Brazil Carnival 2024 is here: Rio gets ready to party
February 12, 2024
Flamboyant floats, electrifying drummers and samba girls paraded during the first night of competition of Rio de Janeiro’s elite samba schools. This year, the major league of samba schools parades was set to take place on Sunday and Monday.Six schools paraded in the Sambodromo, Rio de janeiro : Porto da Pedra, Beija-Flor,Salgueiro , Grande Rio, Unidos da Tijuca and Imperatriz Leopoldinense.Everything about the biggest carnival in the world!
See more Brazilian carnival 2024 girls, queens, floats and customes
photo: Rio samba dancers, hot women in costume dancing samba music
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: turn U$100 into 10000 miles
October 11, 2020
Turn your Alaska Airlines wallet credit into miles
For a limited time, Mileage Plan members can convert $100 into 10,000 miles
Alaska Airlines is offering a new incentive to its Mileage Plan members who have wallet balances. Members will be able to convert their wallet credit into miles for future travel – a $100 wallet credit converts into 10,000 miles.
“With award travel starting at 5,000 miles one-way on Alaska and the ability to book award trips to more than 800 destinations with our 16 Global Partners – as well as the addition of the One World alliance in 2021 – this is a great way to start planning for future trips,” said Sangita Woerner, senior vice president of marketing and guest experience at Alaska.
- Current promo: up to a 60% bonus
- Purchase rate: As low as 1.72 cents per mile
- TPG valuation: 1.8 cents per mile
- Ending date: October 31
TPG values Alaska miles at 1.8 cents apiece, so this can be a good deal if you use the miles for a high-end partner award like Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines first class. For example, you can book a Cathay Pacific business class flight from the U.S. to Asia for 50,000 miles with minimal taxes and fees.
The airline says: “Our Mileage Plan miles do not expire as long as members remain active, so when guests feel it is safe to return to travel, we will be there to welcome them on their long-awaited vacations.”
Flight Ticket Refund in COVID-19 times: nobody is ready to help
August 16, 2020
IATA must instruct all airlines and travel agents to refund air ticket fare for non-operated flight. They are holding public’s cash to an uncertain period by giving many baseless reasons.
It is illegal and a VIP looting.
The 90% of Airlines are not executing refund of air tickets either on re-scheduled or cancelled flights due to Covid-19/lockdown during April and May 2020. Causing mental trauma due to the lack of help for this problem.
Journalists also silent in this subject!
Airline passengers around the world are due $35 billion in ticket refunds this quarter, according the International Air Transport Association .
IATA’s argument against immediate flight refunds
The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) is the trade association representing about 290 airlines, or 82% of total air traffic. It’s an organization that essentially speaks on behalf of the industry.
IATA Tweeted to express disappointment at the US DOT’s ruling on flight refunds, arguing that it risks 750K jobs, each of which supports 13 additional jobs in the wider US economy.
Refund?: Total silence when you talk about money
The travel agents have airtickets which are cancelled during lockdown period…and their IATA issuing agent is not giving proper reply for refund!!.
Some movements
For example, IAAI (India) demands Full Refund For Air Tickets Booked Before March 24.
IATA Agents Association of India on Saturday 25th April filed an Application for Impleadment before the Honorable Supreme Court, seeking orders to the Central Government and DGCA for a full refund of Air tickets issued before and after 24/03 for the Flights cancelled due to Covid pandemic.
Travel fraternity is in coma
Air tickets cancellations are happening drastically because of Corona Virus …domestic and international airlines are not ready to refund anything.
And the passenger WHAT????
It is unfair and discriminatory not to have an operational refund policy for passengers who have booked tickets much before but could not travel during the period from the advisories on the travel ban cancellations and total lockdown.
Customers will be quick to point out that airlines have almost zero mercy when it comes to flight refunds under normal circumstances, even if consumers can’t “afford” the change fees.
Why isn’t IATA at least openly advocating for airlines to greatly increase the validity of vouchers?
Brazil: São Paulo Carnival 2021 is postponed
July 30, 2020
The São Paulo City Hall announced this Friday, 24, the postponement of Sao Paulo Carnival 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement was made by Mayor Bruno Covas and Governor João Doria.
For now, Sao Paolo Carnival has been moved to May, but can be held in July, depending on factors such as the arrival of a vaccine or pandemic control.
The move applies to all Sao Paolo carnival activities, including also the blocos – carnival street bands.
This week, representatives of the SP League and schools met with the mayor to begin talks about Carnival. What is certain so far is that the parades will not happen in February.
Meanwhile, the Sao Paulo samba schools continue with their restricted activities, with no work in the barracks, but launching plots and holding samba contests without the traditional presentations to the public on the blocks.
The British low-cost airline has confirmed a cyber attack that has exposed the data of 9 million customers. The “highly sophisticated” attack has allowed hackers to access email addresses, travel details and even the banking details of more than 2,000 people.
EasyJet has reported in a statement that a “highly sophisticated” cyber attack has allowed hackers to access the email addresses and other personal data of nearly 9 million customers, who will be contacted in the coming days by the airline which, for the moment, has no evidence that they have been exploited.
Apart from email addresses and passenger travel details, the company explains that the bank details of 2,208 people have been compromised.
The company has apologized to those affected through Johan Lundgren, its CEO, who has stressed that it takes the cyber security of systems very seriously, but that threats are constantly evolving as cyber attackers become more sophisticated.
On the other hand, he has asked affected customers to be very vigilant especially if they receive strange e-mails and assured that the airline will continue to “invest in protecting its customers, its systems and its data”.
In general, the firm recommends everyone to protect devices with a strong security solution and to apply operating system and application updates as soon as they are available. In addition, it reminds users to use unique and complex passwords on all their online accounts and to take advantage of two-factor or two-step authentication as long as it is provided by the provider.
EasyJet hacking compensation:
If you were one of the many EasyJet customers who received an email from the airline, you might be eligible for an EastJet compensation.
Law firm PGMBM has issued a class action claim on behalf of airline travellers impacted by the data breach.
The law firm estimates that each affected person may be able to claim up to £2000 in compensation. As nine million EasyJet customers are thought to have had their data exposed by the security breach, the action has a potential liability of £18 billion.
And, according to PGMBM, you don’t have to provide any evidence that you have lost any money to claim compensation:
“Under Article 82 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR) you have a right to compensation for inconvenience, distress, annoyance and loss of control of your data.”
You may need to check your junk or spam email and the email subject probably started with
“Cyber Security Incident” or “Criminal Theft of Customer Data, more information”
More problems for Easyjet customers
Some passengers have tried to cancel the easyJet account. The airline are asking them to upload a photo of themselves!!. Why would they need this? The customers didn’t send a photo to open an account. Email to EasyJet asking them to delete the account but no results.
Obviously loyalty counts for nothing.
Other customers since getting the email from easyJet have been inundated with phone calls from every part of the world.
EasyJet probaly will be subject to an investigation by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) who are the UK authority on data protection. There will also be a large fine forthcoming. The recent British Airways data breach was 500,000 customer’s details and they were fined over £180 million.
The EasyJet breach affects some 9 million customers, so we expect there’ll be a very big fine coming that will focus the minds at EasyJet Head Quarters.
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