We all now know about musician Dave Carroll who composed United Breaks Guitars and posted it on YouTube after the airline damaged his treasured Taylor acoustic guitar at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. His video had three and half million hits in ten days and has been a PR disaster for the airline, which has seen its share price plunge by 10 per cent, wiping $180 million off the company’s value.

However, as most of us are not gifted musicians there are other avenues to pursue to actually get your message across to an airline that may have provided “less than acceptable” customer service or value for money from your perspective.

One of the best known is a letter of complaint sent to Sir Richard Branson, which must rank as the world’s funniest passenger complaint letter.

Dear Mr Branson,

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.
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Ryanair, the cut price airline specialising in cheap flights, have announced a dramatic 40% cut its Stansted Airport Winter Schedule starting in October ’09.

Ryanair currently operate 40 aircraft from Stansted Airport but will reduce this to 24 aircraft and in addition will also reduce the number of weekly flights by 30%.

This will have the net effect of reducing Ryanair’s passenger numbers who enjoy the benefit of cheap flights by an estimated 2.5 million between October this year and March 2010.

Ryanair’s Chief Exec Michael O’Leary has blamed the drastic cuts on Gordon Brown’s £10 tourist tax and BAA’s high airport charges, saying that these are also damaging London and UK tourism and the British economy generally.

This follows on from the Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Spanish governments scrapping tourist taxes and/or reducing airport charges in order to stimulate tourism. Meanwhile the UK Government plans to increase its £10 tourist tax to £11 from November.

This latest announcement from Ryanair will not only impact the availability of cheap flights but also coincides with Ryanair’s closure of baggage check in and the introduction of additional charges for placing baggage in the hold.

Therefore, to get the “true” cheap flight price as advertised you will have to increasingly rely on taking just carry on hand luggage, with the contents complying with the current airport security hand luggage restrictions. This makes it all more important to be doubly cost effective and use travel sized toiletries when going on holidays or flights abroad.

As Latitude draws to a close, all eyes are now on the next big event in the festival season – Global Gathering this coming Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford upon Avon.

Global Gathering is one of Europe’s biggest dance festivals and is due to be a sell-out again so get tickets while you can from www.globalgathering.co.uk. Some of the headliners this year are The Prodigy, Orbital, Pendulum, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Burren, David Guetta, Carl Cox, Sasha, Dubfire, Fedde Le Grande, ATB, Tiga and Sander van Doorn to name but a few! And brand new for this year is “The Godskitchen Boombox” which is going to be fantastic.

However, to make sure you get the max out of the music its worthwhile doing a little preparation before you travel to Stratford to start the festivities. So here’s our Top Ten Tips for camping at Global Gathering this year:

1. Charge everything up to the max! No, not the credit card – that comes later, your electrical items. Charge up your mobile phone, ipod, camera and any other electrical items you will be taking with you, you don’t want to carry around dead weights.
2. Check your camping cooker! Make sure that your cooker works AND that you’ve got a fresh gas canister. There’s nothing worse than running out half way through cooking when you’re hungry – that’s where you max the credit card! (Of course, if you’re awash with cash and can afford it, enjoy some of the great food on offer for the duration of the festival.)
3. Travel light! Pack only the bare essentials and certainly minimise on any valuables you take with you. Use travel size toiletries where possible, everything from shower gel to toothpaste – you’ll be surprised how much room you can save in a cramped tent.

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Swine Flu is a highly contagious infection spreading from person to person with potentially deadly results. So what precautions can you easily take to prevent being infected by swine flu?

Swine flu is now widespread in the UK and spreading rapidly, with the number of new cases doubling every seven days. Most of these are because people are catching swine flu in their local community and not as the result of foreign travel.

To be able to prevent against being infected by swine flu you will need to know a little about the influenza virus itself in order to take effective precautions against catching swine flu.

So what is swine flu (or influenza A H1N1)?
Normal flu is an illness caused by an infection of the influenza virus. However, a new highly contagious strain of influenza, known as A (H1N1) or more commonly as swine flu, was confirmed in the UK in April and has spread to more than 100 countries around the world.

How does swine flu spread?
Swine flu appears to be transmitted through respiratory droplets in the same fashion as the common cold. The flu virus can live on a hard surface for up to 24 hours and a soft surface for around 20 minutes.

