Treat it like a skill, not like some kind of creeping around a back alley trying to pick up scraps. It is something you need to work on till you get it right. And you might need more working on it later too. So give it the respect it deserves and settle down to acquiring these skills and using them when needed. The basic thing you need to do is work at it. Make sure you talk to as many travel agents as possible and befriend them if necessary. Go and surf on the Internet. There are so many deals online, it’s not funny. All you need to do is look for them. Just make sure that all the prices quoted are all-inclusive. You don’t want to book something and be told that the taxes and other extras have to be paid. Read the fine print and email or call and assure yourself that what you see is what you get - no more, no less. Actually, less would be all right, of course!

The first thing to look at if you’ve set your heart on a particular destination is the off-season fares. No, it’s not a dirty word. It just means you’ll be going to the same destination when the hordes aren’t there. Isn’t that reason enough to rush there? All those poor others would also go if they could, but either work or family or children’s holidays don’t allow them to. If course, sometimes, it could be the weather in a particular place that makes it inaccessible so find out before you decide. You don’t want to go to a place that looks beautiful on a postcard because it’s a summer shot but you go and find it’s like when hell freezes over!

The second thing is to plan early. You’ll have a choice of airlines for one, they’ll all woo you with early bird deals and you can take your pick of the cheap seats. Just tell yourself the cheap seat gets you to your destination as quickly as a first class seat and you begin to see the picture. You might even get onto one of these sites where you can bid for seats and put in a few really low bids. Then pray. Who knows, you might well land up with the deal of the century!

ArticleSource: ArticlesAlley.com

(PRWEB) February 16, 2005 — Booking your (cheap) low cost airline tickets for travel in Europe has become a tough journey through an extremely complex jungle of fares. This frustrating quest finding the best possible and available fares with most convenient schedules, often takes longer then the flight itself.

WEGOLO.com claims to be the first international website specialised in the so called ‘low cost airlines traffic, connecting various European regions/ Countries with all ‘low cost destinations in and even outside Europe.

WEGOLO.com puts an end on the time consuming and often frustrating quest, finding and comparing the best possible fares in combination with the best possible schedules. It provides you in mater of seconds, up to maximum 1 minute, a complete ‘real-time and conveniently summary of all available seats on your chosen route(s) from anywhere in Europe.( currently approx. 17 departing countries/regions are listed and more will be added soon)

The shown prices can be easily compared, since WEGOLO shows immediately the exact ‘all-in fares and includes automatically all the ‘hidden price components from each and every low cost airline, up to and including their variable and extra credit card fees, making an unbiased comparison possible without the nasty surprises after being lured into their individual websites by often misleading advertised ‘promotional fares.

WEGOLO.com was designed for easy use. Its very first page is already functional, where one indicates the country/region one wish to fly from. Select either your destination, the desired travel date(s) and number of passengers and let WEGOLO.com do the work. In less then a minute, often only in a matter of seconds, you are presented with all the available out-and inbound flights, the schedules and the ‘all-fares. Rest only to pick your own best personal choice out of this wide range possibilities allowing you even to combine even two different airlines for your round trip, if this would suit your itinerary best.

WEGOLO is not a travel agent but an independent and neutral consumer organisation and not linked with any travel agency, tour operator or airline. PR Aviation bv & Walter Goffin ( Goffin Travel Architects) use their ‘Elsy Arres technology for Consumer as well as for Business 2 Business applications.

Walter Goffin: For quit some time I wanted to create clarity in this this ’self-service-tool and give clarity in this ‘Low Cost Jungle Being one of the fasted growing ‘niche market’in Europe. WEGOLO.com finds and compares all available options, allowing you to define your own cheapest fare, and guides you in one single and secured transaction through the various payment processes.Your e-ticket(s)are sent directly via e-mail, no matter where your are in the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ‘ www.WEGOLO.com

Note to the editor, not meant for publication ! For more information or high resolution picture material, please contact . Concept and Idea by Walter Goffin (Goffin Travel Architects) in close cooperation with Dutch based PR Aviation bv and German based Webergy Gmbh.

