Image credit: Shujenchang, 29 May 2012

Visas are probably without exception the most frustrating and vexing part of organising a trip.  Especially if you have a passport that isn’t granted the same level of trust as others. If you possess a British, US, Canadian or passport from an EU country, things will be a little easier for travelling generally.  However, there are some guidelines that apply to all when a visa is necessary.

Visa Guidelines

• Check to see if the Embassy has a website applicable for your country of residence.  This is very important because some embassies have different forms for different nationalities that are applying to visit.
• Phone the embassy directly for information relating to the visa requirements.  Visa companies are good, but there is no more reliable authority than the embassy of the country being visited.
• Provide all the paperwork required, if three month’s bank statements are requested to show proof of sufficient funds, they are not going to accept one month’s statement because you only just opened an account a month ago, for example.
• Photo specifications.  If you are visiting an EU country or the USA and need a visa, there are definite set specifications for the photo requirements, ensure that the place you are having your photos done is aware of these.  Just to be certain, take the spec sheet with you for this purpose.
• Always provide as much information as possible.  It is better for them to say, ‘we don’t need that’ as opposed to ‘come back when you have this’ which causes you time loss and frustration.
• Countries’ visa rules change regularly depending on diplomatic changes in relationships between countries and other factors, so if you planned a holiday a year ago and checked the visa regulations then, do a re-check that what was required is still required.  It could be that you may no longer require a visa to travel to your chosen destination or that rules have been made stricter.
• Finally, if the embassy states that no ticket should be bought until the visa is approved, it is best to stick to that.  In fact, if you are applying for a US visa for some countries the US actively prohibits you from doing so.  How?  Well, if the travel agent has not put your US visa information in the airline booking, the ticket will not issue.  This is not applicable to all countries.  For example, if you are from an EU country or hold a British passport, then you can obtain an ETA (Electronic Travel Authority) online.

Visas can be more hassle-free if a methodical and practical approach is taken to acquiring the necessary documentation and doing it in time.  Emergency visas are often not entertained at all by some countries.  For others you will pay a premium, so check the processing times and bear that it in mind when setting your departure date.

These are some basic guidelines that are usually of assistance.

Passport Guidelines

Two important things to check in relation to your passport.

• The validity.  Is it valid for enough time from your return from holiday as stipulated by your government.  For example in some countries it needs to be valid six months beyond the date of return.  The country being visited will also have rules on this.
• Blank pages.  If you travel frequently, be sure to check that you have enough blank pages to satisfy your border control on departure, and immigration on arrival at your destination.  There should generally be two or three blank pages available, but this differs from one nation to another.

If you arrive at passport control at your destination then, unless it is a country that permits travellers from your country to purchase a visa on arrival, you are going to be sent back ignominiously to your country.

Photo in public domain: Taken by FAA official, August 2005

In 2011 some 507 passengers and 14 people on the ground perished in 28 crashes of multi-engine airliners.  These global statistics were collected by the Aviation Safety Network.  The figures include crashes by airlines that do not belong to IATA, so the IATA total for the year is slightly lower at 486 fatalities.

The average for the preceding ten years was 30 crashes a year, with an annual average of 785 deaths.  2011 was therefore a safer year than usual.

Regional statistics

Further analysis shows that there were no deaths at all in the USA, Europe and northern Asia.  Though Iran had just one crash, that incident resulted in 77 deaths, making it the single worst accident for 2011.

There were 3 fatal crashes each in Canada, the Congo and Indonesia.  Russia suffered 6 fatal crashes.

Canada’s crashes are regarded as a statistical quirk, but the often-extreme weather conditions in that country tend to make flying conditions difficult.  In relation to the number of passenger journeys the Congo comes out looking particularly bad.

The problem in Russia is the number of Soviet-era aircraft with poor reliability that are still in use.  The authorities are obviously aware of the problem and are doing what they can to remedy the situation, which will take time and a great deal of money.

The Congo suffers from a generally poor safety record that is a feature of many African lands.  And Soviet-era aircraft with poor reliability.

EU banned airline list

Since 2006 the European Union has published a list of airlines that are banned from flying into the EU.  The regulations cover safety concerns due to poor maintenance and deficient oversight standards and are based on physical inspection of aircraft that have flown to the EU.

A large segment of the banned airlines are African lands, many of whom, including the Congo, have all airlines based in their country banned from flying to the EU.

If you are travelling to an exotic location and considering using a regional airline, check the EU banned list to see if the airline you are considering is on the banned list.  If it is then the common-sense decision is not to use that airline.

Since the EU list is updated from time to time we are not listing the airlines here but provide a link to the latest copy of the EU list so that you can be sure that it is up to date.  Airlines can be removed from the list once they have demonstrated their safety compliance, and new airlines can be added.

List of airlines banned within the EU

Passengers booking online pay £265,000 per day in unfair card transaction fees in the United Kingdom alone.  These fees are added by the airlines.

When you book a flight online, airlines do not accept cash as payment.  That makes some sense.  What happens next is a rip-off: For nearly every other method of payment some airlines add an additional fee, so that it is almost impossible to escape paying a higher price than was advertised.

The UK’s Office of Fair Trade (OFT) has been investigating credit card charges since 2006 and their findings have shown that these ‘drip pricing’ fees are exorbitant and unfair.

As Germany’s Federal Court of Justice found in May 2010 “By not accepting cash payments, Ryanair offered customers no opportunity to pay for flights without paying extra.”  At that time Ryanair accepted payment via relatively rare Visa Electron cards.  (Visa Electron cards are not issued at all in the US and Canada, Ireland and Australia.  In the UK bank only one major bank still issues the card at all now, and that is usually for low-end and children’s accounts.)

(Ryanair currently accepts payment by MasterCard Prepaid without penalties.  However this card is not cheap to use as there are fees for loading cash, transaction fees levied by the issuing bank, foreign exchange fees and even changes for disuse.  The fees vary between banks.)

It is not just the low-cost airlines that participate in this unfair practice, though one of them charges as much as £8 per booking.  British Airways charges £4.50 per online booking.  Troubled Thomas Cook charges as much as £50 in card fees for journeys to their most exotic destinations.

Hidden transaction fees are already banned in Europe for debit cards.  An EU Consumer Rights Directive has also been issued that will ban the practice outright for all cards from mid-2014.  Not content with waiting until then, the UK has announced that it is introducing legislation to ban it by the end of 2012.

The new regulations will still permit a small charge to cover the actual cost of accepting payment, which is likely to be at most 2% of a credit card transaction, or 20p for a debit card purchase.  At present the charges being levied are as much as 3 or 4%.

The really contentious point about card fees is not so much that one is charged them, but that you are often only informed at the end of the transaction, once you have completed a lot of purchaser information. WHAM!  Unexpected fees that completely alter the price of the flight.

Our advice is that you do a ‘test run’ online when you think that you have found the flight bargain that you were looking for.  It could be that after all fees have been taken into account, the second or third choice may actually be cheaper.