The diplomatic row some time ago issuing from Russia’s refusal to extradite to Britain former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy, who allegedly murdered fellow Russian Alexander Litvinenko with a dose of polonium-210 in London in November, 2006, leaving a lethal radioactive trail in restaurants, hotels and planes, recalls to mind a letter I received from a reader, a ‘nuclear inspector’ with the European Commission in Luxembourg, who claims his baggage had received ‘dangerous levels’ of X-rays during a connection at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.
Peter (not his real name) writes: ‘My flight from Marseille to Luxembourg (via Paris CDG) arrived with no baggage, despite a three-hour layover in Paris. When it finally caught up with me, I found that my Nuclear Electronic Dosimeter inside was emitting an alarm tone. When it was electronically read at my office, it transpired that the baggage had received an X-ray does of 0.326 mSv (milli Sievert) - very high when you consider that a person is normally allowed a maximum 2mSv a year! X-ray machines also produce doses of “radio activity.”‘
‘I don’t know what the security people did with my baggage in Paris,’ Peter adds, ‘but it is important to advise other travelers that such high doses of radiation will destroy unexposed film or other sensitive materials and may even cause trouble for electronic circuits, and flash cards, or memory sticks. My bags are never locked so they can be opened and checked by security, who clearly refer to use electronic X-ray systems to the maximum. Airports should do more to control security staff who, in my case, must have left the machine on for an inordinate amount of time.’
A disturbing new angle in surviving the airport experience.
Can you lock up your Blackberry for the duration of a hotel stay and live to tell the tale?
This was the challenge offered to business travelers addicted to staying in touch at all times, by Rick Ueno, general manager of the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, with Sheraton’s ‘Blackberry Detox Challenge’ program.
Can anyone tell me what happened to it?
The idea was that addicts who turned in their Blackberry, PDA, or any device that can receive e-mail messages, at check-in to be locked up for the duration of their stay could get a complimentary upgrade and a walking map ‘to see the city, as opposed to being in head-down Blackberry position.’
Ueno, a former ‘Crackberry’ addict, who claimed to have been ‘PDA-free for two years,’ said: ‘Initially it was tough, but the only way to do it is go cold turkey, but two years’ later, there’s no going back,’ Ueno says. ‘All that I’d do would be check my e-mails every few seconds, which would then distract me; now I’m much more productive, more focused on my key priorities. When I have time, I’ll log on to my computer and check my e-mails. I run a hotel with 1200 rooms and 900 employees. I’m more accessible now, and doing it without a Blackberry, not being connected 24/7.’
Leonid Brezhnev is said to have used a cigarette case with a special lock that only opened at specified intervals to help him beat his nicotine addiction. Crackberry Anonymous might offer a similar device to ‘freeze’ your Blackberry for a specified time, blocking incoming (or outgoing) e-mail messages.
How do other handle Crackberry or general e-mail addition?
With many airlines now charging for checked luggage, Marriott Rewards and The Luggage Club, a baggage shipment service, have teamed up to allow members to redeem points for gift cards to ship luggage door-to-door. Marriott Rewards members can earn 10 Marriott Rewards points per dollar on services and redeem points for gift cards in increments of $50, $100, $250 and $500.
The Luggage Club (www.theluggageclub.com) picks up travelers’ baggage at their home, office, or location of their choice, delivers it to their final travel destination and returns it home at the end of the trip; there are no limits on size, weight or number of items. Next-day service to deliver a mid-size bag from Paris to New York starts at around $312.
Sometimes, taking a lot of stuff with you is unavoidable; especially when it comes to sports equipment, like skis and golf clubs, and other outsize items.
Rather than risk the hassle and nightmare of mishandled or lost bags, consider shipping your bags with a specialized courier service.
BA recommends First Luggage (www.firstluggage.com) who pick up and deliver baggage by FedEx all over the world. The cost for one-way shipping of a suitcase of 66 pounds from Milan to Brussels is about £89 ($177); or from Britain to the United States, £129). BA passengers who book online receive a five percent discount.
Excess Baggage (www.excessbaggage.com) ships bags from offices and homes in 300 countries, charging from $4 to $10 per kilogram for most destinations. Excess Baggage has a network of agents that include Contour USA (www.contour-usa.com) for shipments from the United States. It is also worth checking out the luggage courier services of www.Skycapinternational.com and www.Virtualbellhop.com, both based in the United States.
