This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the Contact link at the top, or leave a comment.

Dominican Republic

Source: Sam Smith

Entry to Dominican Republic is by air, by ferry from Puerto Rico, or by bus from Haiti (Port Au Prince to Santo Domingo is the easiest option). Airlines flying to Dominican Republic include:

• Star Alliance – Air Canada (La Romana & Puerto Plata & Punta Cana), Austrian (Punta Cana), Continental (Puerto Plata & Punta Cana & Santo Domingo), United (Punta Cana), US Airways (Punta Cana & Santo Domingo)
• Oneworld – American (La Romana & Puerto Plata & Punta Cana & Santiago & Santo Domingo), British Airways (Punta Cana), Iberia (Santo Domingo), LAN (Punta Cana)
• Sky Team – Air Europa (Punta Cana & Santo Domingo), Air France (Punta Cana & Santo Domingo), Delta (Puerto Plata & Santiago & Santo Domingo)
• Other selected – most Caribbean and Central American airlines, some European and many North American low cost airlines

TIP Air France flies to Dominican Republic on a milk run between Miami and French Guyana.

TIP The routes with reasonable competition on them are Montreal, Toronto, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, New York/Newark, Madrid, Paris and London.

TIP Many flights are seasonal (winter peak). Shoulder and low seasons offer the best deals.

I’ve previously posted how the electronic visa waiver for USA, ESTA, is really a visa in drag. The proposed tourist tax of $10 charged for ESTA applications is a step closing to implementation with US Senate overwhelmingly passing the legislation (source CNN).

The tourist tax is rather insulting. The rationale given is that it is needed to promote USA as a travel destination (yeah tourists love to pay more in taxes) and to spin explain US immigration policies to visitors (making them simpler and more friendly is the obvious solution).

Oneworld

Russian based airlines S7 Airlines is expected to join Oneworld in 2010.  Indian airline Kingfisher is to join in 2011.

Sky Team

In June 2010 Vietnam Airlines and TAROM are expected to join Sky Team.

Star Alliance

Air India has been slated to join Star Alliance for years. No reliable word on their entry date yet.

TAM in South America is due to join Star Alliance mid 2010.  Aegean Airlines was also expected to join mid 2010, but recent announcements of possible merger with Olympic Airlines cast doubt on this.

I think I’ve been grounded for too long. I almost snapped up a ticket for travel this weekend yesterday when I saw a decent sale in first class. Fortunately I came to my senses before hitting the purchase button. While a luxurious weekend break would be nice right now, I’d rather put the money on some longer trips I have planned for later in the year.

UnRoadWarrior has a nice explanation of the different types of upgrades. It is useful to know all the ways to upgrade in order to get the best upgrades, for the least cost, and be successful most often. I look forward to the next post in the series about upgrades.

Note that how upgrades work does vary by airline.

Travellers booked to fly British Airways in early March can breathe a sigh of relief.  The BASSA cabin crew union meeting today did not announce a strike date but instead talks with management are continuing, perhaps spurred on by the recent court decision in the airline’s favour.

Under UK law if there is any strike it must commence within 4 weeks of the end of the ballot and must also have 7 days notice.

Hopefully there will be no strike.

Last week I posted about an upcoming ticket that had changes to 14 of  the 16 flights. Today my inbox had a notification that one of the 2 other flights was changing both schedule and operating aircraft. Any bets on when the last flight will also change?

This reinforces the need to not be overly aggressive in terms of scheduling for trips that are booked months in advance.  For, despite all these changes to this ticket, I don’t yet have any significant problems.  (Admittedly I have another ticket which has been more adversely disrupted by schedule changes – more on that on another day.)

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the Contact link at the top, or leave a comment.

Netherlands

Source: Massimo Catarinella

The Netherlands is easily reached by train, bus, or car, or by ferry from UK.  Many airlines fly to Amsterdam including:

• Star Alliance – Adria, Austrian, bmi, Continental, Croatia, EgyptAir, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, Singapore, Swiss, TAP, Turkish, United, US Airways
• Oneworld – British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan, Malev, Royal Jordanian
• Sky Team – Aeroflot, Air France, Alitalia, China Southern, Czech, Delta, Kenya, KLM, Korean, TAROM
• Other selected – most major European and northern African airlines, most European and northern African low cost airlines, some Middle Eastern airlines, Emirates

TIP There are numerous destinations with direct flights or indirect via a nearby hub. This means there are lots of ways to save on air fares, particularly for longhaul travel and intra-Europe.

TIP Low cost carriers provide cheap fares to holiday destinations through Europe, north Africa, Central America and the Caribbean.

UPDATED August 2010 – Updated for TAM and Aegean joining Star Alliance, Shanghai leaving Star Alliance, Vietnam Airlines and TAROM joining Sky Team. No change to advice.

BASSA, the main cabin crew union for British Airways, has announced the result of their ballot for strike action – 81% in favour of strike and 80% vote turnout.  They have not yet announced a strike and it seems will do so on Thursday.  This makes 4 March the earliest possible date for a BA strike.

Some air traffic controllers in Paris are striking the next 4 days.  Both Paris Orly and Paris Charles de Gaulle airports are affected. Most airlines are running normal or slightly reduced schedules except for Air France which has cancelled most shorthaul flights. Air France longhaul flights will operate as normal.