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Dear Traveller
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 If you are looking for a totally
different vacation and have considered experiencing South America,
why not start off with a visit to Buenos Aires. This is the most European
of all Latin American cities with wide boulevards, impressive
architecture, a rich culture and an abundance of nightlife. Many
visitors find the city reminiscent of Paris with its many art
galleries, theatres and museums, and a good selection of fine
restaurants. Then of course, there is the Tango, celebrated
throughout the city at bars and dance halls everywhere.
Any
visit to Buenos Aires should include enough variety to truly
experience the unique culture, and there is enough to see that a
personal guide is almost a must! A typical day could start at the
Plaza de Mayo, where Eva Peron addressed the "shirtless"
from the balcony of the Casa Rosada; take in the current exhibition
at the light and airy Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires;
include a leisurely afternoon stroll through the beautiful marble
walled necropolis at the Recoleta Cemetery; and finish off enjoying
the incredible acoustics at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires'
magnificent and newly refurbished opera house. As a finale, you can
enjoy dinner at the superb Art Nouveau restaurant at Esquina Carlos
Gardel, followed by a spectacular tango show - great entertainment
for the whole family.
Buenos
Aires and the area around offer many other exciting options for the
visitor to enjoy. For the sports enthusiast, a ticket to a Boca
Junior Soccer game guarantees an amazing experience. Listed as one of
the Top 10 "must-see" sporting events in the world, the
fanatical support from the crowd truly showcases the Latin Americans'
love for the game of soccer.
Those
interested in sightseeing will enjoy a visit to Iguazu Falls a short
2 hour plane ride away. Set in one of the most beautiful natural
parks anywhere, taller than Niagara Falls and four times as wide, the
falls include 275 dramatic cascades over a two mile horseshoe of the
Iguazu River. Visitors explore the area on walkways built on stilts
that even allow access to the Garganta del Diablo (Devils Throat),
the deepest and most dramatic waterfall.
Many
people consider the best times to visit are Spring (October/November)
when the majority of the city's many festivals take place, and Fall
(March/April/ May). Daytime temperatures average 24°C. If you are
into the Tango, take along your best Fedora and high heel shoes for
the annual International Tango Festival in late February.
Whatever
your taste, there's lots to see and do in Buenos Aires. If you are
interested in finding out more about this exciting destination,
contact your TTI Leisure Travel Specialist.
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You
read it here first, probably. In the past few newsletters, we have
drawn attention to new baggage regulations being introduced by
airlines and now Air Canada have followed the growing industry trend.
On
all flights within Canada, and between Canada and the U.S. including
Hawaii, passengers who purchase Tango and Tango Plus tickets are now
only allowed one checked bag at no charge. A second bag will incur a
$25 service fee. However, Tango and Tango Plus flyers will still be
able to obtain a discount on their fares when travelling without
checked luggage. It sounds like we all need to travel with less!
Initially,
the baggage allowance for travel to and from countries other than
Canada and the United States will remain unchanged, including North
American flights taken as part of an international travel itinerary.
The new rules went into effect May 15, 2008 for travel on or after
July 15, 2008.
The
good news is that, at least for the moment, Latitude and Executive
Class passengers along with Elite, Super Elite and Prestige members
will be exempted from these new rules.
All
this may make a growing trend towards shipping bags ahead of time
more attractive. Although currently an expensive proposition even
within the United States, services like Luggage Free and Luggage
Forward are experiencing exponential growth as more and more
passengers elect to send their bags to their destination ahead of
time. Fans of the new service rave about the convenience of being
able to travel without luggage and finding it waiting for them at
their destination
Rates
vary depending on the weight, distance and speed of the delivery. For
example, sending a large bag (65 pounds) from New York to San
Francisco, California, with a pickup date in five days would cost
around $150 through Luggage Forward. Two bags sent from Toronto to
Los Angeles would cost around $400.
If
you are interested, you can obtain on-line quotes from Luggage Free
at www.luggagefree.com/ and Luggage Forward at www.luggageforward.com/
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Responses to our New Year's
Questions
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Regular
readers will remember Rocky's Rant in our January Newsletter, where
we posed what we felt were some interesting suggestions to airlines
and the GTAA regarding the quality of purchased airline food; the
absence of seating in GTAA baggage claim areas; the treatment of
disabled passengers who needed wheelchair assistance; fast tracking
business and first class passengers through Canadian Customs and
Immigration, and the absense of "In Transit" arrangements
when flying through the USA to other international destinations.
Unfortunately,
those people we contacted at Air Canada, British Airways, Canadian
Immigration, U.S. Homeland Security and the Greater Toronto Airport
Authority, while very polite and helpful, were unable or unwilling to
give any meaningful answers to the questions we raised. We are
continuing to try to get some answers and will advise you of any
meaningful outcome.
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Seat Sales - Lies my airline told
me
Remember
the good old days when you saw advertisements in the newspaper for
air fares and the dollar figure actually meant something? That's not
the case today, of course. Fuel surcharges, a plethora of taxes, and
niggling little add-ons, such as the second bag surcharge mentioned
elsewhere in this newsletter, are becoming an increasingly
significant portion of the total cost.
