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Brazil
Travel News June 2001
Seen this month's SPECIALS
already?
Dear fellow Brazil travelers
As every year, after the 21st of June, days are
getting shorter again in the North, so high time to think
about your winter escape!
This time we include the following topics:
1) Get United Miles
for payment by electronic check online
2) New catalog, new tours,
New affordable additions,
travel dates through all of 2002
3) Corruption in South America, Brazilian improvements!
4) New flights added to Brazil! New domestic airlines.
5) Electricity shortages - Californian style?
1) Get United
Miles for payment by electronic check online
Consumer protection laws rightfully
dictate that for services not delivered, a customer need not
pay.
Notably in the travel industry there are a few important exceptions:
Certain deposits for reservations are nonrefundable, and tickets
for dicounted flights often are nonrefundable. Understandablely,
as seat reservations given back to the airline shortly before
take-off cannot be re-sold and result in a loss. For examples,
see our FAQ
page.
Travelers paying by credit card could theoretically make an
unauthorized chargeback on air tickets, and are doing so more
and more. If fraud is not involved, the charge is then returned
back to the agency, an expensive exercise. Visa & Mastercard
have therefore implemented strict new rules against the sale
of air tickets with credit cards.
We therefore protect our honest clients and our partner
travel agencies by requiring air ticket payments to
be made by electronic
check (also known as direct deposit - availabe to anyone
with a checking account!) We also do understand that the #1
reason for purchasing with a credit card is to obtain frequent
flier miles.
Therefore, for bookings after the 1st of July 2001, we'll
reward passengers paying by (electronic)
check with
United Miles.
Since
we book about half of our flights on Varig, a Star Alliance
member, this can result in a nice overall addition to your
United mileage account.
Agreements
with other airlines are on the way!
2) New catalog, new tours,
NEW affordable additions, travel
dates through all of 2002
Now finally the new
Edition 2001/2002 4starBrazil
catalog is available! Some of you who
got a preliminary print version of our travel program must
have noticed that print quality was lower than normal due
to a printing error, but now it is up to it's usual high standard.
Just go to our homepage www.SouthAmerica.travel/Brazil-Tours
and order your issue!
For the first time, the Rio
and the Amazon tour, with weekly departures, is also
found in the new catalog! NEW affordable
additions to it are however
only found on our web site at http://www.SouthAmerica.travel/Brazil-Tours/tours/RAA.html
. Due to the frequency of flight schedule changes to the Amazon
and the Pantanal, we do not include them in the print version
. We offer two standardized extensions, one to the
Pantanal for the heavy
nature lovers and one to Buzios
for those who, after the Amazon and Rio, need a break at the
beach!
Other customized additions and combinations, as always, are
always available. Just give us a call toll
free at 1-866
464 7827!
3) Corruption in South America, & Brazilian improvements!
The inexhaustible
source of unbiased information, The
Economist Magazine, in it's
latest edition, (June 16th 2001) lauds Brazil for it's
advances against corruption. According to a study by Transparency
International, Brazil is now the second least-corrupt
nation in Latin America, behind Chile. Argentina is third
and Mexico fourth. Noteworthy, however is the fact that improvements
over the past 5 year from 1996 to 2000 were fastest in Brazil.
Mexico did not improve and Ecuador and Bolivia even slipped
back!
More is heard about corruption in Brazil, but "indeed,
the crop of corruption scandals may merely be a sign that
wrongdoing is more likely to be exposed". In São
Paulo, as always the exception among Latin American cities,
the new female Mayor has invited international advice from
the World Bank's experts to help her stamp out the remaining
fraud in the next few years!
After admitting and recognizing corruption, exposing it is
the last step towards eradicating the problem.
4) New flights added to Brazil! New domestic airlines!
Ah, the good news!
We love competition. It brings prices down ever further. Although
still more expensive then flights to Europe, Brazil is becoming
more affordable!
The new daily nonstop service by TAM Brazilian Airlines between
Manaus and Miami brings flights between these two cities up
from 3 to 10 a week! Less time is spent en route to the Amazon
from the US, and if you are flying from Manaus on to Rio you'll
land in the downtown domestic airport, only a short walk away
from the beaches of Flamengo Park and the Manhattan-like downtown
business area.The newly announced code share alliance between
Continental and Transbrasil will also add more convenient
connections to all parts of Brazil via Rio and São
Paulo for travelers connecting through Houston and Newark.
Also for the first time, 4starBrazil
can now book domestic flights on the Brazil's answer to Southwest
Airlines - the new GOL Airlines - at very affordable prices.
Flights so far connect mainly Rio and São Paulo with
Salvador, Brasilia and Curitiba. Service is expanding fast.
And we hope to include domestic flights as a general offer
to our programs soon.
5) Electricity shortages - Californian style?
A last word about Brazil's
electricity shortages. Since most electricity is produced
in hydro electric power plants in Brazil, a rather dry rainy
season is difficult to overcome, but since we know how much
water is behind the dams, shortages are planable.
Cities are asked to cut their consumption by 20 %. This is
achieved through turning off lights on the freeways, not,
however, in areas were people walk, be it along the beaches
or on sidewalks. Hotels, too are entitled to 20% less energy
from the national power grid, however, most often do have
their own emergency power generators to compensate for the
electricity needed.
With the end of the dry season in September, the shortages
should disappear. And long term solutions are already under
construction.
There must be something attractive about tropical heat...
Juergen Keller
jk@UniversalUnderstanding.com
http://www.SouthAmerica.travel/Brazil-Tours
http://UniversalUnderstanding.com
tel.
1 (800) 747-4540 (1 (800) 747-4540)
fax 1-425-977-7192
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