The Vietnam Embassy in the UK has advised that its government has decided to extend its visa exemption policy for British, French, German, Italian & Spanish citizens.
The visa exemption will continue to be valid until 30 June 2017 and is for a period of up to 15 days for all purposes, e.g. business and leisure visits, but it is only valid for single entry visits not returning within 30 days.
The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office has updated its advice for Poland due to two major events taking place in the country in July.
The NATO summit is taking place on 8 & 9 July in Warsaw and the World Youth Day is taking place from 26-31 July in Krakow. Both events are likely to cause disruption to travel generally, but particularly to local road closures, in the case of the NATO summit, and to added pressure on accommodation in Krakow and the surrounding area.
There will be disruption to air travel services today, Thursday 26th May, due to the strike action taking place in France by air traffic controllers there.
Not only will flights to/from France have to be cancelled today, but services flying through French air space will also be subject to delays.
Unfortunately, further strike action is planned for next week too, on the 3rd, 4th & 5th June.
As always, we (GTM) strongly recommend that you always check in online for your flight/s and ensure that we have your mobile number and email address on file. You can also download the GTM itinerary management app which receives push notifications from airlines.
Virgin Atlantic passengers can now benefit from the airline’s ever closer ties with its Transatlantic partner Delta Airlines.
Virgin’s Premium Economy passengers will now enjoy Delta Comfort+ when connecting to an onward US domestic flight. This will be an automatic enhancement at the time of booking.
Delta Comfort+ offers lots of benefits like more legroom, premium meal service, access to Sky Priority® boarding and dedicated overhead bin space.
New rules introduced by the USA’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on 1 April 2016 could see travellers from around 38 countries being refused entry under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), even if they have a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA). The little publicised changes require all travellers entering the United States, under the VWP, to have a biometric chip style passport in addition to their ESTA, meaning those with an older style non-chip passport will be refused entry into the USA.
Please do feel free to contact us should you have any concerns.
At a glittering event held at Woking’s HG Wells Centre on Thursday 28th April, Surrey’s business community came together to celebrate the Toast of Surrey 16 business awards.
Prizes were handed out in 11 categories and Global Travel Management were extremely delighted to win the award for Company with a Turnover over £5million from one of three selected finalists.
Managing Director Scott Pawley said winning this award was a fantastic achievement on behalf of all of our employees and hopes that it will be the first of many at the Toast of Surrey awards.
British Airways is reinstating its Heathrow-Inverness service this week almost 20 years after it ceased operations on the route. The new daily service, which ended in 1997, will connect Inverness and the Highlands to London.
Inverness joins Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle with an air service into Heathrow and access to BA’s worldwide network.
Valid from now until 14th June 2016, Virgin Atlantic is offering customers who purchase a Premium Economy ticket the chance to upgrade to Upper Class free-of-charge. This will also enable travellers the opportunity to try, if they haven’t before, Virgin’s Upper Class Wing at Heathrow and their Clubhouses.
Please feel free to contact us to discuss the offer in more detail and the chance to fly Upper Class!
Peter Smith, Club Chairman, writes … it gives me great pleasure to confirm that Global Travel Management (GTM) have once again agreed to be the lead sponsor for W&HCC Colts. This is the 5th year that GTM have been Colts sponsors, as well as being the lead sponsor for the fantastically successful Bedser Festival in 2015. Our relationship with Scott, Natalie and everyone at GTM continues to go from strength to strength. With their support we can continue to offer our colts quality coaching and regularly updated training equipment. We are immensely grateful for their support and it fills me with pride to know that GTM place such a high value on their local community as we do as a cricket club.
Scott Pawley, Managing Director of GTM added: “The training that W&HCC gives their Colts is an incredibly high standard and with so little access to cricket training for youngsters I’m really pleased that Global Travel Management can give its support. I’m a great believer in the importance of sport of any kind, especially when you’re young – not only is it fun, but it’s invaluable because it provides so many lessons in life that just can’t be found in a classroom.”
British Airways has recently announced the details of two new long-haul routes from London Gatwick airport.
Cape Town operations will commence on 24 November 2016 for the winter schedule. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 777ER in a three class configuration, offering 48 Club World seats, 24 World Traveller Plus & 203 World Travellers seats. Services will operate thrice weekly on Monday, Thursday & Saturday (to Cape Town) and Tuesday, Friday & Sunday on the return leg.
Gatwick to New York JFK services will commence on 1st May 2016. Again the aircraft type offering three cabins is as above / as per Cape Town. However, services to JFK will be daily, departing at 1640 arriving 1930, and returning from Kennedy at 2200 arriving 10am the next day.
