As a big fan of clear-across-the-continent travel – I’ve crossed Russia on the Trans-Siberian from Vladivostok and up to St Petersburg, then wandered right across Europe – I’ve been following the story of a tunnel under the Bering Strait with a lot of interest.
If you haven’t heard about it, rumours started about a year ago that Russia was considering building the world’s longest tunnel under the Bering Strait to join up Russia with Alaska.
While the driving force behind the idea was to sell oil, natural gas and electricity to the United States, the tunnel would also have a high-speed train and a highway, so we could theoretically take our car from London all the way to New York – the long way!
The idea hit the headlines again recently when Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought a huge drill but it turned out he’s planning to use it to clean up the city of Sochi on the Black Sea, where the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held. So the idea is still out there, but there’s no action yet.
My very first reaction – from a traveller’s point of view, of course - was that it sounded like a great idea. Imagine being able to drive all the way to the US! Since we’ve talked about the idea of cheap flights dying out within the next decade, I started to wonder if we all might return to driving holidays, especially if we can drive all the way to another continent.
My environmental know-how isn’t enough to figure out if the total energy consumption would be less – considering not just the fuel but also the time it would take and accommodation needed along the way – but at least for a bit of an adventure, it might be a good thing. What do you think? Would you be inclined to take more driving holidays if budget airlines stop providing you with cheap flights?
There are definite advantages to having your car with you at your holiday destination, but the time involved could put an end to a lot of the weekend breaks that have become popular. So where’s the future - drive or fly?
Maybe US airlines Skybus, ATA and Aloha read my blog post on cheap flights being extinct by 2012, panicked and went bankrupt. Joking aside, it’s a worrying trend that hopefully won’t continue over here in Europe, not because we’ll loose our cheap flights, but because of the impact it will have on independent travellers.
There is a misconception that if you book directly with an airline then you are automatically covered if it goes bust, but it might be worrying for independent travellers to learn that you are only covered if you book by credit card and if the money is taken inside the UK.
It’s advisable to take out adequate travel insurance, either single trip or annual as soon as you have booked your flight and accommodation. Check the small print carefully as some policies may not pay out for everything you would expect them to.
Finally..
If you are booking through a travel agency rather than an airline, check that the company has the ATOL symbol on it’s website. Remember that whilst booking through an ATOL member will cover you if the airline goes bust, it won’t guarantee you an alternative flight.
Useful links:
Financial Protection for Air Holidays
International Airline Passengers Association
European Low-fare Airlines Association
European Airlines Association
European Commission: Transport
As usual if you have any questions or issues with booking flights please leave them in the comments.
Update: News that Oasis Hong Kong Airlines have gone into liquidation
I was impressed when searching on ebookers for a hotel for my trip to Sardinia. There was a note on one hotel listing informing me that the hotel is popular with Italian students during the high season, so the hotel isn’t recommended to those who are looking for a peaceful relaxing holiday.
That was the exception though when looking on other holiday and hotel booking websites – very few provided information on building work, if the hotel was located up an hill, no mention what type of clientele usually visit the hotel.
Worse still was that there was very little guidance to help those with a disability, i.e. is the hotel wheelchair friendly. Some of the sites had awful photographs of the hotel, a line of description and one of them horrible mapquest maps, which are unreadable.
I realise companies can only provide the information received from the hotel, but the quality needs be improved in my opinion. One of my biggest gripes about online, and to some extent brochures is the lack of photos or old photos which misguide you in thinking that the hotel is nicer than it really is.
Have you stayed in a hotel that’s looked different than that described on the website or brochure?
One question I get asked a lot is what are the advantages of booking a premium economy seat and my reply is that it depends on which airline you are flying with. All of the airlines offering premium economy give you extra leg room, and more reclining space but some offer a number of extra benefits.
Virgin give you a pre-flight drink, dedicated boarding and luggage reclaim, compare this with BMI who offer free alcoholic and soft drinks plus advance seat selection at time of booking. Personally, I don’t think that the extra cost is worth the money, but that’s my personal opinion.
Premium economy explained and compared
If you want to travel with a little bit more comfort then its worth paying the extra money that premium economy costs, but I’m quite happy with the leg room, and space I get in flight, I’m quite happy to pay for my drinks and newspaper, and would spend the extra money on a nicer hotel.
It’s all down to personal choice.
Have you flown in a premium economy seat – let readers know your experiences.
In keeping with the theme of online booking experiences, tonight I road tested seven flight comparison websites with the aim of finding the cheapest flight from Manchester direct to New York, for the 17 – 24 September, for 1 passenger, that’s me.
Here are the reviews..
Cheap flight - £397 with Delta airlines
Provider - Cheaptickets.com
Review: For search experience Kayak was my favourite. It has a plain but easy to use interface, and it was the quickest to find flights. I still feel it’s very much US led, and if they were to use more UK based providers then in my opinion it would be the best all-round flight comparison site.