Take
this example: Air Canada is currently advertising a seat sale fare of
$498.00 from Toronto to London. The actual cost of travel? $872!
That's an uplift of 75%.
Most
significantly, the fuel surcharge is an additional $224, which is 45%
of the cost of the seat sale fare. The question this brings to mind
is: how much of this "fuel surcharge" should be included in
the quoted air fare itself? Does Air Canada or any other airline
realistically expect oil to come back down to $50 a barrel?
While
we are on the topic, how come hotels have recently climbed on the
extra charge bandwagon? I find it annoying enough to see items like
the Ontario's Destination Management Fee (DMF tax) levied on all
hotel bills, but now some hotels are unbundling service charges at a
dizzying rate. One recent example was a $15.00 per head charge to
cover housekeeping and porterage. Isn't that something the room rate
is meant to cover? Is it just me, or does the idea of paying $15.00
extra for a one-night stay stick in your craw too, particularly when
you arrive with one carry-on bag and never use housekeeping services?
Why
not write and tell us what you think. In the current environment of
continued high oil prices, should airlines quote air fares including
fuel surcharges or should they continue to unbundle them? And should
hotels be forced to quote accurate per-night room rates without all
sorts of hidden extras?
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 Does of the planning of this year's
vacation fill you with apprehension? Or perhaps, as you leaf through
travel brochures and tour vacation sites on the internet, you are
overcome by a feeling of "been there, done that, worn out the
tee shirt." If so, maybe you need to look for a different style
of vacation this year.
First,
take comfort from the fact that you are not alone; for a growing
number of travellers, the "flop and drop" style of holiday
has become passé. The good news is that the travel industry has
recognized this and is responding with a range of opportunities for a
more exciting and involving vacation experience
While
the ultimate is, of course, a trip into space with Virgin Galactic,
(featured in previous TTI newsletters), there are many other less
expensive options to suit a variety of tastes. For example,
organizations such as the Aspara Arts Foundation in Cambodia offer
vacationers with a strong philanthropic vision an opportunity to work
with local children
Those
more interested in exploration can find real challenges in
expeditions across the Antarctic land- mass or into the jungles of
Madagascar. And if you are more fascinated by history, you can combine
the luxury of staying in a 15th Century Italian Palace with in- depth
tours of local monuments currently under restoration.
The
key ingredient to all these experiences is a high level of service
combined with a real sense of purpose. The result: a feeling of
achievement at the end of the trip which, for many people, adds up to
a more memorable and satisfying vacation. If you are interested in
finding out more, contact your TTI Leisure Travel Specialist.
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Air
Canada Executive Class Lie Flat Seats Best in Class - According to
the London Times, Air Canada has the best and most comfortable
lie-flat seats in the air, ahead of such notables as British Airways
and Singapore Airlines. In a recent survey, the newspaper awarded Air
Canada's seats the Best in Class award based on size (75" by
31" when reclined), comfort, and privacy due to well designed
screens and the herringbone layout. The new lie-flats are available
on Air Canada 777 aircraft as well as some 767-300's, (see below).
Air
Canada refurbishing plan gets the thumbs up from passengers. Frequent
flyers on the recently refurbished Air Canada aircraft are giving the
thumbs up to the newly designed seats in both Economy and Executive
class, as well as the personal audio-visual entertainment system
which offers free access to 36 movies and hundreds of CDs, a 120-volt
power plug, and USB port. As of June 1, all 142 regular bodied
aircraft will be either new or refurbished, along with 45 of the 60
wide bodied aircraft in the carrier's fleet. Now the bad news:
although the Ottawa-London, Toronto-Zurich and Toronto-Frankfurt
routes will have exclusive use of these new aircraft, Toronto-London,
one of the airline's most popular and most travelled routes will
continue to use the old-style aircraft.
Aeroplan
On-Line Site down for 4 days. It's unfortunate for those frequent
flyers who wanted to redeem their Aeroplan points in late April:
Aeroplan's on-line site was unavailable for four days over the
weekend due to computer problems. Now that the site is up and running
again, Aeroplan may want to look at the myriad of glitches that can
make on-line redemption such a frustrating process.
Many
travellers assume that booking on-line will automatically save them
money. This myth has finally been laid to rest as a result of a
ruling by IATA, with an agreement that member airlines will not offer
lower air fares to on-line customers. Further, all major North
America carriers have signed low-fare agreements with the industry distribution
systems (Apollo, Sabre, Amadeus and Worldspan) agreeing that the
fares posted on these systems are their lowest fares.
Independent
research has since proven that the savings are indeed a myth. Topaz
International's research, released just a few months ago, showed that
bookings made by a corporate travel agent averaged $56 less than the
same itinerary booked on a public internet site. Add in the cost of
the time taken to research and make a booking on-line, and it is easy
to see why many corporations are switching back to full service
agencies
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