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# Thursday, 17 April 2008
Some travel insurance policies will no longer offer cover for baggage that is lost at Terminal 5. Direct Line and Churchill have decided to exclude baggage loss and delays from any new insurance policies. Policies that have already been brought will not be affected so any customers with annual cover would still be entitled to a pay out. Many other insurers including including Norwich Union, Saga and direct travel cover provider InsureandGo are still offering cover.

posted on Thursday, 17 April 2008 14:23:40 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Lonely Planet has denied recent claims by one of its authors that he made up large sections of content. The writer Thomas Kohnstamm has claimed that he sold drugs to supplement his income, made up content and didn’t even visit one of the countries he wrote about. He claims that he plagiarized work from other publications and accepted gifts whilst working on researching the guide. There have also been claims that some authors do not check facts or review hotels and restaurants in person, because they are not paid enough to do so. The claims are made in Thomas Kohnstamm’s book entitled Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? which is published this month. Lonely Planet stands by the integrity and reliability of its books and says “His claims are not an accurate reflection on our authors, who are enthusiastic, hard working and take immense pride in their jobs. This is just one guy making these allegations.”

posted on Wednesday, 16 April 2008 16:37:54 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
Gareth Kirkwood the director of operations and David Noyes the director of customer service are leaving BA. The airline will not comment on whether they have been fired or have resigned but BA did say "The airline is looking to appoint a chief operations officer to combine both roles.” It is not clear whether the departures are connected with the recent problems with the opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

posted on Wednesday, 16 April 2008 16:26:58 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Eurostar has reported a 21% increase in passengers in the first three months of the year. 2.17 million customers travelled between London, Paris and Brussels during this period, an increase of 21.3% on the same period in 2007. The companys commercial director has put the increases down to shorter journey times and more customers from around Britain now that the service has moved to St Pancras.

posted on Tuesday, 15 April 2008 17:41:14 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Monday, 14 April 2008

blogoftheweek This weeks travel blog of the week is Claire takes on the world, an amusing and feature rich blog of Claire's worldly travels.

What I enjoyed about Claire's blog is that out of the many blogs I have seen Claire had actually been to the Amazon. After 8 months in South America she had finally arranged a 3 day trip to the Amazon where they attempted to cross a river sitting on a wooden raft. While half way through the water Claire yelled to her clairefriend "Jenny, where's your camera?"

Jenny replied "Claire, it's not the time for pictures!" and then suddenly realised when checking her money belt that her camera and mp3 player were covered in water!

When they finally reached the Amazon, of which Claire likens to looking like a forest in Ireland, Jenny referred to the experience as "We're getting to meet the entire cast of A Bugs Life today".

You can read the rest of Claire's adventures here

posted on Monday, 14 April 2008 23:23:01 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
Workers at a Royal Mail sorting office in Norfolk had to leave the premises when a suspicious package was spotted. 60 staff were evacuated after the security alert and a bomb disposal squad was called in. Staff have now returned to work and an investigation is under way. The incident may cause some minor delays to deliveries in the area.

posted on Monday, 14 April 2008 17:55:29 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Friday, 11 April 2008
BA has delayed moving its long haul flights to Terminal 5 until June. It was due to switch most of its long flights to the terminal  the 30th of April but problems with the baggage handling system will now mean a delay. BA has not given a date when they expect to move the flights to the new terminal.

posted on Friday, 11 April 2008 15:15:26 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Thursday, 10 April 2008
Thameslink will provide an additional 14,500 seats on its routes with the introduction of new energy efficient trains. The trains will run from 2012 between London St Pancras and Blackfriars and on the Midland and East Coast lines. They will also operate on other routes via London Bridge and Elephant and Castle to destinations on the Brighton lines and routes in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. The deal means that the current fleet of trains will increase by a total of 380 carriages and that another other six trains an hour will run between Blackfriars and St Pancras International.

posted on Thursday, 10 April 2008 16:12:38 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Wednesday, 09 April 2008
The budget airline Oasis which runs flights from London Gatwick to Hong Kong has applied to go into liquidation. The airline offered flights for a little as £65 each way and operated daily flights between London and Hong Kong. The airline has debts of around one billion Hong Kong dollars. Hundreds of people have been left stranded after the shut down.

posted on Wednesday, 09 April 2008 16:59:20 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Tuesday, 08 April 2008
Thomas Cook has brought the luxury travel firm Elegant Resorts from its shareholders Geoff Moss and Barbara Catchpole. The company carried more then 20,000 last year and its assets are worth around £22.3 million. Thomas Cook plans to run it as a standalone business and will keep the company’s current management team.

posted on Tuesday, 08 April 2008 10:16:44 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback