QANTAS and Jetstar to do less with less

With sky-high fuel bills QANTAS has decided to do some route pruning. QANTAS will exit the Gold Coast-Sydney and Ayers Rock-Melbourne routes and reducing services on Ayers Rock-Sydney from August. From July Jetstar will cut Sydney-Whitsunday Coast, Adelaide-Sunshine Coast, and Brisbane-Hobart. The service reductions will reduce capacity by five percent ‘the equivalent of grounding six aircraft’.

According to the SMH

Qantas plans to “ground” two Boeing 767s, retire one ageing 737 and speed up the retirement of its fuel-guzzling fleet of four 747-300s.

But in a worrying sign, Qantas said its low-cost subisidiary Jetstar would cancel the delivery of one A321 and ground another of its relatively new A320s. This counters moves by other airlines to focus on the retirement of older and less fuel efficient jets. Jetstar said the grounded A320 would be used as a “spare”.

ABC Radio National’s PM: QANTAS reacts to petrol prices by cutting routes

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If you’re a tourist – demand a tax refund!

Travellers can often claim back local sales tax on high-value goods you’ll be ‘exporting’. Whenever you make a purchase overseas it’s worth asking whether you can seek a refund of sales tax – it is possible throughout most of Europe but not for GST paid in New Zealand, for instance. Local regulations vary but this often involves having the goods and reciept stamped by customs before you depart. You may be paid on the spot, but more frequently you need to mail the stamped form back to the place of purchase for a refund check or electronic credit.

Two services Global Tax Refund Tax Free Shopping and Premier Tax Free promise to simplify the process of reimbursement in many (overwealmingly European) countries, although whether you’re interested in the services or not the websites are useful for a guide to European sales tax rates and restrictions (e.g. time limit for export or refund claims).

Both services are designed to simplify and streamline the process and allow you to be reimbursed immediately at their airport kiosk for purchases previously made at participating merchants who display relevant logo. If you forget or don’t have a chance to claim at the airport you will often be able to access the refund by mailing the documents from home, but check this in advance. Global Tax Free is the larger with some 230,000 participating merchants in 35 countries, Premier claims around of 75,000 ‘retail partners’ across 15 countries. Both websites offer shopping guides containing a list of participating merchants and specific details of the claims process for each country.

Both of these systems charge a percentage commission (around 4%) for the service, which may or may not be a fair price for avoiding dealings with the local beuracracy.

For a good guide to tax refunds for travellers in Europe see Rick Steves’ guide.

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[Image by Jahat]

The French are polite – so take that you English pig-dogs!

According to a Reader’s Digest survey New York, Zurich and Toronto are the world’s most polite cities and Kuala Lumpur, Bucharest and Mumbai the world’s rudest. Paris, unfortunately, did the stereotype of the rude Frenchmen no favours by managing no more than a mid-table finish of joint fifteenth with London. Even Sydney managed to do better, matching the Milanese as the 24th rudest city.

Three measures were used to test each cities rudeness quotient:

1) Walking into public buildings 20 times behind people to see if they would hold the door open for us.
2) Buying small items from 20 stores and recorded whether the sales assistants said thank you.
3) Dropping a folder full of papers in 20 busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up.

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[Via Expedia]

Free! Travel Information Delivered To Your Door!

The internet is an incredible free source of destination information, but it can’t quite match the thrill of receiving a whole envelope full of free glossy brochures of beautiful people streched out before vistas of azure oceans. Here are two great sources of free travel information delivered to your door; one defintely useful, the perhaps somewhat other less so.

Let’s start with the best. Tourism authorities are a fantastic and often-overlooked source of travel information – particularly for decent free maps and basic info with lots of glossy pictures. ANTOR’s* represents 48 official tourism authorities (including the Australian State authorities) and the destination info page provides (along side some basic travel info) the URL, email address and contact details for all of them. If you’re interested in any major destination for Australian travellers it will be listed. Simply email the relevant authority with your address, rough dates of travel and as far as possible the specific regions or cities you’re interested in and wait for the postie everyday for a week or so! No substitute for a good guidebook or your own research but generally there will be at least a couple of genuinely useful items in the material sent.

