Renowned as one of the most scenic train journeys in the world, this coast to coast rail adventure will take you through the Southern Alps, over massive viaducts, river valleys and gorges.
Dec 19, 2017 - Legendary antipodean actors Bryan Brown and Sam Neill have reunited on-screen as the distinctive voices behind the latest instalment of Air New Zealand’s Better Way to Fly campaign to convince more Australians to fly the Kiwi airline across the Tasman and beyond. Bryan Brown is currently the voice behind Air New Zealand’s lovable CGI character Dave the goose who demonstrates all the reasons why the airline is a great choice for Australians flying to North and South America. Now he’s joining forces with acting mate Sam Neill as the voice of an adorable new CGI character, Pete the Kiwi. Together Dave and Pete are reminding Australians that Air New Zealand is the best way to spread their wings across the Tasman. Air New Zealand Chief Revenue Officer Cam Wallace says, “Not only do we have more flights between Australia and New Zealand than anyone else, we’re a premium carrier offering customers a whole range of choices from lie flat Business Premier™ beds through to an award winning Premium Economy™ cabin, a full service Economy experience or just a Seat and carry-on bag. “Wherever customers choose to sit, they can enjoy Air New Zealand’s world class food, top New Zealand wines and free access to inflight entertainment.” After a relaxing trans-Tasman flight into Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Queenstown, customers can then connect seamlessly with Air New Zealand’s network of 21 domestic destinations. Air New Zealand’s alliance relationship with Virgin Australia means Australians can also choose to earn Virgin Velocity points for their trip. Air New Zealand’s General Manager of Global Brand and Content Marketing Jodi Williams says, “Aussies have already grown to love Bryan’s performance as Dave the goose and when the long-standing friends got together again in the recording studio to debut Sam’s version of Pete the Kiwi, their shared sense of humour produced some great comic moments.” Click here to view the behind the scenes video with Bryan and SamAustralians can fly direct to New Zealand from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Cairns. The latest instalment of A Better Way to Fly featuring Bryan Brown and Sam Neill is available for download here.
| An air New Zealand release || December 19, 2017 |||
Dec 15, 2017 - Emirates is spreading the festive joy with treats across all cabin classes this December. Customers travelling through Dubai on the airline’s four daily New Zealand services will enjoy several Christmas specials both on the ground and on board from food to entertainment.
In addition to the regionally inspired cuisine served on board, Emirates has brought back its Christmas menu with a more extensive offering of holiday favourites. Emirates’ seasonal menus are a key component of its dining offering and the Christmas menu is one of the main highlights.
The festive meals are available throughout December for customers travelling from Dubai to Australia and New Zealand, Europe, the United States or the United Kingdom,and those travelling from the UK to Dubai.
Customers travelling in Economy Class can enjoy rolled turkey buffé served with cranberry jus lié, mashed potatoes, Vienna chicken sausages and seasonal vegetables. For desserts, customers will be served festive sweets such as a lemon cranberry cake with cream cheese frosting or a cocoa cake with white chocolate chips and raspberry coulis.
Those travelling in First and Business Class will start with king prawns marinated with lemon and herb and served with cocktail sauce and a fennel salad, and enjoy a main course of rolled turkey buffé served with chestnut and apricot stuffing, cranberry jus lié, pumpkin mash and creamy brussels sprouts with turkey bacon. A variety of desserts is available on the different routes including Ginger bread roulade, Chocolate Mint dome and Yule log.
As a special treat, First Class customers, can look out for Santa-inspired macaroons and hot chocolate served with marshmallows and gingerbread. Young fliers in First Class will be surprised with snowman-inspired marshmallow biscuits.
Besides Dom Pérignon , Veuve Cliquot and Moët & Chandon champagnes available on board to celebrate the holidays, those travelling to Europe or Africa can pair their meals with the premium vintage Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 1985 – a rare treat available in December in First class.
Premium customers can also get into the holiday spirit before the flight departs at the seven Emirates lounges found in Dubai International Airport and over 30 Emirates lounges worldwide, including Auckland. Traditional sweets such as Basler Leckerli gingerbread cookies, Christmas cake and Stollen cake are being served as well as roasted turkey in the First Class lounges.
