Globaliser

What time of the year would this be for? Generically, Citadines and Club Quarters would have been my first suggestions. I know people (including a mutual acquaintance) who have used both chains. But I think that they're all central London locations, and probably priced accordingly.

It's not just branding. SWR is a completely different company from LNER. They're only "part of National Rail" in the sense that they both belong to what used to be called the Association of Train Operating Companies, which is now part of the Rail Delivery Group. The members of the group will each sell almost all tickets for any train operated by any group member, as well as through fares that require travel on more than one company's trains. If I had to guess, it would seem less likely to be a deliberate decision not to accept overseas customers, and more likely that it's simply a website/database construction/security limitation that the company sees no commercial need/imperative to resolve. The number of customers who can only give a non-UK address and must register an account in order to book a ticket in advance for SWR trains is probably negligible, particularly given the nature of SWR's network, passenger and fares mix. It's different for (say) LNER which basically only operates long-distance trains on which advance booking is important for a large proportion of customers. It's exactly the same as airlines, driven by very similar commercial imperatives.

As ever, your instinct was correct: that 26-day hole has now been filled (together with some other holes in her schedule). I'm not sure the NCL website understands how the International Date Line works, but that's probably for another day and another thread.

You wanted Saudia?

Yes, normally. It just takes some practice. Having said that, I'm pretty fond of the vast open spaces of the forward upper deck loos on BA's A380s.

I agree about the last point, but I find airline PJs tend to be made of some of the nastiest artificial fabrics that can be found, and are therefore usually quite uncomfortable. So I bring my own stuff, which is well worth the small extra effort of carrying it. It's useful to hear this from you, too. JAL isn't often an option for my routes, but it's been cropping up as a possibility a bit more often recently.

I doubt it. In pre-Covid times, you might have had a decent chance, but even then I wouldn't have booked it. You also need to be aware that the RailAir link is not a train. It's a bus that takes you to Woking (or possibly Guildford) to change there for a train. A quick look suggests that the bus runs twice an hour, but it may be that there is only one train an hour from Woking.

I think that here, that model is most often seen in pubs and similar places. Otherwise, it's generally either being served at the counter and taking the food to your table yourself (including at sandwich shops like Pret), or table service. So it sounds like the latter may be more what you're looking for anyway.

How fast and how casual? As you mention pizza, are you prepared to contemplate sit-down table service in an informal setting? In any event, there is a planning law in London that stipulates that if you stand outside the front door of any branch of Pret a Manger, you must be able to see at least one other branch. The most convenient one for what you want to do is probably this one (49 Tothill St, SW1H 9LQ). Another alternative is Farmer J St James's (8-9 Orchard Pl, SW1H 0BG), which does counter service salads (including hot salads). A sit-down bistro-type place that I would recommend is Chez Antoinette Victoria (22 Palmer St, SW1H 0PH). That shouldn't rule out pizza. You can get plenty of dairy-free pizza. At worst, many (probably most) pizza places will be geared up to do vegan versions, but some places might offer non-vegan but non-dairy. One possibility for a pizza would be the Pizza Express at 85 Victoria St, SW1H 0HW.

Isn't the day flight called "the Chairman's flight"?

A quick dig found these dates for 2023, which are typical. (These are not comprehensive lists.) Christmas lights switch-on 2 November 2023 Oxford Street 7 November 2023 Covent Garden 8 November 2023 Carnaby Street 9 November 2023 Regent Street and St James's 9 November 2023 Marylebone Village 14 November 2023 St Christopher's Place 15 November 2023 Belgravia 16 November 2023 Bond Street 18 November 2023 Chelsea Southbank Centre winter market: 28 October 2023 - 7 January 2024 Christmas in Leicester Square: 8 November 2023 - 7 January 2024 Winter Wonderland: 17 November 2023 - 1 January 2024 But many individual places start putting up Christmas decorations earlier than that, often because they want to have them in place before schools' half-term holidays at the end of October. Some of the big department stores may actually have their Christmas departments (selling decorations, gift wrap, cards, and Christmassy gifts) open from as early as mid-August. Before you fall off your chair laughing, there are actually good reasons for this, which were confirmed when they first experimented with the idea.

This can't be stressed enough. If you wouldn't have to fly on further from DFW, then doing immigration and customs at your final destination is so much better than having to do an international-to-domestic connection at LAX or SFO. Qantas It truly is Qantas.

Qantas You should also be able to get Qantas flights via LAX, although the domestic sector would be operated by American Airlines. However, "best" is something that nobody can advise you on, because it depends on how what your personal priorities are and what value you place on them. We can usually have a go at "cheapest", but that's a very different adjective from "best".

You keep saying this, but what's your alternative? I think that the only way of eliminating such anomalies would be to price all fares on a flat pence per mile basis.