TravelBrochures.com.au and TravelBrochures.SMH.com.au are another clearing house for free travel information, although arguably of a must less useful nature. These sites allow to order free tour company brochures, some of which are available in digital (tree-saving) format. All the majors are available as well as a few smaller operators – useful if you wish to compare tours from a number of companies or can’t get to a travel agent. Of course some major operators now send out (often unintenionally comical) DVDs as as a bonus! Be warned, however, apart from ending up on a tour (which may or may not be a bad thing in itself…), you are likely to end up on a mailing list of the tour companies from which it may be difficult to extract yourself!

*(Association of National Tourist Office Representatives in Australasia)

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[Image by Classroom III]

Qantas domestic sale

Qantas domestic sale.

For Travel: between 11 June and 3 July, and 23 July and 18 September 2008

Onsale until Thursday 22 May.

Sydney to:
Melbourne one way from $99
Brisbane one way from $99
Canberra one way from $99
Adelaide one way from $125
Cairns one way from $175

Canberra to:
Sydney one way from $99
Melbourne one way from $99
Brisbane one way from $119

Melbourne to:
Adelaide one way from $85
Sydney one way from $99
Canberra one way from $99
Brisbane one way from $125

Brisbane to:

Adelaide one way from $135

Townsville one way from $135

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[Image by Skazama]

72 hour VirginBlue Sale: Sydney – Gold Coast $49

VirginBlue are running a seventy-two hour sale. A number of smaller domestic routes included (all for June travel) and east coast capitals to Christchurch and Nadi (somewhat more expansive dates).

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[Image by scherre]

Welcome to Qantas’ asylum (and where the bloody hell is my bar?)

In 2005 we were promised a new age of air travel. The A380 would revolutionise the flying experience, transforming it into something akin to the glorious age of great passenger liners, complete with all the amenities one could desire

A model of a bar area in an Airbus A380 shows how the plane’s “superjumbo” proportions may benefit some passengers. The plane’s main and upper levels will serve as passenger areas. The lower deck will be for freight—or additional passenger facilities such as sleeper cabins, child care, gymnasiums, casinos, or business centers, at the discretion of the airlines that purchase the planes.

(National Geographic)

Well, readers, that bright new future is upon us! The Herald Sun has a gallery of images showcasing the fit-out of the new Qantas A380. Behold the beauty of the new economy class – unlike any travel experience before…

I WANT MY BAR! Given the spike in fuel prices and competition from low cost carriers, at a pinch I’ll even settle for the gymnasium, casino and child care. But Nothing! Qantas: snot-green seats do not a great flying experience make. I can’t wait to spend twenty-four hours somewhere this dreary and soul-destroying. Steerage must have been worse…

Ah well, at least they’ve gone the extra mile for the patricians behind the curtins…

Wow! Seventies wood-grain meets beige. Singapore Airlines must be absolutely terrified.

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World Listed

If you have a few moments or are in need of travel inspiration the TripAdvisor Destinations Awards are worth a quick once-over. They were apparently ‘determined by a combination of TripAdvisor’s travelers’ favorite places and overall popularity on TripAdvisor’.

New Zealand takes out a quinella, with Milford Sound and Queenstown the two highest ranked destinations. Sydney, Cairns, Byron Bay, Melbourne, Port Douglas, Noosa, Perth, Cape Tribulation, Fremantle, Alice Springs, the Margaret River, Airlie Beach and Hobart were the Aussie inclusions. With regard to the USA California dominated, with Lake Tahoe the hightest rated, and in Europe it was Rhodes. Thailand managed six mentions. One slightly bizarre inclusion was Nadi, which may be a gateway to heaps of Fijian goodness but which is a pretty ordinary destination in itself.

Can anybody tick all of them off?

[Image of Milford Sound via Anita Gould]

WorldNomads.com.au 5% Off Travel Insurance

TopBargains have published another code for a 5% discount off travel insurance through World Nomads.

Code: JCBDEJ

If you’re in the market in travel insurance check out our hints and tips.

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AirAsia to Fly to Perth – Flights from $99

According to TravelWeekly AirAsia’s next Australian destination will be Perth, with weekly flights commencing November 2 and daily flights from March 2009. Intial fares from $99.

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