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No-show clients at Paris restaurants now must pay cancellation cash penalties

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Cafes and restaurants in the French capital have opted to follow the lead of hotels and guest-houses, and start charging their customers with cash penalties for late cancellation of reservations or failing to appear in time.

Hundreds of Paris eateries are currently adopting the system that is widely used in the hotel industry, the Times reports. Restaurants oblige clientele to leave details of their credit cards while making reservations, with big-name places warning customers over a potential charge in case of a no-show.

The measure is reportedly connected to losses the restaurants have to suffer, when people make several reservations for the same day and then cancel at least one of them without warning.

“Even in great restaurants customers cancel without having the slightest idea of the economic impact of their action,” the managing director of Les Grandes Tables du Monde, an association of top restaurants Nicolas Chatenier told the media.

Restaurants reportedly have to follow the trend due to French gastronomical habits, in particular fondness for lengthy meals. French cafes cannot allow two bookings for the same table, like restaurants in Britain and the US, as they cannot be sure that the first group will leave before the second one appears.

The financial losses due to no-shows are really significant, accounting for up to 30 percent of the restaurants entire revenue, according to Xavier Zeitoun, founder of a restaurant booking site Zenchef, as cited by the media. The businessman noted that 245 restaurants have adopted the new system so far.

Chatenier said that annual losses of an average Michelin-starred restaurant may total up to €150,000, stressing that one canceled table may wipe out the profits it could make in the evening.

To tackle the problem the Tour d’Argent restaurant has reportedly imposed a cancellation fee of €100 per head at lunchtime and €200 for the dinner service, while the 58 Tour Eiffel restaurant obliges clients who book a table and cancel less than ten days before the meal, to pay €86 per head.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Nonstop between Washington Dulles and Acrra, Ghana grows on SAA

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Starting today, South African Airways (SAA) has increased its frequency on nonstop flights between Washington, D.C.-Dulles International Airport and Accra’s Kotoka International Airport to 5 days weekly.

SAA offers the only nonstop flight between Washington D.C. and Ghana and offers travelers convenient connections to and from over 100 cities across the U.S. and Canada through its Star Alliance partner, United Airlines via Washington, D.C.- Dulles.

South African Airways’ flights to Accra now operate 5 days a week with continuing service to Johannesburg, South Africa, operating on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. SAA’s increase of flights on the route will also serve to support the partnership with Africa World Airlines by offering seamless connections between Accra and additional destinations in West Africa including; Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria; Monrovia, Liberia and Freetown, Sierra Leone. In addition, SAA will continue to operate flights between Washington D.C.-Dulles and Dakar, Senegal and onwards to Johannesburg, two days per week.

SAA’s flights between Washington-Dulles and Accra will be operated with both the Airbus A330-300 and the Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The A330-300 features 46 full-flat 180° beds with direct aisle access at every seat in Premium Business Class and 203 seats in Economy Class. The A330- 200 offers 36 full-flat beds in Premium Business Class and 186 seats in Economy Class. Customers traveling in both Premium Business Class and Economy Class will have on-demand audio and visual entertainment options, in-seat power ports, freshly-prepared meals, and complimentary bar service featuring South African wines.

For information, visit flysaa.com.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Korean Air: No more peanuts

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Korean Air has made the decision to remove peanuts from its food offerings after the recent incident involving 2 teenagers who were taken off their flight from flight KE621 to Manila from Incheon Airport because of a peanut allergy.

Korean Air has taken this action to ensure the health and safety of passengers who are allergic to peanuts. As a first step, the airline has replaced its honey-roasted peanut products with other snacks, such as crackers.

In addition, within the next few weeks, Korean Air will remove food containing peanut ingredients from in-flight meals.

The airline is determined to provide a safe environment for all passengers and prevent any similar cases in the future.

“The decision to stop peanut products and peanut ingredients is the minimum safety measure for peanut-allergy passengers,” a Korean Air spokesperson said.

Peanut allergies are emerging as a critical issue in the aviation industry, and a number of major global carriers have stopped offering in-flight peanut products.

More information and travel tips are available on Korean Air’s homepage for passengers with a peanut allergy.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Living as a digital nomad: some unexpected issues you may face

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Digital nomad’s life is the one that most people want to have. It seems so easy and fun for a person to work while traveling the world creating new experiences and seeing new places. All this without having to press pause on their paycheck! Of course, there are numerous benefits to this type of living. However, there are also stresses and pressures that aren’t talked as much as the highs of this type of work. The benefits depend on where you come from, where you travel to and what type of work you do. This article will highlight some of the unexpected issues that people are living the digital nomad life experience while living the life. They are going to help you make more informed choices and allow to weight and find out if you can handle these issues, before you choose this type of work.

  • You will never have a routine

The unpredictability of freelance work is unsettling and psychologically draining. It can make one more anxious especially if they do not have a reliable and stable source of income. It can be stressful to find cheap prices for anything. If you are a student, you may also want to check out some writing service review where you can get good services for your essays and homework. So keenly go over the edusson.com review and figure out how much it will cost you to have an essay done.

