Travelling

I'm about to head off for a trip mainly for the purpose of walking in the High Tatras, but also spending a few days in London (on the way over) and Berlin (on the way back).    I've set up a dedicated blog for this.  Here's the link to it:
http://europetravel2014.wordpress.com/

The border shown is between Poland and Slovakia

So, I'm closing off this blog, at least for now.  

After that.....perhaps I'll establish a fresh day-to-day blog on my return?

Wotif to be acquired by Expedia (2)

I see that the Expedia proposal to acquire Wotif has been given an "amber light" by the ACCC.  It seems that one of the issues of possible concern  is that Expedia tends to charge accommodation providers a higher commission than Wotif, and that if the Priceline group (which is booking.com and Agoda) and Expedia (which includes Hotels.com, as well as others) were the only participants of any scale in the on line travel agent (OTA) market, the  accommodation industry considers that rates charged to hotels would possibly rise.

I skimmed through the very interesting Statement of Issues and noted that the ACCC seems mainly concerned (see paragraphs 47 and 52) with the three largest participants on the OTA market (Expedia, Wotif and Booking.com), and doesn't  place a great deal of weight on other players in the market, such as Zuji (owned by Webjet), Flight Centre, and Orbitz (which is HotelClub.com and is linked to Helloworld).   How this will flow through to the final determination remains to be seen.

What I found very interesting in the Statement of Issues were the descriptions of the participants in the market, as above, and also that Wotif includes lastminute.com.au and travel.com.au.

The ACCC's release contains a reference to Hooroo, as a relatively new OTA.  I hadn't heard of this, so I followed up on it.   It didn't take long to see that it's owned by Qantas!   And they've built it from scratch and it's based in Melbourne.  I may in fact have unknowingly used it when booking through the Qantas site. I've added it to my bookmarks and will be looking at it in the future, but my first impression is that it's got quite a way to go before it can be taken to be a serious player in this market.   It doesn't have much coverage and it's a pity that I don't seem to be able to see the rates charged by overseas properties in their local currencies.

The Statement of Issues also stated that OTAs (except Wotif) generally charge a base rate of commission to accommodation providers for bookings through their portals and charge a higher rate of commission to hotels to appear on the front page of their unrefined search results. I guess we all assumed this, but it's interesting to see it in writing.  Another case of "buyer beware", I suppose.

Yarra Valley

After early morning fog, the day was sunny and mild - not bad at all considering that, officially, it's still winter.   After a slow start (and a quick check of the US Open on TV!), we headed to Yarrawood for a great platter, with a view over the vineyards and down the valley.   Then a wander around Healesville (including checking out the second hand books) followed by coffee at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander.

Platter

It may not sound a lot, but after all, part of the idea was to "recharge our batteries", and, taken at a leisurely pace, it was enough to fill the day.  We then headed for a freshen up and  to the Yarra Glen Grand Hotel for great pub meal for dinner.

View down the Yarra Valley

Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander, Healesville

Balgownie Estate

It's nearly spring, and unexpectedly we found we had a bit of a gap in our diary, so impulsively we booked a couple of nights in the Yarra Valley at Balgownie Estate. On the way here, after pausing at a nursery, it was a minor challenge to find a winery lunch mid-week in the winter [Edit - yes the information is there, it's just a matter of having it to hand when needed!], but we ended up at Rochford where the meal was pleasant enough, although in hindsight perhaps a little more substantial than we really needed!

Driveway at Balgownie by night

I was vaguely aware of the existence of Balgownie Estate but it's larger than I realised. We opted for a “garden terrace” room which gave us all we needed (spacious, nice bathroom, good heating, internet included, “garden view” but no spa) at a somewhat more modest price than the rooms with a spa and "valley view".   Rae's Restaurant at the resort is no doubt a fine restaurant, but after our lunch, its fixed price dinner menu was somewhat wasted on us.

View at dusk from "garden terrace" room

Same view, next morning - lots of fog!

Tracking aircraft

The loss of MH17 was a true disaster.    It's a bit sobering to reflect that this is the very flight we travelled on last October (from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur).

However,  I was interested in the map that appeared on the internet shortly after the event, showing that hardly any commercial aircraft were near Ukraine.

On closer investigation, I find that you can see the location of a lot of the world's commercial  flights (including corporate planes) at Flightradar 24 and at Planefinder.   These sites use information transmitted from planes, particularly from ADS-B transponders (but also other sources).  They take a moment to load, but it's fascinating that this information is available to the world on just a click of the mouse button.  There are clearly some committed people out there that go to all this effort.

