Eagle Eye

India telephone calling  rates for main cities are again slashed by some companies .

Rate list to call India from UK landlines as on 30-03-2005

India-Bangalore-Hyderabad,Chennai landlines @4p /minute from BT landlines only

0844 428 82 82-Telestunt UK

India Mobile including Punjab @4p/ minute from BT landlines only -0844 428 45 45-Dialwise UK

India Landlines including Punjab from BT landlines only @6p /minute-0871 754 21 21-Telesavers UK

For USA & Canada

www.1899.com -3p per call (inlcludes connection charge)- unlimited talk !

1p /minute to mobiles or landlines 0844 861 45 45-Dialwise UK

UK mobiles

1899.com-2p per minute any network on weekends only.(3p connection charge per call)

Please see previous posts on other service providers.

 Basically I do not like the services offered by Just dial as they are costly as well as other hidden charges.

Use your Free O2 UK Cross network Mobile Minutes to call India Mobiles/Landlines  Click  - Cheap/Free calls to India-07744 974 373

GOA!

Goa is one of the finest tourism place in India.Fly Monarch (www.flymonarch.com) offers charter flights to GOA from London Gatwick.The price of ticket is very cheap.It is very difficult to book the tickets on the monarch website.It is better to phone them up on the number given on the website.Some travel agents offer the monarch packages to customers.The website address of various agents ,airlines and tourism sites are listed below

http://www.hoodaki.com/

http://www.kuoni.co.uk/CountryInformation/in/GOAMain.shtml

http://www.samtravel.com/

http://www.smtravel.co.uk/india.htm

http://www.travelpack.com/goa/

London office-020-89038400

Air India

http://www.tailormadejourneys.com/

http://www.sunwaytravel.co.uk/

http://www.southalltravel.co.uk/flights.jsp

http://www.goatourism.org/Goa_Links/websites.htm (official website of Govt Of Goa)

http://www.indiatourism.com/index.html

Books for IELTS Academic writing/reading

Most of Doctors/pharmacists/Nurses/teachers require IELTS band 7 separately in all the academic modules.For some of us it is bit difficult to achieve in first chance. The reason is the insufficient academic material in the market for academic writing .I found that books written by Sam McCarter are best for students who are finding writing and reading module difficult. The books written by him are :

Academic Writing Practice for IELTS ,IELTS Test Builder and IELTS reading tests. Sam McCarter also gives coaching for IELTS at Southwark College London at very nominal charges.The other books which I would like to recommend are Cambridge IELTS 3 Student’s Book with Answers: Examination Papers from the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate , IELTS Specimen Materials and 101 Helpful Hints for IELTS: Practice Tests and Hints for IELTS: Academic Module Book .You can buy these books from amazon.co.uk,abebooks.co.uk ,sapnaonline.com Bangalore (shipping with in India only)or from you nearest bookseller.

Flyjet FLIGHTS TO AMRITASR-BAKU-BIRMINGHAM-GATWICK

Yesterday I went to
Birmingham Airport to receive my friends who are on the FJ413 Amritsar-Birmingham .They appreciated the quality of service provided by the Royal Atlantic/Flyjet staff .Flyjet has named the Amritsar flight as Royal Atlantic. One month ago I had purchased the tickets for them and I assured my friends that flight will be hopefully better than the Russian flights. I was worrying whether the choice made by me was o.k. as I don’t want them to suffer like I suffered last time .Although the fare was 50 pounds higher but in view of quality of service, it is ok.Also No fuss with weight like other airlines. The only downside is that they fly twice a week and no flexibility. Royal Atlantic operates No Show No refund policy. In fact, the policy of Flyjet is crystal clear about refund unlike another airline (Amritsar-Bratislava-Birmingham) which changes its ticket rules once you buy the ticket. So book your tickets only if you are sure about travelling plans. You can buy your tickets directly from the airline or from your nearest travelling agent. I told my travel agent that what is the point in purchasing ticket from you when we can get the tickets from the Royal Atlantic/Flyjet? So I got 15 pounds further off on each ticket. So check the price on airline website and buy ticket from travel agent if he agrees to give the discount.

Another way is to buy the ticket from agent in Jalandhar, India. From India the ticket costs 25,000 INR only (March 2005). International students in UK and dependants can buy ticket from India and there are no legal restrictions on them. Do not worry about the postage! They will give you one PNR number which you need to present to your UK Flyjet agent, so in turn you can save at least 100 pounds. Last time in December 2004, I had purchased the tickets from India and I saved 110 pounds. You may get great discount for all the other airlines for Amritsar except Air India and Singapore Airlines when you book ticket from India.

Air India has recently launched the flights to Amritsar Airport (India).The fare may be bit higher then the Russian airlines and charted ones due to the high standards as compare to Air Slovakia, Ujbekistan, etc.I think if the Govt. improves the things at Amritsar airport the British airways, virgin & in future Sahara and jet airways may start flying from the Amritsar airport. This will in turn benefit the passengers a lot. The potential to make money from Amritsar is very high. Royal Atlantic (FLY Jet) charges approximately 460 pounds for return to Amritsar and British Airways is charging 420 pounds for New Delhi(India) return. These Russian airlines and charted like flyjet are making a lot of money by charging fares like world’s best airlines BA,Virgin and providing very less or no facilities at all.Neverthless,now onwards the Russians may think about the customer service they providing to travellers due to Air India non-stop flights from Amritsar to Birmingham(UK).

