I made airline reservations with Expedia.com in December 2011 to visit family in Belarus. The flight itinerary I chose had me departing Dec. 20 on Delta Air Lines from Cincinnati for New York (JFK Airport), where I was to connect with Aeroflot and continue to Minsk, Belarus, via Moscow, Russia. The reverse trip would be made on Dec. 28.
Dear Globetrotter:
In April, in response to noise complaints, Frankfurt International Airport (FRA) imposed a curfew on all flights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., in accordance with a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court in Germany. The court also reduced from 150 to 133 the number of flights allowed in the “shoulder hours.” The airport is the second busiest in Europe for cargo traffic, and this will negatively affect many firms that depend on night deliveries.
LAN Airlines (Chile) and TAM Airlines (Brazil) merged in June to form LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (Santiago, Chile). It will service 150 destinations in 22 countries. Frequent-flyer programs will continue and be shared.
That the 16-day “Treasures of Turkey” tour of Insight (Rye, NY; 888/680-1241) was sold out and there would be 40 travelers plus a tour director and driver on the motorbus was daunting news.
Not to worry! The tour members turned out to be a very interesting and diverse group of travelers, with nary a complainer among them. The other English-speaking tour members came from eight countries.
Having purchased our tickets using American Airlines frequent-flyer miles, four of us flew Qantas Airways to Auckland, New Zealand, on Feb. 22, 2011, and then on toward Christchurch aboard Jetstar. Ten minutes before landing, we were informed there had been an earthquake in Christchurch and our flight was returning to Auckland.
On Aug. 13, 2010, I booked a cruise for my wife and myself on the Ocean Princess, selecting it because we were particularly interested in the stops in Japan and Russia. We were to embark in Osaka on April 1, 2011, and the ship would make stops in Hiroshima, Hakata (Japan), Vladivostok (Russia), Inchon (South Korea), Tianjin and Dalian (China), with disembarkation in Shanghai on April 11.
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake occurred in northern Japan, nearly 500 miles north of Osaka, resulting in a tsunami and damaged nuclear reactors.
TripAdvisor has partnered with Rail Europe and other rail networks in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, so now travelers can use TripAdvisor’s “Flights” search engine to compare plane trips against train trips when researching fares for particular routes.
I wrote about amenities at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport (AMS) a few years ago (June ’08, pg. 61). In April-May 2012, I passed through Schiphol four times in the space of three weeks and each time found it more interesting.
AMS is well organized, and signs in English aid you in reaching your destination. It may take 20 minutes or more to reach your gate, even with the moving walkways, but that’s not unusual at a large airport.
Dear Globetrotter:
Welcome to the 438th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine, the one you help write.
I’ve got lots to report this month.