UK news reports that following a ‘problem’ MS985 diverted to Prestwick Airport today. It landed at 1425 local time. The flight patch is at FlightAware.

BBC news report here.

No clues as to what this might be yet.

UPDATE

It appears as if a note threatening to set the plane alight was found in an on-board toilet. The passengers are disembarking.

The French unions’ counterparts in some other European countries are set to join in the strikes on Wednesday or hold other industrial action. They are those in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Slovakia.

BBC article here

Disruption to train journeys:

SNCF – a strike has been scheduled to take place on Thursday 13 June 2013. This action will begin at 20:00 on Wednesday 12 June and run through until 08:00 on Friday 14 June. The following information relates to travel between the times/dates stated only.

Rail Europe Update here

Looks like No Trains or Planes this week!

Lots of posts popping up from airports and airlines saying that French ATC are having a strike from tomorrow.

Appears SQ has cancelled it’s flights to Paris on 12 June and the return on the 13 June.

London City are asking you to call your airline.

If you are going to/from/via Paris, start calling I would suggest.

Air France statement

 SQ Announcement

Due to a planned strike by French air transport unions affecting French airspace from 11 to 14 June 2013, the French civil aviation authority (DGAC) will impose a 50 per cent capacity restriction for services to and from Paris. The following Singapore Airlines flights will be cancelled.

SQ334 (Singapore to Paris) on 12 June 2013
SQ333 (Paris to Singapore) on 13 June 2013

Singapore Airlines will endeavour to contact affected customers for alternative travel arrangements. At this point, we expect to operate all other flights between Singapore and Europe as scheduled. However, the situation is fluid and we seek our customers’ understanding and offer our apologies in advance should there be further flight disruptions. Customers with onward flight connections from Paris to other cities in France may also experience travel delays.

Singapore Airlines will waive administrative fees/penalties for refund, rebooking or re-routing, for customers holding confirmed tickets bought on or before 10 June 2013, for travel to and from Paris from 11 to 13 June 2013. This applies to KrisFlyer redemption tickets as well.

BA Statement

Advice for BA (125) ticketed customers whose BA flight is still OPERATING

What to do if your flight has been cancelled

If your flight has been cancelled, please do not travel to the airport.

We have a policy in place outlining the options available to you and how to make changes to your booking.

Some months ago it was suggested that those bloggers who write under the Boarding Area group might like to meet to discuss items of common interest. Dates were canvassed and as luck would have it, the weekend suggested came at the end of a week I had planned to be in the US anyway. BACON as the event is now called, has mushroomed in to a three day event (I can only make two days) with a host of guest speakers, discussion groups etc. I cannot wait to meet some of my fellow bloggers, but as many of them met at Freddies during the past week, I am a little behind the curve.

So, not being one daunted by a ‘simple’ trip to Colorado Springs (BACON’s home for this year), I am going the long way round – 34,466 miles round! There are some goals – starting off my BA re-qualification year with cheap AA Instant Upgrade fares, getting in some Hyatt stays, a short trip to Vegas and then Colorado Springs. The trip looks like this:

The trip is a mixture of the old and new:

Old – i.e. I have been there before:

• Lufthansa First Class – Frankfurt to Shanghai this time
• United First Class – Shanghai to Los Angeles on this trip
• Grand Hyatt Shanghai and the Hyatt House Miami
• Hyatt Place Las Vegas

New -

• The Hilton, Amsterdam Airport
• Signing up for the Schipol Privium scheme
• Lufthansa First Class Terminal
• UA First Class Lounge, LAX
• American Airlines domestic F with pre-booked entrees
• Embassy Suites – San Juan, PR
• The hotel we are all staying in at Colorado Springs
• Alitalia – Miami to Rome, and Rome to London City
• And what I hope will be the most exciting thing of all, which I can only write about once done!

Any hints or tips gratefully received!

It is the second weekend of the BA short notice holidays, combining hotels and flights for the coming weekend – #helloweekend

This weekend’s deals are:

• Dublin – £119 per person, based on 2 people sharing
• Glasgow – £119 pp
• Alicante – £139
• Pisa – £139
• Munich – £169
• Copenhagen – £179

I decided to select the Copenhagen offer to examine a little closer.