Just the same, some of the information looks a bit dodgy, particularly on Planefinder.  This site appears list a number of Aeromexico flights in Australia, but I think they are actually Pel-Air Aviation flights (do they use a similar flight prefix - perhaps something like AM)?   Also, Planefinder appears not to have a good coverage of China, but this doesn't seem to be an issue on Flightradar24.   Perhaps there are other strengths and weaknesses, too, but who's complaining, as the sites don't even carry advertisements. 

Flying to conclusions

The following post appeared in a Trip Advisor forum:
"I will be flying in from UK to Melbourne and note there are 2 airports and with price differences.
I plan to stay in a central /CBD location.
Do I select Melbourne International (cheaper fairs [sic]) or Tullamarine (more expensive)?"

Just goes to show that a little bit of care has to be taken when doing it yourself on the internet.    'Coz "Melbourne International" is the name of an airport in Florida!

Caught smoking

As I've previously blogged, the train trip from Sydney to Melbourne takes 11 hours or more.   Obviously a long time to go between ciggies if you're a smoker, even if you're not going the full distance.   At many stations, only one or two doors are opened, and even at the bigger stations, passengers are strongly discouraged from getting off the train.  In fact, early in the trip an announcement was made that, because it's illegal to smoke on station platforms, it was no use smokers even trying to get off the train to have a quick light up.

A no smoking zone

Evidently all this was too much for one fairly young traveller on our train.  I happened to be moving about the train at the very moment that the train crew confronted him with the information that a remotely-monitored smoke detector had gone off in the toilet from which he had just emerged.

His denials didn't carry much weight as the crew (and I) could readily smell that he'd just had a cigarette.


He was escorted to the train manager's office, so I don't know what happened.  However, a few minutes later, a "final reminder" announcement was made that anyone caught smoking on the train would be fined and/or off-loaded at the next station.  Being off-loaded?   An option on the train, but wouldn't work so well for an airline!

Electioneering (1): The Frankston Line

So, there's a state election due in November.  Given that our local station is served by Frankston line trains and there are a number of marginal seats along this line, I can see that this going to generate some bloggable material! I've previously mentioned that we've been seeing some money being spent on the line, although how it is that the painting of stations  (possibly at the expense of work needed elsewhere) will win votes, I don't know, but that's politics I guess.

In the meantime, a "Frankston line" election brochure produced by the Liberals has already arrived in our letterbox.  There's a website, too.  The messages are mixed:   things are better than they were and new trains will make things better.    Of course, the proposed airport rail link gets a mention, as well.  But there's a lot of negativity, too, as we are invited to recall that the service wasn't too good when the previous government was in office.   True, and, yes,  some improvements to frequencies were made shortly after the last election (the price being, elimination of most loop trains).   But if we are invited to recall the past, will we also remember the fact that a station at Southland was promised at the last election and is still nowhere near being built (and is being re-announced)?  Or that last January, the services for the whole month were reduced by 50%, with bizarre results during the peak periods?   Or that on a recent train trip, just a few days back, the in-train displays and announcements weren't working properly?
The brochure makes the point that there wasn't much movement on level crossing removals when the previous government was in office.  Well, although there's been some activity on this over the last four years (Springvale and out Mitcham way), the world hasn't exactly been set on fire in this respect during this Government's term, and certainly not around here (although action is now being promised, by both sides of politics).

To state the obvious, the issue is credibility.    Promises, promises.....   And I guess that applies to both sides of politics!

I wonder if similar publicity will be developed for other lines (such as the Dandenong corridor), although my limited googling didn't turn up any dedicated websites.

Wotif to be acquired by Expedia

While bricks-and-mortar travel agents seem to be doing OK, there's activity in the on-line sector, too.

It seems that Wotif is going to be acquired by Expedia (at a price of $3.30 per share, including a special dividend).   Wotif has been having a bit of trouble recently, with the share price hitting a low of $2.26 on 21 May, way below its 52 week peak of $5.25 on 22 July last year (and even further below its all-time high of $7.69 in April 2010).   This is in spite of claiming to have 36% of the Australian accommodation online-booking market (see company research posted on CommSec site).  Media reports suggest that it hasn't been keeping up on the technology side of things.

The takeover of Wotif.com will presumably result in the disappearance of its "interesting" code from the ASX.

