Great news for our loyal readers. We’ve partnered with Virgin Vacations to offer a sweepstakes to our US audience. The prize is a 4 night London getaway!

Here are the prize details:

We’ve partnered with Virgin Vacations to provide an excellent prize package.

• Two (2) roundtrip economy class tickets for the Winner and one (1) adult companion on Virgin Atlantic from one of the a Virgin Atlantic’s gateway cities in the United States of America to London, United Kingdom.
• Transfer from the Airport to Central London Hotel
• 4 Nights Stay in a Central London Hotel (to be determined by Virgin Vacations).
• 1 copy of Rick Steves’ London Guide; and
• 2 Oyster cards

The contest we ran last year was such a success that we’re really excited to be able to partner with Virgin Vacations on this. Unfortunately, due to the terms of the prize, we can only offer the prize to US residents of the lower 48 states. I know we have a lot of Canadian readers so we’re very sorry about this – we tried to find a solution but we could not.

Click here to enter!

Anglophile Alert: Win a London Getaway from Virgin Vacations! is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Good news for anyone planning to travel to Britain in 2012 – Virgin Atlantic has launched a New Year’s Airfare sale!

Here are the details:

Prices start at $265 each way (plus taxes).

Click Here to Book Now!

Here’s a sample table of fares from Major US Gateways.

Terms and Fees:
Fares are each way based on round trip purchase. Prices do not include government imposed taxes and fees of up to $250, including the September 11th Security Fee of up to $10. The above advertised fares from Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York (JFK & Newark), Orlando, San Francisco and Washington D.C. include air carrier security and fuel surcharges of $206 each way ($412 round trip).

Restrictions: 
Fares shown are for weekday departures (Monday – Wednesday) only. Fares for departures from Thursday – Sunday may be higher each way. Tickets are non-refundable. Minimum stay is Saturday night and maximum stay is 12 months. Prepaid Ticket Advice (PTAs) are not permitted. Seats are limited and may not be available on all flights. Entertainment systems on some aircraft provide less than 300 hours of entertainment. Please visit v-flyer.com/the-toolbox/inflight-entertainment for more information on entertainment onboard all aircrafts.

Click Here to Book Now!

Anglophile Alert: Virgin Atlantic Launches Sale for London Flights – Cheap Flights to London is a post from: Anglotopia.net

This contest came out of no where and is for a trip to London in a couple weeks to see the Bears play at London’s Wembley Stadium. You don’t have long to enter – the deadline is Monday. But the odds of winning are very good if you’ve got what it takes.

Here are the contest details:

You will be joining Virgin Atlantic’s official VIP trip as the ultimate Red Hot Reporter to our fans and followers. You must be able to travel to London on the official trip departing on October 20, 2011.

• We expect you to actively share your experience while you are engaged as the Red Hot Reporter on behalf of Virgin Atlantic
• This means no less than three tweets per day chronicling your journey with us at the NFL International Series from your personal Twitter handle as well as the Red Hot Reporter Twitter handle.
• As our Red Hot Reporter we expect you to be sharing what you see and hear so that Virgin Atlantic’s fans can get a behind the scenes preview in real time.
• You will be responsible for tweeting live from the sidelines of Wembley Stadium when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers face the Chicago Bears on October 23.
• You will be on the tarmac meeting and greeting some of the players from each team.
• The Red Hot Reporter should expect to use photography (camera phone or more) and other mediums to showcase his or her experience during the trip.

It’s a 4 day trip on Virgin Atlantic’s dime that will be a wonderful experience to the winner. You have to act quickly as the contest ends on Midnight EST Monday, October 10th.

Anglotopia Contest Disclaimer – PLEASE READ – before you email us an complain about the contest please understand that we are NOT running this contest NOR are we affiliated with it in anyway. We are merely providing the information that this contest exists.

Click here for details on how to enter.

Anglophile Alert: Win a Trip to See the Chicago Bears at London’s Wembley – 4 Days to Enter! is a post from: Anglotopia.net

A few days ago, an e-mail from Virgin Vacations with this subject line appeared in my inbox:

Last Minute Sale! London 6 Night Vacations from $649*

Immediately my mind started racing. “Oh hello, $649 for a trip to London! That’s cheap enough to go by myself for a short trip. Wouldn’t that be lovely? Let’s see about this.” Click.

