| Gotta love the bump -- to a better grade of service
They worked the system. To unlock the secrets of free or discounted upgrades for planes, hotel rooms, rental cars and cruise cabins, we went to industry experts and frequent travelers. Here are their tips. AIRLINE UPGRADES • Use the upgrade certificates airlines send you for being a frequent flier, or ask friends holding transferable coupons with looming expiration dates if you can take them off their hands. • Though airlines most frequently award their elite passengers upgrades, it never hurts to be the first in line at the gate counter and inquire about a bump in class. (Ask the gate representative, not the check-in agent, who does not control domestic first-class seating assignments.) Alternately, don't be the first to board; hang back in case economy seats are needed and there is extra space in first class -- you just might be offered that elite seat.
High competitiveness ranking for NZ tourism
The Tourism Industry Association represents about 2000 businesses and organisations within the tourism industry. Members include airlines, airport companies, and regional tourism organisations, rental car, coach and taxi companies, inbound tour operators, accommodation providers, tourism attractions, researchers, training organisations and tourism services providers. Tourism is New Zealand’s largest export earner – accounting for 19.2% of this country’s export earnings. .
Gearing Up Snowboards Invade Another Ski Shrine
And then there were three. Taos Ski Valley, one of the last bastions of snowboard-free skiing, caved to commercial pressure last week and said it will allow snowboarders on the slopes starting at the end of the season. For the family that owns the storied resort, it's an effort to expand the business and retain customers whose children or grandchildren prefer snowboards to downhill skis. But it's a crushing defeat for some lifelong Taos fans, who now are threatening to pack up and sell their New Mexico real estate. It leaves just three major resorts standing against the snowboarding juggernaut: Alta and Deer Valley in Utah and Vermont's Mad River Glen. .
Key West: An oddball, but upscale, place in the sun
KEY WEST, Fla. — You can still see chickens crossing the road near the busy intersection of Duval and Truman. Once they might have been chased by an axe-wielding cook with a gleam in her eye. But today they are more likely to dodge tourist trolleys or shoppers weighed down with high-end fashion accessories or original works of art. .
L U D H I A N A S T O R I E S
The otherwise heavily encroached upon Daresi Road in old city today wore a cleaner and wider look, thanks to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badals visit to a function on Valmiki Jayanti here. Encroachers, including those selling vegetables, fruits and knickknacks, were pushed away, as the municipal corporations tehbazaari department and the police remained on their toes to keep the area clean, at least till Badal remained in Daresi. While Badal was scheduled to arrive around 4 pm, the authorities concerned started clearing out encroachments right from the morning so as to pave a smooth way for his cavalcade. The encroachers were seen carrying their paraphernalia to other parts of the city. A minister is coming. That is why they are shooing us away, said Moti Ram, a vegetable seller.
No, Kosovo is not on the St. Lawrence
EEBD organization and hierarchy, from http://direct.srv.gc.ca/:
http://tinyurl.com/26o2v6
Government of Canada
---Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada ( FAIT )
-------Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
------------Assistant Deputy Minister, Bilateral Relations
---------------- Central, East and South Europe Bureau
------------------------ Eastern Europe and Balkans Division ( EEBD ):
Sarty, Leigh; Director
Tessier, Michel; Senior Desk Officer - Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo issue;
Sooley, Kenneth; Senior Desk Officer - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia
Posted 03/03/08 at 2:05 PM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment .
Report: GM takes three honors in annual auto ownership cost survey
General Motors Corp. gained ground on Toyota Motor Corp. in an annual survey of ownership costs including measures such as sticker price and resale value, Bloomberg News reported today. GM led in three vehicle categories, up from one last year, while Toyota again won four of the total of eight awards, research firm IntelliChoice.com said at the Chicago auto show today. Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC were shut out. The results lend credence to GM's goal of improving quality and boosting resale values by curbing incentive spending and sales to rental-car companies. Such so-called fleet customers typically resell vehicles quickly, depressing prices. .
Clout: Buxom Clinton pic seemed like a good idea at the time
The Nazi leader, architect of the Holocaust, was "a political parasite" who "perverted fascism," Grimes said. Grimes favors the path of Benito Mussolini. "We try to follow Il Duce's ideology," he said. "The corporate state can create economic equality." The fascists won't allow most of a nation's wealth to be in the hands of the few, he said. His party also supports free elections. "We'd allow freer elections than President Bush has allowed," Grimes promised. You mean under fascism the Supreme Court wouldn't get to choose? Grimes has worn Mussolini-inspired black uniforms and Imperial Roman head gear in the past, but says he avoids it while campaigning. "We've all but given up on the uniforms," Grimes said "They don't work in America." Murphy's law The U.S.
May 2006
(The Euston group formally launched on May 26 in London. Several members have also written op-eds -- see here -- as part of the roll out. Norman Geras, a government professor at the University of Manchester, has been particularly insightful, including this piece in the Guardian: Within the large "middle" sector of left-liberal opinion opposed to the war there has been, from the start, a differentiating subdivision - between those who opposed the war without being in denial about the considerations on the other side of the argument, and those who precisely have been in denial about them. This latter group extends well beyond the far left. The signs of denial are abundant in the recent public life of the western democracies: in the banners and slogans for that Saturday on February 15 2003, from which one would never have known that Saddam's Iraq was a foul tyranny; in the numbers of those on the left unwilling to allow, many indeed unable to comprehend, why others of us supported a regime-change war; in a constant stream of comment in liberal daily papers and weeklies of the left; in the excommunications issued and more recent calls for apology or recantation; and, most seriously, in the perceptible lack of interest in initiatives of solidarity with the forces in Iraq battling for a democratic transformation of their country, part of a wider lack of enthusiasm for the success of this enterprise given its origins in a war led by George Bush.) Posted on April 17, 2006: Though it hasn't garnered much media attention, there has been an interesting fight brewing within the political Left.
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