The Trip Advisor community doesn't really like the deal (not that this is relevant!), as Expedia evidently have a reputation for charging higher commissions than Wotif, and for seeking favourable conditions from providers.    (Interestingly,  Trip Advisor itself was spun out of Expedia).

Will Expedia maintain Wotif as a separate brand?   Or should that be "brands"?  Like other players in this market (and in the bricks-and-mortar market), Wotif also runs other sites including the lastminute.com.au and, travel.com.au sites.  And Expedia also runs Trivago, Hotels.com and Hotwire,as well as having a tie-up with Travelocity.  Thus, perhaps the Wotif brand will continue, at least on the consumer-facing side.

The other major international player is said to be Priceline (which owns booking.com.).  This interesting article in the AFR points out the dominance of the large operators.  The scale of Expedia and Priceline means they can sign up more hotels, negotiate better prices and insist on better deals from accommodation providers (for example, enabling them to offer price-match deals).   So other Australian operators such as Webjet (which, I note, owns Zuji) and even Flight Centre might find themselves being squeezed. 

Travel agents

Our local shopping strip has lots of cafes, hairdressers - and travel agents.    I suppose that says something about the demographics of the area.

The new arrival

Recently, another travel agent has opened.  I wondered if the people behind it knew what they were doing - until it dawned on me that it was another brand operated by Flight Centre!  So I assume that even though the new shop is just down the road from the existing Flight Centre, they know what they're doing.

So many travel agents

The latest to arrive is just another Flight Centre brand

On a related note, I have used a particular consultant at the local Flight Centre branch on a number of occasions in recent years.






It seems that it was fortunate that she was available when I walked into the shop on the first occasion, as she is obviously experienced. I regard myself as a reasonably "informed" customer in that I have a fair idea of what I want before I walk in, but there are still issues on which I like to obtain a second opinion.   However, in a recent email, she informed her clients that she was moving to "Travel Associates" (yet another Flight Centre brand), which I thought was fine until I read on the website that this brand is  "a boutique travel agency dedicated to offering discerning travellers the ultimate in experiential [sic] travel and tailor-made itineraries".  Hmmm, I wonder if that's for me?

By train from Sydney to Melbourne

We took the train from Sydney to Melbourne.  In hindsight, I'm not quite sure why, but I suppose I wanted to be able to say that I'd done it.  And, I admit, there was a good fare available!

Well, there were a couple of positives, but there were a whole lot of negatives.

On the positive side, departing from Central involved just a short taxi ride from our accommodation, and the taxi pulled up almost next to where the train was.   No security, no hassles, just walk on board.  On the train, the seats are comfortable with a seat pitch of a metre (and that's in economy).   You can walk around and you don't need seat belts (out of force of habit I kept trying to do one up!)

On the negative side, it's a long trip.   Yes, XPT trains “can” run at 120 km, but for a lot of the time they don't.    There are stations to stop at, speed restrictions, curves and hills.  The trip from Sydney to Melbourne (about 960 kms, according to Wikipedia) is “scheduled” to take about 11 hours, which means the average speed is less than 90 kmph.  For a while, I enjoyed the ever-changing view, but once we got about half way, I did start thinking that perhaps I could have made better use of my day!  Fortunately, I had a good book to read.

There's food (and beer and wine) available for purchase, but although it's adequate, it's pretty basic.   There's no lounge car or even a place to eat what you buy except at your seat.

I was aware when I booked that the train only ran as far as Broadmeadows because of infrastructure work interfering with the run into Southern Cross.  I guess this should have sounded warning bells, but they weren't too loud, so I thought, oh well.

On the outskirts of Sydney, our train obviously got stuck behind a suburban train, which meant slow running for a while.  Then when we ought to have been powering up the hill to Moss Vale, things weren't quite as fast as I would have expected from an XPT train.  Somewhat later, we were informed that, yes, we were behind schedule, because one of the train's power units was not operating at full capacity.   Result, by the time we reached the outskirts of Melbourne, the train was over 30 minutes late.   Then, just before Broadmeadows station, where we were to disembark, to come to a stop.   We were told that, sorry, coz the train was 35 minutes late, it had missed its “landing slot”, and there would be a further delay of 30 minutes before we could get off.   So near, yet so far.  Finally, after waiting nearly 35 minutes at a place called Roxborough Park (actually, Somerton Loop for the gunzels) we got to the Broadmeadows platform, a grand total of 75 minutes late.  The transfer to buses went smoothly, and I suspect that the time the bus took to get into the city, down the freeway, was probably on a par with the time the train would have taken negotiating Melbourne's western suburbs.  Just the same, it wasn't the best end to a long day.

