A while back I bought a travel adapter at the store called Handysize. The adapter was pretty brilliant as I was able to puzzle it together into a small provide container and that made it easy to bring it along when I went traveling. But there was a slight problem with it – in some cases (especially when I went to Malaysia) it did not seem to sit properly into the socket and I ended up having to find stuff to support it in order for it to provide constant power. 

So now I’m on the lookout for a new travel adapter. At a store here in the area called Teknikmagasinet it seems like they have a few options. A frind of mine has got one called X-power travel adapter where you just slide out the plugs that you need. It looks a bit more sturdy and it is also handy for throwing into the backpack when I travel. What travel adapter do you use when you travel? Let me know if you have found the perfect travel adapter and where I can get it

I got an iPhone a few months back and I just love it. As weeks go by more and more apps are released and there are of course lots of travel apps out there that can be of some use. One of the apps that I found very useful when I went to Vietnam and Cambodia was this currency converter application. It was useful as it was very confusing to go from Ringgit in Malaysia to Thai Baht to Vietnamese Dong to Cambodian Riel. Check out iTunes for all the travel apps that are on offer both free and at a charge…you can get everything from maps (Google Earth), info on hotels, where you can find restaurants near by, flight information, translation services etc. Will the guidebooks disappear now that you can also get these on the iPhone? Lonely Planet has even started offering city guides on the phone But one word of advice…note that data traffic can be VERY, VERY expensive when you travel abroad so you should try to keep the online surfing to a minimum unless you don’t want a shock when you get back home and see your phone bill. Which travel apps are your favorites?

You can also rip your DVD movies and load them on your iPhone. One of the applications that are getting good reviews when it comes to this is a free application called WinX DVD ripper. I have uploaded a couple of movies to the iPhone and the screen is impressive so the quality of a movie is quite good.

As a member of the SAS Eurobonus program I got a bit of a shock when I got the news that SAS would introduce fuel surcharge when buying an award ticket. This means that I had to cough up almost 3000 kroner (about 500 USD) when getting an award ticket to Hong Kong. Lufthansa just had an offer where it was possible to buy a ticket to Hong Kong for 3500 kroner (580 USD) – this means that it is not really a point in using the frequent flyer points anymore unless you go for business or first class.

In connection with this a campaign has been started in order to try to convince SAS to go back on their decision but I have to say that I doubt they will change their mind as they are in economic problems these days. But we should still voice around opinion of course Below is an e-mail that you can send to SAS and international members should use stosn@sas.se

Dear SAS EuroBonus,

Since 2003, as EuroBonus members and loyal SAS customers, we have experienced a constant decline in the benefits and rewards of being a EuroBonus member and SAS customer. Unfortunately, we’re not the only ones who have experienced this which can be clearly seen in your market share of the Scandinavian market and also your recent traffic figures.

Fuel surcharge on EuroBonus award tickets
The latest occurrence in this steady decline is the introduction in July 2009 of adding the fuel surcharge to EuroBonus award tickets. The argument as to whether a fuel surcharge can legally be a separate charge in the first place is not of most concern to us as frequent flyers. What is of real concern is that the only remaining benefit that has made EuroBonus stand out from other frequent flyer programs – no fuel surcharge on award tickets – is now gone.

With this change, “free” EuroBonus tickets will now cost an extra 152 Euro (on average) on top of taxes, which is a 328% (on average) increase compared to just paying the taxes together with the points, and a devaluation of EuroBonus points by -34% (on average) in terms of their monetary value due to the points required remaining the same.

Also, by adding the fuel surcharge to award tickets you will be discouraging the spending of EuroBonus points on otherwise empty seats on SASSAS must pay for. Would it not be better to keep this money inside SAS by offering an incentive for your customers to spend their points with you instead of others?

EuroBonus no longer has anything that other frequent flyer programs do not also have, and worse – has many more negatives, such as:

No one-way reward flights
Other airlines offer the possibility to pay 50% of the points/miles for a one-way flight (e.g. bmi) while others take 70% of the points/miles (e.g. Lufthansa). However with SAS one must pay 100% of the points as one must book a return flight. Plus as of July 2009 one must pay the return fuel surcharge also – therefore paying twice the money just to fly one way – this is really bad practice.

25% points rule on too many booking classes
Earning 25% of points on the cheapest of the cheap tickets is understandable, but too many fare classes earn only 25% – many of these tickets are not at all cheap. Most other carriers are much more generous in awarding miles/points than SAS, and as you have made it more difficult to earn points, EuroBonus and SAS are now seen as worthless for some members in terms of rewarding loyalty.

Booking classes on Star Alliance codeshares
When booking a Star Alliance flight with SK code numbers, for example HEL-FRA-YYZ operated by LH/AC in Q class, the booking class for LH actually becomes L class, which earns 25% EB points instead of the 100% that one expected. This is misleading and should be fixed.

Poor elite recognition
As a EuroBonus Gold (EBG) there is no recognition once onboard the aircraft whatsoever. For example, other airlines block a middle seat if space is available for their Elite members (and even other partner Gold members), or provide a free snack and drink in Economy to all their Elite members on flights where there is Buy On Board (e.g. bmi).

