YYZ TRAVEL HOT DEALS

DISCOVER HUATULCO – A SIMPLE ELEGANCE
Huatulco, Mexico, is exceptionally beautiful vacation destination, famous for soft beaches of white and light golden sands that stretch out to greet turquoise water, famous for its ultimate beauty, service, elegance, food and entertainment. It could be your perfect getaway on Mexico’s southern Pacific coastline. Spend a week starting from Jan. 26 or Feb. 2, 2009, at an all-inclusive resort of your choice and pay only from $775 for hotel room, taxes extra, Toronto departures. For the list of participating hotels, upgrade options and other details, please call your agent at YYZ TRAVEL GROUP.

Costa. Your Caribbean Italy
Enjoy a little Italy in the Tropics and bring the kids along for FREE! Choose from the 12 Caribbean sailings and take advantage of an incredible rate! Special discounts for couples are also available! Your vacation will be filled with love, laughter and la dolce vita! Various Caribbean itineraries, 7 day cruise, departures in January, February and March, 2009. Prices from $669 per person for parents and from $499 per person for couples. Ask for specially priced New Year cruises! Call your agent at YYZ TRAVEL GRPOUP.

Cruise away from Winter
Winter – always too long, too cold and too bitter. Hide for a week cruising at Mexican Riviera  and Hawaii, nice escape from frost and snow.  So, what are you waiting for? Amazing prices on 7 day Mexican Riviera and Hawaiian Island cruises are offered by PRINCES CRUISE LINE. Fares from less than $75 CAD per day! 14 day itineraries are also available. Round trip from Los Angeles, departures from Jan. 3 till May 2, 2009. For details, restrictions and itineraries, please contact your agent at YYZ TRAVEL GROUP.

BRIEFLY:
You can now check in two free bags when travelling on AIR CANADA within North America: Tango, Tango Plus and Latitude economy fares.

BREAKING NEWS:

AIRLINES DROP FUEL SURCHARGES AC, WJ, Porter drop fuel surcharges; lower fares on the horizon?
Recently Air Canada and WestJet dropped their North American fuel surcharges, including them in their advertised base fares. Regional carrier Porter Airlines has also followed suit. WestJet also reduced its fares, and Air Canada cut its fares to stay competitive on select routes. Lower fares may be on the way, if oil prices stay below US $100 a barrel.
The fares posted on the next day by both airlines were the lowest rates since early 2005 – on selected routes for travel prior to Christmas. WestJet and Air Canada are hoping to gain back more customers who stopped flying after fuel prices rose to unprecedented levels this year and when both airlines introduced fuel surcharges in May.
Prices will indeed be better, but consumers are warned not to expect windfall savings, as the latest seat sales may be short-lived.
WestJet will no longer collect one-way fuel surcharges of $20 for short haul, $30 for medium and $45 for longer flights. Air Canada’s fuel charges went as high as $60 one-way for flights into the U.S. from Canada.
Air Canada advised customers that its fees for checking in second bags are cancelled as well.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: American Leads In Launch Of U.S. Inflight Wireless Internet, other carriers to follow
American Airlines in August became the first domestic carrier to launch full wireless inflight Internet access, rolling out the service across its 15-plane Boeing 767-200 fleet. Other carriers, including Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Virgin America, are advancing their own plans to bring Wi-Fi to the sky in the coming months.
American said customers traveling between New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami now can access broadband Wi-Fi services for $12.95 per flight, "enabling passengers to surf the Web, check any e-mail, instant message, access a corporate VPN and more," the carrier said in a statement. American is leveraging the air-to-ground network of inflight connectivity provider Aircell to launch the service. Delta Air Lines in August also partnered with Aircell to embark on an inflight Internet rollout across its entire mainline domestic fleet. Delta said 75 planes would be wired for the service by year-end, and it plans to outfit more than 330 aircraft for wireless broadband by summer 2009, representing the largest planned rollout of inflight Internet to date. Delta plans to launch the service on its 133-aircraft fleet of MD88/90s, then expand it to the rest of its domestic fleet of Boeing 737s, 757s and 767-300s. Delta is following Aircell's pricing of $9.95 on flights lasting three hours or less and $12.95 on longer flights. Aircell's service is limited to the 48 contiguous United States, but Delta expects to expand the service to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Virgin America plans to roll out Wi-Fi fleetwide by spring 2009, using Aircell's service. During the first phase, it will enable customers to access Wi-Fi through such personal devices as laptops, smart phones, PDAs and BlackBerry handheld devices, and the carrier later plans to integrate Internet capabilities into its inflight entertainment system. Virgin America said it has yet to determine the service's pricing structure.
Alaska Airlines is in the testing phases with Row 44's satellite-based inflight technology, though the carrier plans to roll out the service to its entire fleet by the end of the fall. Southwest Airlines earlier this year signed a deal to test inflight Internet with Row 44. Prices have not been determined yet.
While its utility remains limited to e-mail and messaging services, JetBlue Airways subsidiary LiveTV this summer announced an agreement to purchase the Verizon Airfone network to bulk up its inflight connectivity platform.
JetBlue late last year rolled out limited Internet capabilities through LiveTV on a single plane. The free service enables connectivity through its seatback televisions, BlackBerrys and laptops. Yet, it can only access a limited number of services, including Yahoo! mail and instant messaging, Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Windows Live, which includes Hotmail, MSN e-mail accounts, AOL and Amazon.com. Continental Airlines plans to use LiveTV's offering to make inflight Wi-Fi available early next year with an inflight entertainment system on domestic aircraft. Continental plans to offer complimentary LiveTV access to first class customers, and charge $6 for economy passengers.
Air Canada to keep passengers connected
Air Canada will begin offering passengers live inflight Internet next spring under a new agreement with Aircell, taking a major step forward to becoming the first Canadian airline to provide its customers inflight, online access through Gogo. The airline intends to begin operating Gogo by spring 2009 aboard Airbus A319 aircraft on select flights to the US west coast and will be accessible by customers with a standard, wi-fi equipped laptop or Personal Electronic Device (PED). Initially, the Gogo system will be powered by Aircell’s existing network and only available in the US in order to make Air Canada’s rollout fast, economical and simple. Upon successful completion of the initial phase, Air Canada plans to extend the system throughout its North American and International markets as Aircell’s coverage network expands.

