The number of people agreeing to have their bodies scanned by the full-body scanner being trialled at Manchester airport has risen from 72% to 92%, airport authorities have reported.

Passengers must stand between two blue boxes so that the scanner can produce a ghostly, almost-naked image which should show up anything suspicious underneath people’s clothes. The increase in those who are willing to comply with the Manchester trial appears to have happened shortly after the Detroit airline bombing on Christmas day.

Privacy campaigners opposed the scanner earlier in the week, stating that the images amounted to ‘virtual strip-searching’ and called for safeguards to be put in place to protect passengers’ privacy. It has also been reported that some Muslim women are concerned about this exposure as many choose to dress modestly as part of their lives and may not be comfortable with this level of personal exposure. They are urging the airport to consider having women-only operators viewing the images of Muslim women.

Airport workers point out that images are not stored and are deleted within moments of the image being captured and checked; they also point out that the images are totally anonymous. The image is viewed in a separate room away from the passenger and the security staff standing with them.

The government is taking steps towards changing EU policy so that these scanners can become compulsory at airports. If this happens then Manchester airport alone would need 19 of the RapiScan machines which cost £80,000 each. A huge amount, but a necessary one to avoid events like 9/11 perhaps?

Eurostar picture by Flickr User OliverN5

Eurostar says services over Christmas and new year will not be affected by engineering work and the service is expected to operate normally.

As in previous years, services will be stopped earlier on Christmas Eve and on New Year’s Eve and start later in the morning on 1st January.

No Eurostar services will be operating on Christmas Day.

Ski services to the French Alps (Moutiers, Aime la Plagne, Bourg St Maurice) from St Pancras International and Ashford International will start on 19th December (day service) and 1st January (night service).

Previous Eurostar blog articles can be found here.

The new owners of Gatwick have promised a “relentless” focus on customer service. Announcing a new board to run the airport following its takeover from BAA by Global Infrastructure Partners, chairman Sir David Rowlands said: “An independent Gatwick has a tremendous opportunity to inject real competition into the London airports market.”

Sir David, a former permanent secretary to the Department for Transport, added: “The new board will work with Gatwick’s management tram to drive Gatwick to a competitive future in its target market through more efficient operations and a relentless focus on customer service.”

Independent investment fund GIP, which controls London City Airport, expects to complete the acquisition of Gatwick in the first week of December.

See my previous blog on the sale of Gatwick here

The over-60s are saying “to hell with it” and refusing to let the recession kill their holidays claims a recent poll of 1,030 people by World Travel Market.

The  so-called “grey” market makes up nearly two thirds of the 54% of people who have declared their holidays sacrosanct and decided to completely ignore the economic downturn.

“Eighty percent of the public sampled admit issues such as poor currency exchange rates and flight taxes won’t deter them. And of those people, the over-60s is the biggest grouping (84%). They are fitter and more adventurous and are not prepared to let a recession spoil their fun.” said WTM chairman Fiona Jeffery

This attitude is in stark contrast to the cash-strapped younger 16-24 age bracket. The forecast for them is overcast with gloomy stay-at-home prospects.  Meanwhile, the 25-40 category of travellers are having to scale down their holiday habits. If this year’s experience is anything to go by, there will be far less of them adding short breaks or second overseas trips to their coveted main summer time off.

Ryanair picture by Flickr User scot_w_9

Ryanair made its inaugural flight from London Stansted to Agadir in Morocco yesterday, following up new services from the airport to Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. They are marking the inaugurals by giving away one million free seats on selected routes for travel across Europe.

The Agadir service will operate on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the Gran Canaria flights will head out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Lanzarote service will operate Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

“Ryanair will continue to grow as other airlines pull routes and reduce capacity. With passengers becoming increasingly price-sensitive, Ryanair will continue to expand so that even more passengers can take advantage of Ryanair’s guaranteed lowest fares and no fuel surcharges.” said Ryanair’s Laura McCormack.

Over the past few days we’ve been setting up and testing a brand new web server for villaseek.com. We have upgraded the site to the new servers this morning at 12am. We have done extensive testing and are expecting that the site will be faster and better able to cope with increasing demand. Any problems at all, please let us know in the comments! But hopefully you should notice little change – except for it will be slightly snappier!

The new server is based in Dublin and is powered by Amazon EC2. The set up enables us to scale our infrastructure more easily and better cope with changes in demand as the site grows.

Many thanks

Tom K

I have just written a piece for the next Holiday Villas magazine about how to really get one of those ‘free’ trips advertised by Ryanair. Here’s the gist of it:

Firstly, you need to get yourself a Visa Electron debit card. Then, you book and check in on line using this card. If you use any other debit card or credit card they will charge a £4 booking fee for each person checked in. If you use the Electron card, it really is free (sorry if this sounds like a puff for Electron cards. I don’t get commission!) If you put in the card details, the ‘cost’ will come up as £0.00!

OK. You’ve got the card from your bank. Are there any other snags you need to know about before you start the booking process? Well, yes, there is a problem but it’s not too weighty. Quite light, actually. If you check in on line to get your free flight, you are only allowed to take hand luggage with you – that’s just 10kg in a holdall or cabin trolley bag. 

Can you travel that light? You probably can, though most people think they can’t. Remember that your villa or apartment will be equipped with a washing machine, towels, probably a hairdrier and possibly, toiletries. Books are often available, too (there are plenty in the flat I rent out, from Danielle Steele to Ian McEwan and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, plus DVDs and even Scrabble, if you get really desperate). 