How to prevent swine flu?
There are a set of guidelines issued by the Government with a simple way to remember them as – CATCH IT. BIN IT. KILL IT. (Download the Swine Flu Information Leaflet)

There are two key elements in containing the spread of swine flu:

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Ryanair has announced that it will open a total of 11 new routes from Oslo starting in September 2009. Seven new routes will open from Oslo (Rygge) Airport and four new routes from Oslo (Torp) to give passengers even more choice for travelling across Europe.

The seven new routes operating from Oslo (Rygge) from October will be between Alicante, Barcelona (Girona), Brussels (Charleroi), Bremen, London (Stansted), Madrid and Milan (Bergamo).

The four new routes operating from Oslo (Torp) from September will be between Krakow, Lodz, Paris (Beauvais), and Rome (Ciampino).

Ryanair has celebrated the opening of these 11 new routes at Oslo by releasing 1 million 1NOK (Norwegian Kroner) seats for travel across its European network in September and October which are available for booking on www.ryanair.com until midnight tonight – Friday 17th July.

This brand new fragrance for men from Calvin Klein is called ck free and is described as aromatic, warm and woody.

ck free Mens Fragrance

The ck free range for men will be launched in September and will consist of 30ml, 50ml and 100ml EDT sprays, a 100ml after shave and a 150ml after shave balm.

There is also a 200ml hair and body wash and a 75g deodorant stick to complete the ck free range.

The slim bevelled edge EDT bottle will make it an ideal travel size fragrance for packing as part of your carry on hand luggage for flights.

View a further selection of  Mens Travel Size Fragrances in the Travel Size Toiletries shop!

If you’re heading off to T in the Park festival this week it’s about time to start thinking about packing your stuff for the campsite.

The real key of what you pack for camping is to keep the size and weight of everything down to a minimum. So don’t take full size products with you, buy travel size toiletries instead! These little beauties will SAVE their weight in gold when you are trying to fit everything (including the kitchen sink) into a rucksack or bag.

Here are our travel size toiletries top ten for this year’s T in the Park festival:

1. Body Wash – The showers are open every morning and you’ll find them in Red 11 at the perimeter fence. But remember that all the body wash / soap / shower gel used should be phosphate free to help protect the environment of Loch Leven. Dove Go Fresh body wash comes in a tiny 55ml pocket size and has the great fragrance of cucumber and green tea.
2. Shave Oil – Nuage Shaving Oil with menthol and eucalyptus comes in a mini 20ml can that’s only 11cm tall. It makes you wonder why you’re taking a wash bag!
3. Hair Care – Salon chic shine serum comes in a travel size 50ml pump action bottle, only 11cm tall, that gives your hair instant shine and lustre, smoothing frizz and frayed ends.

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8 days free airport parking when you stay at one of the Hilton Hotels at Heathrow, Stanstead or Gatwick Airports.

Although Hilton Hotels have just launched their 2 nights for 1 deal, it’s still worth bearing in mind that their free 8 days airport parking offer runs up until 31st December.

If you are going to start your holiday by travelling by air, what better way to beat the travel “rush” to the airport on the morning of your flight? Just travel down the night before and unwind and let your holiday start early.

As long as you book a one night stay at one of their participating airport hotels you get:

• Up to 8 days (7 nights) inclusive airport parking
• Kids stay and eat FREE
• Use of the LivingWell Health club

For full details visit Park and Fly or for details of other offer see Hilton Hotels Offers

Severe Weather Flood Warning for the South West of England issued by the Met Office.

While the UK basks in the sunshine there are two extremes of weather on display in the South of England today. While the South East has been declared a Level 3 Heatwave by the Met Office the South West has been issued with a Severe Weather Warning for Flooding.

Thunderstorms are forecast to affect parts of South West England during the day with more than 15 mm of rainfall in 3 hours in some places. The heavy rain is expected to hit Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay.

The rain is likely to have a dramatic impact with travel disruption on motorways and other road travel. Motorists are advised to take extra care and refer to the Highways Agency for further advice on traffic disruption on motorways and trunk roads.

French travel retailer Aelia is to introducing a new travel size men’s fragrance called Travelling. Available only in a 75ml travel size it will be available exclusively in their Duty Free outlets.

Azzaro Travelling - Travel Size Fragrance for Men

Aelia has previously collaborated with Parfums Azzaro (the Clarins Group) to produce exclusive ranges such as Jetlag and Cockpit. The new fragrance will be gradually introduced across their outlets which are in 20 airports in France, Great Britain and Poland.

The new travel size fragrance is described as fresh, woody and exotic, and is presented in a “refined and elegant” bottle, according to Aelia.