Travel for the Over 30s

Need something to do over the long-weekend if you aren’t taking a road trip . How about coming up with a cute name for some of Air Asia X ’s new planes? The cheeky Malaysian startup is doing very well these days - taking on the old tired airlines and winning. But I recently a couple of extraordinary things they are doing:

• offering return flights Australia-Europe for under A$1000 - you have to change planes in KL of course -no great hardship - but for the price who cares if food is extra?
• they actually have an entertaining corporate blog - who would have thought it was possible?
• they are buying new planes left right and centre 23 A330s and a A340 on order.

Which brings us to the point of this point - they need some more names: they like the “X” thing - Xanadu being their call sign and recent names include Xuberance and Xcalibur (on the London route of course)

Winners will get a free return trip anywhere on the network which would take you from the Gold Coast to Stanstead to China - Detail are on the Air Asia blog here

From time to time I find a new travel site so  I thought I would share the latest one I have come across - entrecard has a lot to answer for some days!

What caught my eye with Dirt Cheap Tickets Travel was its attractive clean design - I didn’t have to wait 5 minutes for all the widgets to load and then scroll through them all to find the entrecard one!  The site provides travel news and information and also includes information on attending sports events, concerts and other functions.  Their advertising is relevant and include eBay and Amazon deals for travel accessories such as GPS Units, travel wallets, luggage, carry-on’s and so on.

They include lots of information on deals for airfares, hotels, car rentals or vacation packages. They also include info on hard-to-find concert or sports tickets? Its a nice  site - hopefully they will keep up a more regular posting schedule.

Its tough these days being in the travel website niches as you have to compete with the big boys such as lonelyplanet.com now owned by the BBC and I think thats a shame because the small sites offer a far more independent view than those which have basically become on-ilne arms of real-world media outlets complete with editorial control on the content.

The war on airfare prices is well and truly being waged in Australia at the moment. One of the problems for overseas visitors is that the big overseas consolidator sites like expedia.com don’ t feature all the internal flights - especially those to regional centers outside of the Sydney/Melbourne/Perth  big cities!

There are a number of consolidator sites which are designed to search Australian sites - but they invariably charge you a booking fee - and worse I am not coninced that they always get you the best fights. Many, for example miss out Tiger (who presumably don’t pay agents) that often offers the best deal ex-Perth heading east - so long as you don’t mind flying at middnight!

Now there is a new site which I just discovered called Cheap Flights- OK zero points for snappy, original  branding guys - but it does something clever.  It allows you to search across the main players: Qantas, Virgin Blue, Jetstar and Tiger - but it doesn’t book the flight for you- instead it directs you to the airline’s own website.  This means:

•  its a free service
• you don’t have to trust cheap flights - because you are not booking through them.

It still won’t get you the regional airlines such as Sky West - but they aren’t cheap flights anyway!

The huge A380 is pretty much the last word in modern aircraft and the A380 wars have been hotting up on long-haul routes.  Now Emirates is extending their A380 service to Auckland. Emirates will have A380’s on the Auckland-Sydney route 3 times a week from next week, with the aim of increasing frequency to daily A380 flights ex-Auckland as planes become available.

Auckland airport has had to do some work including widening runway’s to accomodate the massive A380.  The question being raised though is Emirates just dumping extra capacity on the Trans-Tasman route? Well Air NZ is asking it anyway and probably Qantas. For the traveler though its all good news. Even just with three flights a week thats an extra 1200 seats a week!

Emirates is also offering an affordable option to upgrade and see what all the fuss is about business and first class travel. If you use frequent flyer points to upgrade your NZ-Australia flight then they will give you a complementary return upgrade - smart move!Not sure that the first class showers are available though on the three hour flight from Auckland to Sydney

To be honest if you want to fly with a the best airline in terms of in-flight entertainment and food then ANY of Emirates planes beat the antiquated systems in place on Qantas or AirNZ - or go properly low budget and fly Pacific Blue - Australia’s Virgin Blue’s cousin.

Back in September BA had a deal with free hotel accommodation in London - at the time the cheapest return airfare NYC-Lon-NYC was $472.

Now they have the same deal - 2 free nights in a selected London hotel - but the airfare price: $156 - thats $302 return! Ah you say who wants to go to London in the middle of winter - well true - but this deal, although you have to book NOW (before January 29) has date availability of: 27 Jan - 23 Mar.

The cheapest fare  is ex JFK and Newark but there fares out of Seattle and Washington that are less than $20 more!

The fine print:

• can get an extra $20 off if you register on the BA website
• minimum stay Saturday night - maximum 11 months
• $30 extra for flying between Thursday and Sunday

The free hotel’s look like good deals too. The come with the normal strings attached: only 1 free night if you are traveling solo but they are well located 3 star hotels in Knightsbridge, (for Harrods), Covent Garden (for the markets and theater district), Russell Square (for the British Museum one of my favourite areas) and Kensington (for the V&A Museem, Science Museum etc)

If you are not familiar with British hotels remember they will be a lot smaller than your equivalent US hotel!  And there may be stairs, but a  hotel with an included English breakfast is a good deal because that is the best meal of the day!