If you pack enough clothes for three or four days, it should be possible to wash and re-wear them without a problem all holiday. If you’re mad on clothes and like variety this will be a nuisance. But just remember that all those people who go off on gap year trips travel light, and they don’t have a terrible time because they happen to be wearing the same clothes a lot.

For the beach and pool you don’t need much: swimwear, shorts/sarongs, a top or two and light sandals or pumps. Then you need a sightseeing/day-out outfit or two, and a couple of evening things. If you intend to go walking, wear trainers or walking boots during the journey, or the first bit of it at least. Wear your heavier layers for travelling. Tie extra things – jumpers, shirts – around your waist. Put on all the jewellery you’re taking. You may look a bit, well, ridiculous but does that matter? There are no laws against it and you are beating the system. Anyway,  once you’re through security you can stick them in your bag which should be expandable for this very reason.

Furthermore, if the villa or apartment does not provide books, you can buy them – after the security checks. You might have to leave them behind but remember, you’re still saving money.

How much money? If you take a suitcase, you won’t be able to check in on line and, apart from all the nuisance of the check in queue, you will have to pay £6 for your suitcase each way. And then they will clobber you for a £6 each way booking fee. So that free trip will then cost you, actually, £28 –  £56 for two of you, rather than £0.00 with an electron card and a squashable cabin bag each.

Final tip: take your own food. In-flight grub, as I’m sure you all know, is a ridiculous price (though, unfortunately, you can’t take your own drinks but have to buy them after security at the airport or on board).

Della and her team in Bath are reporting buoyant feedback from villa and apartment owners booking space in Holiday Villas magazine and on www.villaseek.com. Bookings are looking good, despite – or perhaps because of – the financial downturn.

Many people seem to be turning their backs on expensive cruises, five star hotels and the like – too expensive in a recession.  But in general they’re not abandoning their main holiday (as a report out today by PricewaterhouseCoopers makes clear). Instead they’re after better value – and flexibility. They are turning to villas and apartment.

Owners say they’re receiving more enquiries and, more importantly, firm bookings. And we’re upbeat, too, because we’ve always said that booking your holiday direct with the owner is the best way to get a fantastic holiday home at a brilliant price. There is no middle man to take a cut and you get to speak to the owners direct, which  means more flexibility with dates and price. Sometimes an owner can fit a booking  around a non weekend arrival – when cheap flights are more plentiful.

Also, increasingly, people are asking about things like washing machines, hair driers, books and toiletries. Well equipped villas and apartments can lead travellers to decide to take hand luggage only – because it’s checking in a suitcase that bumps up the cost of flying. Many owners will do their best to get in  provisions like coffee and tea bags and even shampoo and soap so that their visitors can travel light.

Most of us are more savvy now about how to make sure the cheap flights advertised actually are cheap: no frills flights are at their cheapest – even free – if you check in on line and take only hand luggage. 

We’ll be writing more about how to get the cheapest flights very soon.

*The survey for PricewaterhouseCoopers was carried out by ICM Research. For more information go to www.pwc.com

Hello everyone,

Here’s an item I’ve used in the Update pages of the next issue of Holiday Villas, in the shops at the end of the month, and in the on-line magazine which should appear on Villaseek.com at around the same time: read it and it may just save you a few headaches when you’re travelling abroad!

Credit cons 

Credit card crime committed using British-issued cards abroad shot up by 77 per cent last year. A staggering £207.6 million were stolen, says Apacs, the organisation representing debit and credit card companies.                                                                              

Apacs advises us never to let our cards out of sight, as they could be ’skimmed’ – that’s when a receptionist, or similar, swipes a card twice. The first swipe is to record the actual payment, the second is to record information from the magnetic strip. This latter is all a crook needs to make a counterfeit card. Though a false card will not contain a microchip, making it no good for chip-and-pin purchases, it could be used in places relying on signatures only and on-line, says Apacs. 

Also watch out for: •An extra 0 added  to a payment slip – altering, say, a €50 purchase to €500 •Double-charging – if a vendor says he or she has made a mistake and asks you to sign another slip, make sure you get proof of cancellation of the first payment •Any offers to convert your money into sterling at the time of purchase – not illegal but expensive.                                                            

Fortunately, card companies block payments if their systems suspect fraud. Their computers know, for instance, what you regularly spend and where you spend it, so if there’s a £500 payment made in a foreign country, you will be warned. This is great – unless you’re actually in the foreign country. If this is the case, your card could be blocked when you need it most.                                                                                                                                           

To prevent this happening, especially if you don’t travel a lot, it’s best to let your card company know which country you are visiting and when. Also: take more than one card with you, as then you’ll have a backup.

Hi everyone,

We’ve got a new system for viewing Holiday Villas Magazine online, directly in your browser. It’s great for our overseas readers, as it means they can get hold of the magazine and read it straight from their computer.

We’ve just produced an online version of 68, which has been on sale here in the UK since the beginning of May.  Issue 69 is about to hit the shelves, and we’ll have an online version of that out very soon too.

Here’s a useful tip – interested in golf holidays, beach holidays, or holidays in a specific area? Use the binoculars icon at the bottom of the page to begin searching the document – and you’ll get a list of all the editorial and adverts which are relevant to your search.

Or if you’re an advertiser with Holiday Villas Magazine, simply enter your reference number into the search page, and you’ll be taken directly to the page where your villa advertisement appears.

Tom K
Villaseek.com