PR Aviation bv.
Walter Goffin
Telephone number: 31 (0) 20 68 17 845
e-mail: goffinwa@zonnet.nl

There are also some “Motels” in other small towns of Tibet. But these are mainly for the truck drivers and the condition is pretty bad. I prefer to sleep in my own tent, because it is cleaner than these so called “motels”. (The cost is about 20 rmb if you really wanna try them)
Some tips here:
(1). In many hotels or motels in Tibet, the drivers can get free rooms if they take you here. This means than you will have to pay for them. You should make everything clear before check in if you don’t agree with this “rule”.
(2). The sleeping bag is very helpful if you are planning to visit the small towns of Tibet. Sometimes it is not easy to find a motel to sleep in these areas. The hospitable Tibetan people will offer you a room if your car is not running. But it is just a room ( with nothing in it ) and you will need to bring your own sleeping bag.
The flights to Tibet:
There are airlines connecting Lhasa, Tibet directly to Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi an, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Cangdu and Jiademan. The airport of Lhasa is called Lhasa Gongga airport. China South West Airline is running these airlines to Lhasa and the planes used here are the Boeing 737. (No severe accidents happened since the first flight to Lhasa,Tibet in 1956 )
How to get flight tickets to Lhasa, Tibet:
If you are planning your trip to Lhasa, Tibet on July or August, it is not easy to get tickets from Chengdu to Lhasa because it is the peak season for Tibet travel. Thousands of tourists come here during this period of time every year. The best way to get flight tickets is to book your ticket through a travel agent in Chengdu. You will need to pay the extra fees for it.(About 30 RMB) Usually, the airlines companies will sell the tickets 5 to 7 days in advance in this peak season and it will be too late if you only book your ticket 1 or 2 days earlier. Here is a phone number of the airline ticket office: 028-6833446.
How to get to the downtown of Lhasa from the airport:
The Lhasa Gongga airport is a little bit far away from the downtown of Lhasa. You can take the airport bus and it takes 1 and a half hours to get to the downtown of Lhasa. The cost is 25 rmb. Another choice is the taxi. There are lots of taxicabs in the exit of the Lhasa Gongga airport and the cost is about 120 rmb.
NOTE: Permission is granted by the copyright owner to disseminate this article in whole or in part provided credit is given to the author (with a link to the article’s source URL travel2chinainfo dot com Lhasa travel, Tibet travel, Info for your China vacations) and this NOTE is not removed.

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) June 29, 2005 — Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) — the official airline of the Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards — continues helping Hispanic youth achieve educational success. As part of Southwest’s sponsorship, Southwest Airlines flies the national winners of the Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards, along with their parents, to the National Youth Awards Ceremony in Miami and the Hispanic Heritage Awards in Washington, D.C., in September. Additionally, the winners will receive a trip home on behalf of Southwest during their first year in college.

“What better way to honor the students’ success than by flying them and their parents to the celebrations,” said Laura Lopez, Senior Multicultural Promotions Specialist. “Southwest enjoys recognizing these outstanding students as they takeoff to pursue their college education.”

The carrier supports the Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards’ mission to identify and celebrate the next generation of role models by promoting academics and community involvement. Each year, regional and national winners are selected in six categories: Academic Excellence, Journalism, Healthcare, Community Service, Engineering and Mathematics, and Sports. Southwest Airlines serves 11 cities where the regional winners are selected.

Recently, Southwest Airlines announced the “Dandole Alas a Tu Exito/Giving Flight to Your Success,” the first college student travel award program, in partnership with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). Through this new initiative, Southwest Airlines will provide tickets for distribution to students with socio-economic need and who travel away from home to pursue a higher education. Each student will be eligible for the Lanzate! Premio Universitario/Take Off! Higher Education Award consisting of up to two (2) roundtrip tickets for the student and/or parent traveling to/from the university. To be eligible, the student must apply online at http://www.hacu.net and meet the following criteria:

Must be a student in good standing at a two- or four-year college or university; A 2.5 or higher GPA; All majors are eligible to apply; Applications must be completed online by July 15, 2005; and 300-500 word essay using good writing skills to answer one or more of the following questions:– What are your challenges in working toward higher education?
– If you could have someone travel with you to your college or university, who would that be and why?
– How do you believe that obtaining air travel to the university would benefit you and your family?

