Globaliser

A slight nuance on this information. Frequent travelers to the US from selected other countries, including the UK, are eligible for Global Entry: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/trusted-traveler-programs/global-entry/eligibility Global Entry won't be worthwhile for most visitors to the US, because of the time, cost and effort involved in applying for it. Also, it's only available to citizens of a very limited number of countries; for example, even from (geographical) Europe, only five countries' citizens are eligible. The rest of us either just have to suffer the queues - or else not bother to go to the US when there are so many other countries to visit.

I absolutely agree about not trying to walk. I was in Whittlesford just last weekend and drove around that junction. I wouldn't be confident that a pedestrian footpath could even be safely put in, given that the crossing road (the A505) and the roundabout are both on a 50 mph limit, and there are no traffic lights.

Personally, I think I would simply rent a car for a day. Trying to get to Duxford by public transport isn't easy unless it's an airshow day. I think it's either train + bus (on routes that only have a handful of buses each day), or train + taxi (and you'd have to organise a taxi to take you back from Duxford to a railway station).

26 September, according to today's email.

What denominations are the coins?

Very politely put! 😄

Not here. Maybe in tomorrow's email?

Can you not even phone the payment contractor in these situations? Maybe I'm lucky that I've only encountered RingGo parking so far: I make a voice call, and the automated machine immediately says "Do you want to park your bright red Fiat Cinquecento?"* and walks through the remaining steps to take a card payment. * Well, it isn't actually a bright red Fiat Cinquecento, but you know what I mean.

Unless you bought your cash from family or friends, this is practically impossible. If you bought cash from a bank or a money exchange place, you will typically have paid more in fees at the point of purchase than if you used a card for your purchases. Even if you use a card that charges forex fees (which is, frankly, optional these days), these are typically only 3% on top of a near-zero-margin interbank exchange rate. Between the bid-offer spread and the commission typically charged by a bank when selling you foreign exchange, you can pay a lot more than that.

That reminded me of the recent FT article about a consequence of the decline in the use of cash in countries like the Netherlands. Less cash, fewer ATMs (plus the Netherlands has good protection for the contents of ATMs). But Germany remains addicted to cash. So with plenty of German ATMs stuffed full of cash, Dutch gangs have therefore taken to blowing them up: almost 500 of them last year, taking an average of €100,000 per raid: Bombs, car chases and ‘free money’: Dutch gangs blow up German cash machines. Maybe I should keep a diary! As Cotswold Eagle says, it wouldn't be surprising if there the UK has similar regional differences, including a higher proportion of "no cash" merchants in big cities.

Just in the last two days I've been to several mainstream shops and restaurants in London that don't take cash. They're still in the minority, but there are far more of them than places that don't take cards. If you don't want to use cards, you'll find plenty of places where you can spend your money. But please don't let individual anecdotes fool anyone into thinking that every merchant will take cash. It's simply not true.

It sounds much like the normal welcome for those who arrive in the USA but have the temerity/misfortune to hold a non-US passport: hours of queueing for immigration, and no benches or chairs along the way. Heathrow can sometimes be pretty bad for this, too. It can happen anywhere. This is a bit confusing, but it sounds like you booked Norse Atlantic Airways for the trans-Atlantic to Oslo, and then Norwegian Air Shuttle/International from Oslo to Copenhagen. (Norse Air is/was a small South African airline, so doesn't seem likely to have been involved.) Taking a quick walk through the Norse Atlantic booking process, it seems to make it pretty clear that you're buying two separate tickets (so you're not connecting). That's no surprise given that they're both cheapie low-fare airlines. And it's therefore no surprise that you'd have to buy a new ticket if you miss the second flight for any reason, even if some of the reasons may be covered by the Dohop product that Norse Atlantic seems to require you to buy.

The video looks like pretty much every airport I've connected through. On a bad day. They all have them. If you really have travelled all over the world, you'll have seen this yourself elsewhere. I've even heard horror stories about Munich! Just the other day, Manchester made headlines here because it was having a bad morning (although all was back to normal by 6.45 am).

I'm wondering how this will be of any use for your flight choice. Whether and to what extent flights are on time this summer has pretty much no bearing at all on how things will be next year. You'd probably be better off considering things that do matter, like schedules and backup if things go wrong.

Some airport hotels are also out of the zone, so they may have been within their rights to refuse or negotiate (offer!) a fare, which is what seems to have happened. Staines is outside the TfL zone. So are hotels like the "Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5".

But "nearby" isn't the test for whether they're required to take you. They don't have to go outside the TfL zone, so they can refuse those trips. But anything within the TfL zone is a trip that they must accept, if you insist.

The top of the list would be the Hilton Paddington. Basically part of London Paddington station, it has direct access to the station concourse. The Heathrow Express runs every 15 minutes and takes only 15 minutes to get to Heathrow Central station, and advance purchase one-way tickets start from £5.50. This hotel is not quite in central London, but it's close enough that you could have an evening in town, get back to the hotel to sleep, and still easily make it to an early flight the next morning if that's your travel constraint. Some people would say that that has to be better than mouldering in a Premier Inn on the Bath Road for the best part of 24 hours.

This hotel is inside the TfL zone, isn't it? AIUI, if it is, then a taxi would have to do the journey whether they like it or not. In any event, from that hotel the taxi should be able to get back to the airport terminal in time to jump the queue in the feeder park, so they would have another chance to pick up a hire all the way into central London. As always, I would pose the question why: Why stay at an airport hotel if you have the option of staying in central London? Occasionally, it makes sense. But even if you have an early flight the next day, there are some hotels in town from which you can get to a Heathrow terminal in about the same sort of length of time as from this hotel.

There is a published through fare on the Elizabeth Line from Reading to Heathrow. You simply touch in with your contactless payment card at Reading, and touch out at Heathrow with the same card. The TfL fare finder says that this is £21.00 one-way peak (Monday to Friday from 0630 to 0930) and £14.90 off-peak. (The National Rail website suggests that a paper ticket would be £24.60 peak and £23.30 off-peak.) It looks like EL trains from Reading usually use platform 4 at Hayes & Harlington, and EL trains from there to Heathrow use platform 3. That would involve going over the footbridge (it looks like there are lifts). Personally, I'd be primarily looking at the Railair coach.

You mean the website that is virtually defunct, with no updates or corrections being made to the pages? And which wasn't altogether accurate even in its heyday?

If you can't positively identify your bag from 50 yards across an airport baggage reclaim hall, or across that of a cruise terminal, you haven't marked it distinctively enough. Ideally, this means that I can plan my walk to the baggage carousel so as to reach it at the exact time that my bag passes that point.

Yes it's a Bank Holiday tomorrow, Monday 28 August 2023. The OP will be there towards the end of September 2023, for a cruise departing Southampton on 29 September.

AA's published Minimum Connection Time for CUN-MIA-BDL or CZM-MIA-BDL looks like it's 1:35. So I might put a little more money on there being no "30-40 minute" connections available on these itineraries. The booking engines simply won't offer them, let alone allow you to book them.

If they sell a 30-minute connection, it's because most passengers will make it most of the time. However, that's a big "if". I'd be interested to see any examples of a 30-40 minute connection from either Cancun or Cozumel via Miami to Hartford. I'd put a little money on there not being any, because the airline wouldn't sell them.

There is no Bank Holiday anywhere near 27/9/23.