Another advantage is of Online Booking with Air India. At present Air India is the only company which provides internet booking from its website for Amritsar. So please check Air India website for further details. The ticket price may be less from the travel agents. You can also check other travel agents sites to make sure about price.

The list of Websites offering tickets for various international flights to Amritsar from UK:

http://www.airindia.com – only Airline which offers direct online booking for Amritsar.

www.amritsartravel.com

www.samtravel.com

http://www.airplaneticket.co.uk/googleonlineoffers/

http://www.hoodaki.com/india/index1.htm

http://www.smtravel.co.uk/india.htm

http://www.airline-network.co.uk/

http://www.amritsarflights.com/

http://www.deepikatravels.com/ -Turkmenistan Airlines

Turkmenistan Airlines UK GSA
http://www.deepikatravels.com/offices1.htm

Uzbekistan Airways

Please check the relevant websites/travel agents for further details as information given here may be incorrect

Another new players are Fly Kingfisher and Spice Jet.

Spice Jet may offer the cheaper rate to Non Indian citizens .Please check with them.

Another airline launched GO AIR INDIA -CHEAP FARES FOR NON INDIAN CITIZENS AVAILABLE (CHECK XE.COM FOR CONVERSION)

Jagson Airlines -first private airline of India

Links for airlines and travel Agents:

Ø http://indian-airlines.nic.in/scripts/index.asp

Ø http://www.indiatravelite.com/airway/faretrekker1.htm

http://www.airdeccan.net/airdeccan/home.aspYou can avail discounted fares online. They do not offer food during the flight. This is the only airline which offers discount fares to Non Indians or if you are not NRI.

Discount fares not available online for

Air Sahara (now merged with Jet) & Jet Airways

Paramount Airways - Business Class only

Offline Booking AgentsThey offer offline booking so you have to phone/fax/email them up.

Joy Travels India

Travel Agents India portel

Samsan travels India

Traveljini India

Prime Travels India

Journey Mart

Tickets on online auction

Indiatimes Air Tickets Auction

Rediff India Fare search

Thomas Cook India-Domestic Flights In INR Fare possible to book online (Jet Airways,Indian Airlines)but remember -airlines may charge the fare difference between USD & INR fare for NRI’s.Only take risk if you have Indian Identity card like Driving License.

MakeMyTrip India

Yatra INDIA 

Mobissimo Air Fare Search India

STA Travel India Special offers for International Students (only with ISIC card Holders only)

Please Check the airline & travel agent websites for further details as information given here may not be correct.

Exceptional Air Travel with Air
Slovakia

Yesterday I watched the Indian Bollywood movie ‘Bardaasht’ .The main aim of movie seems to be aware the normal public about the rampant corruption in the India. This picture has reminded me of exceptional air travel on flight with Air Slovakia from Amritsar airport (India) to Birmingham (UK) in January. The Air Slovakia manager & his staff member (Amritsar, India) wanted to charge me for the carrying books & blanket. Although on the ticket it is printed that prams, books, blankets etc are excluded from the weight allowance. For Asthma patients blanket is necessary to cover up any risk of attack and as they do not provide blankets during the flight I can not leave my stuff with them.

Even I suffered from minor attack of asthma, the manager of Air Slovakia and his accomplice has shown no empathy and still forced me to pay the money. In the end I paid the charges which I am not supposed to pay. When I asked them to give me complaint form, they simply refused & behaved in a very bad manner. They are not wearing identification badges so I can not do anything really. It seems that another reason for charging me because of the staff personal of Air Slovakia who approached me near the car parking and he want to carry my baggage inside to the airport and so that in turn he will get money from me. I said him that I can help myself   &but in the end I told him off. This scene is very common at Amritsar Airport. These people think that passenger is about to leave the country, so why not harass him more .But still most of us forget such type of instances in regard of convenience of short distance of  our home towns in Punjab (India) to Amritsar Airport (India) .Well anyway it was really a exceptional air travel !!

Make International calls from UK Mobiles

If your mobile is cross network then you can use the mobile number 07744 9744 79 (http://www.metelecoms.co.uk )for calling or any other international destination for free. But it is advisable to check with the network operator about the charges if any. I know that Network 3 is charging 25p per minute for personal numbering services. This website says other networks are not charging for calling this number. If this is true then we can use our spare free cross network minutes to call international destinations.Please check the website http://www.metelecoms.co.uk for further details.

The another company simply-fone UK also offers the internationl calls to India and other destinations from mobile number 07744 97 3333.The calls to this number may be charged by your service provider.So please make sure either by making test call or contacting customer services.Network 3 is charging 25 pence for calling these numbers.

IELTS

If you are preparing for IELTS then check this website www.writefix.com. This website has covered topics on writing & speaking. The various graph patterns are also described in detail. So I hope this website will be really useful for those writing IELTS exam.