Omega World Travel
FEATURED PARTNER: SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS
If you’ve been contemplating a visit to South Africa, dreaming about a safari, or longing to taste the epicurean delights of Cape Town, South African Airways is your ticket. Offering extraordinary value, SAA, Africa’s most awarded airline will fulfill your dreams. The national airline of South Africa, highly regarded for its choices of affordable luxury packages to Africa has an extensive route network connecting South Africa, Botswana, Victoria Falls, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania and the Indian Ocean Islands.
URGENT OMEGA ALL POINTS BULLETIN
Be sure to update your airline travel profiles now to ensure you receive your frequent flyer upgrades. You must use your exact same name as it appears on your passport and/or drivers’ license—including, e.g., use/lack of middle initial. Name mismatches could lead to loss of miles and denial of upgrades.
OMEGA ALL POINTS ALERT
This is a great time to check your frequent flyer status with all airlines. There have been mergers and new alliances which may affect the accrual of mileage credits to your accounts. Please maintain a file of the affinity programs you have joined and check the airline sites for instructions on how to link accounts and discover other alliance members.
Omega World Travel and Steigenberger Hotel Group Team Up for Community Involvement
By Ron Kosmahl, Omega World Travel Regional Sales Director Washington
The German School Washington Octoberfest 5K Fundraising event held on Saturday, September 29th was a great success for the German School Washington and Omega and its travel European industry partner- Steigenberger Hotel Group (with over 80 Hotels within Germany, Netherland, Switzerland and Austria.) A total of 290 runners registered for the event to raise money for the German School Washington’s renovation of the school’s track and field facilities. The event not only helped support an important goal, but also generated interest in the extensive and affordable leisure travel packages we offer. All of us at the Omega team- including our Director of Leisure Travel – Ms. Ellen Sisser, believe in and support our CEO’s – Gloria Bohan- interest and support of Community Outreach and Education. We are delighted that our travel package sponsorships were able to raise in excess of $2000.00 to help fund the renovation of the school’s track and field facilities. We look forward to a continued ongoing relationship with the German School Washington.
Words from our friends at the German School Washington and Steigenberger Hotels:
“The contributions by Omega World Travel and Steigenberger Hotel Group to our 5k Oktoberfest Run allowed us to hold a Silent Auction with very impressive items. The $2.000 that came in through this donation of travel vouchers is a tremendous help towards our fundraiser for the renewal of the German School’s track and field.” - Waldemar Gries, Head of School at the German School Washington
“We were pleased to receive this great opportunity to participate here at the German School Washington Fundraiser event. We partnered up with Omega World Travel to offer a value added package for the silent auction to any Steigenberger Hotel in Europe. We would like to thank everyone who has placed so much effort to organize this spectacular Fundraiser Event on September 29, 2012.”- Jeffrey E. Thomas, Steigenberger Hotel Group USA Regional Director of Sales
Recap and Photos from the event:
- Total registered runners 290
- All ages were present and the youngest registered runner was 5 years old.
- First of an annual tradition of 5k Oktoberfest Runs at the German School Washington and will be repeated in the future
- # 1 fastest Runner of all Thomas Selishev with 17:41 minutes
- Amazing achievement: two brothers Shai Neal, age 11 (gold medal 20:32 min) and Niko Neal, age 9 (silver medal- 21:10 min) in category 6-11 years. They came in overall place #8 and place # 12.
- German Embassy had 20 runners including the Deputy Chief of Mission, Jens Hanefeld, and the Head of School, Waldemar Gries OStD, took part in the run pushing his son in stroller.
Ron Kosmahl, Omega World Travel Regional Sales Director Washington; Steigenberger Hotel Group USA Regional Director of Sales; Marianne Haegeli Business Manager of the German School; Waldemar Gries, Head of School at the German School Washington
About Steigenberger Hotel Group
Steigenberger Hotels AG is one of Europe’s leading hotel companies. Its head office is based in Frankfurt/Main, and the group operates 80 hotels in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Egypt. The umbrella organization Steigenberger Hotel Group comprises the two brands Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts (47 individual first-class and deluxe hotels) and InterCityHotel (33 midrange hotels located directly at transport hubs such as railway stations and airports). Steigenberger Hotels AG has been in the sole ownership of Hamed El Chiaty since 2009. For more information visit: http://www.steigenbergerhotelgroup.com/ or contact your local Omega World Travel office.
About the German School
The German School Washington D.C., located in Potomac, Maryland, is a German school abroad that educates its students according to German curricula and that offers German degrees after 10th grade (Realschulabschluss) and the German University Entrance Examination (Abitur) after 12th grade. The program of the German School has been approved by the Maryland State Department of Education to also offer the U.S. High School Diploma after 12th grade. The German School Washington D.C. received the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award in 2011 from the Ministry of Education of the Federal Republic of Germany. For more information visit: www.dswashington.org or follow the German School Washington on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/German-School-Deutsche-Schule-Washington-DC/442964500715.
