If you are planning to board a British Airways flight soon, here’s a word of warning – take your own nibbles or you could end up sky-high and very hungry – the struggling airline has axed meals, sandwiches and other foods on flights from London Heathrow that last less than two and a half hours, in a bid to slash spiraling costs…

All short-haul flights leaving Heathrow after 10am will no longer be serving meals to passengers. Instead, they will have to bring their own food, or make do with a biscuit or a ‘snack-bite’ instead. Those flying before 10am will continue to get their free brekkie.

Similar cutbacks have already been implemented on flights from London Gatwick after BA’s research found that many in-flight meals are left untouched, thus causing a waste of food and money.

The new plans will affect those passengers flying to destinations such as Madrid in Spain.

Long-haul passengers will also be fed less – those in economy will have their free bottles of water replaced with ‘water cuplets’ while those in business class will have their second meal reduced.

As cost cutting solutions go, to me this seems eminently easier to stomach (sorry) than other airlines’ measures, such as Ryanair’s ludicrous ‘standing room only’ flights and wee-fees.

The range of free alcoholic drinks on short-haul flights will also be reviewed as part of the changes, which the airline says could save a whopping £22 million a year.

But, those who are anti the new plans say that BA is making a risky move and stands to lose many of its passengers to other airlines. But many of the budget airlines already charge for food or have a ‘bring your own’ policy.

The new food and drink plans are to be introduced next month, just a month after BA proposed that its staff take a month’s ‘pay holiday’ in order to keep the airline afloat.

For the latest news on travel and tourism, and the property market in general, please visit http://www.themovechannel.com/news/travel_and_tourism/

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Notes to editors:

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This little special offer had me laughing out loud at its unintended tongue in cheek genius – the German arm of holiday company Thomas Cook is offering a new service to German travellers that could spell the end of haggling over sun beds – holidaymakers at nine hotels across Turkey, Egypt and the Canary Islands can now book their sun-loungers in advance for a fee…

Heading down to the pool early in the morning in order to secure a sun-bed for the day? Well, you won’t be the first. German holidaymakers are so practiced at the art that they reserve loungers with towels at the crack of dawn before heading back to bed or to breakfast. It’s a practice that has been irritating the hell out of tourists from other countries for years, even though other nationalities can be just as unforgiving in the beach towel wars.

Now, one holiday company has had a brainwave and is offering a paid-for booking service for sun loungers in advance of the holiday, at nine hotels across Turkey, Egypt and the Canary Islands.

Reserving a lounger and beach umbrella in advance will cost about three euros (£2.60) a day, on top of the holiday package. For a weekly rate of 49 euros per room a family can reserve one lounger for each person, along with a beach umbrella and their own dining table at six Egyptian hotels.

Booking sun beds before you have even left home seems to rather defeat the relaxed holiday vibe and how are you going to know if you need one for certain days? If people are booking beds for every day of their holiday just in case and then not using them, this could mean others who haven’t been offered this service are being left out in the cold, with no sun-bed to call their own, whilst empty beds languish in the sun.

But one of Thomas Cook’s Managers, Peter Fankhauser, said that ‘with this we're relieving our clients of early morning stress.’

The service has already proved popular and may well be rolled out to other nations in the future. Currently, says Mathias Brandes, Head of Communications at Thomas Cook in Germany, it is available only to Germans.

For the latest news on travel and tourism, and the property market in general, please visit http://www.themovechannel.com/news/travel_and_tourism/

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Notes to editors:

TheMoveChannel.com is a property website that was founded in 1999 as an online resource for buying, selling and learning about property. It now receives as many as 300,000 visits per month and advertises over 50,000 properties in nearly 90 countries, which are listed by over 500 partner organisations.

For further information, please contact:

Dan Johnson

Managing Director

www.themovechannel.com

0207 952 7650

Huge cutbacks in winter flight schedules could wreak havoc with those who own second homes and want to spend time at them during the colder months – budget airline Ryanair has announced drastic cutbacks in the number of flights leaving Stansted – meaning that thousands face being cut off over the winter…

Ryanair will cull ten of its regular flights leaving from London’s Stansted airport and cut down the level of frequency on as many as 30 other routes.