Holiday gifts for all
Emirates is also making sure customers’ Christmas stockings are filled with special goodies. Across all classes, newly designed amenity kits are being introduced for December.
A new range of Bulgari amenity kits are being rolled out in First and Business Class. There are 16 brand new designs for men and women which can be re-used to keep electronics or make-up. The laser-cut pattern is inspired by Bulgari’s design archives with a touch of Middle Eastern influence inspired by Dubai, Emirates’ hub.
The exclusive designer kit bags include new signature Bulgari fragrances and lotions, along with other pampering essentials. The latest kits feature Bulgari’s White Tea fragrance and are available on long-haul night flights and on flights over 10 hours.
The Economy Class amenity kit bags are also getting a refresh in time for the holiday season. The six new designs are inspired by EXPO 2020 which will be hosted by Dubai. Emirates is the Official Airline Partner of Expo 2020 Dubai. The collectable bags feature the key subthemes of EXPO 2020 – Mobility, Sustainability and Opportunity. When arranged together, the kit bags form an image that represent the collaborative spirit of Expo 2020 and the key theme of connecting minds and creating the future.
The kit bags are given out on ultra-long haul flights and feature travel essentials such as socks, matching eye mask and a toothbrush.
In addition, parents travelling with infants will receive an amenity kit especially for baby. The newly designed pouch features Emirates’ iconic Little Traveller characters and contains essentials such as a bib, spoon, baby wipes, changing mat, diaper rash cream and small diaper bag for a comfortable journey.
Special treats for young flyers
Young flyers are given special attention when travelling on Emirates. Kids will enjoy a specially created festive menu with roast turkey, sweet potato mash, carrots and peas, as well as a moist chocolate brownie with cream cheese frosting and a white chocolate lollipop.
As part of the Emirates Fly With Me Animals range, a special limited edition character will greet young travellers. Noel the polar bear, decked out in a festive red scarf, will be introduced on board to coincide with the Christmas season and will only be available in December.
Noel will be available as a Travel Buddy which comes with a plastic toggle allowing the toy to be hung in the car, on a pram or in the cot and the Carry Buddy, a dual purpose toy and blanket.
Christmas classics on ice
To get travellers into the spirit of the holidays, Emirates’ award-winning inflight entertainment system, ice, features Christmas classics for the month of December. These include movies such as It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone and Scrooged, as well as TV specials including The Office and Family Guy Christmas shows. Customers can enjoy over 2,500 channels of entertainment including Christmas number 1s music playlist for the first time this year and dedicated kids’ TV channels. Special programmes for kids include The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom and The Snowman.
Emirates offers customers across all classes 20MB of free Wi-Fi data to keep connected with friends and family, and Emirates Skywards members enjoy special benefits depending on membership tier and class of travel.
For those looking to brush up on a new language in the New Year, the airline has added 10 new uTalk language channels including Japanese, Swedish, Brazilian, Portuguese, and Turkish.
Last minute holiday shopping
The Emirates Official Store has a range of new Christmas inspired products for those still looking for gifts. These include a limited edition red First Class blanket, and Christmas sweaters and festive pyjamas for the whole family. Other gifts include Santa teddies, tree decorations and greeting cards. These are also available in stores and online at www.emirates.store.
Last minute shoppers can also get gifts on board with brand new products and special offers in the Emirates duty free collection. Shoppers will find over 100 new items in the collection as well as Emirates official merchandise. Special deals include discounts when purchasing 2 or more fragrances.
Dec 12, 2017 - Lufthansa has unveiled the concept for its new Business Class cabin, which will debut on the Boeing 777-9 (777X) in 2020. The carrier says Business Class passengers can look forward to lie-flat beds with a length up to 220cm (86.6 inches). Its goal is to provide passengers with the “best and soundest sleep up above the clouds”, and the backrest has been designed to provide the best possible support and comfort, including when lying on your side.
Over 500 Lufthansa customers have provided in-depth support during the development process. Privacy and comfort while sleeping emerged as two of the most important passenger needs on international routes, and Lufthansa says both of these are “handled perfectly” with the new Business Class concept.
