Australian advisories

There's an amusing article in most of todays Canadian dailies about Australia's official travel advisory website which warns to "exercise caution" when traveling to Canada. The site lists Canada as more of a risk then Chile, South Korea and Latvia to name a few.

Some of the major dangers in Canada include:

- Risk of terrorist attack
- Petty crime such as pick pocketing and street theft occurs at tourist destinations, hotels and on public transport.
- The province of British Columbia in western Canada is in an active earthquake zone
- Alberta and British Columbia are also subject to avalanches. Tornadoes can occur in some areas of Canada between May and September.
- Bush and forest fires can occur any time in Canada. (Fires in the winter?)

I checked Estonia out on their site. Eesti is consider one step safer than Canada, some of the dangers include:
- You should avoid demonstrations and large public gatherings as they may turn violent.
- Driving in Estonia can be dangerous due to local driving practices, poorly maintained roads and vehicles, and inadequate road lighting.
- When you are in Estonia, be aware that local laws and penalties, including ones that appear harsh by Australian standards, do apply to you.

Canada sure sounds like a scary place. :)

Note self, avoid flying via the US.

I learned a valuable lessons this month about travel; if at all possible, avoid traveling via the USA.

With the increased security and down right terrible airlines going through the US only causes delays and anxiety. My flight to Stockholm was suppose to be with US Airways but because of a delay in Toronto I was forced to get my baggage, switch terminals and get on a Lufthansa's flight via Frankfurt instead. This turned out to be a blessing considering the mess on the way back.

Through no fault of their own the flight to Philadelphia was late arriving 1.5 hours. This left me 1.5 hours to get my bags, check them in again, go through security and catch my connection to Toronto. I thought it was tight so I asked the stewardesses (normally airlines have offered to help when you're late, no so with US Airways), if they could help ensure I made it through quickly or made sure I was confirmed on the next connection if I miss mine. Their answer was no, I'd have to wait in line like everyone else. They were rude the entire flight and didn't think it necessary to help the few of us who knew we'd miss our connections. When I landed and then proceeded to wait 40 minutes for my bags I knew I wouldn't make it. So after proceeding all the way through security I made it to the desk where the gentleman told me that I just missed my flight and the last confirmed spot on the next flight, all that was left was stand-by. Had the "nice" flight attendants bothered to call ahead and help me I wouldn't have to sit in Philly for the next 6 hours.

Turns out that Philly has one of the worst cancel/delay rates in the US, 39.6% of a planes leaving there are delayed! Amazing, but after sitting there for hours I believe it. US Airways overbooks most of it's flights, then scrambles to find passengers willing to go on the next flight in exchange for a coupon. The staff is incompetent at best, not knowing how stand-by works, how many seats are on the plane or have any idea where your bags may be.

Thankfully I made it home eventually and learned to avoid the US at all costs when flying overseas.

WeatherBill.com

Had coffee this afternoon with David Friedberg who runs Weatherbill.com (another Index Venture), we did a bit of brainstorming on ideas to grow OANDA and I was very impressed with what he came up with.

I was also impressed with his own company which stands to solve the problem of rained out vacations or snowless ski trips. Who wouldn't want to spend $20-30 extra on a vacation knowing that if the weather sucks you'll get a refund? Once weatherbill.com gets added to travel sites I think it has huge potential, very cool.

Flying high

I'm in the process of looking for flights from Toronto to Tallinn later this year. I'm pretty flexible as to time lines but as early as possible in August is preferred in order to take advantage of the long days in Eesti, I'm also flexible as to where I fly since I'd be happy to stop over in Stockholm for 1-3 days and spend time with Liisa there before going on. There are unfortunately only so many options from North America when it comes to flying to Estonia. There are no direct flights to Tallinn, the closest you can get is Helsinki as Finnair runs direct flights in the summer. Pricing all seems to be the same, from $1100 to $1500 for the cheapest flights unless you grab a really cheap charter to London and then get an Estonian Air/Easyjet flight to Tallinn. Will there ever be direct flights from Tallinn (or the Baltics in general) to North America? Will the new "open sky" rules help?