The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
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United. This is the intention. Norwegian now offers direct flights from its London hub to 10 US cities, including “less obvious” options such as the Colorado state capital Denver, Oakland in California, and Seattle – and demonstrated its sky-wide vision last month with the beginning of a non-stop Gatwick-Buenos Aires link.
Wow Air has been similarly expansive, and now touches down at 10 American airports, while its closest domestic competitor, the national carrier Icelandair, drops landing gear in four. The downside with both these operators – that you have to travel via Reykjavik – is offset by their range of regional departures. Wow Air flies from Edinburgh as well as Gatwick and Stansted; Icelandair from Glasgow and Manchester (and Gatwick and Heathrow). Norwegian is yet to embrace the rest of the UK to such an extent in terms of transatlantic trips – but does serve Stewart International (for New York) and Providence (as an alternative to Boston) from Belfast and Edinburgh.
This is, indeed, a second low-cost revolution, where the big winner is the consumer.
Let’s take as an example that topical London-Chicago route, and departure dates of Wednesday, May 16 and Sunday, May 20. At the time of writing, a search for return economy fares unearths the exact same fare, of £562, with BA and United (both to
Heathrow) – whereas Norwegian (to Gatwick) produces a figure of £430 for its equivalent “LowFare+” price bracket (I’m ignoring the “LowFare” category, which comes to £330, but includes nothing more than 10kg of hand luggage). That’s a fair saving, for
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Dear Helen
The surreal, brilliant white travertine terraces and warm, limpid pools of Pamukkale hang from the rim of a steep valley side in Turkey’s picturesque south-west. It’s an amazing natural formation, and combined with the wellpreserved ruins of the GreekRoman city of Hierapolis nearby, it’s a very popular tourist attraction. The pools can be a little slippery, but they aren’t deep, so you don’t need to worry about not being able to swim.
The best way to enjoy an
We’ve received a fine for speeding in Milan, but the offence took place almost two years ago
I have received a “Notice of Payment” in the post saying that a fine of €54.70 (£47.92) has been imposed for a violation of the Italian Highway Code on Aug 26 2016. My husband and
I were in Milan at that time and had hired a rental car from Hertz.
In October 2016 we were charged a fee by Hertz for providing our details to the Italian authorities so the letter has come as no surprise.
However, I read somewhere that there is a time limit for the notification of such fines. We have 60 days to pay though there’s a reduction if we pay in full within five days. Can you advise?
ANN BAKER
QAGILL CHARLTON
CONSUMER CHAMPION
It always astonishes me how long it takes the Italian authorities to issue traffic fines. In your case, it was 16 months after the offence. According to the Italian Traffic Code, the police have only 360 days after receiving identification of the driver of the vehicle (that is, the date that Hertz handed over your UK address) within which to notify foreign drivers of the fine. This information is provided on the website of European Municipality Outsourcing (EMO), an independent agency linked to Florence-based debt collection agency Nivi Credit, which many Italian police forces have tasked with collecting the fines.
Do you have to pay the fine? In my view you don’t because the Milan police failed to send you the paperwork in time. I wonder why they bothered as they are very well aware of the law on this. Perhaps a batch got “lost” and they are taking a punt that people will panic and pay, worried about the debt being pursued or the risk of a black mark on their credit rating. I tried to contact both EMO and Nivi Credit by telephone and email to confirm the 360-day cut-off but neither agency responded.
Mrs Baker’s fine was for driving 8kph over the speed limit on the ring-road around Milan. A small infringement, you might think, but enough to trigger one of the city’s many roadside speed cameras. The only upside is that, unlike the UK, speeding fines are not accompanied by penalty points on your licence.
But the biggest source of revenue from motorists are fines of up to €100 a time for driving into Limited Traffic Zones (ZTLs). In Florence it’s estimated that more than 1,000 fines a day are issued for this violation – a nice little earner for the city coffers.
This is, indeed, a second low-cost airline revolution, where the big winner is the consumer
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