What followed was a great amount of disappointment because if you look above – that little asterisk let’s Virgin Vacations get away with quite a lot.

So, I fell for it. I clicked the link and began booking my imaginary vacation. Fantasies went through my head of jetting off to London on my own for a quick trip sometime in the winter when I knew I’d be feeling the London urge.

I went through the process. I selected my gateway city – the first big change to the price – then I selected the hotel they said was part of the deal and the date range that worked for the deal as well.

After much clicking and dreaming, I finally landed at the total page. The price ended up being $1200. Almost double what they tempted me with. And the hotel that was a part of the deal happens to actually not be a very nice hotel, I should know, I’ve stayed in it.

If you look at the fine print that the asterick indicates, it basically says that ‘by the way, the price doesn’t include taxes or fees and is priced from New York City JFK, where you know 90% of the country doesn’t live.’

I felt like I’d had the wool pulled over my eyes.

Worse yet was the circuitious route that Virgin Vacations had planned for me to get to London. Since Virgin Atlantic doesn’t fly out of Chicago to London in the winter (another reason to fly British Airways, two flights daily, year round from O’hare) – they had me flying to Minneapolis, then connecting to New York for a final leg into London.

What a backwards way to travel.

Some may feel I’m being unfairly harsh on Virgin Atlantic – so I’ll simply say that most travel booking sites are like this – they give you a sweet, almost too good to be true price and then hit you with the REAL price after you’ve gone through the booking process.

This is why I usually plan my own package vacations – that is book my own airfare using a serivce like Kayak that gives you the REAL ticket price with taxes and then book my hotel sepearately and any other trip addons. I may be able to save money with a package deal, but I’ll never know because I’m not going to start a relationship with someone lying to me.

It wouldn’t even be that hard for them to segment their e-mails so that you got a price based on your gateway city. I should know, I work in internet marketing. It’s Email Marketing 101. We’d at least arrive to a price closer to the real price.

Sorry, Virgin Vacations, I’m unsubscribing to your e-mails. I don’t want to fly your airline anyway. British Airways is way classier.

Rant: I’m Sick and Tired of Deceptive Travel Deal E-mails is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Twitter is fast becoming a fun tool that has many uses. It allows people to explore their interests in fascinating new ways. Over the past few months, I’ve been following Tweets releated to the UK and London. I’ve discovered some pretty cool British and London Twitters, so I thought I’d share them with all of you.

Downing Street Twitter Feed

Yes, Gordon Brown is on Twitter. And he’ll usually follow you back.

Recent Tweet:

A golden sun sets behind the Union Jack at Basra airbase.
10:48 AM Dec 17th from web

@downingstreet

Tower Bridge Twitter Feed

Who knew that Tower Bridge could have such an interesting personality. Keep up to date as the Bridge described it’s openings and closings, along with the ships that sail under her.

Recent Tweet:

The scaffolding’s come down off the first part of me to be repainted – and boy, is it bright and shiny! Very pleased with my new look. 5:08 AM Dec 15th from web

@towerbridge

BBC Twitter Feeds

Auntie Beeb hasn’t taken the time to start Tweeting, but some clever people have taken their feeds and published them on Twitter.

Recent Tweet:

Downturn raises state school demand: One in 10 councils in England report more demand for school places as paren.. http://is.gd/cqDD

@BBC

@BBCNews

This site has a list of more specific BBC Twitter Feeds.

London Lite Twitter Feed

London Lite is one of the free London centered newspapers you can pick up when riding the Underground. They publish their news feed on Twitter. My only complaint is that their pages never seem to want to load in Safari on the Mac. Cool way to keep up with London News.

Recent Tweet:

NEWS: Weird News: Millions have logged on to try to hit George Bush with a shoe on net game: Millions have .. http://tinyurl.com/4xq3cz about 10 hours ago from twitterfeed

@thelondonpaper

British Airways Twitter Feed

They haven’t updated it in a while, but one hopes they will get on it again soon.

Recent Tweet:

The creation of Terminal 5 has been an opportunity for BA to redefine air travel. Learn more & watch our new ad at http://snurl.com/4o29f 3:28 PM Oct 24th from web

@BritishAirways

Richard Branson Twitter Feed

Yes, the serial entrepreneur Richard Branson is on Twitter. He will usually follow you back and you can keep up with his latest adventures.

