OLIVER-ALL-OVER - Travel and Intercultural Fitness

27/05/2022

After a recent flight cancelation, and yet another flight-time change for an upcoming flight in less than two weeks time, my verdict is out:

Easyjet will cease to exist in the mid-term - especially if it continues with its policy of canceling and rescheduling flights with short-to-no-notice.

Common sense would lead me to highly dissuade anyone from prebooking an Easyjet ticket for ANY of their flights departing beyond a week's time.

For the most part, I've rarely been wrong with any of my airline-failure-predictions - particularly that of the demise of Eastern Airlines, Sabena and Swissair.

Eastern Airline's early 1980s disdain for implementing any kind of canceled-flight customer-service management system certainly sealed its fate in my eyes. Swissair - not to be confused with its successor, Swiss [International Airlines] - was the mother company of Sabena. Despite its own amazing canceled-flight customer-service, Swissair's sanctioning of Sabena's codeshare partnership with no-frills Virgin said it all, 1½ years before the Swissair Group's collapse.

One way to judge an airline's quality is through its cancellation and rebooking customer-service-quality. Swissair [the airline] certainly led the pack in impecable cancelled-flight-crisis-management. However, Swissair Group sealed its own fate with its truly mind-baffling bad buy-out-spree of the late 90s.

Pity, as I was such a huge fan of its Crossair subsidiary.

Easyjet's rescheduling and cancellation policy will most likely be the cause of its relegation to the same airline cemetery as many-a-carrier, albeit for somewhat different reasons.

Easyjet's management of the recent cancelation was all but helpful. Aside from refusing to rebook me onto another flight, the airline's ground staff also failed to inform me about my EU-regulated passenger rights.

The recent cancelation of a Rome-Berlin run, the rescheduling of a flight I will be taking in two weeks time and my approximately 20 cancelled flights that were preceeeded by the approximately 40 failed flight reschedulings during the pandemic leads me to this conclusion.


Easyjet's disastrous scheduling policy during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic - not to mention its introduction of a Ryanair-style baggage policy in the same period - certainly guaranteed itself a good supply of nails for its own coffin.

The falllout from the pandemic is now all but coming to an end, yet Easyjet's cancellation and rescheduling ordeals persist. Not a good way for a struggling airline to win over customer confidence.

Despite Ryanair's cattle-car slaughterhaus policy, it's been by far more reliable in its scheduling politics.

I've actually seen improvement in Ryanair's ground staff flexibility - for example in letting slightly overweight baggage get on-board without an excess fee.

I know: hard to believe!

Easyjet, on the other hand, refused to significantly reduce its schedule or change its pricing policy throughout the pandemic.


Ryanair was successful at reducing its schedule. Flights weren't canceled once their pandemic schedule had been implemented.

The right thing for Easyjet to have done would have been to raise prices significantly as a means to win over business traveler confidence because it would have guaranteed sufficient take-off revenue and, with it, guaranteed takeoff times and days - regardless how empty a flight might have been.

Instead, Easyjet kept prices rock bottom - yet delusionally behaving as if tourists were going to line up to fly at the height of the pandemic. The airline's management installled a policy of constantly changing flight times and dates - only to cancel them anyway and with extremely short notice.

For a travel business to survive, confidence building measures must be at the center of customer-service-policy. Easyjet fails miserably in this. Ryanair's scheduling policy - as hard as it is for me to admit - kept me from going insane.

Now, Easyjet's takeover by a ["former"] Ryanair executive makes its pending demise - exactly like AirBerlin's government sanctioned management-takeover by a ["former"] Lufthansa executive - a no-brainer.

It is clear that Ryanair is passionately aiming for Easyjet's demise - just as much as Lufthansa aimed to eliminate AirBerlin from the market.

A Trojan Horse story all over again.

If its cancellation and rescheduling policy were not the issue, then the recent decline of its on-board service quality is. Cabin crew remain polite and friendly. But basic food-service amenities are always missing. It is not possible that basic food and drink is not available.

Ryanair might offer a weak choice of food and drink. But at least they are consistently supplied with those weak choices. I know what I can expect when I fly

Ordering basic food and drink on Easyjet has become a total hit-and-miss.