Cheap flight - £387 with Delta airlines
Provider - Major Travel
Review: This site seemed to have a lot more choice than Kayak, and it was interesting to see that the same flight was £10 cheaper through the UK-based Major travel. The downside for me though was the lack of search filters, and it was a little slower than it’s competitors.
Cheap flight - £433 with British Airways
Provider – British Airways
Review: Not the nicest looking of comparison sites, but it was one of the easiest to search. The downside for me was the lack of choice of only two airlines and no providers like the other comparison websites, which is where you tend to save the most money.
Cheap flight - Nothing found
Provider – N/A
Review: Oh noo, I had initial problems when using the calendar to choose my travel dates on the Firefox browser, then when I received the search results I had to click on a provider, which took ages to search and then brought no results back.
Cheap flight - £400 with Delta Airlines
Provider – Expedia
Review: I felt like I had been sent back to the 1990s, the design is dreadful, and the search is pretty useless if I have to click a link for each provider to find the prices. I might as well have gone direct to the provider because this site didn’t save me any time or money.
Cheap flight - £386 with Continental Airlines
Provider - STA Travel
Review: If you have a firm set of dates to travel then the site is not user friendly as you have to click on individual providers to get the prices, but if you are simply looking for the best deals you’ll find them easily. The US version of the site has an improved search, which will hopefully be introduced in the UK soon.
Cheap flight - £394 with Delta
Provider – Ebookers
Review: It’s lacking content for me, and whilst it provided results from providers none of the others covered, the prices were more expensive. I’d like to see airport guides, more overall information on the flights – it’s not a site that I would hang around for long.
Cheap flight - £390 with Continental Airlines
Provider - Opodo
Review: Nice looking site, easy to use search, but could do with some more providers. Results appeared fairly quickly and it comes close to beating Kayak as my favourite flight comparison site, and I will probably use both Kayak and Momondo to compare prices for future flights.
Trivial to some, highly annoying to others, these are the ten things that annoy me about booking online – maybe a few travel companies and airlines reading this blog can explain the reasoning behind some of these annoyances.
Here goes:
• Brain washing me into booking a hotel or car hire when I just want a flight ticket
• Default ticked boxes for travel insurance
• Letting me search for a period when the airline doesn’t bloody fly there
• Entering a search criteria to go back and find it’s disappeared
• Having to search ABTA, ATOL etc rather than the logo clicking through to the members page
• Links through to late deals from £100 which really cost £300
• Not being able to search for a holiday for one person
• Not asking if any of the party are disabled
• Slow websites, flashing banners, and no help or support pages
• Holiday search switched off after midnight
Travel companies like First Choice, Teletext Holidays and Cheapflights visit this blog to read travel consumer experiences so this is another opportunity for you to have your say about what needs to be improved to enable you to have a positive experience when booking your holiday online.
Update:
Share your online holiday booking experiences by writing a blog post and linking to this post.
I don’t drive, so I have never hired a car for my holiday, but during lunch I was chatting to a work colleague who hired a car to get him and his family around Florida. This is a great tip, and I wonder how many of you have thought about doing this.
On returning the car to the hire company, it was mentioned that they would have to charge him a damages payment for the scratches down the drivers door – I’m not sure how much he was asked to pay but it wasn’t a few dollars.
Thankfully, he had taken photographs of the hire car prior to driving away, and made sure the date and time was correctly set on his digital camera when the pictures were taken. He showed the camera to the manager which clearly showed the scratch marks and the date. He didn’t have to pay for the damages.
Have you any tips or advice for anyone hiring a car for their holiday?
When you travel, it’s easy to get out of healthy routines that you usually manage to follow at home. Don’t get me wrong, you should enjoy yourself on holiday, but there are a few things you can do to try and minimise the damage to your waistline or your general fitness.
Don’t make holidays an excuse to eat junk
When you’re in a foreign country it’s easy to walk into the nearest fast food franchise just because you know what you’ll find and how to order it. Been there, done that. But there are two reasons not to – first, because it’s not that healthy, and second, it’s much more exciting to check out the local cuisine.
Get some exercise while seeing the sights
If you’re a runner, packing your jogging shoes and get up early a few mornings of your trip. Head out into the dawn on a job and you’ll see the city waking up or the animals strolling through the countryside. You’ll keep fit and see a new side of your destination.
Alternatively, skip a bus or train during the day and walk to your next sightseeing destination instead. Not only will it be good for you, at a walking pace you’re also more likely to discover some special restaurant, an interesting souvenir shop or a beautiful church or park you would have missed seeing from the underground.
For swimmers, pack your bathing costume not only for the hotel pool but for any interesting spa or hot spring that might show up.
Explore the markets for fresh fruit and veg
Down in southern Europe you’re likely to get a big variety of fresh fruit that somehow tastes better when you’re buying it in the country of origin. Or check out the local favourite vegetables in season.
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