The Book early benefits campaign by Virgin holidays, has got of too a bad start after Lastminute started legal action for Copyright infringement.

Virgin Holidays today said it was “disappointed” by lastminute.com’s decision to start legal action over its latest marketing campaign.

Virgin initially refused to comment on lastminute’s move to sue Virgin for trademark infringement.

The legal action is over the the slogan, dontleaveituntilthelastminute.com. The URL connects to the Virgin Holidays website.

Virgin Holidays marketing director Andrew Shelton said: “True to our brand’s reputation as a customer champion, we’re giving useful information about some of the benefits of booking early with us.

Virgin Holidays said in a statement: “We totally refute the claims made against us. The campaign’s message is clear in its focus on early-booking benefits and availability with Virgin Holidays.”

“In this tough climate for consumers, where market research shows that they are still hanging on to the two-week break, it’s important that we support them by sharing these early-booking advantages.

“If they’re only going away once, it has to deliver – on price, availability and choice.”

Greece seems to have lost its sense of humour, and has caused the Foreign Office (FCO) to update its travel advice to Greece following the arrest of Brits dressed up as nuns.

In its local laws and customs section, the FCO warns travellers that certain types of fancy dress might offend the Greek authorities, and be considered a breach of decency laws.

Mooning is also considered unacceptable, according to the advice, and police have warned they will not tolerate it.

From July 1, smoking has been banned in all indoor public places and is punishable by fines of up to €500. Thousands of restaurants and bars over 70 sq metres will have to provide sealed-off smoking areas.

twenty British men spent the night in a prison cell in May after dressing up as nuns, complete with women’s underwear.

Let me start by saying the best travel deals will be the ones you book online, for these reasons:

Travel advice tips.

1. By booking travel online you get those extra online travel discounts, plus no booking fees.
2. Just by booking travel online you save over £20 pp in booking fees alone.
3. Online travel has all the deals you won’t find with a travel agent or over the phone..
4. Unless you like being kept on hold in a call center, online booking is the way to go.

Compared to booking over the phone or visiting a travel agent, online booking is more than £40 pp cheaper on short haul travel deals.. The bigger the booking the larger the discount.

Tour operators want you book online its cheaper for them, they are not paying agents commission, and so they pass these savings on to you.

Its a truism that tour operators would rather do without call centers and travel agents as they are costly to maintain, and so if they could get rid on them they would.

This in turn will generate even more savings, that would give you even greater online booking discounts…

Which is why we still carry a telephone number to help you out.

The other big plus by booking travel online its secure, your not handing over your credit card details to a complete stranger over the phone, who could quite happily pass those details on.

The Smarmy Travel Republic managing director Kane Pirie will face trial for allegedly breaching Atol regulations in a crucial “test case” for the travel industry.

Travel republic court case.

Counsel for the CAA described the issue as “whether the defendants put together package holidays” and “whether there was a single contract between the consumer and company for all services”.

Both Pirie and Travel Republic as a company have pleaded not guilty to the same 20 charges of breaking Civil Aviation Authority regulations over package holidays.

The trial is seen as a test case for the CAA in enforcing its view that almost all holiday sales of flights, plus accommodation, require ATOL cover.

The case, which is being prosecuted by the CAA, was sent for trial during a hearing at the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London today.

The trial, which is expected to last for three weeks, will be heard by a district judge at Stratford Magistrates’ Court in London starting on October 12.

Prosecuting barrister Anthony Scrivener QC said it was a test case which would create a legal ruling on what constitutes a package holiday.

Around 30 holidaymakers are expected to give evidence during the trial alongside officials from the CAA.

Nicholas Purnell QC, representing Pirie and Travel Republic, said: “The prosecution say they were entering into a single contact. What we say is that it’s demonstratively a series of different contracts. They did not enter into a package holiday contract.”

Pirie was released on unconditional bail until the trial in October.

Travel advice tip: Travel agents and small tour operators, are being put under pressure by banks as they are seen as high risk.

Some banks are threatening to remove merchant services Mastercard visa machines to you and I.

The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) has secured a meeting with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) to discuss the banks’ unfair treatment of travel companies.

The meeting follows complaints from operators and travel agents who feel they have been unfairly targeted by the banks.

Some banks have threatened to withdraw merchant services or demanded high value bonds from travel companies, as they are seen as high risk.

Director of cross-market interventions Ben Coates is setting up the meeting for next month, which will be attended by AITO membership manager Peter Burgess and Sunvil director Noel Josephides. Representatives from the Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport have also been invited.

AITO was originally told the government would investigate the issue at a meeting in November last year, but heard nothing until last week, when BIS promised to raise the issue with the banks.

The association has also written to Sir Alan Sugar, the government’s new business champion, to request his help.

Burgess said the meeting was a positive step. He said: “Ben Coates wants to gain a full understanding of the issues. We hope the meeting will have the right results rather then just being a meeting for the sake of it. The hope is that BIS will persuade banks to take a less harsh approach to the travel industry.”

Passport travel advice: All you ever wanted to know about Passports but were afraid to ask:

This is the history of man’s most travelled, travel document, without one your travel options are virtually nil.