FEATURED PARTNER: BLUEFIELDS BAY VILLAS
Bluefields Bay offers the ultimate in privacy, luxury and personalized service at its six luxurious waterfront villas, each with a private pool and expertly-trained staff. The six secluded seafront villas perched on the Caribbean Sea offer dazzling views of crystal-clear, calm blue waters perfect for snorkeling and sea-kayaking. Relish spectacular sunsets from the southwestern Jamaican fishing and farming village called Bluefields, after an invigorating hike up the untouched mountain right behind the homes. Contact the Omega World Travel Leisure Desk (800.756.6342) to learn about Bluefields travel packages and special rates.
Upcoming Luxury Travel and Cruise Tradeshow
Omega World Travel is hosting a Cruise and Travel tradeshow at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda on Tuesday, June 19 from 4PM to 7PM. Representatives from many airlines, cruise lines, hotels and tour companies will be there to answer your questions and to discuss the latest trends in popular and high-end leisure travel destinations. Olney Theatre Center and Bluefields Bay will also be joining us for this amazing event!
Attendance is free and refreshments will be served. Door prizes will be awarded, including international business class tickets from Delta Airlines, a 3-night stay at Bluefields Bay and other surprises. The Hyatt Regency has parking available and is located at the Bethesda metro stop. Don’t miss this outstanding travel event!
For additional information please visit Omega World Travel’s website at http://owt.net/travelshow/ or contact Omega World Travel’s Bethesda Leisure Manager, Ellen Sisser, by phone at (301)215-7169 or via email at esisser@owt.net.
Executive VP Goran Gligorovic Speaks on New Bill Passed by Congress on Government Travel Spending
Yesterday Congress passed the bill limiting government agencies’ spending on conference and meeting travel. According to Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Ok.) this measure can potentially save the government more than $65 million every year. This bill sets new restrictions and requirements on government agencies’ participation in meetings and conferences.
They are:
- Reduction of the amount a government agency can spend on conferences to 80% percent of the amount spent in 2010.
- Capping the amount that can be spent on a single government-funded conference at $500,000.
- Allows non-federal foundations and sources to provide financial support for a conference, but requires a listing of such sponsors and a certification that there isn’t a conflict of interest resulting from support received from each.
- Prohibits sponsoring more than one conference per year per organization.
- Limits the number of employees allowed to travel to an international conference from a single agency to 50.
- Requires agencies to post a quarterly summary on their website of each conference supported or attended in the preceding three months.
While reduction in government spending is welcome effort, this bill will negatively impact travel industry and its suppliers. Many hoteliers, small business and TMC’s depend on government conference travel. As a result layoffs are expected. Government did not provide methods that will be used to reduce the travel, for example reducing the per-diem rates by 20% or by reducing the numbers of trips while keeping the per-diems in place.
In the corporate travel arena, for the last couple of years corporations were forced to reduce their travel spend. This was achieved by shifting spend from 5 star resorts to 4 and 3 star properties, by shifting air travel from first class to business, from business to coach and from refundable -premium” coach to no refundable – no frills, coach seats.
FEATURED PARTNER: TURKISH AIRLINES
Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines plans to add 14 new destinations this year and carry over 38 million passengers. The new routes will include Accra-Abidjan, Leipzig, Edinburgh, Aalborg-Billund, Bremen and Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Mogadishu, Misrata, Bilbao-La Coruna, Novosibirsk-Ulaanbaatar, and Abuja-Kano. With revenues of $7.6 billion the airline will expand its fleet by 18 aircraft. In partnership with Panasonic Avionics Co., Turkish Airlines has added high-speed Wi-Fi broadband Internet access to its existing live, inflight TV service on Trans-Atlantic flights.
FEATURED PARTNER: JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways will nearly double its popular service from Reagan National Airport (DCA), increasing flights by eight roundtrips daily to at least 16 roundtrips by this summer. The growth is due to recent FAA slot acquisition. Combined with its service between Boston and both Baltimore Washington and Washington Dulles International Airports, JetBlue offers a market-leading schedule and the most flights between Boston and the National Capital Region. Key summer schedule highlights for DCA – all available for sale now:
• 3 additional daily flights to Boston (for a total of ten)
• 2 additional daily flights to Fort Lauderdale (for a total of three)
• 2 additional daily flights to Orlando (for a total of three)
• 1 new daily flight to Tampa
JetBlue known for low fares, award-winning service and free TV, offers the most legroom in coach of any U.S. carrier. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all fares are one-way, and an overnight stay is never required. It is the first and only airline to offer a Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by JetBlue service disruptions. Visit JetBlue for details. JetBlue serves 70 cities with 700 daily flights.
NEW AUTOMATED DOCUMENT SCREENING
The TSA is testing an automated ID and boarding pass check system at Washington, Dulles and George Bush Intercontinental Airports. These machines verify numerous acceptable forms of valid IDs such as; driver’s licenses, tribal IDs and passports, by scanning bar codes much like the self-checkout machines in supermarkets. TSA is counting on this technology to detect fraudulent documents more efficiently than people and help to move passengers through check-in lines more quickly. (USAToday.com, April 16)