Recent Tweet:

Published a new post: Watch Richard Branson\’s New York video diary ( http://tinyurl.com/3qp2ta ) about 13 hours ago from web

@richardbranson

The Times of London Twitter Feed

The London Times publishes it’s news feeds onto Twitter as well.

Recent Tweet:

It’s dramatic! It’s sensational! It’s the Fed rescue http://tinyurl.com/3gj84d about 3 hours ago from twitterfeed

@timesonline

Annie Mole Twitter Feed

Annie runs a well known London Underground themed blog and is a pretty avid Twitterer.

Recent Tweet:

Stockwell Tube Ad Placement ruled indecent: The ad for the film Righteous Kill placed at Stockwell London Underg.. http://is.gd/c7gC 4:54 AM Dec 17th from twitterfeed

@anniemole

UK Parliament Twitter Feed

Not run by Parliament but by someone who is interested in the behind the scenes work going on there. Publishes pretty regularly.

Recent Tweet:

Time-lapse video of Parliament’s Christmas Tree going up is the latest addition to our YouTube channel http://is.gd/bWaa about 8 hours ago from web

@UKparliament

Diana Burrell on Twitter

Diana is a fellow Anglophile blogger as well as an interesting freelance writer. She recently went to London and Twittered her trip.

Recent Tweet:

London, Day 3: I seem to have miraculously revived from yesterday’s book-buying spree, and a n.. http://tinyurl.com/59a94z 2:36 AM Dec 5th from twitterfeed

@dianaburrell

Check out her cracking Anglophile Blog – Hail Britannia

If you know of any more Anglophile related Twitterers – please let me know in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

Happy Tweeting!

Twitter for Anglophiles is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Image from The Guardian

Well, it looks like the consumer is going to lose another one… The BA/VA fuel surcharge refund has been delayed, indefinitely.

For those not familiar with the transatlantic price fixing scandal, check this out from one of my other blogs:

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have been in the news for the last few years for being apart of an alleged price fixing scandal. Well, the lawyers got to work and now there is a huge settlement on offer.

If you flew British Airways or Virgin Atlantic between the US and the UK between August 11, 2004 and March 23, 2006, you are entitled to a partial refund of the fuel surcharge you were charged.

The amount you receive is based on $7 to $34 a flight. My wife and I travelled back and forth to England twice in the time period, so we should get a hundred bucks or so. Not a bad deal considering how pissed we were to see the fuel surcharge cost more than the tickets when we purchased them.

Well, now it’s clear that we won’t be seeing any money, anytime soon. The lawyers have decided to drag this out for as along as possible and knowing the speed of our court systems, we might see money sometime before 2099.

I was wondering why it was taking so long to get my money and I decided to check the price fixing settlement settlement website to see what was going on. I present to you the message we were all dreading to read:

IMPORTANT UPDATE REGARDING DELAY IN THE TIMING OF REFUND PAYMENTS

On October 21, 2008, three Objectors appealed the Order and Final Judgment approving the Settlements. The Objectors argue that the District Court should not have exercised subject matter jurisdiction over UK Settlement Class Members whose claims are for travel to destinations other than the United States, and that the Court should not have certified the class. Resolution of this appeal is likely to take at least six months, and could take more than a year (or several years), depending on the speed with which the appeals court decides the issue. ALL PAYMENTS TO ALL CLAIMANTS IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE UNITED KINGDOM WILL BE DELAYED UNTIL THE APPEAL BY THE THREE OBJECTORS IS RESOLVED.

A copy of the Objection to the Settlement is available in the “Important Documents” section of this website. The Court’s Orders finding subject matter jurisdiction and approving the Settlements as well as a transcript of the final approval hearing are also available on the Important Documents section of this website. Settlement Class Counsel’s response to the Objection will be posted when available.

Class members who have any questions regarding the appeal or any aspect of the delay, please do not hesitate to contact the claims administrator or the lawyers for the class.

I’ll keep all of you updated. But don’t ever count on seeing a dime.

You Won’t be Seeing that Fuel Surcharge Refund from BA or VA Anytime Soon is a post from: Anglotopia.net