Our weekly ‘Hot or Not’ series brings you some of the highs and lows in this week’s travel news headlines.
HOT, HOT, HOT!
1. Treading the ‘right’ way
Animal rights are now at the top of the list for any of The Travel Corporation’s brands after signing a new joint initiative with the TreadRight Foundation.
Effective immediately, Contiki, Trafalgar, AAT Kings, Uniworld, Insight Vacations, Creative Holidays, Adventure World and more will adopt the TreadRight Animal Welfare Policy.
The policy promotes the Five Freedoms – rights for animals under human control and asserts that animals under human control should have freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury, and disease; freedom to express normal behaviour; and freedom from fear & distress.
2. Is Qantas sending the Dreamliner to mainland Europe?
Qantas and Emirates have started mapping out the future of their alliance and it could see the Flying Kangaroo travelling to mainland Europe while its Gulf partner services new Australian cities.
The long-term strategy was reportedly discussed between Qantas chief Alan Joyce and Emirates’ president Tim Clark last week and would include a considerable upgrade to the existing code over the next three to five year.
Currently, the agreement which launched in 2013, includes shared lounges and an exchange of frequent flyer points as well as 14 daily code share services between Australia and Dubai.
3. Dawn Princess cruises over to P&O
The P&O Cruises Australia team will have one more ship to play around with and agents will have thousands of new P&O beds to sell as Carnival moves Dawn Princess out of the Princess fleet and into P&O.
The move comes one month ahead of the arrival of the company’s highly anticipated two new ships – Pacific Aria and Pacific Dawn – which embody the line’s ‘No Place On Earth‘ tagline with new restaurants, activities and social spaces.
With a total of three new ships plus its existing three vessels – Pacific Jewel, Pacific Dawn and Pacific Pearl – P&O will have six ships in its fleet and some 10,888 beds sailing out of Australia.
NOT, NOT, NOT!
1. Air France staff ‘rip’ into executives, literally
What do around 100 airline staff do when management announces thousands of layoffs? Some strike with signs, others accept the change and then there are those that storm into an executive meeting and tear into management, literally.
At Air France around 100 workers decided to choose the most violent option and took demonstrations to an all new level over the weekend by storming into an executives meeting and ripping the shirts right off their backs.
But it didn’t stop there, photos of management being led by guards through an angry swarm, show one executive had been stripped of his shirt and suit jacket and forced to walk through the mod half naked.
2. Watch your step!
Tourists were freaking out on a recent glass bridge walk in China when one of the trekkers dropped a mug and cracked the glass.
The group was crossing the Yuntaishan glass bridge in Central China’s Shiniuizhai National Geological Park which sits between two cliffs and 600 feet above a canyon.
Entirely made of glass, the 980-foot-long bridge has carried many tourists safely across the canyon until earlier this week when tourists heard it crack and rushed to get off.
Staff at the Yuntaishan resort have reportedly confirmed the crack and said it occurred after a thermos was dropped on the path.
The bridge has been closed for now and there are no reports of any injuries.
3. Hotel guests & their bad habits
The truth about taking a holiday and staying at a hotel is that sometimes (more often than not) we come across certain behaviours and habits we just can’t stand.
And while we only have to tolerate it for a short period of time (unless you’re on an extensive getaway), we just can’t seem to get passed how annoying some people can be.
Expedia went out and surveyed a number of its website visitors, asking them to rank the most frustrating behaviours of fellow hotel guests.
Vice President, John Morrey, said while etiquette changes, most hotel guests tend to be annoying by the same behaviour – disrespect of others.