A Blog for Anglophiles
Cunard, the only remaining transatalntic cruise line, is spnsoring an incredible contest to win passage on the Queen Mary 2 along with Travel and Leisure Magazine.
Prize Details are:
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The prize is worth almost $10,000! You have until March 31st, to enter.
To enter go to the website here.
Good luck!
One of the things on my ‘Britain Bucket List’ is to sail the Atlantic on a Transatlantic Cruise – Cunard still runs regular service between New York and Southhampton (and many other destinations, in fact).
Cunard is currently running a contest for a free transatlantic crossing on the new Queen Mary 2. You get to travel in style from New York to England, like never before.
The price includes:
This is perfect for all those Anglophiles out there afraid to fly!
You must be a US Citizen 21 years or older to enter. Contest Ends February 28th, 2010.
To enter the contest, click here.
I’m always monitoring the net for the latest British Airways deals and while their recent (and fantastic) sale is over for now, they’ve partnered with Visit Britain for a new promotion.
By booking through this link, you can save $50 on roundtrip airfare in economy (coach) or $150 on World Traveler Plus (more legroom).
Pretty sweet deal. I priced a fake flight out for January and it came up at $877 per person – not bad! The link/discount is good until January 4th, 2010 for travel until March 28th, 2010.
You must click this link to get the discount.
Happy Travels!
Capitalizing on the popularity of my recent guide to London related iPhone apps, I thought it might be a good idea to put together a post about issues you’ll face traveling internationally with an iPhone.
Over the last two years, there have been several stories to hit the mainstream media talking about people who’ve gone a trip abroad, used their iPhone and gotten home to the shock of a $10,000 phone bill. While the iPhone is a revolution for travelers – due to the unfair pricing practices of AT&T, iPhone users must be careful on how they use their iPhone while traveling.
Here are some tips for making the most use of your iPhone while abroad – geared towards the UK and London.
Yes.
Depends. Two issues here – calling and data roaming.
For International Roaming for phone calls you need to make sure international roaming is activated on your AT&T account. It’s also a good idea to pay for a package of minutes to use while you’re gone. They can be expensive but you’ll save money over going without an international calling plan. Also, you’ll need to be sure to cancel the plan once you return or they will keep billing you for it.
For Internaional Data roaming, you can also get a data package from AT&T. However, these packages is simply ridiculously priced.
AT&T International iPhone Data Plans
This is the nuclear option. If you don’t want any extra charges at all, the best way to ensure that is to put your phone in airplane mode for the duration of your trip. This basically turns off all data functionality (including wifi) on your iphone and pretty much turns it into an iPod Touch. While this may be useful and work with most London travel apps, you won’t be able to use the GPS functionality, which will be particularly useful in a confusing city like London.
To Turn on Airplane mode go to –> Settings –> Airplane Mode.
This is the best option for dealing with extra charges, simply turn off international data roaming. You will not be able to use any app that requires access to the internet unless you are connected to a WIFI hotspot. Even with Data Roaming turned off, GPS will still work.
To turn off data roaming go to –> Setting –> General –> Data Roaming On/Off.
There are thousands of free WIFI hotspots in London and most hotels have free broadband internet. This means that you can safely rely on WIFI to handle most of your data traffic. So, either keep WIFI on at all times (which will drain the battery) or plan your data usage to be near a WIFI hotspot. And as Apple likes to say, there’s surely an app for that – for finding free WIFI in London.
GPS does not use the cellphone data networks, so you can safely use it without incurring data charges. It will work even with international data roaming turned off.
Even with an international calling plan, phone calls back to the US will be expensive. So, a great option will be to use a VOIP application like SKYPE that will mimic the functions of a telephone. As long as you are connected to a WIFI network, you can make international calls at a much cheaper rate than if you used the cellular network.
When you’re shopping for London iPhone apps, be sure to buy apps that have most of the data within the application so that you won’t have to get to a wifi hotspot to use them. Most London iPhone guidebooks, London iPhone maps and London iPhone Tube Maps work offline so that you won’t need to access the data network in order to use them.
Click here for a guide to London iPhone apps.
There’s an easy way to see how much data you’ve been using while traveling. On your iPhone, go to Setting –> General –> Usage and you can see how much data you’ve been using. It’s a good idea to reset these statistics before you leave on your trip so you have the most accurate numbers.
You can travel the world with your iPhone
AT&T knows that the mobile Internet on your iPhone++ is indispensable to you. That’s why we want to remind you that international data usage is not covered under your existing U.S. data plan. Any voice or data usage outside the domestic coverage area is considered as an International Roaming charge.
International roaming and data usage is not covered under your existing data plan.
With iPhone’s many Internet-based applications, it’s natural for users to use more data on their iPhone than they would using other handsets or PDA devices.
International data roaming can get expensive quickly.
For example, opening an email with a 5 megapixel picture in it, or downloading a 3-minute video on YouTube, each takes about 2 MB of data. The cost would be almost $40, based on pay-per-use international data rates of $0.0195/KB.
What can you do to minimize your international data charges?
Turn Data Roaming “OFF”: Be sure to download and install the latest version of iPhone software from iTunes. By default, this setting for international data roaming will be in the “OFF” position.
To turn data roaming “ON/OFF”, tap on Settings>General>Network>Data RoamingUtilize Wi-Fi instead of 3G/GPRS/EDGE: Wi-Fi is available in many international airports, hotels and restaurants to browse the Web or check email.
Turn Fetch New Data “OFF”: Check email and sync contacts and calendars manually instead of having the data pushed to your iPhone automatically. This way you can control the flow of data coming to your iPhone.
To turn off the Auto-Check functionality, tap on Settings>Fetch New Data, change Push to “OFF” and Select to Fetch Manually
Consider Purchasing an International Data Package: Purchasing an international data package can significantly reduce the cost of using data abroad. AT&T now offers four discount international data packages.
Happy Travels!
This news came out earlier in the week regarding Aer Lingus. Due to the inceasing economic troubles, they are decreasing their transatlantic travel capacity.
This likely means higher ticket prices to Ireland and Britain.
From the AFP Article:
Citing exceptionally poor market conditions, Irish airline Aer Lingus said Friday it was cutting back transatlantic flights on its winter season later this year.
The former state airline said in April that total revenues fell by 16 percent year-on-year in the first three months of 2009 and warned it was facing an exceptionally tough trading environment.
“Aer Lingus’ yields have been declining in exceptionally poor market conditions,” a statement from the carrier said.
“Most notably, long haul average fares fell by 19 percent in the first quarter of 2009 reflecting weak economic conditions and consumer confidence on both sides of the Atlantic.
“As a first step in right-sizing the business, Aer Lingus will be reducing seat capacity on winter long haul services — by approximately 25 percent as compared to 2008.”
Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington said the airline was going through its most difficult period in its 73-year history.
“We are looking at the whole operation of Aer Lingus and we are starting off with the winter schedule.”
He said services between Dublin and Washington and San Francisco will be suspended.
Flights between Chicago and Shannon airport in western Ireland will also be suspended.
The moves come as the International Air Transport Association nearly doubled its forecast for global airline industry losses this year to 9.0 billion dollars reflecting a “rapidly deteriorating revenue environment” due to the worldwide economic downturn.
So, what’s my recommendation for wayward Anglophiles looking for travel to the British Isles this fall?
Fly British Airways. Despite troubles of their own, they aren’t cutting capacity and there are some great deals to be had right now.
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dream of living in the UK a reality.
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