Second home owners with properties in France will be affected, but the airline has yet to announce which exact routes will be affected by the cuts.

It has been suggested that some of the flights that are to be completely cut include services to Ireland, whilst other changes would affect flights to the continent.

People who own second properties in Spain should be unaffected as the Spanish Government has scrapped tourist taxes, thus the properties are still used frequently during the winter, ensuring that the flights are fairly full and ‘earning their keep.’

But, as those with holiday homes in France seem to visit them less, these flights will be up for the axe.

Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said, “You find that people don’t use these French places in November, December, January and February and they never have.

“People who go to a holiday home in the west of France for one weekend in November are hardly going to fill a plane.

“I can’t reassure anybody. If they want reassurance, they should write to Gordon Brown,” he added.

The aviation industry is suffering its worst period since 9/11, with airlines being forced to cut back on services in a bid to save money. Ryanair is hoping that its cutbacks will force the airports to ditch expensive landing charges during the quiet winter months.

The cuts at Stansted, Ryanair's largest base in Britain, will mean that the airline is operating 168 fewer flights than it did during the same period last year and carrying 2.5 million fewer people than last winter.

One place you won’t have to worry about getting to is Oslo in Norway – flying in the face of other cuts, the budget airline has announced that it will launch a brand new service to the city from Stansted this October.

For the latest news on travel and tourism, and the property market in general, please visit http://www.themovechannel.com/news/travel_and_tourism/

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

TheMoveChannel.com is a property website that was founded in 1999 as an online resource for buying, selling and learning about property. It now receives as many as 300,000 visits per month and advertises over 50,000 properties in nearly 90 countries, which are listed by over 500 partner organisations.

For further information, please contact:

Dan Johnson

Managing Director

www.themovechannel.com

0207 952 7650

Now this is a brilliant idea – I’m sure I’m not the only one who is left fuming when all of the extras are totted up and suddenly that budget flight isn’t such a bargain afterall –from check-in fees to baggage fees to wee fees, the flights masquerading as cheap are often not really saving you anything…

When booking a flight to travel to Spain, I headed for a budget airline’s website. Five minutes later, I headed away from said website. Swiftly. When selecting how many bags I wanted to check in, there was an option for ‘zero’, which I hit. The charge was £16. Yes, £16 to check in no bags. The same price to check in one. How on earth does that work?

Couple that with a seat reservation fee, possible ‘speedy boarding,’ fee, insurance fees and carbon offsetting fees and I may as well have gone with another, less ‘budget’ airline.

British Airways feel the same and is now seeking to expose the extent of low-cost airlines’ extra charges by launching a ‘value calculator’ on its website.

Log on and choose how you want to travel – from checking in to choosing a seat and eating on the plane. The calculator then pulls up the added extra costs courtesy of airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.

Whilst the price you get on BA currently includes everything, Ryanair charges up to a whopping £80 for checking in at the airport and £8 for priority boarding. Don’t even get me started on the putting a bag in the hold fee.

Richard Tams, Head of UK and Ireland sales at BA, estimates that passengers can pay up to £375 in extras on return Ryanair flights and up to £79 on easyJet.

“The no-frills carriers claim they are always cheaper. Our calculator shows they are not,” he said. The Air Transport Users’ Council has also welcomed the move.

Now, BA is hardly top of the pops right at the moment either – announcing pre-tax losses of £401 million last year and asking staff to work for a month for no wages. But what they are doing here – exposing these bargain airlines and blowing apart their ‘cheap’ offerings – is much needed.

We can only hope BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh doesn’t go ahead with his threat to start charging for extras too, thus making a total mockery of this great new idea.

For the latest news on travel and tourism, and the property market in general, please visit http://www.themovechannel.com/news/travel_and_tourism/

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

TheMoveChannel.com is a property website that was founded in 1999 as an online resource for buying, selling and learning about property. It now receives as many as 300,000 visits per month and advertises over 50,000 properties in nearly 90 countries, which are listed by over 500 partner organisations.

For further information, please contact:

Dan Johnson

Managing Director

www.themovechannel.com

0207 952 7650