemned this move just as strongly as the airlines.
Green groups have said ...more
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Some Good News for British Holidaymakers? (For a change!)
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A price war is predicted for the 2007 season, leading to cheaper holidays for British holidaymakers!
Although before we celebrate too much, a cautionary note. Price wars often lead to the losers going bust – or even winners who manage to attract clients but slash their prices too much in order to do it. See the article on reduced ABTA protection.
According to the 2007 annual travel industry report by professor Allen Beaver the Industry had forecast a drop of 5% on 2006 figures, but despite this tour operators have actually increased capacity for 2007. If predictions are correct the overcapacity is substantial and will result in quite a ruthless price war.
OK, you’ve heard this before. It is all over the Internet, but what does it actually mean? What is capacity anyway?
While the details vary enormously, the basic idea is always the same. A tour operator has to put together a holiday package before it can appear in their brochure or be advertised online (or both). Being a Tour Operator can be a risky business, as everything ...more
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Unsatisfactory outcome to talks between European Union and the USA?
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Back in 2006 the European Court of Justice ruled the passenger data requirement by the USA authorities to be illegal. 34 items of passenger information were required to be sent to the USA authorities within 15 minutes of an aircraft bound for the USA taking off.
The excuse, as always, is the war against terrorism. The items of data include passenger name (understandable), address (ok, understandable), telephone number (ring, ring… ring, ring… hmmm… no answer. Now I wonder where a passenger on a flight that took off less than 15 minutes ago could be? or, later ring, ring… ring, ring… ah, excuse me… but are you a terrorist? No? Oh that’s OK then. Just thought I’d check.) and credit card information (What?????).
An agreement was finally reached in talks between the USA and the European Union ...more
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Airlines Slated for Damaging the Environment
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The Airline industry have claimed the recent attacks by the UK Environment Minister Ian Pearson to be grossly unfair. From recent comments by government ministers and the subliminal message sent by the doubling of the UK Air tax (supposedly to pay for damage to the environment) anyone could be forgiven for getting the impression that aircraft are solely responsible for global warming.
Following recent ministerial attacks the airlines claim that they are just being used as scapegoats. There are many sectors which contribute far more towards global warming than aircraft do.
The budget airlines seemed to receive more attention in the attacks than usual. The owner of Ryanair claimed ...more
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Thompson leading the way towards more honest holiday pricing?
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Britain’s largest tour operator, Thompson, have been lobbying the Office of Fair Trading for a fairer system of holiday pricing. In particular regarding fuel surcharges which are usually applied at the airport. Coupled with the doubled Air Tax this means that brochure prices can be very short of the mark when it comes to the actual cost of a holiday.
Holidaymakers can get a real shock when the ...more
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Have you come across a news item not included here that you think people should know about? Send your suggestion to the Editor. We will research it and report on it here.