Easyjet is simply no longer following the how-to-retain-a-customer playbook rules.

In fact, once I will have used up all my current Easyjet tickets, I will think twice before booking an EasyJet ticket.

Unfortunately, Berlin has been a desert landscape as far as earthly non-stop flight choices goes. It now looks as if it's destined to become a lunar one.

27/04/2020

Reviving the travel industry: Immunization Passbook
By Oliver Bradley

Corona has put the entire travel sector into a tragic Sleeping Beauty slumber. The once booming industry will remain effectively dead until smart, out-of-the-box ideas kiss it back to life.

Cross-border travel has been hit particularly hard by the global pandemic and will probably not recover for many years to come - not, at least, until pandemics such as Corona and the Covid-19 disease it causes, are curable or controlable through vaccination or other means of effective and life saving therapies.

HIV, for example, is still neither curable nor sustainably controllable through vaccination. However, the spreading of the virus and its life-threatening effect is now manageable through life-enhancing therapy.

So far, there's no evidence showing whether most Covid-19 survivors develop antibodies and there's still no conclusive evidence that immunity is guaranteed with antibodies present in the bloodstream.

This goes for many of the vaccines that we have access to today - such as the flu shot.

What we can assume, however, is that antibodies or the capacity to forceably suppress viral loads will protect us from the harshest impacts that can be caused by viral illnesses.

There's been a lot of talk about how to ease the gravity of travel restrictions that are currently in place in order to curb the spread of the Corona virus.

As far as Corona goes, many of today's seemingly draconian travel restrictions WILL UNDOUBTEDLY REMAIN in place until most people will be considered "safe" from the virus.

This probably means that traveling with an Immunization Card or passbook (in paper or electronic form) will become just as commonplace as traveling with an identity passport.

I was inspired to write this commentary after reading a friend's Facebook post about how appalled she was that an airline dared suggest implementing an immunization passbook.

There's also talk and, with it, accompanying conspiracy theories about immunization microchips getting implanted into our bodies together with vaccines. Although the concept exists, claims that Bill Gates and Jewish vaccine developers are planning world domination through a global immunization and [tracking-]chip-implantation project have been sufficiently dispelled.

People principally opposed to the concept of forced vaccinations and advocates who fear a further erosion of the private sphere have already begun setting up barricades against having to prove immunization as a requirement for future travel.

Over the past few decades, Americans fought tooth-and-nail against the implementation of a national identity card. A federal ID card exists today and the individual states are now in the process of rolling out federally recognized "Real IDs" ⭐ connected to drivers licenses.

What was unthinkable then is becoming normalcy today.

Why shouldn't this hold true for an immunization passbook requirement?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that we allow ourselves to be denuded completely. However there are ways to implement checks and balances to ensure that our data be treated respectfully.

But in order for travel to return to some kind of normalcy, new ideas need to be come up with. And for lack of better ideas, an immunization passbook requirement could work as a quick fix against the current travel lockdown - at least for starters.

Currently, immunization cards only show which vaccines we received for which we should have developed antibodies. In the future, they might [and I believe they should] show the major antibodies that will have developed, unbeknownst to us, in our bloodstream from mild or non-symptomatic illnesses - such as chickenpox.

A vaccination passbook will make it easier for border-control-officers to know who may cross a border without restrictions and who will need to undergo a mandatory and controllable two-week isolation period upon arrival.

Many countries - for example those prone to yellow fever outbreaks - already require proof of vaccination for entry into their countries or for travel to certain regions.

Such counties require proof for entry because they don't want to be stuck paying the medical costs of non-residents who might fall ill while visiting.

At Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Airport many years ago, I recall how a man pleaded with the airport's border officers to be allowed entry into the country with his two small children. It was apparent that he didn't have proof of having had a yellow fever vaccination.

I don't know how that story ended. My assumption is that he will have been allowed entry into the country, somehow.

Had the gentleman and his children been forced to leave the country, then the airline would have been held responsible for transporting him and his children back - at its own expense.

Over the years, I've seen how airlines have gone a bit overboard in checking that its boarding international passengers are in possession of all necessary documents and visas - beyond the simple ID check. This is because airlines have been made liable for transporting inadequately documented passengers and are forced to repatriate these passengers at their own expense.

