European low-cost airlines fail to enforce charges and fees

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Flying around Europe on low-cost airlines over the last few months has taught me a few things. Among the most useful lessons I’ve picked up: Baggage and check-in fees and charges are enforced quite unevenly.

European low-cost carriers present their customers with a frightening thicket of charges and fees. These charges, which serve as a revenue stream for the airlines, are less readily enforced by contract agents who are not direct employees of the airlines in question, though bona fide airline employees also appear to enforce them inconsistently.

Some anecdotes from the last few months follow.

In Tel Aviv in March I tried to inform the easyJet check-in agent–clearly not an employee of easyJet–that, having failed to pay to check a bag online, I would need to cough up some shekels to do so. Not only did she refuse to take money to check my duffel bag but she clearly had no idea that I was supposed to be charged to check by bag in the first place.

Flying airBaltic between London and Finland last month, I was made to weigh my carry-on en route to Finland by an airBaltic agent. Returning, the contract employee in Oulu didn’t ask me to weigh my bag, which, at 9 kilos, was right at the weight limit.

Three events, arguably, serve as a representative sample. I flew WizzAir last week to and from the Balkans. WizzAir demands that its customers’ carry-on bags not exceed ten kilos, but neither the agent at Luton nor the at Dubrovnik on my return weighed my bag to see if it had exceeded the limit. In both cases I was very likely just over the baggage weight limit.

This is a case not so much of lessons learned than of a pattern observed. Contract check-in agents don’t appear to have been taught about the intricacies of their employers’ rules and regulations, first off. Secondly, and just possibly, if your carry-on bag looks diminutive, you may be able to get away with a few extra kilos.

That said, this is not an official Gadling recommendation to start to think of these charges and fees as inconsequential. They’re imposed to make money and they succeed in doing so for their airlines. To some degree, I’m sure I was simply lucky in these instances. But clearly the fees and charges are not being enforced as fully as they were designed to be.

[Image: Flickr | jenny-bee]

Finland in London

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Week before last, I traveled to Oulu to bask in the midnight sun. Dusk and dawn were indistinguishable. I needed little sleep to feel energized. At midnight I looked north and imagined landscapes bathed in even brighter sunlight.

Back in London this past week, I was faced with rain and general drenching. The clouds were low and foreboding; the gray skies interminably soul-annihilating. London seemed to have forgotten that summer had arrived. An exaggeration? Indeed. But not by much. I began to fantasize about Finnish things to take my mind off the gray wetness of it all.

The first and easiest stop for Finland lovers in London is probably Nordic Bakery. The softly ambassadorial function of this fantastic bakery-cafe, with branches in Soho (14a Golden Square) and Marylebone (37b New Cavendish Street), cannot be undervalued. I’ve long been a fan of Nordic Bakery for its open-faced sandwiches, cinnamon pastries, and clean Nordic interior design. The menu also features savory Karelian pies, a triumphantly Finnish dish consisting of a thin rye crust typically cradling a rice filling. Egg butter (butter mixed with boiled eggs) is spread over the hot pie for extra heartiness. Karelian pies are delicious, if possibly most appropriate for subzero noshing.

Though Scandinavian Kitchen (61 Great Titchfield Street; not far from Nordic Bakery’s Marylebone branch) does not focus on Finnish products, it sells a smattering of Finnish items, notably Lapin Kulta beer.

The Finnish Church (33 Albion Street, Rotherhithe) features a cafe open seven days a week, as well as a library, Finnish satellite television, a shop selling Finnish products, a sauna (open Tuesday through Sunday, with some gender-segregated time slots), and a small and quite reasonable guesthouse. The sauna can be booked for private use.

Another resource is the Finnish-British organization Finn-Guild, which serves as a kind of cultural clearinghouse in the name of promoting Finnish culture and language in the UK. Finn-Guild publishes a quarterly magazine, coordinates English- and Finnish-language classes, sponsors cultural events, supports the Finnish Church in London, and operates a travel agency.