If cheap is the principal consideration, there's an itinerary that's £66.60 per person: 1015 Southampton Central to Coventry arr 1227 (CrossCountry) 1327 Coventry to Edinburgh Waverley arr 1821 (Avanti West Coast) It appears to be fared on split tickets: Southampton Central to Basingstoke Basingstoke to Banbury Banbury to Coventry Coventry to Penrith (North Lakes) Penrith (North Lakes) to Edinburgh Usual health warning about split tickets, though: There are potential pitfalls for the uninformed or unwary if things don't go according to plan; they should be used only by people who understand what split tickets are about and what the downsides can be, and not by people who can't see beyond the £ signs.

I think 10:45 is the departure time from Flam and 11:43 is the arrival time at Myrdal, at the other end of the trip.

I have no personal expertise in this subject, but I was intrigued by the idea that the staff at the Tower might tell you an untruth just to get rid of you near closing time, particularly as quite a few visitors to the site will have extensive knowledge. So a quick Google found this page: "In Victorian times, it was claimed that Anne was lodged in the current day ‘Queen’s apartments’ but we now know that this is incorrect as the present day buildings were built a number of years after Anne’s execution. This information was circulated to meet a strong public demand to see and know the physical space where Anne Boleyn spent her last hours." It's corroborated by things said on a number of other web pages on the topic of Anne Boleyn and the Tower, although I can't vouch for any of it. I always suggest not packing too much in to a day, and I agree that anyone who wants to see both places properly will probably struggle because of a lack of time - they each need at least half a day. But this isn't because the two are too far apart from each other. To get from the Tower to the Abbey, it's six stops on the District (or Circle) Line from Tower Hill Tube to Westminster Tube, which is about a 10-minute journey on a line with frequent trains, and the respective stations are close to the sites.

To be frank, that's what I would do. It would also allow you to gauge whether you actually have enough energy to go to Windsor that day. If I had to choose between an overnight flight from Philadelphia to London followed immediately by sightseeing in Windsor, or poking out my eye with a sharp stick, I'd still want to think about it.

AIUI, licensed taxis ("black cabs") from the rank at the terminal will not be obliged to take you to Windsor, as that journey goes outside the TfL taxi area. In addition, if one agrees to take you there, the meter does not have to be used, for the same, reason, and the fare is therefore for agreement between you and the driver. One note about this: There's a significant hill between W&E Riverside and the location of that gift shop. It probably matters less if you're going to the station, as that's at the bottom of the hill.

Here's a provisional list: https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/Cruise_Ship_Schedule/ - the berth numbers for each terminal are listed near the top of the page.

Then it's the same answer, as SWR's strike is also the day before you travel. I would expect the route from London to Southampton (and beyond) to be a priority for SWR.

Assuming that you've booked a direct train from Southampton Central to Gatwick Airport, your train is operated by Southern. The strike there is on 7 May, so I think you should be fine for 8 May. I think that the worst that is likely to happen from this industrial action is that you'll have to take a different direct train from the one you've booked, if your booked train is cancelled for some reason. And because South Western Railway's strike is also on the previous day (ie 7 May), on the day that you travel you will also have a backup route of going to London and coming back out again using SWR trains.

You can simply buy the Oyster and set the Young Visitor Discount at the same time at any Tube station. There's no need to take the Tube to Piccadilly Circus before doing it, because by definition you will have passed through a Tube station already. So you may as well just do this when you take your first Tube journey. I know what you mean about this discount being hard to find. For some reason, TfL does not like to make a big deal out of it, as noted on some local transport blogs.

Thank you for the kind words - but I'm posting again just to make sure there's no confusion. The only video that I could see concerned the 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard. That is not the same as the Young Visitor Discount, which is also for (and only for) this age group. Getting a photocard will probably not be practicable for you. To set the Young Visitor Discount, you need to get an ordinary Oyster. (A Visitor Oyster will also work, but I personally find it hard to see any real benefit in a Visitor Oyster, for any age.) Then find a member of staff at a Tube station, a London Overground* station, one of the listed Elizabeth Line stations, or a TfL Visitor Centre. Ask to have the Young Visitor Discount set on the Oyster. The child must be present. The staff member will then use one of the ticket machines to set the discount onto that Oyster. The process should take only 2-3 minutes. If you're here for 8 days, then this will definitely be worth doing. * NB The London Overground is a set of TfL lines. They are shown in hollow orange on Tube maps. The London Overground is different from National Rail, and National Rail stations will not be able to set the Young Visitor Discount.

This depends on your credit card company, not on TfL, which simply charges the sterling price. Typically, a credit card will charge a foreign exchange conversion fee in the order of 2.5% to 3.0%. But because this is a simple percentage, you end up paying the same whether you spend (say) $100 buying an Oyster or spend $25 on each of 4 days' travel. If your credit card company charges a per-transaction fee for foreign exchange transactions, then the calculation is different. A single $100 purchase will be only one transaction, but TfL will send a separate charge to your credit card for each day's travel, ie four transactions. It's not hard to get a credit card that doesn't charge forex fees, though, in which case it shouldn't matter which route you go down so far as fees are concerned. But if you buy an Oyster, you will now of course have to pay the non-refundable price of the card.