BREAKING News: Mobile Check-in Method
 It has been a mooted problem in the airline industry for a very long time – the airline passenger is the most stressed out of all passengers. They check their tickets more than anybody else and are more stressed about getting to the airport in time than those who use other means of transport. Travellers by coach tend to sit on the coach, close their eyes and wake up at their destination. On the other hand, air travellers check their tickets numerous times, stressfully arrange transport to the airport, constantly check flight information and often stress about what they are allowed to bring or take with them. Thus, airlines have been trying to reduce the level of stress in recent years.
We have seen the introduction of the reduction of time the passengers need to be at the airport before departure. Similarly, the introduction of electronic tickets and bar codes for check-in eradicates the horrendous thought of losing tickets. Now, reservation software Sabre and the Italian carrier AirOne have teamed up to produce a new opportunity for passengers: checking-in using a mobile phone. This could totally eradicate the necessity to stand in queues with luggage and thus reduce the amount of time passengers need to spend at the airport.
The self-service check-in is similarly a very effective way for people to cut costs and improves the customer experience. Passengers with an internet enabled phone are sent information about the flight 24 hours in advance. The IATA-approved bar code is also sent along with the remaining information. Soon, the checking-in process could be made even simpler with the introduction of the possibility of checking-in via SMS. It has been envisaged that air travellers could soon begin to enjoy the same level of relaxation as coach users and still get to their destinations in a fraction of the time it takes by coach.

NEW ROUTES, NEW SERVICES

Porter Restores 7 Daily Toronto-Newark Flights
Starting from September 3rd, Porter Airlines began flying a full schedule of seven roundtrip flights every weekday between Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA) and Newark Liberty International Airport, in Newark, N.J. In addition, Porter will operate three roundtrips on Saturdays and six on Sundays. Porter’s September schedule includes slightly modified departure times and the restoration of late-afternoon flights in each direction that were suspended as part of the summer schedule. The airline flies from its own dedicated terminal at TCCA, close to downtown Toronto.
In other news, the airline is exercising options for two Bombardier Aerospace Q400 aircraft, an order representing aircraft number 15 and 16 in the Porter fleet, scheduled for delivery in 2009. Porter operates a 70-seat version of the Q400.

LAN Airlines LAUNCHES IN CANADA
LAN Airlines has hosted a reception to celebrate their inaugural flight between Santiago, Chile and Toronto.  Service between  Santiago, Chile and Toronto features five flights per week via New York City on a Boeing 767. Once in Santiago, passengers have access to flights to multiple destinations within Chile and Argentina. LAN service is a great alternative for passengers travelling to the South America region. Passengers wishing to travel between Toronto and New York now have another carrier choice for the popular route. In New York, passengers can also connect to Lima, Peru with LAN Airlines.
The oneworld alliance-affiliated LAN flies to 19 countries, 65 destinations and another 58 additional destinations via codeshares. The airline has been presented with various awards, including Best Regional Airline in South America from Skytrax for the fifth time. Another 26 Boeing aircraft are set to be delivered in a $3.5 billion deal, the largest in the airline’s history, and this Toronto expansion is just one part of the plan.

