More Winter Flight Disruption

Here we are again ! Snow falls and flights get disrupted or for rather too many people, cancelled and their holidays lost. We all moan and complain but until the authorities get their act together and find ways to keep airports open, that's about the best we can do - or is it?

John Tangey - Chairman of the Association of Independent Tour Operators Aviation Committee - said yesterday

" ... passengers who booked with a tour operator are fortunate. Anybody who has made their own travel arrangements are on their own and now have to rebook flights, car-hire and hotel accommodation, not an appealing prospect for stressed travellers. "

As a Tour Operator, Amro is monitoring all flights for our customers during the current disruption. Where possible we are contacting both those at home and overseas to ensure they are fully informed of what is happening and re-booking at no additional cost.

So whilst we can't stop the snow, we can minimise the inconvenience and stress - yet another benefit of booking with a tour operator.

The Nightmare of Non-Stop Confusion !!

‘According to EU figures, more than half of all people who buy flights, hotel rooms and car hire online risk being left without compensation if companies fail’ said Fiona Jeffery, chair of World Travel Market – the UK’s largest travel trade fair - speaking about the EU’s Package Travel Directive. This is the Europe wide directive which was supposed to ensure that when you bought a holiday and someone went out of business, you were fully financially protected.

‘A staggering 56% of all travellers are now estimated to use the internet rather than high street travel agents to organise their trips, but protection safeguards have not been put into place to deal with the digital age’ she continued. It’s time to end the Nightmare of Non-Stop Confusion!!

Here at Amro, we agree the whole business is nothing short of confusion and even we have to stop and think sometimes. But let’s keep it simple, book a flight and accommodation at the same time with Amro – either online or through our call centre – and you’ll be fully financially protected. Moreover when something goes wrong, like last week when flights were cancelled, we’ll change your flight and, if necessary, extend your holiday at no extra cost.

But what about waiting for the Last-Minute Deals ?

So ran a headline in yesterday’s Sunday Times Travel Section written by no less than Chris Haslam, the editor. He describes looking for a deal this year as a barrel scrapping exercise and outlines how most holiday companies, Amro Worldwide included, have honed their stock-management skills from the art of guesstimate to that of laser sharp precision to ensure minimal unsold holidays which are sold off at a discount.

Irritatingly, he continues, the best way to get a deal now is to book early and with some 2011 holiday offers due to expire by 31 August – that’s tomorrow – he’s probably right. But you don’t really have to book that early with Amro Worldwide to secure a good priced deal.

Book 8 - 12 weeks out – that’s now for November - and you should find plenty of choice at a fair price. Look for September and there’s not much left although we do have some space at the all-gay male Beach Boys or Tenesoya in Gran Canaria on 18 September with flights for around £400 each. But it is not going to get any cheaper !!

It’s difficult in the current economic climate to plan far ahead but just a few more weeks planning ahead for your holiday could save you a lot of money.

Another travel company goes out of business

That’s the third medium sized company to fail in the past month after the much publicised Goldtrail and the less publicised Sun 4 U. So what is going on in the travel industry this summer and how can you be sure that both your money and holiday are safe ?

The former is easy – book an ATOL protected holiday that includes not just the flights but accommodation, transfers and anything else – in other words, a traditional holiday package. Breaking it up into individual elements can leave you financially exposed if any one element fails.

But getting your money back is little consolation if you loose your holiday. Travel companies succeed by mixing the number of holidays they sell with the margin they make on each holiday. Get this mix wrong and there can be problems.

Most of the recent failures have been mid-sized companies where the margins are small and the number of holidays sold is less than expected. So stick with the smaller specialist companies such as Amro Worldwide for the gay and lesbian traveller where volumes are less critical. Or book with the big two who pile it high and sell it cheap and go for volume. They also have the financial strength to survive a difficult year. And of these two options, Amro Worldwide gives both security with its ATOL Protection and service with its wide product knowledge and promptly answered phones - a comforting combination in these difficult times.