Also useful for an injection of Finnish culture: Finland’s UK embassy and the Finnish Institute in London. The latter, an institute receiving direct funding from the Finnish government, is a think tank with a rather heady brief, though not all of its work is serious. Last year, it commissioned London’s hugely successful pop-up Finnish restaurant HEL YES!.

[Image: Flickr | yisris]

Five ways to enjoy the midnight sun in Oulu

by Alex Robertson Textor on

As the days grew longer this spring I began to fantasize about spending summer solstice under the midnight sun. I recalled with excitement that dulled buzz that comes from not getting enough sleep when it’s constantly light out, a gently energizing sensation so unlike sheer exhaustion. Last week I succumbed to the urge and flew off to the city of Oulu in Finland.

Why Oulu? As is usually the case, my decision was determined by budgetary bottom line. In late May I sat down and looked at all of my options for experiencing the true midnight sun. My research indicated that only a location at or above the 64th parallel north would do the trick. That left a number of decently trafficked airports a single layover away from London: Luleå and Kiruna in Sweden; Bodø, Narvik, and Tromsø in Norway; Oulu and Rovaniemi in Finland.

The cheapest fare I found from London to any of these northern cities was to Oulu via Riga on airBaltic, for €223. I snapped it up.

Oulu, the sixth biggest city in Finland–the fourth biggest if the cities of the greater Helsinki Metropolitan region are counted as one–is a technologically-savvy, bicycling-mad place. The city is saturated by free wi-fi and laced with cycling paths. In the summer, Oulu pulses with restrained energy. Even on a quiet summer night there are plenty of people about, biking, socializing, and swatting away mosquitoes.

In short, summer in Oulu is spectacular and atmospheric. The summer is brief and locals enjoy it fully. Here are five ways to maximize a visit to Oulu during the summer season.1. Explore the city by bike. Oulu has a fantastic infrastructure for bicyclists, with 550 kilometers of cycling trails. The city’s residents use their bikes in impressively high numbers. Families, officeworkers, and tourists all share space on paths and roads. Rent a bike at Pyörä-Suvala or Jussin pyöräpiste.

2. Eat at Sokeri-Jussin Kievari. Located just over the bridge from Oulu’s downtown on the island of Pikisaari, Sokeri-Jussin Kievari is a traditional eatery with a down-home aesthetic. My lunch of vendace fried in butter was delicious, and there are more exotic things on the menu as well. (Also worth a meal is Bar & Grill Kauppuris, with its mammoth burgers of beer-braised pork neck, bacon, steak, and roast beef.)

3. Visit the Oulu Museum of Art. While this may not be a summer-specific activity, a stroll through the museum is certainly worthwhile at present. Through September 11, six contemporary Finnish artists are showing their work in an exhibit titled Close to a Wonder. Among the noteworthy items in the exhibit: Ville Löppönen‘s oil paintings, Pekka and Teija Isorättyä‘s life-size multimedia sculptures, and a set of captivating photographs by Perttu Saksa. Admission to the museum is €3.

4. Check out the Kauppatori or market square at midnight. Some nights you’ll find scores of locals chatting and listening to music. On others, you’ll find a handful of alienated teens and the above unmanned strawberry stand. The adjacent Kauppahalli (Market Hall) is pretty; during the day a notable selection of pastries and local produce is sold inside.

5. Nallikari. A broad beach on the island of Hietasaari, Nallikari is home to a holiday village called Nallikari Camping as well as a spa hotel, Oulun Eden. The beach is beautiful and the waters beyond slope gently. The beach is popular with families and windsurfers. At a distance of about two miles from Oulu’s city center, it is an easy cycling destination. Nallikari also features a miniature golf course.

Some media support was provided by Oulu City Tourist Office. All opinions expressed are the author’s own.

Top 20 least sexist countries in the world

by Justin Delaney on

Have you ever wondered which countries are the least sexist in the world?