Southwest Airlines was recognized by HISPANIC Magazine for the 2005 Hispanic Corporate 100. The award focuses on Southwest Airlines’ Leadership in providing opportunities for Hispanics and for supporting recruitment, scholarships, minority vendor programs, and Hispanic organizations.

Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest carrier in terms of domestic passengers enplaned, currently serves 60 airports in 31 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates nearly 3,000 flights a day and has 31,000 Employees systemwide.

http://www.southwest.com

Contact:
Public Relations of Southwest Airlines
1-214-792-4847

A new study finds that as many as 10% of airline passengers may be at risk — more than any other study has shown. Yet other experts contend just the opposite, saying that very few are truly at risk.

Economy class syndrome is the term that’s used to describe deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, a medical condition that occurs when people develop blood clots in the deep veins of their legs. It’s most likely to happen when people sit for long periods of time — like long flights in cramped economy-class airplane seats — and blood does not move through vessels adequately. These blood clots can travel to the lungs or other areas, causing strokes, severe organ damage, or death.

But do the blood clots pose a serious threat to the general flying population? That’s what researchers have been trying to determine.

In the first randomized controlled trial to assess risk of DVT on long-haul flights (about eight hours long), 10% of the study group developed “clinically significant abnormalities of the lower limb veins,” writes lead author John H. Scurr, a researcher with the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London. His study appears in the current issue of The Lancet.

A total of 124 men and 124 women — all over age 50 — took part in Scurr’s study. Each was given an ultrasound exam to ensure they had no history of deep-vein problems.

Elastic compression stockings — the kind worn by many hospital patients after surgery — were randomly given to half the group; the other half were given nothing. The people then took separate flights to different destinations, all traveling in economy class. Within 48 hours of returning to London, each came back to the hospital for another ultrasound to determine whether they had developed blood clots.

Researchers found that 12 of the passengers had developed blood clots, and all were in the group without stockings. None of the travelers who wore the stockings developed clots.

The data, says Scurr, point to the effectiveness of elastic stockings to reduce risk of blood clots after surgery. He writes, “our findings strongly suggest that stockings also protect against symptomless DVT after air travel.”

Scurr further indicates that his numbers may be conservative because ultrasound detects from 79% to 99% of calf vein thrombosis. “Our data may have underestimated the true rate of calf vein thrombosis by as much as 30%,” he writes. But others have their own opinion about the study.

“Potentially flawed study,” says Jack Hirsh, MD, director of the Hamilton Civic Hospital Research Center at McMaster University in Ontario.

Accident Records

The accident record is the basic statistic of airline safety; it is simply a record of how many times anything has gone wrong. It should definitely be taken with a pinch of salt because luck does have a lot to do with what circumstances befall any airline and larger companies will obviously suffer from proportionally more accidents.

Unfortunately, in Europe a large amount of flight safety information is kept confidential and never released to the public. Even when certain airlines are banned from the airspace of some European countries the public is not informed. We can only look at the published statistics of the number of fatal accidents by airline.

By Airline (alphabetically)

Airline (Flights) (Fatal) (Events) (RATE)

Aer Lingus (1.3M) (0) (0.00)

Air France (5.9M) (7) (0.55)

Alitalia (3.9M) (3) (0.73)

British Airways (8.27M) (2) (0.17)

British Midland (1.03M) (1) (0.39)

easyJet (0.76M) (0) (0.00)

Finnair (1.7M) (0) (0.00)

Iberia (4.5M) (4) (0.80)

Icelanair (0.39M) (0) (0.00)

KLM (2.4M) (3) (0.81)

Olympic (1.8M) (3) (1.52)

Quantas (3.26M) (0) (0.00)

Ryanair (1.27M) (0) (0.00)

Virgin (0.15M) (0) (0.00)

In summary, there are a large number of available choices for airlines and cheap flights and it makes sense to opt for the safest method possible. However, do not allow this information to worry you unduly; flying remains one of the safest ways to travel and airline safety is generally increasing over time as more watchdogs and safety comities investigate every incident and control every airline. According to the Civil Aviation Authroity, the UK has one of the best airline safety records in the world. It is good to be informed, but there is no need to be afraid.