Click below to
find interesting
information from our
March 2011a
newsletter
relating to:
Roaming
Travel
Mobile phones
Roaming
Politicians
roaming
A South
Australian MP
has fallen foul
of the roaming
trap. Former
Attorney-General
Michael Atkinson
ran up a bill of
$7,295.75,
mostly from
mobile-roaming
during a trip he
took through
Africa.
He
didn't realise
the cost of
receiving calls
whilst overseas
using his normal
Australian
SIMcard, that
even local calls
in the countries
he was in were
expensive, and,
of course, data
charges when
roaming.
The bill (on
top of his $500
three-monthly
allowance) was
around one-fifth
of his total
annual expenses
allowance. He's
said he will
make it up and
keep to his
budget by
delivering
letters to his
constituents by
foot and cycling
rather than
post.
You don't
need to get on
your bike with
our vSIM
cheaper
post-paid
alternative.
Travel
On-line
travel
agencies
If
you're
like us,
you may
have
made
on-line
travel
bookings
for
simple
trips.
Whilst
convenient,
you may
have
assumed
that you
are well
protected
in case
of
problems
because
of the
website's
brand
name and
location.
It
turns
out that
may not
be the
case at
all. A
Victorian
traveller
booked a
portion
of a
holiday
with
expedia.com.au,
had a
problem
and
eventually
brought
a
court-case
against
Expedia
Australia
Pty Ltd
(the
owner of
the
website).
Expedia
Australia
Pty Ltd
is a
subsidiary
of
Expedia
Inc, a
large
($2.5bn
revenue)
US-based
on-line
travel
site
originally
started
by
Microsoft.
Expedia
argued
(and the
court
agreed)
that the
traveller
had no
recourse
against
Expedia
Australia,
only
against
Expedia
Inc, and
that
there
would be
no
protection
available
from the
Australian
court
system.
A bit
disturbing.
So
despite
their
having
an
apparent
Australian
presence
and
operations,
you may
have no
recourse
against
foreign
web-based
travel
retailers
if
something
goes
wrong.
Purely
Australian
travel
retailers
(such as
Webjet,
Wotif
etc)
should
be a
different
story.
Expedia
says it
has
subsequently
got a
NSW
travel
licence,
which
may
allow
some
protection
in their
case.
Mobile phones
Hotel phones -
dinosaurs, but
still wanted
Reuters reports
that room phones
have become a
headache for
hotels.
Many
travellers have
worked out that
using hotel
phones even as a
substitute for
roaming is
generally a bad
idea. Costs can
be very high
(for instance
New York hotels
typically charge
$4 per minute
for
long-distance
calls) and even
free-phone 1-800
numbers are
charged for.
Usage is now so
low that phones
are uneconomic
for hotels. Up
to the early
1990s, they
generated around
2% of total
hotel profits.
Now, however,
hotels are
paying around
three times the
revenue the
phones generate.
"Phones used to
be a revenue
center," said
Best Western
Chief Executive
Officer David
Kong. "Now
they're a cost
centre."
But hotels can't
hang up on their
phone systems.
Guest safety and
security demand
them, said Bjorn
Hanson, a
professor at New
York
University's
Tisch Center for
Hospitality,
Tourism and
Sports
Management.
Perhaps they
should
reconsider the
calling rates.
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