Beware of Fake Breaks

I was browsing the computer magazine ComputerActive over the weekend and a picture of a sandy beach and the headline Beware of Fake Breaks caught my eye.

It seems that ABTA and an organisation called Get Safe Online have carried out research that shows that travel buyers are ignoring basic online crime prevention measures. They get caught up in the excitement of a bargain dream holiday and caution goes out of the window, making them prime targets for fraudsters.

One in three fail to check the authenticity of travel providers by looking for contact information such as landline phone numbers or street addresses, let alone checking for the company name rather than brand name from whom they are buying.

One in five don’t check that the payment website is secure with an https:// URL. It is easy to put the secure padlock logo on an unsecure website misleading the buyer into thinking their card information is encrypted when it is really open for all to see.

Everyone wants a bargain but do check these simple things first as there seem to be fraudsters out in cyberspace. I am pleased that Amro Worldwide is up there with the best in transparency for our online bookings and if you search, you can even find a photo of Andrew !

I was saddened to see the pictures over the weekend of Goldtrail holidaymakers at airports and overseas having their precious holidays spoiled or even cancelled.

In some senses, the Goldtrail holidaymakers were the lucky ones as Goldtrail held an ATOL licence. Their holidays have been spoilt but the CAA will ensure that those still to go will get their money back in due course and those overseas will be flown home at no additional costs. If they had not booked a package holiday but had created the holiday themselves either online or with a non-ATOL travel agent, they would have been left to fend for themselves.

Holiday companies are failing all the time - Monster Travel failed earlier in the week with almost as much disruption but failed to hit the headlines. I can’t understand why anyone would not book an ATOL Protected holiday these days – it might cost a few pounds more but at least you won’t loose any money if things turnout not the way expected. And with ash clouds and bad weather, strikes and walkouts, that seems to be happening quite a lot this summer.

IGLTA and Gran Canaria

Ever since Amro Worldwide started selling holidays to Gran Canaria, I have been puzzled as to why Europe's most popular gay destination had so few members of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association. I mused about why, with around 150 gay business with bars, restaurants, clubs and saunas plus a wide range of exclusively gay and gay-friendly accommodation, so few decided that membership of a worldwide gay travel network was not important.

So I decided that IGLTA needed some wider publicity on the Island and last autumn, approached Carlos Kytka, the European Ambassador who led me to Dario Jaen the Local Maspalomas Tourism Manager. The outcome after several meetings and phone calls was a presentation about IGLTA held on Tuesday 2 February. We were delighted that ExpoMeloneras - the local conference centre in Maspalomas - made a room available for us.

And so representatives from over 30 businesses including the local hospital gathered for a presentation by Carlos about IGLTA membership, an outlining of the benefits of working together to develop Gran Canaris to retain its leadership in the European Gay Travel Market from Dario and me explaining how membership of IGLTA had helped Amro to develop into the worldwide gay travel company it is today.

It was an excellent afternoon and I felt a real buzz about gay travel in the air. I am confident we will see many new members at the IGLTA Annual Convention in Antwerp at the end of June

Price Match Promise

It's good to see that the Euro has weakened against sterling this week by around 2.5% meaning we have been able to reduce the price of the accommodation element of your holiday cost. It's not a huge saving but after all the bad news of 2009, it is a small step in the right direction.

It has enabled us to have some really cracking good pricing deals for holidays going away over the next few weeks. So check out our Home Page offers.

We've also upped our Price Match Promise so you can be sure that you never pay more for your holiday than you need.

Gay Cruise Discounts

Gay Cruising has justifiably become very popular over recent years whether it be on whole ship charters or as part of a gay group on a traditional cruise. The idea that you can mix with like-minded people and meet new friends whilst enjoying visiting several destinations whilst only unpacking once is catching on fast. Plus it is great value as well.

Amro Worldwide is now making it even better value by offering discounts on gay cruises around the world. Plus we offer the financial protection of our ATOL 5826 and our unrivalled expertise in booking flights and pre and post cruise packages to make your cruise a holiday to remember.