A short history of passports

From a single royal letter to a modern microchip, the passport’s journey has been a long one. Please do check your passport if you are going away soon, a last minute replacement is £114

Inside your passport, Her Britannic Majesty ‘requests and requires’ the world’s governments to allow you, the bearer, ‘to pass freely without let or hindrance’.

However any UK passport holder with the misfortune to be called Robert Johnson can expect heavy-duty hindrance if they fly to America.

In March 2008, the US news programme 60 Minutes interviewed 15 Robert Johnson’s, who were constantly being interrogated because a namesake once tried to blow up a Hindu temple in Toronto.

Thus landing them on a famously long and inaccurate register known as the No Fly List. One Robert Johnson was strip-searched. Another admitted to entering airports in a “panic, sweating”.

Ye olde passe port The passports history lesson begins:

The first reference to a document enabling passengers to travel across borders is in the Old Testament’s Book of Nehemiah, in which Persian king Artaxerxes gives a letter ‘to governors of the province beyond the river’ asking them to offer court official Nehemiah safe passage.

This kind of letter is mentioned in Shakespeare’s Henry V where the king, before Agincourt, declares: ‘He which hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart; his passport shall be made.’

These letters, known as Safe Conduct, were mentioned in an act of parliament during Henry’s reign and were first granted by the Privy Council in 1540.

In medieval Europe, travellers were issued documents by local authorities so they could pass through the porte (gate) of city walls.

The counter theory is that many royal letters of request – literally called passe ports because they allowed the bearer to travel from ports in ships – were signed by the great Louis XIV.

The oldest British passport still in existence was signed by Charles I in 1641. Three years later, Charles was dethroned and Oliver Cromwell’s regime developed an early prototype of the No Fly List by decreeing that no pass be issued to citizens until they promised they would not ‘be aiding, assisting, advising or counselling against the Commonwealth’.

The No Sail List lapsed under Charles II who persuaded the secretary of the state to sign these letters so he could cavort with his floozies.

Peter the Great, Russia’s ruthless modernising tsar, introduced passports in 1719 and, ingeniously anticipating the multi-tasking 21st-century ID card, used them to control taxes and military service.

England’s letters of safe conduct were first written in Latin and English but, in 1772, the government decided to use the international language of high finance and diplomacy: French.

This didn’t change until 1858, which meant that Britain’s passports were issued in French even as the empire fought Napoleon.

The British Nationality And Status Aliens Act sounds like the dubious, legal fruit of the war on terror but, passed in 1914, it defined the first recognisably modern British passport as a single page, folded into eight, with a cardboard cover, a photograph of the bearer and a note of such details as shape of face and features.

Peace resumed in 1918 but the passport stayed and the format was internationally standardised in 1920 – the year the British version expanded into a 32-page booklet known as Old Blue – and again in 1947.

New cost of travel

Security isn’t cheap. It is essential – we wouldn’t forgive any government that ignored the risk of further 9/11s – but there is a lingering suspicion that invoking terrorism is a licence for companies and governments to print money.

The cost of a UK passport soared five-fold between 1994 and 2008. If the cost of bread had risen like that, a sliced white loaf would cost £2.75. If you choose the new eJumbo 48-page biometric passport, it will cost you £85, but it will get you into America without a visa (if your name’s not Robert Johnson).

The biometric passport stores all the information printed on the passport – and a digital description of the holder’s physical features – in a chip. The chip’s data is encrypted and protected by a key printed inside the passport.

But the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) decided the key should consist of, in this order: the passport number; the owner’s date of birth; the passport expiry date. Eager geeks soon cracked this key with a reader you can buy in shops for £174.

The Home Office insists this doesn’t matter because, a spokesman says: “Even if you had the information you would still have to counterfeit the new passport – and it has new security features.”

Cheap Travel deals all inclusive: These are the best value cheap travel options on the web today, pick up a bargain holiday deal.

Spain, Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Greece, Turkey, Maldives, Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean.

With our Cheap all inclusive travel deals, your travel spending is reduced to one overall figure. Search for cheap all inclusive deals here.

A small selection of All inclusive holiday deals.
We do have other dates and destinations.

1. Corfu Sea Gardens Apartments, Kavos
   - Stay at Corfu Sea Gardens Apartments 7 nights All Inclusive from only £228.03pp. Departs from LGW 19th Oct 2009. 2 Adults
2. H Top Olympic Hotel, Calella
   - Stay at H Top Olympic Hotel 7 nights All Inclusive from only £199.74pp. Departs from BFS 17th Mar 2010. 2 Adults
3. Danelis Hotel, Hersonissos
   - Stay at Danelis Hotel 7 nights All Inclusive from only £231.74pp. Departs from MAN 10th Jul 2009. 2 Adults
4. Diana Club & Hotel, Marmaris
   - Stay at Diana Club & Hotel 7 nights All Inclusive from only £226.10pp. Departs from MAN 19th Oct 2009. 3 Adults
5. La Perla Sharm El Sheikh Hotel, Sharm el Sheikh
   - Stay at La Perla Sharm El Sheikh Hotel 7 nights All Inclusive from only £222.11pp. Departs from LTN 3rd Dec 2009. 2 Adults
6. Venecia Park Hotel, Salou
   - Stay at Venecia Park Hotel 7 nights All Inclusive from only £224.50pp. Departs from LPL 1st Oct 2009. 2 Adults
7. H.Top Santa Susanna Aparthotel, Santa Susanna
   - Stay at H.Top Santa Susanna Aparthotel 7 nights All Inclusive from only £209.93pp. Departs from EMA 10th Oct 2009. 3 Adults
8. Bon Repos Hotel, Calella
   - Stay at Bon Repos Hotel 7 nights All Inclusive from only £214.60pp. Departs from LPL 29th Sep 2009. 2 Adults

Travel advice APD tax: This is important do take a minute to read, get angry and then contact your MP..

The government has admitted that its planned increases in APD or Air Passenger Duty, will lose the aviation industry 1.5 million passengers from Britain.

A Flying Matters spoksman added that it believed the government had underestimated the impact of the tax increases on long-haul flights, where a family of four would face paying £600 in tax to go on holiday.

Its admission about the impact of the rises planned for November this year and next came in a written parliamentary answer from new transport minister Paul Clark.

The association said a family of four travelling economy class to Disneyland in Florida for half term week 2011 will pay £240 in taxes; to the Caribbean for a Christmas in 2010 it will be £300 and for the family to visit relatives in Australia that Christmas it will be £340.

He said the government estimated that by 2030, the number of passengers travelling through British airports would drop by 1.5 million people as a result of APD.

The government’s answer also revealed it expected 1.4 million of those people to disappear from short-haul flights.

Aviation pressure group Flying Matters said the government’s answer showed how the tax increases would hit poorer people, whose travels were restricted to short-haul flights.

Chairman Brian Wilson said: “These figures show how millions of ordinary families will be priced out of flying by these taxes.

“There is no justification for such a regressive measure. Returning air travel to the preserve of a wealthy elite is likely to go down like a lead balloon with the electorate.”

Traveling budget Tips: If your travelling on a budget all is not lost, and you don’t have to travel in a tent or stay in hostels.

Here are our Travelling on a budget: Top 10 Tips to help you save some money on your next Holiday.

1. Don’t wait for a deal to find you. Subscribe to our ‘Travel’ announcements and newsletters.

Also, if you know the holiday destination you want to visit, tell us and give us your budget range — when a deal comes along we will notify you and take care of the rest!

2. Travel in the middle of the week.

Yes i know, it messes up your holidays, but hey its cheaper..
There is less demand on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so airfares will be lower. Leisure destinations and resort areas will be cheaper during the week.

However, hotels in major cities are cheaper on weekends when business travelers are gone.

3. Be a ‘Travel Opportunist and be flexible” and try searching several date ranges.
Also, search for different places you haven’t been before or that are similar to the type of destination you are seeking.

4. Book a holiday package. Where you book your flight, hotel and/or car hire separtly.

5. Stay at an all-inclusive. Because you’re not whipping out your wallet for every beverage, snack or meal, it will reduce total in destination costs. Often times they have plenty of perks that add to the value of your stay. (e.g. Many all-inclusives offer use of water-sports equipment, free shuttle services etc.)

6. Buy Before. Buy convenience items — sunscreen, lotions, shampoo, etc. — before your trip. Toss some snacks into your bag to stave off expensive vending machine treats or airport food.

7. Pack smart. Make sure your bags adhere to the airline’s size and weight requirements, and know that if you check extra bags, you’ll probably have to pay for them.

8. Eat in your room!

Go cheap for one meal a day, and it can really cut down costs. Stop by a food store and purchase items to make picnic lunches, then bring them along on your daily excursions.

Make sure your room has a microwave and/or fridge so you can prepare your meals and treats.

9. Watch out for extras at your hotel. Check on the costs of services when you arrive — like telephones, mini-bars, and fitness centers.

Use Mobile phones or pay phones instead of your hotel phone.

10. Double-check your bills and receipts. Always read the room-service bill before tipping the delivery person (the tip may already be included) and your hotel bill at the end of your stay.

What are some of your best travel tips to try and save money, ad a cooment below.?

Thailand Travel advice: If you thinking of Thailand as holiday destination be warned: A British couple are set to take legal action, after they had to hand over £8,000 in bribes when facing false accusations of shoplifting at Bangkok airport.

Cambridge-based couple Stephen Ingham and Xi Lin were originally accused of taking a Givenchy wallet from a duty-free shop at the airport – a charge they were later cleared of.

It seems the store owner in collusion with the gangs, makes false accusations to get the Thai police involved, then in your confusion, you are taken to a hotel on the pretext of sorting it out, its here that the Gang holds you ransom…

After being detained by police, the couple fell into the hands of an intermediary who took them to a hotel close to the airport.

It is believed a Danish tourist recently fell into the hands of the same gang and was forced to hand over more than £4,500 before being allowed to leave Thailand

They were then held at this property for four days against their will until they eventually handed over the money and flew back to the UK.

Weekend reports said the couple would be taking legal action because they wanted to warn other British tourists about this type of extortion.