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If Thailand is the travel bargain of 2009 , then Phuket is the best of the bargain! Just 5 years ago the beaches of Phuket where destroyed by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. But the more recent political problems which closed the airports in December have also destroyed Phuket’s tourist arrivals just as the rebuilt hotels of the Andaman coast are open for business.

The Asian tourist market seems spooked by the political unrest - while the Europeans are happy to enjoy the half empty tropical beaches, the Americans are stuck at home with all their economic doom and gloom.

2009 is certainly the year to grab a travel bargain in Phuket.  In 2004 pictures of Khao Lak’s beach littered with debris and bodies were beamed around the world. Khao Lak lost 75% of its hotels to the massive wave, nearby Koh Phi Phi nearly 67% but with a rapidity unlikely to have been matched in the West the Thai’s have rebuilt it all, but better, cleaner and more luxurious.

Bargains are easy to find in Phuket - especially in the luxury end of the market which you normally can’t afford. A last minute deal will see you in a beach front villa at Ramada Resort in Khao Lak for less than $150/night

The super deluxe Anantara Phuket, opened in October on Mai Khao Beach at the north end of Phuket the resort mimics a floating village and every villa has a private pool.

The  headline of15,000 hotels for $1 caught my eye - lets face it you would have to patholgically hate travel for it not to LOL! And no its not a scam - but lastminute.com have come up with a great promotion and I just hope their website doesnt’ collapse under the strain!

It goes something like this - you can book any of 15,000 hotels for $1 a night with a maximum of 7 nights BUT (well of course there is a but)  - the price is only good for a random 15minute period each day for 2 weeks in January. The only way to find out what time it is to sign-up for the email mail hints to find out which 15 minutes will give you a room for a $1! The link is lastminute.com - hell even if you think you are not travelling - book a hotel in your home town and have a staycation LOL

European Cruises are shaping up to be the best deal in travel of the century for Australians. Of all the deals on travel in 2009 - cheap European cruises seem the best option for me.

And why do you need to take action and book your European cruise for 2009, and not delay until next year? Because 2009 cruise ships were booked back before the financial melt-down.  The ships were booked and cruises organised assuming that the booming American market would be even better than last year’s European cruise demand. And European cruise demand is driven, to a large extend, by the American market. And the Americans are not traveling anymore - well certainly not to Europe with the US$ down heavily against the Euro and the uncertainity of the financial crises hanging over their heads.

Sure the A$ is also down against the Euro - but not by as much. And although the Australian economy has not been untouched by the economic meltdown of 2008 - Australians are still travelling.  Combined with  some of the most appealing air fares in several years - there are some very good value for money options for Australian’s in the European river cruise market.

What’s going to happen with the Australian travel industry in 2009 – in light of the economic crises both within and outside of Australia? Well my picks are severalDomestic Australian Travel Up in 2009

The domestic travel industry is going to encourage Australians to travel t home to make for the short fall of overseas visitors who will be scared off over worries for their jobs and the high Australian Dollar against against the US$. The easing of petrol prices may well see families brushing off their camping gear and actually getting the 4WD off-road to take classic Australian drive. This year could be a good year for campgrounds and camping stores!

Excellent Deals to Asia 2009

Australian will possibly respond to the excellent cheap air deals being offered by Air Asia and Jetstar to Asia, with the full service airlines having to match prices.

Good Deals to Europe in 2009

Interestingly there are some good deals to Europe for cruising and coach tours for the 2009 season. it seems that Australians are being lured to book early, to avoid higher prices because of the drop in the A$ – but the reality is that Europe – particularly places like Italy – are going to be suffering from a downturn in American travellers – 2009 could be the best deals to Europe for some time

I am starting to see lots of good news for those who want to get a travel bargain in 2009.

The recent political trouble in Thailand, which led to the peaceful occupation of the Bangkok airport seems to be having a terrible effect on the Thai tourist industry.

Air Asia has been offering free seats to Thailand from its other Asian destinations.

This should be peak season for Thailand but luxury hotels are reporting occupancy rates of less than 20%! Locals say its worse than Christmas season the year after the Tsunami - probably because the airport sit-in happened so recently. Its  crazy that foreigners are staying away though - I mean only in Thailand could protesters occupy an airport for weeks and when they left even the government admitted there was no damage done! Can you imagine that happening at Heathrow or JFK airports!

Grab a deal or upgrade yourself anywhere in Thailand: my favourite are the islands but Bangkok is a fun city too.   With so few tourists I would probably just grab some tickets and get accommodation once you arrive - be prepared to bargain - hard! After all getting something for a room is better than getting nothing!

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