“The new, ultra-modern Lufthansa Business Class creates a new global benchmark,” said Harry Hohmeister, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. “It offers our passengers a unique travel experience.
“We have consistently and continuously refined our range of premium products for our guests and modernised Lufthansa. Our focus is and has always been on the wishes of our customers and their specific needs. We want to provide them with the perfect travel experience. The new Business Class showcases the full innovative capacity of Lufthansa.”All Business Class passengers on Lufthansa’s 777-9s will have direct aisle access, thanks to the 1-2-1 and 1-1-1 configuration.
The 1-2-1 and 1-1-1 seat configuration will ensure all passengers have direct aisle access, and they will also have more personal and storage space. Passengers will also be able to control the in-flight entertainment system with their personal devices, and wireless device charging will be available.
Depending on their personal needs, passengers will be able to choose between a number of spatial configurations. For instance, they can choose to have an extended-length bed or a seat with twice as much desk space.
Lufthansa has also revealed that new exclusively-developed mattresses will be introduced in the Business Class cabin on long-haul flights from early-2018.
| AN FTE release || December 12, 2017 |||
Nov 29, 2017 - 21 Night Grand Aegean and Egyptian Experience from Athens Return aboard Aegean Odyssey. SALE TO 30 NOV only!! BONUS: FLY FREE from Auckland or Christchurch to Europe and Return 2 Nights premium hotel stay in the 5-star Electra Metropolis, Acopolis Suite. Includes transfers. 2 Night overland tour to Cairo, Egypt https://goo.gl/jx2W9Q #travel #cruise #cruising #cruiseline #cruiseship #sail #mediterranean #sea #flyfree #aegean #egypt #egyptian #athens #mondotravelnz #cruisespecialist #cairo
Nov 20, 2017 - AirAsia is the best low-cost airline in the world and CEO Tony Fernandes wants to shift the airline’s business towards e-commerce launching a payments platform called BigPay. Fernandes also believes the first class cabin is going away within five years. Sixteen years ago, Tony Fernandes, with a small group of intrepid entrepreneurs, took over a failing Malaysian Government-owned airline for $US0.25 and the promise to assume its $US11 million in debt.
Since then, AirAsia has helped bring affordable flying to the masses in South East Asia. In the process, the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based company has become one of the most disruptive forces in commercial aviation history while making the always affable Fernandes a rockstar in the business world.
What started as a two-plane operation has now expanded to a fleet of more than 150 Airbus A320 jets with another 200 aircraft on order. And for the past nine years, AirAsia has been named the best low-cost airline in the world by Skytrax and its reviewers.
Recently, Fernandes spent a morning with the Business Insider at our headquarters in New York. Our conversation touched upon several topics including the company’s future endeavours in e-commerce, AirAsia’s move towards fintech, where the airline industry is going, and advice from his mentor Sir Richard Branson.
AirAsia is betting big on e-commerceFor the airline’s next great adventure, Fernandes wants to move AirAsia’s revenue model beyond simply selling tickets and into the world of e-commerce. With an ample supply of customer data, AirAsia wants to anchor its new e-commerce operation around the sale of duty-free goods.
“So when you book your ticket (online), we’ll offer you the chance to buy duty-free and you can pick it up on the plane or at the airport,” Fernandes told us. “It gives our customers much more time to browse and potentially we can create a marketplace for shops to put content on our website.”
According to Fernandes, the average passenger has an hour to an hour and a half to shop at the airport. With the online shops, AirAsia passengers can shop 365 days a year with personalised recommendations.
Further, Fernandes wants to use the airline’s fleet to transport goods purchased to destinations throughout Asia, thereby creating a logistics business.
“If you take Amazon, they started with a website and great distribution, now they are buying planes,” Fernandes said. “We’ve got the planes and we’re working backward.”
Of course, AirAsia’s e-commerce revolution won’t get off the ground without retrofitting its fleet with high-speed Wifi, a process that’s currently underway. It’s an element of the passenger experience Fernandes admits had been lacking onboard his flights.