Luggage Express (www.usxpluggageexpress.com) has a similar door-to-door courier service across the United States and is extending now to cities in South and Central America, parts of the Caribbean and Europe. Prices start at $85 for a 35- to 40-pound suitcase between U.S. cities to $325, with duties and tax, from New York to London.
Luggage Forward (www.luggageforward.com) is a United States-based baggage and sports delivery service. Price is based on size (not weight), distance and level of service.
XS Baggage (www.xsbaggage.com), based in Washington D.C, has a South Pacific office in Auckland, New Zealand.
Welcome to the surveillance society.
Two-thirds of business travelers have eavesdropped on someone else’s confidential conversations; over a third have caught sight of sensitive documents or information on laptops, and more than 10 percent admit that they have been used this information for their own business purposes, according to a survey of 1,000 frequent travelers in the United States and Britain.
The survey by the Regus Group, a provider of serviced offices and business lounges for travelers around the world. An ominous reminder of World War 11 posters warning that ‘Walls Have Ears.’
In these intrusive times, we have all become involuntary eavesdroppers - on fellow travelers ranting on cell-phones, or casting an inquisitive glance at a neighbor’s open briefcase or laptop screen.
And now reports that the U.S. government has plans to make random border searches of laptops, cell phones, PDAs and Blackberrys and copy or seize data has sent a chill through businesses and civil rights groups.
‘In today’s wired, networked and borderless world, one’s office no longer exists within four walls,’ says Susan Gurley, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. ‘Rather, one’s office consists of a collection of mobile electronic devices, such as a laptop, a Blackberry, PDA and a cellphone.’
‘Many companies don’t realize the staggering problems people face on the road, and the lengths they go to find a place to work or to have a private conversation,’ says Kurt Mroncz, vice president, global sales at Regus. ‘The survey shows that half of business travelers resort resorted to working in washrooms, bars and crowded restaurants, even park benches.’
Will Geddes, a security specialist, managing director of ICP Group (www.icpgroup.ltd.uk), offers the following security tips:
-Always have a password and pin number on your phone, so that it will automatically stop after a few minutes of nonuse.
-Avoid discussing confidential matters over the phone in a public place - and use code-names for projects and people.
-Make sure that your Memory Stick for data storage is password protected. You can now get biometric Memory Sticks with thumbprint protection.
-Make sure the screen saver on your laptop goes into lock mode after five to 10 minutes, requiring you to enter the password for it to work again.
-Always delete text messages or e-mails on your phone or Blackberry, or get software to forward them to your e-mail back at the office.
-Don’t take unnecessary things in your briefcase; only the stuff you really need for that trip; leave all personal things out. And keep documents in covered, unlabeled folders.
-Traveling without a laptop, you can access your office files by logging on to a service such as GoToMyPC (www.gotomypc.com) from any Internet-connected device - even a dumb terminal in a hotel lobby - and pick up work where you left off. The connection is secure, and it feels as if you are sitting in front of your own PC. But you must keep your home computer on, at least in ‘sleep mode,’ while you are away.
‘I go into a VPN - virtual private network - to my office server remotely,’ Geddes says. ‘A lot of people in the financial services sector do this. It means I’m not holding anything locally, which is a potential risk, if I lose or break the laptop.’
-Consider having a separate laptop (and memory stick) that you use only for trips; and save documents on a memory stick rather than on the hard-drive.
-When flying, don’t put your laptop or documents in the overhead bin above you, but one diagonal to you. Then when someone rummages in the locker, you can see what is happening. People have had laptops stolen from overhead in business-class cabins.
Safeguarding private data from Big Brother is rather more daunting. Our telephone conversations and e-mails are routinely ‘swept’ for certain key words or phrases, which may activate a closer surveillance. RFID tags linked with a network of high resolution CCTV panoramic cameras around an airport could be used to track the location of anyone at airports, trains stations, or any public place, with an accuracy of one square meter.
New European Union and U.S. biometric passports carry embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips. This not only enables the authorities to check our whereabouts each time we pass unwittingly through a check-point. This puts travelers at risk of identity theft. The chips can be ‘read’ by anyone with a reader from up to 60 feet away in such places as airports, hotel lobbies, crowds and trains. Hackers could clone the RFID chip, if not the passport.