I am sure that future cross-border travel will require some kind of proof that a traveler is safe from spreading dangerous airborne diseases as well.

The newly recreated border controls within Europe's Schengen Zone will most probably not be dismantled any time soon - if ever again.

In the case of the US or Australia, travel between individual states might also become more restricted - as has already been the case among several of their states which for years have implemented harsh interstate transport regulations for agricultural products, as a means for curbing the import of destructive pests.

The concept behind agricultural checkpoints in the United States and quarantine checkpoints in Australia is essentially no different than the idea behind the implementation of a vaccination passbook.

Covid and the California Fruit Fly are both airborne dangers. Why restrict one danger if not the other?

Airlines will need to guarantee the safety of their crew and passengers while countries will need to find sustainable ways to control pandemics.

Being a frequent flyer, I find the idea good that people squeezed together into small environments - such as an airplane's fuselage - be checked for the many airborne health risks that plague us BEYOND Corona.

I'd be apt to say that people with colds should also be restricted from air travel.

Can an immunization passbook be a solution?

Immunizations are not necessarily 100% effective. But if everyone squeezeed together into tight spaces were to have been immunized, then we could be pretty certain of making an impact in curbing the spread of many airborn diseases.

There is, however, a huge crowd out there opposed to vaccines, period. I have several friends who belong to this category of people. As a result, there's been, for example, a huge surge in measle outbreaks.

A vaccination card is simply a way to assure the OTHER passenger, not to mention transportation professionals, that they are in a relatively safe environnent. It ensures a host country or region that its visitor will be neither the cause of a potential pandemic nor a burden to their healthcare system.

Without some kind of control initiative, I guarantee that the travel industry will not be able to recover the way we knew it now.

The only alternative - at least thus far - is that we will ALL be subjected to mandatory, weeks-long quorantining upon arrival to our destinations - irrespective of our health status.

Such an option will severely mame the leisure-travel industry and utterly curb business travel.

Business travel traditionally subsidizes leisure travel offers. So curbing business travel in any way will have a severe negative impact on the affordability of future leisure travel.

The longer the Corona pandemic looms over us - without viable out-of-the-box solutions - the more businesses and consumers will get used to online meetings and conferences. We risk killing off a major part of our economy. Namely, the hospitality industry.

Why travel to a meeting when it can be done online?

Well if we want to revive the travel industry and keep it reasonably affordable - before people get too used to not traveling anymore - then it'll become imperative for businesses to keep their employees, consultants and clients meeting each other live.

If proving immunization is a key to speeding up the re-opening up of the travel market, then so be it.

Are we afraid of giving up even more of our so called digital privacy?

Real privacy, in this age of online connectivity, does not exist anyway. Who thinks so is only deluding themselves.

But that's the topic of another conversation.

For now, let's just hope that the vaccination passbook idea will get off the ground fast and give the travel industry the necessary kiss of life it'll need in order to wake up from its Sleeping Beauty slumber.

End.......................
Dispelling the Bill Gates conspiracy theory.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bill-gates-id2020/
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-bill-gates-micr/false-claim-bill-gates-planning-to-use-microchip-implants-to-fight-coronavirus-idUSKBN21I3EC

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/03/18/bill-gates-calls-for-national-tracking-system-for-coronavirus-during-reddit-ama/

23/05/2019

Wiwiblogs
Israel: Five things we loved about Tel Aviv…
outside of the Eurovision bubble
By Lisa Klug
21 May 2019

From the food of Carmel Market to the beachfront views from the Dan Hotel, we found plenty to love about Tel Aviv during Eurovision 2019

19/05/2019

AMAZING TEL AVIV
(evaluation for Booking.com)

Vibrant energy; amazing choices for food cultures; colorful markets; never-ending beaches; cultural flair; lifestyle mecca; cosmopolitan par excellence....
..but also at an unbearable decibel...

Tel Aviv is a loud bustling city. It isn't a huge city - but you wouldn't know it when walking its streets - day or night.

"The city that never sleeps" is no exaggerated advertisement slogan.
The city truly does not sleep nor is it easy to sleep here.