If the experience onboard for a loyal EBG member flying short haul Economy with SAS is the same as flying Norwegian or Ryanair then there is little reason to chose SAS, and more reason to chose Norwegian or Ryanair in terms of price, and Lufthansa or Finnair in terms of better service and treatment.

This vicious circle of losing more and more market share is partly due to the gradual cutting away of the benefits and not being transparent to your best customers, to the point where we are lured away to fly with other better quality or cheaper carriers and to also use other better frequent flyer programs – thereby ignoring everything to do with SAS on the very mention of the word or view of the logo.

We understand that the current economic climate is tough and that this is the reason you introduced the fuel surcharge on award tickets, but by gradually making more and more negative changes to EuroBonus without also introducing any real improvements, particularly for your best customers (EBS and EBG members), SAS is slowly but surely losing more and more customers – more and more of your best customers who are the very ones you should be doing as much as possible to keep during these tough times.

We therefore hope that SAS will remove the fuel surcharge on award tickets as a priority, and thereafter fix the other above problem areas of EuroBonus, and by doing this, SAS will again have one of the best frequent flyer programs, that can make you win new customers and keep your old ones, making SAS once again the preferred carrier to and from Scandinavia.

Kind regards,

<Your name>
EuroBonus Member Number: EBX ### ### ### flights. They will instead be spent on seats on partner carriers which

I stayed at Grand Hotel Kempinski in the beginning of November 2008 in connection with a short trip to Geneva. I booked the hotel in advance and paid about 2500 NOK (about 365$). I took the taxi from the airport to the hotel and that cost about 35 CHF and check in was quite fast and I got room 4460. It was easy to see that this is a pretty luxurious business hotel and the lobby area is quite vast and there were lots of shops selling good quality watches and there is even a huge cigar shop filled with Cuban cigars. Click on the link below to read the entire review.
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I got a newsletter from the Norwegian travel magazine Zine travel today and one of the topics were weird museums around the world. You can view the article here (only in Norwegian I’m afraid). Did you e.g. know that there is a sewer museum in Paris? And there is a British Lawnmower Museum. I think the weirest museum I have been to is the  Museum of forensic history in Bangkok. I went there during a trip in 2002 and the brochure said that this was a museum “not for the squeamish”…and they were quite right. It is a place were you can see mummified criminals, body parts on jars, babies with various birth defects, skulls with bullet wounds etc.  It was really a bizarre place and I left the place kinda nauseous.  But I guess it depends what you are used to seeing…when I went there, there were school classes visiting and they did not seem to mind. Anyway, you can see more photos at the bottom of the Thailand 2002  trip report.
Now it is your turn…have you been to any weird museum? Tell us all about it

In September 2008 I went to Aberdeen on a short business trip. I was not sure where to stay so I asked a colleague of mine that had been to Aberdeen before and he said “Stay at Skene House on Rosemount….but be sure to ask to stay in the church”. I found “the church” recommendation to bit a bit odd but I followed the advice and booked the room. Click on the more link below to read the entire review.
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When Nikki and I have been traveling, there are quite a few times where we have wanted to take a picture of us with something in the background. Sometimes we try to balance the camera on top of something but it is rarely a success and sometime we end up asking people but that can also be tricky if they don’t have any camera skills But here is one product that might be able to help out a little: Gorillapod . This is a tripod like any other but the special feature is the flexible legs which means that you can wrap it around stuff (like a bar as shown in the picture to the right) and that introduce new possibilities. I still haven’t made up my mind to buy it or not but I’m tempted. It comes in different versions by the way…there is also one model that are made for SLR cameras.

I stayed at the Majestic Grande hotel in Bangkok from Friday 28th of September until Monday October 1st 2007. I had room 1605 located on the 16th floor and I had a view from the Sukhumvit area where the hotel is located towards the Lumpini park area. We chose to stay at this hotel as it was rated very high on TripAdvisor.com and the price was quite low (which seems to be a great combination) but as we found out you can’t always trust the ratings on TripAdvisor. Please click on the link below to read the entire review.
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If you have traveled a bit you know the procedure – once you get into the aircraft there is a boring safety announcement and hardly any of the passengers pays attention to it. But it is possible to do these safety announcements with a twist in order to get people to pay attention. Here are two examples.

Thomson Airways:

Southwest Airlines:

And when we are talking about airlines – have you seen this add for Air New Zealand? Well, if you haven’t check it out and take a close look at what the people are wearing…or rather not wearing They have nothing to hide.

Have you ever heard of Trolltunga (the tongue of the troll)? I had not heard about this place until a few days ago when I saw a photo in a newspaper. It is located near Odda and it seems like quite a spectacular place – maybe not as nice as Preikestolen and Kjerag but still The photo from  Trolltunga below (taken from Jan’s blog) should give you an idea of what to expect. From this place you should also get a view to one of Norway’s glaciers, Folgefonna.

Odda also seems to have their own small version of Via Ferrata and you can read more about that on Opplevodda.com.