Tashkent with Korean Air
Korean Air’s new service between Seoul (Incheon International Airport) and Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan, operates three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on B777-200s. Strategically located in the middle of Central Asia, Tashkent is “a great gateway for traffic to and through the region” says Korean Air. Fares are available from Canada to Uzbekistan via Seoul.

WestJet moves to Terminal 1 at Vegas
WestJet has moved its operations at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas (LAS) from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1, which, according to the carrier, offers passengers more amenities such as additional shopping and restaurant choices. The terminal also has more opportunities to accommodate WestJet’s growing transborder operations and makes Las Vegas the airline’s first US destination to offer guests self-serve check-in options.

ON THE RED CARPET
Singapore Airlines Voted the Best Once Again
 
The airline industry is just as fickle as any other major business. Therefore, it is surprising that Singapore Airlines have been voted the world’s best for the 3rd time in 10 years, despite huge competition coming from all corners of the globe. Indeed, the results of the recent World Airline Awards by Skytrax are quite surprising considering the fact that price is becoming a more and more important factor in today’s market. Even businessmen are resorting to saving money rather than allowing their companies to splash out on unnecessary luxuries. Singapore Airlines have not succumbed to lowering prices nor have they put a great deal on offer. Basically: the standard of services has just remained superb.
The argument that the survey involved an amount of bias is absolutely invalid as 15 million people participated in it and the survey itself took 11 months to be completed. Singapore Airlines was chosen mainly for the high level of service and very low level of problems encountered by passengers. It was also the first airline in the world to have introduced the super-modern A380 airbus to the skies.
Elsewhere, Cathay Pacific picked up the 2nd place award, mostly in respect of its superb level of service for business class passengers. On the other side of the scale, EasyJet has been voted the world’s best budget airline. This has, of course, little to do with delays, yet owes a lot to the variety of journeys available, the low level of delays and sheer value for money. The award for the most improved airline went to Korea’s Asiana airline, which managed to climb from 12th place to 5th place in the space of a year. If the Koreans continue to provide such great service to business and economy passengers, they may even surpass their rivals from Singapore.

BRIEFLY:
Sunwing is introducing new nonstop routes to Las Vegas from Toronto and Vancouver on Thursdays and Sundays on its B737s.

Porter finalizes two more Bombardier Q400 options
Porter Airlines is exercising existing options for two Bombardier Aerospace Q400 aircraft. The order represents aircraft 15 and 16 in the Porter fleet, scheduled for delivery in 2009.

Flyglobespan introduces new service to Cardiff
Starting June 6, 2009, flyglobespan will offer flights from Hamilton, Ont. to Cardiff, Wales with weekly service departing every Saturday through September.

EMIRATES PARTNERS WITH ATLANTIS, DUBAI
Emirates passengers flying First Class to or via Dubai will receive a two-night complimentary stay at Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah’s luxurious flagship resort at The Palm Dubai. Business Class passengers get a one-night complimentary stay.  This applies to all customers travelling the non-stop Toronto – Dubai route that operates three days a week.

PLACES TO STAY

Hampton opens in Saint John
Saint John, NB, has gained its first new hotel in years, with The Hampton Inn Hotel & Suites now welcoming guests. The property is found in Saint John’s shopping and restaurant district and has 116 rooms, including king suites, Jacuzzi suites and wheelchair-accessible units. Guests will find a complimentary hot buffet breakfast, complimentary parking, complimentary newspapers, a heated indoor pool, waterslide and hot tub, business centre, meeting rooms and catering service.

Fairmont debuts in India
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has been appointed to manage a hotel in Hyderabad, in the capital city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the first Fairmont property to be announced in India. Opening in 2010, the Fairmont Hyderabad will feature 350 rooms and suites. Amenities will include a variety of restaurants, meeting and function space, including a ballroom for up to 800 people, a pool and a Willow Stream Spa. The hotel is located near the growing business development area of the city, dubbed Cyberabad.

TRAVEL ALA CARTE

SOMETHING’S BREWING WITH SUNWING
The next time you get on a flight to the sun you will love your cup of coffee till the last drop. That’s because, as part of its commitment to support Canadian businesses, Sunwing Airlines has just signed a significant agreement with Robitaille’s coffee supply company.  Starting in November, the family owned Saguenay based company will be providing all the coffee served on board Sunwing airplanes – two million cups’ worth this winter alone.

As a Canadian Carrier, Sunwing is strongly committed  to support Canadian suppliers. They have been serving Peller Estate wines form the Niagara Region, Alexander Keith’s and Kokanee, as well as Labatt’s Blue. Canadian suppliers are also used for many inflights supplies such as juice and coffee cups, and all food is made and prepared in Canada. And Robitaille’s company is just the latest Canadian supplier for the airline, which this winter will operate 15 Boeing 737 aircraft on flights from across Canada to the south.