Subscribe

RSS Feed (xml)

Powered By

Skin Design:
Free Blogger Skins

Powered by Blogger

Friday, January 30, 2009

Boo to Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines, a budget carrier, is drawing fire from the flight attendant's and pilot's unions. The controversy is around some rather raunchy and sexually suggestive ads they are currently running. I'll let you do your own internet search to see for yourself. As you know, sex sells and Spirit Airlines is claiming that their new ads are a hit with the public. At further controversy is that they are making flight attendants wear aprons with a logo for a certain brewing company (Budweiser). This is a way to generate revenue. So after charging a fee for everything they could possibly get, they are now pushing it on to their employees to be walking billboards. Boo to you Spirit Airlines. Poor taste.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

New Visa Requirements for South Africa

If you've ever wanted to travel to the Southern hemisphere of the dark continent you will have new requirements. In this message from South African airways, it spells out the requirements: "As we begin 2009, it is a good time to remind you of the special passport requirements for travel to South Africa to ensure that your clients have a pleasant and uninterrupted travel experience.

All non-South African passport holders are required to have at least one entirely blank (unstamped) visa page in their passport each time they enter South Africa. These pages are in addition to the Endorsement/Amendment pages that are found at the back of the passport. South African government regulations prohibit airlines from boarding passengers without the required blank visa page. SAA is required to enforce these visa requirements and unfortunately, customers not processing the proper documentation will be denied boarding at point of origin."

As of May 1, 2009, South African Airways will start offering daily non-stop service from New York's JFK and Johannesburg.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Airline crashes are a pilot's family's worst nightmare

The US Airways crash into the Hudson River the other day had a happy ending with all 155 lives on board spared. This always brings it close to home that air crews put a lot on the line every time they go up in the air. Now comes the long work of the investigation. I think that geese belong cooked on a Christmas platter and not the engine of an Airbus.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Who said the French were rude?

Bonjour!

There seems to be the perception in America that the French, particularly in Paris, are rude to Americans or just plain rude. We did not find that to be true when we were there at the beginning of the year. Ok-we did have a rather surly waiter when we ate at a restaurant on the Champs Elysee, but that was a stereotype we could live with. We went to Paris after having brushed up on French that I haven't used since high school (that's been a really long time) and many times would ask in French if they spoke English and used French as often as we could. Everyone we encountered-at the airport, at the hotel, in shops, in the train station, at the restaurant-spoke English when we asked if they did. Some were better than others and between their limited English and my limited French we were able to figure it out. Often they volunteered-apparently we must look quite American. Someone also overheard us when we were having difficulties buying tickets for the Metro and volunteered to help us. I think if you show some respect and attempt to use the language of the place you're traveling, people may be more apt to help you. So if you're traveling anywhere soon, take the time to learn a few phrases and hope that you'll find someone that speaks English, which is very likely.

In Greece, where the pilot is a native, the situation is the same. I don't have the same worry there since that is the pilot's native language. His cousin told us that learning English is mandatory in the schools. America could learn a lesson by requiring students to learn another language. The world is increasingly becoming a smaller place and travel to places outside the United States is not such a rarity any more.

Au revoir!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

One-half day in Paris is not enough

Yes, it's been a while since I posted. We've traveled recently and I got to fulfill a life long dream of going to Paris. We stopped there for 1/2 day on our way back to the USA from Greece. Paris is beautiful! It's huge and so much to see. We only had an afternoon and evening and it wasn't even close to being enough. We hit a few of the highlights: the Eiffel Tower, of course, Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysee and went on a boat tour in the Seine. If I wasn't jet lagging so bad and it wasn't cold, it would have been near perfect. More details to come.