Worried? You should be. Remember, even a paranoid can have enemies.
I am a huge fan of high-speed trains; often the fastest way to travel between city centers in Europe, beating airlines on journeys of up to 550 kilometers (three to four hours) by train. Eurostar, linking London (St. Pancras International Station) and Paris (Gare du Nord) in 2 hours, 15 minutes, and Brussels in 1 hour, 51 minutes, has captured more than 70 percent of the market from airlines.
But when it comes to booking tickets, the train can be a pain. Things we now take for granted at airline sites – such as being offered options for flights either side of the date, or time, we wish to travel; multi-sector connections, often with several carriers; electronic tickets and the ability to print out your own boarding card are light years ahead of rail. Yes, you can book rail tickets online, but don’t expect to be offered seat selection, and tickets are sent to you by snail mail!
Booking cross-border rail travel is especially frustrating because the national rail operators’ timetables do not match up, so you might have to wait for an hour or more to catch the next train. And standards of seating and service vary from operator to operator.
I was brought down to earth the other day when Madame was grounded with deep vein thrombosis, which meant that we had to cancel our EasyJet flight to Switzerland, and go by train: Eurostar from St. Pancras to Paris, a transfer from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de Lyon then the TGV to Lausanne, a journey time of less than 8 hours, with time for lunch in Paris.
Madame, a nimble navigator in cyberspace, reported that Eurostar (www.eurostar.com) could only book us tickets as far as Paris; and, after futile attempts to book the onward TGV, at Swiss Federal Railways (www.sbb,ch), ‘lost confidence when confirming and paying,’ and finally called a local travel agent.
Eurostar provides through bookings to about 68 cities in France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany; and from several British regional cities to the Continent. One can book online or at the Eurostar call center, 44-8705 186 186.
Railteam (www.railteam.eu) is an alliance of Europe’s seven high-speed rail operators, Eurostar (UK, France & Belgium), Deutsche Bahn (Germany), SNCF (France), NS Hispeed (Netherlands), OBB (Austria),SBB (Switzerland), and SNCB (Belgium), and Thalys (a partnership between French, German and Dutch railways), and TGV Lyria (connecting France and Switzerland). It aims to offer seamless high-speed train travel across international borders, with improved synchronization of timetables, better connection times, and more consistent pricing. Should you miss a connection because of a late-running train, Railteam will ensure a seat on the next train, irrespective of the type of ticket you hold. Travelers should be able to book tickets online across all seven high-speed networks by the end of 2009.
Meanwhile, travelers can book high-speed trains and other rail journeys at national rail sites or at Rail Europe (a subsidiary of French Railways (www.sncf-voyages.com).
‘We can book 99 percent of rail travel, including Eurostar and overnight trains, like Elipsos between Barcelona, Paris, and Milan and Madrid; and Artesia from Paris to Milan and Turin,’ says Jo Wilcox, marketing manager, Rail Europe. ‘Enter your departure city and destination on our site, and we will give you prices for each segment of the journey, allowing you to mix and match classes and fares with different carriers.’
Rail Europe operates more than 20 booking sites, serving most countries, including www.raileurope.com (United States); www.raileurope.ca (Canada); www.raileurope.co.uk (Britain); and www.tgv-europe.com (Continental Europe). Rail Europe has call centers in the United States, (1-800) 462 2577; Canada, (1-800) 361 7245; UK, 0844 848 5848.
‘The Man in Seat 61: A guide to taking the train through Europe’ (Bantam Press, £12.99) from railway enthusiast Mark Smith is an invaluable guide to planning train journeys from
London to 39 countries – from Albania to Ukraine. Although the book is aimed at the British traveler, it is packed with practical tips on inter-city travel within Europe, advice on routes, timetables and connections; best ways to buy tickets online, or by phone, for a particular journey; finding the best deals; rail passes; and crucially, how to change trains in cities like Brussels and Paris! Chapters are packed with useful Web site addresses and phone numbers for travel advice and booking.
For instance, German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) at http://bahn.hafas.de offers ‘the simplest, fastest and most comprehensive online European timetable for travel between any two European railway stations you care to name.’