The airline is focused on getting rid of cashThese days, cabin crew on board AirAsia flights wear several hats, among them salesperson. But due to the nature of AirAsia’s network that spans the entirety of Southeast Asia, cash poses a major problem. Which is why Fernandes is excited to jump into the financial technology (fintech) business.
“We’re so excited about the fintech revolution,” Fernandes said. “We hate cash. It’s a pain for our cabin crew. FX is a super pain. It leads to fraud. It tempts my crew to do things they shouldn’t do.”
As a result, AirAsia launched a new payment platform called BigPay that will allow the airline’s customers to buy products through their smartphones. According to Fernandes, the platform is built with group travel in mind. Which means it will allow people to share bills and transfer money to one another.
Initially, BigPay will also be available with a pre-paid card, but Fernandes and his team are working to make it more app-focused using QR codes and near-field-communications.
There will be a currency exchange feature as well.
“We think our customers are being ripped off by banks,” Fernandes said. “If you were travelling to Bali, [Indonesia] from Da Nang, Vietnam and wanted to exchange your Vietnamese Dong to Rupiah, we would facilitate that for you at a much lower rate.”
BigPay currently works with 10 currencies, but Fernandes expects to up that figure to 14.
Ultimately, the AirAsia boss believes BigPay will be able to expand beyond the airline ecosystem and into mainstream retail.
Where AirAsia and the airline industry are headedEven though AirAsia is thriving, the airline won’t be expanding beyond its bread and butter low-cost economy model. When asked if AirAsia is looking to offer a low-cost, long-haul business-class-only product like La Compagnie, Fernandes quickly shot down the idea.
“No, not while I’m at AirAsia,” he told us. “I think focus is key and we’re good at what we do and [long-haul business-class-only] is a different model.”
With that said, Fernandes understands the reasoning behind a dedicated business-class airline and is baffled by why airlines would offer so many different cabins on board a single aircraft.
“Airlines were crazy to have first class, business class, premium economy, and economy on one friggin plane,” Fernandes said. “That’s four business models on one plane.”
“You don’t have Four Seasons hotels with budget rooms and super suites, they basically have one standard, but with bigger rooms,” he added.
Instead, the AirAsia boss believes market segmentation in the future will see airlines specialize in one or two particular products.
“I’ve always said airlines will eventually become low-cost carriers and business class,” he proclaimed.
According to Fernandes, we will see the end of the first class cabin within the next five years. In addition, the economy cabin on full-service airlines could disappear altogether with dedicated low-cost carriers taking over that segment of the market. This means traditional, full-service airlines could be left operating flights with only business and premium-economy cabins.
The best advice Sir Richard Branson told him during the early days of AirAsia During the mid-1980s, Fernandes spent several years as the financial controller for Virgin Communications. Through the years, he’s become known for his close friendship with Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson.
But Fernandes makes it clear that he has no ambitions to become Asia’s Branson.
“Everyone thinks I want to be Richard, but I can confirm to Business Insider that I don’t,” he said. “I have no preconception of going on a balloon at 36,000 feet nor do I have any intention of going to the moon.”
While at Virgin Group during the early days of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fernandes told Branson that his decision to go into the airline industry was crazy and advised him to sell Virgin Records. It’s something Branson remembered during the early days of AirAsia.
“One of the first people to call me up when I started AirAsia was Richard who said, ‘I thought it was really stupid to start an airline’,” Fernandes said jokingly.
As far as advice goes, it was pretty simple, yet profound.
“He just said have fun and make it a fun place which we’ve tried to do,” the AirAsia Group CEO added. “But we would have done that anyway.”
“Virgin was very informative in my whole cultural experience in that it was a fun place, it was a place where there were no suits, it was informal and ideas and innovation are encouraged,” Fernandes said.”That rubbed off on me.”
According to Fernandes, this open and innovative culture has defined the company’s success. For example, AirAsia encourages its employees to design their own uniform choices and to show off their personality as individuals.
“If they’re comfortable coming to work, they will be happier and more themselves,” he said.
| A BusinessInsider release || November 19, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242