Loud voices of people enjoying themselves fill the streets, day and night - as do honking cars, road-works and landing aircraft.

With restaurants and cafés open until late into the night, you might be apt to wonder if anyone has to go to work the next day.

This footnote, however, shouldn't scare the casual traveler away. Just be sure to bring well fitting ear-plugs with you, especially if you prefer lodging at iconic locations with historical or bustling views.

Some of the most amazing views are where the noise goes on for nights on-end.

But why go to Tel Aviv, if bustling lifestyle is not on your plan?

Lifestyle is what makes Tel Aviv so iconic. The city is much, much more than the Bauhaus and International Style buildings which dot the entire city.

Tel Aviv is a sum-total of its food, dance, sun, beach, culture, style.....and people - a Babble in the flesh derived from its colorful population of Europeans, Arabs, Asians, Africans, blacks, whites, g**s, religious, atheists, Jews, Muslims and even Christians.

The city is very much a "real" place, with "real" people doing "real" things and not for the sake of PR as many Israel-bashers so wrongly and belligerently like to try and make people believe.

In Tel Aviv, everyone will get his or her money's worth, without a doubt.....except, maybe, sleep.

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Oliver-All-Over - Travel and Intercultural Fitness

https://www.booking.com/city/il/tel-aviv.de.html?aid=304142;label=gen173bo-1DCDcoggI46AdIB1gDaDuIAQGYAQe4ARfIAQzYAQPoAQH4AQOIAgGYAgSoAgO4AqjIhecFwAIB;sid=b10fb41b323a11d976313b167d44588c

27/09/2018

The development of this Facebook - page is still in a creative phase. It will go online, with relevant content, in the coming months.

29/09/2016

[DE] - FASZINATION "GOLEM" - Die Schriftstellerin Esther Dischereit über die Ausstellung im Jüdischen Museum
[EN] - FASCINATION "GOLEM" - The author Esther Dischereit on the exhibit at Berlin's Jewish Museum

Norddeutsche Rundfunk - NDR Radio Kultur - 23.09.2016 19:00 Uhr Autor/in: Jürgen Deppe

Die Schriftstellerin Esther Dischereit über die Ausstellung im Jüdischen Museum Berlin.

04/12/2014

DISCLAIMER:
Because Facebook has chosen to involve software that will allow the theft of my personal information, I do declare the following: On this day, December 4, 2014, in response to the new Facebook guidelines and under articles L.111, 112 and 113 of the code of intellectual property, I declare that my rights are attached to all my personal data, drawings, paintings, photos, texts etc. published on my profile prior to this date and anytime after this date.
For commercial use of the foregoing, my written consent is required at all times.
This posting places me under the protection of copyright.
By this release, I tell Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, broadcast, or to take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents.
The actions mentioned above apply equally to employees, students, agents and/or other staff under the direction of Facebook, their agents and any other entity which they are remotely associated with.
The contents of my profile include private information.
The violation of my privacy is punished by the law (UCC 1 1-308 - 308 1 -103 and the Rome Statute).
Facebook is now an open capital entity.

17/06/2014

Für diejenigen die nicht immer wissen was ich mitorganisiere.....unter anderem als "Eruv"-Bauer (auf Wkipedia verständlich erklärt) bei der Limmud.de-Festival - (siehe Artikel bzw. Bild Nr. 4)

400 Menschen kamen zum 7. jüdischen Lernfestival nach Brandenburg

26/05/2014

[DE] empfehlenswert!... Ein schoener Ausgangspunkt fuers Radtouren. Zimmer/Suite war "interessant" gestaltet und bequem. Die Mitarbeiter waren immer freundlich und aufmerksam. Obwohl ich kein Fan der molekularen Kueche bin fand ich das Essen gut...

[EN] recommendable!... A great location from which to bike-tour the region. Room/Suite interior was "interesting" and comfortable. Staff was friendly and very conscientious. Food was good, even though I am not, generally, a fan of molecular cuisine...




http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g642071-d639895-r207075714-Gasthaus_zur_Post-Ladbergen_North_Rhine_Westphalia.html

Review of Gasthaus zur Post

04/05/2014