There are sections on traveling overnight in sleeping cars or couchettes (‘A second class sleeper is far better than a first class couchette; and a second class couchette is streets ahead of a first class seat’) for journeys of up to 800 miles; and scenic routes, such as the Glacier Express from Zermatt to St Moritz in Switzerland; the classic Rhine Valley route through Koblenz; or from Athens to Larissa and Thessaloniki.
‘Ah, if only we could get away,’ is a frequent lament from office slaves this side of summer. But while it may seem grim minding the fort while everybody around you is away, going on vacation is a minefield for the unwary.
This is why some people opt for a ‘staycation,’ or what the travel trade calls a ‘home-based vacation,’ instead - not necessarily staying at home, but staying over for a night or two at local hotels, or resorts; splurging on fine dining: simply an extravagant extension of normal life.
Of course, it may seem like paradise; getting away from it all to that beach hotel on the Cote d’Azur, or an idyllic island in the Greek archipelago, with your loved one for a glorious week or two.
And that’s the rub. Vacations are an ideal time for couples to rediscover themselves - and each other. But unaccustomed periods of ‘unstructured’ time; the break from routine, can play havoc with relationships. If you are used to having time apart, being together all day, every day, for several days, can send the best relationship into an acrimonious tail-spin.
I have known relationships to survive, not so much in spite of, but because of the regular absence of one partner on business trips. Absence really can make the heart grow fonder. Hence the adage, ‘I married him for better or for worse; but not for lunch.’
Couples on vacation are often forced into a proximity and an interdependence for which they may not have a script.
When away from routine, there should be a new division of privileges and responsibilities, and a rediscovering of each individual’s role.
According to Jackie Walker, a relationship coach based in Edinburgh, early September and mid January - the periods just after a vacation - are peak times for couples to seek relationship counseling, or initiate divorce proceedings.
‘Vacations are stress times for relationships,’ Walker says. ‘People go back to work after end-of year and summer holidays and say, “I can’t go on living like this any more; I’m not going through another year.”
They suddenly realize they have little in common with their partner; and the time they spend together is either spent proving who is right, or blaming each other, rather than enjoying their relationship and supporting and encouraging one another.
‘In daily life, couples can be so busy with work and social commitments that they spend little time together,’ Walker adds. ‘But sometimes all day, every day, for a couple of weeks is too much. If you are used to having time apart in your daily lives, allow for this when you are on holiday. Accept that he might want to try scuba diving and she might want to visit historic sites, and you can limit resentment and conflict, and have great stories to share over dinner that night.’
Vacations are a good time for taking stock; and reflecting upon our lives.
‘But if you’ve been burying your head in the sand about relationship problems, long, hot, leisurely days can allow time to admit that something is very wrong,’ Walker says. ‘Many couples take a holiday in the hope of reviving a foundering relationship, but it’s the late summer that I get a high level of inquiries for counseling - the divorce lawyers are busy at that time too.’
Paradoxically, relationships often founder when a couple returns from vacation, perhaps after having a wonderful time. A return to the reality of daily life convinces them that they will happy only if they leave their partner.
‘That affects a lot of people,’ Walker says. ‘They may be right; but sometimes it can be helpful to recognize the things you need to change about your life so as to feel happier all year round.’
Walker says there are three parts to a relationship. ‘There is him, there is her, and there’s the relationship. And very often the third part is forgotten; people work on the assumption of “I’m doing this,” and “I’m doing that,” and forget about the “we’ part. The general run of what goes wrong in relationships is because people have forgotten how to look out for one another; to recognize that they are serving one another. I believe it is important for couples to support and empower the other person; and so often what happens is that people start blaming, shaming and knocking, rather than working together.’
If you are still thinking of taking a late vacation this year, here are some tips for ‘divorce-proofing’ your relationship:
-Decide what you both want out of a holiday and agree in advance on joint or separate activities. Give each other space.
-Agree who takes responsibility for what: booking flights, hotel and car rental…
-Agree on a budget and who’s paying for what.
-Try something different; if you always do beach holidays, try a rural retreat, somewhere quite to go and walk, and talk, or an activity holiday with friends.
-Go on holiday without your partner and come home to a revitalized relationship.
-A lot of the pleasure is in the expectation; but be realistic; expect the unexpected, and for things to go wrong.