People who work in offices have routines. They know what they will be doing at 5 p.m. a day from today. Most people who start the nomad life are in it because they craved a break from all these routines. They were worried about being slaves to the predictability of life. One of the biggest sacrifices that they need to make is to live a life without any routines whatsoever. In truth, even the smallest forms of routines are great for both mental and emotional health. These routines make you more productive because they create better structure; they eliminate distractions and are helpful to your general rhythms of life.

  • Not being taken seriously

This is an issue that affects the mental health of most who love nomadic traveling. People may frequently tell you that you are not struggling because your life is perfect. They may wonder why you are complaining. There seems that there is no way people are going to take you seriously. They assume that your life is full of constant streams of gorgeous places and that you accomplish all your bucket list experiences in a month. They assume that these enviable circumstances cannot possibly be stressful.

In fact, some people might complain about their life and issue that you will feel guilty when you want to talk about your challenges. As a result of this sense of shame, most remote workers will never write honestly about how they feel. They will share amazing captions with their cool selfies from Thailand and act like life could not be better for them. The last thing anyone wants is to appear spoiled and ungrateful. They stop addressing issues that are serious and real, and may even end up in depression and stress since they ignore the real issues they face daily. Studies have shown that one in every four people can experience mental health problems in their lifetime at least once. A quarter of all the people who experience these problems each year are digital nomads. The unpredictable and isolated lifestyle of traveling full time makes them more likely to suffer from this problem. The stigma surrounding these problems makes it difficult to talk about.

  • It is a lonely life

Human beings are social creatures. They are meant to create long term friendships. However, these relationships require a person to dedicate time and effort into creating lasting bonds. While traveling is great, it does not allow people to create and maintain these relationships. This is probably why these digital nomads do not have families until they settle down for more predictable lives. When you are only staying somewhere for a short period, it is impossible to create deep connections with people or make any sort of warm enthusiastic friendships that happen between gregarious strangers in a great mood. While these are also fun, they are nor, by definition, true friendships. You may have many short term friends and may likely create relationships that might last a lifetime, but nothing deep. None of them will know you better than you know yourself.

  • Unhealthy eating habits

Well, you will definitely want to sample everything. You will want to find out which delicacies are also the best. That is fine. However, because of your unpredictable life, it will be difficult to set time for workouts. You also live in hotels so you may probably not have time to make yourself some healthy homemade meals. Your sleeping patterns will also be all over the place. With these habits, having a healthy life is going to be difficult.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Hong Kong Airlines debuts Chris Cosentino’s Business Class menu

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Hong Kong Airlines has launched a brand new Business Class menu for its customers travelling out of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) from 22 March 2019. Designed exclusively by celebrity chef and television personality Chris Cosentino, the new LAX Business Class menu is an adaption of his current San Francisco Business Class menu and comes with a slight twist to cater to the preferences of Southern California travelers.

Chris Cosentino is the chef and owner of San Francisco restaurant, Cockscomb, where he reinterprets classic San Francisco dishes by adding his own unique twist. He is also known as the winner of Top Chef Masters, a contestant on The Next Iron Chef and for his appearance in Iron Chef America in addition to his extensive work raising awareness and funds for Chefs Cycle in support of No Kid Hungry, a national charity fighting to end childhood hunger.

Chef Cosentino collaborated with Hong Kong Airlines in late 2017 to design a comprehensive menu of 12 dishes, including a series of appetizers, main courses and desserts to be rotated regularly on the airline’s service from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Hong Kong. His Business Class inflight menu was officially launched on the SFO inaugural flight to Hong Kong on 25 March 2018 and has received positive feedback from Hong Kong Airlines’ customers for his “big in flavor, rich in texture” dishes.

“When the opportunity came for me to work with Hong Kong Airlines to make delicious inflight meals in Business Class, I jumped at the chance,” said Chef Cosentino at a media preview event in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Using my years of education and experiences to create meals that would not only satisfy but excite the guests at 10,000 feet up and giving a fresh new approach to what inflight food can be has been a complete joy. Launching our new menu on the Los Angeles-Hong Kong route is very exciting. I am looking forward to flying on the first flight showcasing the menu,” he added.

Mr Chris Birt, Hong Kong Airlines Director of Service Delivery said: “Hong Kong Airlines always strives to deliver the best services to our customers. We launched our menu partnership with Chef Cosentino exactly a year ago on our San Francisco route. His menu has proven to be such a hit with our Business Class customers that we are excited to now bring his signature innovative and creative cuisine to those flying with us from Los Angeles.”

Hong Kong Airlines’ Los Angeles service was launched in December 2017 and was the airline’s first destination in the continental United States. The daily service is currently operated by Airbus A350, one of the newest and most technologically advanced aircraft in the world. In September 2018, Hong Kong Airlines introduced its new Business Class product on the Los Angeles route, reaffirming its commitment to serve the USA market with its best products and services.

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