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Latest Travel News
Virgin America San Franciscans are very lucky to have Virgin America flying out of our airport. I recently took the airline round-trip to Las Vegas. Like Jet Blue, Virgin America flies out of the international terminal, which makes a short flight seem more impressive. Everything about the experience is pleasing. Check in is extremely easy—partly because they do not have many departures. The planes are new but the surprise is that as you enter, the ceilings are lit with soft purple/blue lights. I was told by a crew member that when you travel east, the lights get progressively darker. Obviously, with a new aircraft the seats are comfortable and the pitch is good. Like Jet Blue, there is an individual entertainment center at each seat. Often I have trouble working these, but on Virgin, I managed right off. I watched CNN and listened to music; no time for movies on my shorts flights. They hadn’t started offering food service on these flights in December but when they do, there is a menu on the entertainment center which lets you choose from your seat. The crew is friendly and more relaxed than most. Before we disembarked in Las Vegas, the Captain told passengers that they could stop by the flight deck and tell him that we thought the flight was great. On boarding our return flight, a companion was even invited into the flight deck to chat before departure. Rates will challenge the other airlines especially in first class. Virgin America is a great addition to flight choices from San Francisco to Los Angeles, San Diego, JFK, Washington and Seattle. Recently the U.S.-European Union came up with an Open Skies agreement, which takes effect March 30 and allows E.U. carriers to offer nonstop service to U.S. cities from any E. U. country. Up until then E. U. airlines have been restricted to only offering nonstop service from their home countries. One airline that has announced a new route is Air France with a service that will be from Los Angeles to London. The carrier will offer low introductory rates to introduce the service. British Airways is starting an entirely new service and they are even calling this new entrant Openskies. The initial route on 757s will probably be between New York (JFK or Newark) and either Paris or Brussels. Differentiating the aircraft will be its configuration which will offer more business and premium class seats and less economy seats. The ratio might be something like 24 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats and only 30 economy seats. This will be a flip-flop from the usual aircraft. My clients were going on a Tauck Tour to Japan followed by an FIT in Myanmar. Then the problems erupted in that country, and they made a last minute switch from Myanmar to Australia! I wanted them to go to somewhere else in SE Asia, but the husband preferred to go to Australia. So I turned to Southern World. Not only was there a time challenge but the clients, who had been to Australia before, wanted an itinerary that included Perth, Adelaide, Ayers Rock, Tasmania and Sydney; they also debated about Alice Springs. Southern World put something acceptable together in record time. Then we had to change the air that was round-trip to Asia into a Circle Pacific fare and work out the air within Australia. It all worked perfectly. The clients were totally happy with all the arrangements. |
| Dresden “The trip to Saxony was fabulous. We stayed in Dresden the entire time at the same hotel (Radisson). It is right in the center of town, looks old from the outside but refurbished with all the modern conveniences while still keeping the old flavor of the past. Tourism has not arrived there yet so it was delightful not to have crowds. It is like Europe was 50 years ago. Most older adults do not speak English because they were made to learn Russian. Therefore, in shops you have the challenge of communications -- which I find fun. Credit cards are not accepted everywhere -- probably because they are still poor and businesses may not be able to pay the fees associated with this convenience. ATM machines are everywhere, however. Travelers cheques are difficult to use except at the hotel. The tourism company found this an item to look into. We had gourmet food with beautiful presentations everywhere. My friend took photos of every plate and table setting. Wine flowed like water. We went to two vineyards - one we had lunch with 4 different wines explained by the Wine Princess (who "won" that title by a blindfold identification test) - Once we had a dinner with three different wines explained by the sommelier. We went to the Meissen factory where we had a tour and a tasting of coffee, tea and a chocolate drink (hot) in their tea cups. My tea cup sold in the gift shop for $1800!!! I could go on and on.” C.P., Minneapolis |