Bottom line?   I've ticked the "been there, done that" box, and will leave inter-city train travel in Australia in the future to the main users of the train, who are people travelling to and from the towns along the way to the "big smoke".

West Head and Palm Beach

We had a lovely dinner with M and G at their home, and next day they were kind enough to take us to West Head for the view and then to Barrenjoey restaurant at Palm Beach for lunch.

View of Lion Island from West Head

I had never been to West Head, overlooking Pittwater and the Hawkesbury, and it is many, many years since I had been to Palm Beach (and could hardly remember it), so it was a day of great interest and discovery (and, of course, good company).

Whale Beach

Pittwater

To Sydney

We booked a while back to spend a few days in Sydney, so we flew up on Monday. The Jetstar computer permitted me to check in on-line – but of course we still had to wait in line to drop our baggage (no do-it-yourself bag drop for Jetstar) and answer the “dangerous goods” question. So I don't know whether Qantas/Jetstar have got over their issues with me yet, or not. And everyone in front of us at the baggage check-in seemed to have issues of some sort. However, we had adequate time, so we couldn't complain. There was another long queue to board the plane, but I was pleased to see efforts (even if somewhat token) to enforce the carry-on baggage size limit. I guess when when an airline charges extra to check-in a bag, it serves as an incentive for everyone to try and carry as much as possible into the cabin with them.

The train into the city from the airport in Sydney was pleasant (of course, this line does have the newest trains), and we ate dinner at a casual Italian restaurant in The Rocks area. Impulsively, we jumped on the Manly ferry to occupy our evening and were rewarded with a nice view of the bridge by night but little else (in particular, Manly is very ordinary after dark)!

One lesson I've re-learned: re-activate my mobile broadband account before leaving home. Yes, we arrived in Sydney, and I found I hadn't brought with me the necessary log-in information!   As good luck would have it (certainly not good management), somewhere deep in my emails was a message with just enough information to get me going.

Ticking the wrong box

I went to check in on-line for our Qantas flight to Canberra.  Yes, I ought to have been more careful, but unfortunately on the page asking if we had any dangerous goods, I inadvertently ticked the wrong box.   Result - I was locked out of the on-line check-out process, with no way to go back to the beginning.  Oh well, I thought, I'll ring Qantas, surely it will be easy for them to re-set the process.   After 35 minutes waiting on hold (fortunately I had other things to do while waiting), the operator informed me that, yes, what I had done was not uncommon, but there was no way the process could be re-set.  The only option was to queue at the check-in and explain the situation to a real person.   She was adamant that this was a "safety" issue, and explained that Qantas were worried that having ticked the wrong box, I had to be checked in by a real person.

She was horrified when I suggested that perhaps if I was really out to sneak something on to the plane, I would have just checked the "I aren't carrying anything that I ought not to" box, rather than tick the other box and wait for 35 minutes on the phone to change it.  Ah, airline bureaucracy!

At the airport, the staff were very understanding, and we were checked in without any difficulty.

In fact, with hindsight, I see that the on-line check in process is almost certainly linked in to the database in the same way as the airport self-checkin stands, so perhaps the lack of flexibility is understandable after all.    Just the same, why the check-in personnel at the airport can override the system and the call centre operators can't remains a bit of a mystery.   The cynic in me wonders if this has anything to do with the fact that Qantas (like other airlines, I guess) doesn't wish to encourage phone calls?

However, I was a little unnerved when, on our return flight, the next day, once again, I wasn't able to access the self-checkin process at the airport.  The flight was again on Qantas, but it was a completely separate booking, made at a different time, and with a different reference.  But no, the self-checkin machine refused even to commence the process, and so we had to explain to a real person that we weren't carrying anything we weren't supposed to.

I'm now apprehensive that the Qantas computer has locked me out of the self-checkin process!  Surely, not as a result of my discussion over the phone?   We have a flight in the near future with Jetstar, so time will tell whether we have demonstrated ourselves trustworthy! In the meantime, two lessons have been reinforced:  be very careful about which boxes you tick and don't take issue with anything an airline person says.

