www.uk-2-usa.com Newsletter 7

June 2003

 Welcome to the 7th www.uk-2-usa.com monthly newsletter.

This newsletter will update you with any recent USA travel information I have come across and uk-2-usa.com web site changes that have occurred in the last month. All feedback is gratefully received about style or content. This newsletter will be available via e-mail, on the web site or via the associated online uk-2-usa travel discussion group


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Current deals

Ramada Inn Summer Offer
Ramada Inns guarantee that their website will give you the cheapest available rate on the internet. If you find it cheaper anywhere else, Ramamda will undercut the cheaper deal by 10%. Check it out on Drive Inn America

River rafting
Fancy shooting the rapids ? or gently floating down a river. Seems like Idaho offers it all. Checkout Hells Canyon, the deepest gorge in North America, much deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Hotel deals
Yahoo travel has a list of 219 hotel deals spread across America.

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USA travel news

United airlines latest
In May United Airlines posted a $ 375 million loss This is actually seen as a good result as new reduced pay for United workers comes in in May and air travel has picked up since the low point during the Iraq war and the height of the SARS crisis.

BMI / Virgin merger or BA takeover ?
BMI (British Midland) and Virgin have been talking about merging. Apparently BA is considering taking over one or both airlines. Read more about it here

Americans staying closer to home
This article notes that because of world events more Americans are staying closer to home this year. The article also points to a list of 'Local secrets big finds' a list of 510 one-of-a-kind list of nearby hot spots, straight from the locals' mouths. Because only true locals know the hidden gems of their hometowns, Travelocity decided to query travelers from its 40-million member database to find out what's hot in a given area. This list is the result.

Do you have frequent flier miles ?
This is an interesting article that tells you how to make the most of your frequent flier miles

Falling dollar leads to USA holiday bargains
The following are excerpts from an article in the Telegraph on 31.5.03
British travellers will find their money goes much further in the United States this summer. The pound has increased in value by nearly 20 per cent against the dollar. A spokesman for the Visit USA Association said: "There's never been a better time to go to the United States. The exchange rate is better than it's been for years and, with the downturn in tourism numbers, air fares are also extremely cheap. Sarah Handy, UK director of NYC & Co, which promotes New York, said that the city was now cheap compared with Europe. "New York hotels are on average 20 per cent cheaper than a few years ago. Flights to the US are on average 50 per cent cheaper than they were in 2000." Tourist exchange rates for the dollar stand at $1.57 this week, compared with $1.51 last year and $1.37 in the summer of 2001.

SARS
SARS continues to ebb and flow. Singapore is to be declared safe for SARS after local transmission has stopped. Meanwhile Toronto sees SARS cases rise after apparently being free of the disease for a period. So although Toronto in Canada is in the news for SARS, the USA remains clear.

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USA flight price survey

The following table shows the latest comparison between the three internet companies featured on the site. All prices were obtained from the search facilities accessed via the website. The quotes are for a return adult fare on 16th July 2003 returning on 23rd July 2003 and are inclusive of tax.

The cheapest quote for each route is highlighted in red and this clearly demonstrates that it pays to shop around !

When compared with the flight prices for June 2003 you can clearly see the seasonal effect on prices with the total average return fare for June being £399.77 and for July being £557.94.

Its a switch around in terms of best performance with Junes overall cheapest quotes from opodo and Julys being from ebookers with travel4less coming 2nd both times. However, the message is still clearly to shop around for the best bargain because the cheapest company for one route is probably not the cheapest company for a different route.

Route
 e-bookers prices
 travel4less prices
 opodo prices
London to Orlando £ 512
Northwest Airlines		 £ 508
Northwest Airlines		 £ 535
American airlines
London to Denver £ 542
Northwest Airlines		 £ 541
Northwest Airlines		 £ 541
Delta Air Lines
London to San Francisco £ 557
Continental Airlines		 £ 541
Northwest Airlines		 £ 578
Air Canada
Manchester to Orlando £ 499
US Airways		 £ 551
BA or American Airlines		 £ 639
Delta Air Lines
Manchester to Denver £ 561
KLM		 £ 593
Continental Airlines		 £ 589
Continental Airlines
Manchester to San Francisco £ 561
KLM		 £ 591
US Airways		 £ 604
Delta Airlines
Totals for all 6 flights £ 3,232 £ 3,325 £ 3,486


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Web site updates/news


This list details the site changes in the last calendar month

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Web site facts and figures

I obviously have a keen interest in how many people choose to visit uk-2-usa.com. On the long term view, the trend is steadily upwards. However, over the short term, it does fluctuate wildly from day to day and seemingly in tune with what is in the news.

In last months newsletter I reported that website visitor numbers shot up in the latter part of April to record the second biggest month ever at 3,400 visitors (the top figure was in January 2003 when 5,700 visits were made). This trend continued into May with the 2nd half of April and the first half of May combined, actually reaching the previous peak numbers seen in January.

The last half of May then saw a drop in visitor numbers coincident with the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and the corresponding reporting of increased risk of another airline attack. This has recovered a little now to leave May with just over 3,700 visitors making it the second best month.

What will be in the news in June ? all good news I hope, watch this space.

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Future Newsletters

Please give me your feedback about what you would like to see in future editions of this newsletter. I will develop the format based on feedback from readers. Click here to send me suggestions for improvements, additions or even things to avoid in future newsletters.

This is written in HTML format to make it more interactive than a simple text message. If this causes problems with your e-mail programme, please let me know by clicking here and including a brief description of the problem. This assumes that you can read this of course !

Well, thats it for the edition number 7. I look forwards to receiving more comments to help me to develop based on your feedback.
Happy USA travelling

UK



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About uk-2-usa

www.uk-2-usa.com is a privately owned website. It was written to share the authors passion for travel to the USA. It is none commercial in nature with all information and advice being freely given. Although commission is made on any holidays sold through the site.

There is an associated online travel group which is also free to join where a message board allows members to share experiences, ask questions and also quiz some of our American members about their country. You may subscribe by clicking the link below.

Click to subscribe to uk2usa
Or you can look without joining by clicking here.

You can e-mail with any questions here.




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