Britons Stranded in US after Hurricane Irene

Thousands of UK passengers stranded in the United States over the bank holiday weekend when Hurricane Irene struck will have to wait at least three days for flights home.

Flights have resumed and British Airways and Virgin Atlantic said schedules were operating normally today, but they admit it will take days to deal with the backlog of passengers.

More than 10,000 US flights were cancelled, mainly to the New York and Boston areas, when  Hurricane Irene brought storms and heavy flooding to the US and East Coast.

New York’s four main airports were closed, stranding thousands of British passengers on the wrong side of the Atlantic, and some flights to Boston and Philadelphia were also cancelled.

Both BA and Virgin are laying on extra flights to repatriate passengers this week – BA has an additional service leaving for New York at 17:00 today – but they have warned those without confirmed reservations not to travel to airports as flights are already full and they are not accepting any standby passengers.

Virgin has asked passengers already rebooked on flights departing within the next three days not to call the airline as it will not be able to get them home any sooner. It said passengers who had not already been rebooked will be contacted by its reservations team within the next 24 hours if they have provided their details via its ‘away from home’ link on its website.

BA is giving passengers with confirmed reservations to travel to the US east coast this week the option to delay their trip up to September 19, provided their tickets were booked no later than August 25.

How Royal caribbean and Carnival cope with Hurricanes

The Serenade of the Seas, which was scheduled to depart San Juan, P.R., at 8:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, Aug. 21, was ordered to leave at 5:30 p.m., so 145 guests who had not re-embarked were left behind. Royal Caribbean provided 15 of the passengers, who had booked their air travel via the line, with hotel accommodations in San Juan for Monday evening, as well as a flight to Aruba on Tuesday, where they re-joined the ship.

The cruise line also notified the 130 passengers who paid cruise-only fares and booked their air separately of hotel availability in San Juan, but the expense was their responsibility, since it was a weather-related event. They also were responsible for their own air to re-join the ship. “Since this decision was made by the Port of San Juan on Sunday while the ship was docked alongside, there was no way to notify our guests of this change in departure time,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Victory was forced to depart San Juan at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 21, approximately four hours ahead of schedule, stranding about 300 passengers at the port. However, about half were able to meet up with the ship at its next port call in Barbados. For those who were unable to board ship, Carnival provided a complimentary, two-night hotel stay in San Juan and complimentary air transportation to Barbados.

Guests who did not have passports in their possession could not proceed to Barbados and missed the full voyage. Those passengers will receive a future cruise credit equal to the amount of the cruise fare they paid.

Strike Threat For Eurotunnel

Bank holiday strike threat for Eurotunnel

Eurotunnel is putting emergency plans into place to cope with threatened strike action by French employees over this bank holiday weekend.French unions are demanding a pay rise of 8% or will call a stoppage. The cross channel rail link has suspended sales of tickets for the bank holiday period in light of the strike threat. More than 25,000 vehicles, carrying around 100,000 people, are expected to use the service over the three days. Eurotunnel says it hopes to rely on its British drivers to run services as usual, but has suspended extra ticket sales to ease the situation. SeaFrance and DFDS Seaways (formerly Norfolkline) have both issued statements urging those wishing to avoid any disruption to book with them as early as possible because capacity is already tight. SeaFrance Dover-Calais Ferries will be operating an additional 16 crossings for both car and freight traffic due to a huge surge in demand. The ferry operator is also advising customers to use the M2/A2 route to the Port of Dover to avoid potential delays as a result of the Eurotunnel strike

Malia? er no Magaluf.

The new Inbetweeners movie has prompted a huge rise in Brits searching for clubbing holidays in Malia.

The film is set as the finale to the E4 sitcom, and centres on four boys taking a lads holiday in the clubbing resort in Crete. It was released last week, and since then has lead to record numbers of Brits wanting to visit the destination.

Club 18-30’s trading manager Russell Whitton said: “Early indications show more interest than ever before for Malia since The Inbetweeners Movie was released last week.

“Whilst it’s only been a few days since the film’s release, it is a positive sign that Malia will be the place to go in 2012 for young holiday makers.”

TYPICAL THOMAS COOK ILL-INFORMED AND STILL ILL-INFORMING THE PUBLIC,  IT WAS FILMED IN MAGALUF AND ANYONE SELLING A HOLIDAY ON THE BACK OFF THE FILM TO MALIA SHOULD NOT BE SELLING HOLIDAYS.

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