Travelling at short notice

Being "seniors", most of our travel is planned some time in advance.   However, sometimes events arise that require plans to be made at short notice, such as travelling to Canberra for a funeral.
Of course, the only fares on both Qantas and Virgin at our preferred travel time were significantly more costly than the cheapest fares available at other times (including later in the day on which we wished to travel ... but we didn't have the necessary flexibility).  Such is the price of booking close to the date of travel and not having a great deal of flexibility.

Even so, for a single booking at our preferred time, the fare shown was what might be regarded as a "intermediate" amount, so things could have been worse.  But, when I tried to book for 4.....a higher figure was shown!

Hmmm.   I revised the booking down to 2 people, and, yes, the lesser (intermediate) fare was available.   It seems that if a booking is for a number of seats that exceeds the number available at the cheaper figure, then the whole booking will be processed at the higher cost (I've encountered this before).   In our case, the 2 remaining family members travelled instead on Virgin, which fortunately operated a nearly parallel flight (at a nearly parallel cost).



Happily, there seemed to be plenty of accommodation available in Canberra for our night there, and we got a good rate for this.  And car hire rates at the weekend in Canberra seem to be a lot cheaper than during the week. There were certainly a lot of unused cars in the hire car carpark.

But how to avoid the credit card fees charged by the airlines?   Virgin allow you to do a direct debit (via Poli)...there are a few steps, but it's not hard.   But with Qantas, it's much more restrictive.   Within 7 days of travel, Qantas don't allow the use of BPay.  You can only use a Visa or MasterCard debit card, which I don't have (although I'm thinking about getting one), and even that costs $2.50 per passenger.  Use of a credit card attracts a surcharge of $7.00 for each passenger.
 
How Qantas justify their $7.00 surcharge in light of the RBA Guideline eludes me, but perhaps this is an issue for another time.

Are (were) there foxes in Tasmania?

When we were last in Tasmania, on a number of occasions we came across information in motel rooms asking us to report any sightings of foxes that we made.   But we didn't see any foxes.  Now it seems that there may never have been any to see!

Hawley House, Port Sorell - but no foxes?

According to this report, the story that foxes had been deliberately introduced had no firm basis.  The report doesn't even discuss the story about a fox or two that hitched a ride across on the ferry (as told to me).

I guess the outcome, namely that there don't seem to be foxes in Tasmania, is good news.  Pity it's taken this long to come to this conclusion.

Perth Airport

We returned our hire car at Perth airport.  Yes, I know that Bayswater are the place to hire cars from when in Perth (and I've used them several times in the past), but the convenience of a pick-up and drop-off at the airport was, on this occasion, worth the extra cost.

However, I was aware that a small surcharge applied if you used a credit card.  So, on returning the car, I offered to pay by EFTPOS.   No sir, I was politely informed, the only option other than a credit card is cash.   Accordingly, I offered cash, save that $1 change was required.  Even providing a single $1 in change proved to be somewhat of a problem!    I dug deeply and was able to provide the exact amount, but I was left with the strong impression that the credit card surcharge is usually "optional" in name only!

Lots of flights to mining centres

The other thing I noticed was  the Qantas Club.   It certainly occupies a big area in Perth (there's even an overflow area).    It seems that many of the fly in/fly out workers have Qantas Club memberships!

Last Day in Perth

We're back home now, but our last full day in Perth, after attending St Aidan's in the morning, was spent in having lunch at Trigg with I (a former colleague), a quick look at the Karrinyup shopping centre (well, it was nearby), a drink at City Beach watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean and a casual meal in the apartment having a quiet night and then packing up.

Relaxed atmosphere at City Beach!

Watching the sun set at City Beach over a drink and/or coffee seems quite a Perth pastime, especially for families with young children.  

Trigg

Big Mac house at Trigg

Restaurant at Trigg

Sunset at City Beach

St Aidan's

One of the highpoints of the time we sent living in Perth was the welcome we received at St Aidan's Uniting Church at Claremont.

We returned to visit St Aidan's and received an extremely warm welcome even though it has been over 10 years since we attended regularly (we have visited once or twice in the intervening years when in Perth).   It was indeed lovely to catch up with a number of familiar faces and also to see the renovations that have made to their buildings.  

Perth

We had a leisurely lunch with some relatives (kumovi), which included a catch up with baby E (now 19 months and very attentive!).  

Freshwater Bay

Then we spent a few minutes checking the views over the Swan River at dusk, followed by an early dinner at - yes, predictably? - Cottlesloe again!    This time, it was at Indiana, which was very acceptable.   Pity it was dark so the ocean view was limited to the lights of the ships out at anchor.