Changing the deal to be for one person:

Checking the BA site showed a fare for the flights shown of £177.30 per person. The hotel shown is available via Booking.Com for $248.78 (£168.09). This creates a price for a solo traveller of £345.39 and for a couple of £261.35 per person. Hence the BA deal does seem to be a decent saving.

However, the property selected does not receive the best of reviews on Tripadvisor:

 Overall

It seems that these deals can offer a decent saving from booking seperately, but be careful of the hotel selected.

*Hotels marked with an
asterisk also offer eBreaks on Thursday. Thursday requires a Friday night stay. Sunday requires a Saturday night stay.

These per-night rates include complimentary breakfast in the UK and many other European destinations. Double occupancy may be higher.

When reserving online, please include MEB in the corporate/promotional box. To reserve by phone, call 0800 221 222 and ask for Marriott eBreaks

A View from the Wing covers the impending work slowdown/strike by LH.

I have been waiting 24 hours now for United to ticket an award ticket on LH using my MileagePlus miles. United tells me that I am a victim of the LH go-slow.

Anyone else impacted?

I have to go to Shanghai in a couple of weeks and am currently sitting on a couple of options with Lufthansa. Which would you prefer?

OPTION ONE

Good

• 3 1/2 hours in the First Class Terminal at Frankfurt
• Lufthansa First Class
• The Asiana flight is actually a 747-Combi with business class sitting in their First Class suites
• I have never flow Asiana

Bad

• The LH plane is an A340
• The journey time is 19 hours

OPTION TWO

Good

• 5 hours in the First Class Terminal at Frankfurt
• Lufthansa First Class
• LH aircraft is a 747 with the separate bed in First
• Journey time is 17 hours

Bad

• Early arrival in Shanghai means hotel will not be ready

So please help me decide by commenting below!

Although the devil is in the detail, the broad idea is that you can enter an amount, pay that amount, and then see if your upgrade clears for Austrian’s Intercontinental routes as well as services to Amman, Astana, Baghdad, Baku, Erbil, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Tripoli and Yerevan.

Key conditions:

• Does not work on tickets purchased in China, India, Israel, Japan, Thailand, Turkey or the UAE
• Within 72 hours before departure Austrian will tell you if the request worked
• You must pay the amount you bid at the time of bidding
• The offer to bid is made once you have completed a booking as part of the booking process but can be requested via the My bookings page on the Austrian site
• It looks like the upgrade books in to P class

FAQ’s here

I was looking at making an Air Baltic reservation this morning and noticed that they have some interesting options. Air Baltic operate to a large number of destinations in Eastern and Western Europe from their hub in Riga

On-Time Arrival Guarantee

If you pay a EUR24 fee at time of booking, and are subsequently more than an hour late at your final destination, they will give you a voucher for EUR165 for the next booking.

Seat Reservation
You can select a seat for a fee of EUR14.99 to EUR19.99

Special Deliveries on Board

You can order special treats to be delivered on the plane:

Pre-order Meals

You can pre-order a wide range of meals for diet or religious reasons:

Couple stuck in a lift at the IBIS Luton and miss flight

The hotel claimed it was an ‘act of nature’ and that they were not liable when this couple got stuck in a lift, having stayed at the hotel the night before their flight to Turkey. They got to check-in too late for their break.

Pupils’ reading skills impacted by Heathrow flight noise

The BBC report here that kids under the Heathrow flightpath reach learning levels slower (up to 2 months slower) than pupils not under the landing planes.

Cardiff airport in trouble again

The taxpayer has purchased the airport for £52m following five years of declining numbers. They hope to benefit from Heathrow being full. Report here.

The UK replaces its Search and Rescue helicopters with fewer as start of privatisation of service

As part of the UK spending cuts, the Royal Navy will give up its role saving people from the water, boats and beaches around the UK. This week the Government announced that it was replacing the current 40 helicopters with 22, although they claim that 85% of the area currently covered will still be reached in the same time as now. Report here.