The Global Gender Gap report calculates such a thing. The study chronicles gender disparities and progress for rights across the sexes in several countries. It essentially gauges the treatment of women using various data points including educational attainment, health, and political empowerment. The study encompasses life in all types of cultural environments and provides a glimpse into some of the most and least sexist countries on the planet. For 2011, 134 countries were studied.

Many of the top countries for equal rights and opportunities across the sexes are European. Also, two African countries make the top twenty, South Africa and landlocked Lethoso – a small country bordered entirely by South Africa. Aside from those two countries though, African nations dominate the bottom quarter with several entrants from the Middle East as well. Iceland takes top honors at number one and is followed by three of its Nordic brethren in the ensuing spots.

Have you ever experienced sexism while traveling? Check out the full report here.

20. Canada
19. United States
18. Latvia
17. Netherlands
16. Sri Lanka
15. United Kingdom
14. Belgium
13. Germany
12. South Africa
11. Spain
10. Switzerland
9. Philippines
8. Lesotho
7. Denmark
6. Ireland
5. New Zealand
4. Sweden
3. Finland
2. Norway
1. Iceland

And the seven worst countries in the study:

7. Benin
6. Saudi Arabia
5. Côte d’Ivoire
4. Mali
3. Pakistan
2. Chad
1. Yemen

The Global Gender Gap Report 2010

Schengen and the disappearance of European passport stamps

by Alex Robertson Textor on


Creative new use for border crossing posts at German/Austrian border.

In the late 1980s, an American spending a summer traveling across Europe with a Eurailpass would see his or her passport stamped possibly dozens of times. With a few exceptions, every time a border was crossed, an immigration agent would pop his or her head into a train compartment, look at everyone’s passports, in most cases stamp them, and move on. Every Eastern Bloc country required visas, some of which could be obtained at the border and others of which had to be applied for in advance.

Today, an American can enter the Schengen zone in Helsinki, fly to Oslo and then on to Amsterdam, proceed by train through Belgium, France, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, then by bus to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and then by ferry back to Helsinki before catching a flight to Athens and landing in Greece without once needing to submit a passport to a border guard’s scrutiny.

The development of the Schengen agreement across Europe has altered the geopolitical map of the continent in many ways. For tourists, the development of the Schengen zone has simplified travel by drastically reducing the number of times a passport can be checked and stamped as national borders are crossed.

The Schengen Agreement is named after the town of Schengen in Luxembourg. It was here in 1985 that five countries-Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, West Germany, and France-signed an agreement to essentially create borderless travel between them. A model for this agreement had been created years before by the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), which eliminated border controls back in 1948. The Nordic countries also did away with internal border posts, in 1958.

In 1995, the five original Schengen countries plus Portugal and Spain inaugurated the zone. In 1997, Austria and Italy joined. Greece followed in 2000 and the five Nordic countries joined in 2001. In late 2007, nine more countries joined the Schengen zone; most recently, Switzerland signed up in 2008.


Abandoned border crossing between Slovakia and Hungary.

Today, 22 European countries are part of Schengen. Every European Union country (save the UK, Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus) belongs. Other members include EU holdouts Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland. The European microstates present a few complications. Monaco’s borders are administered by France, which makes the tiny principality a part of Schengen, while Liechtenstein’s accession, approved by the European Parliament in February, is pending. San Marino and the Vatican are de facto versus official members, while mountainous, landlocked Andorra remains outside of the zone altogether.

There are five EU countries not currently part of the Schengen zone. The UK and Ireland (as well as the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) operate a Schengen-like agreement called the Common Travel Area. Neither country is obligated to join the zone.

Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus, however, are all bound by treaty to eventually join. Romania has fulfilled all the criteria for joining Schengen and Bulgaria is close to fulfillment as well. These two countries will accede together, likely later this year. Cyprus presents a more complicated situation given the division of the island between the Republic of Cyprus in the south and the largely unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north.

With the coming accession of the Western Balkans to the European Union, the Schengen zone will almost definitely continue to grow. Might it one day cover the entire landmass of Europe? Check back in two decades.

[Images: top image Flickr | Mike Knell; middle image Flickr | jczart]