RAUK Newsletter October 2005 Welcome to the autumn edition of our newsletter.

Transcription

1 CONTENTS Page 2: News Page 3: Travel Desk Page 4: Association ATTACHMENTS Christmas Lunch Menu & Insurance details Christmas Lunch & 2006 Subs Form Simons Questionaire RAUK Newsletter October 2005 Welcome to the autumn edition of our newsletter. I hope you all enjoyed your summer? From the RAUK perspective, it has been a good one. The July meeting was well attended as was the Paddle Steamer day trip and the Croatia trip. Our autumn meeting was, again, a relaxed and enjoyable experience with the usual problems of getting members to adjourn from bar room chatter to attend the meeting before resuming the serious work of re-establishing friendships and catching up, over lunch, but after all. that is one of the main objectives of the association. Our meetings create lots of discussion about subjects, relevant to pension concerns, future holiday planning, travel insurance etc. Although we report the information in these newsletters, attending a meeting is by far the best way to get the information first hand from the association committee members who are assigned to keep us updated with various issues. It is also so much easier to put questions to the meeting. It is amazing that there is always someone who may have a similar problem or know of someone or a company that can provide the solution. Dates of special Interest 2005: Christmas Lunch 07 December RAUK Meetings AGM 05 April Summer 05 July Autumn 04 October Christmas 06 December Please remember, if Bird Hills is a little out of your way, or you don t drive contact us and we will try to arrange transport (with members) from the nearest rail/bus station convenient to Bird Hills from your point of origin. Our next meeting is Christmas Lunch. It will be my pleasure to meet and welcome you all on Wednesday, December 07 from on. The Paddle Steamer Waverly John Long and the Jurassic Coast of Dorset Committee Meetings 11 January 22 March 21 June 20 September 22 November All meetings at Bird Hills for Latest Newsletters and Simon s Travel News PLUS old photos and photos from our day trips and meetings. In the Members Section you can Read the Electronic Wolkenridder. Find other members address s and much more. 05 October Today marks the 75th anniversary of when KLM included the cities of Athens and Cairo in its route network. KLM first flew to the Indian city of Delhi on October 5, years ago today. Athens and Cairo were taken up in KLM's former route to the Dutch East Indies. Along the way, passengers could enjoy the trip from "the comfort of a reclining seat, with an ample view of the changing landscape beneath them, good heating, hot and cold beverages, a delicious noonday meal and, on arriving in one of the many picturesque cities along the route in the afternoon, they could find decent accommodation." The exact travelling time and route could vary vastly. On average, the journey took ten days, but would be subject to unexpected sandstorms and heavy monsoon rains, making it impossible to depart at times.

2 News Page 2 Secretary s notes taken at the Autumn Meeting 12 Oct Members attended the autumn meeting held at Bird Hills Golf Centre and as usual a good time was had by all present. We received apologies from M Mclaughin, C Lister, R Buck, J Connolly, L Rossi, J Sheehan, H Furley, J Bauling and G Morgan. The secretary reported that our membership was now up to 141. He also said that the renewal time for the 2006 subscription was now upon us and appealed that all should send the 2006 subs ASAP to the treasurer. In order to make the renewal process simpler for those involved we ask if you can return the subscription on receipt of this newsletter or if possible no later than 31 December Our treasurer gave the following figures: 3068,95 was in our HI acct. with in the current acct. Re the KLM pension fund. A statement was made that like most UK pension funds our own fund was under funded, but advised all that KLM was paying into the fund 2.2m per year for the next 10 years. Our Christmas Lunch will be held at Bird Hills Golf Centre on Wednesday 7 December See attached sheet. Dates for 2006 meetings:- AGM 5 Mar - Summer 5 Jul - Autumn 4 Oct - Christmas lunch -6 Dec. All start at 1130 hrs. Under AOB some members asked about holiday Insurance, see photocopy taken from Which on this subject which should be of interest. Terry Brennan SIMON s TRAVEL NEWS It was wonderful to have so many of you on our last two trips earlier this month. We excelled ourselves with 54 bookings on the paddle-steamer trip from Bournemouth and 29 on the last holiday to Northern Croatia. During both trips the weather was good and all arrangements went off without a hitch. The next day trip we are planning is for the mid-april 2006 to Longleat Safari Park. The days are fairly long and the weather is pretty settled at this time. I have provisionally booked Wednesday the 19 th April and the cost is 24 per head. This includes the coach, entry into the house and all rides and attractions within the park. Lunch is not included. The coach will start from Fleet at then on to Old Windsor at 09.30, and Bird Hills Golf Club at 09.45, then via M4 to Longleat. The comfort stop will be at Chieveley Services. The return journey will be in reverse, arriving back at Old Windsor by and Fleet at At this stage I just need to know what interest there is from members and friends. Cheques to be paid to me one month before departure. Please indicate on the questionnaire if you intend to join us. Our next 7-day trip I am planning is to the Costa de la Luz region of Southern Spain. The hotel is the Riu Atlantico in Isla Canela, details as per separate sheet. This is a new hotel to the Portland / Thomson Group and consequently is offering a week s holiday at a very attractive rate for a 4-star hotel. This area of Spain is not as busy as the Torremolinos / Malaga part of Spain, but seems to me to be just right for our sort of group. Date of departure is 4 th May returning on 11 th May. The basic cost of the holiday is 345.oo pp plus supplements, but to hold this price at the present rate I need to know as soon as possible, how many of you are interested in coming. Portland Holidays needs a deposit of 140 as soon as possible. Please check price chart for additions such as single room supp, meals on board aircraft, airport and fuel charges, and insurance. Cheques for the Spanish holiday should be made out to Portland Holidays. Please include your 30 insurance, if applicable, with your deposit, totalling 170. Flights are from Gatwick and other local airports with an additional supplement. More Internet info on Hotel at : select hotels, then hotels again and select Isla Canela Atlantico from the drop down list. We have unfortunately had little response for the proposed trip to the KLM Retirees reunion in Orlando in February It was felt by most members that the cost would have been too much for most retirees taking into account the air fares, hotel, food and entry cost to the main attractions: you are talking about per person. Consequently we will leave it to individuals to travel to Florida to attend the reunion if they wish, and not to travel as a group. I would however still like to know who intends to visit Orlando during this time and require the hotel accommodation at US$50 per room per night which has already been booked. SimonAartsen

3 Other Travel News Page 3 For reasons of security. From October 2005, the United States is demanding that more personal information on passengers be collected and passed on to US authorities at check in. This includes information on the travel document, the country where the passenger lives, and the first address s/he will be staying on arrival in the US. Staff travel Les Drake From 6 Oct 05 ISA fares increase as follows:- Distance in Miles Zone ZM fare For each stretch US dollars Still no news re widows/widower travel on AF flights. KLM - Winter : New Destinations, More Seats. A business jet service to Houston, the introduction of the Airbus A , and new destinations in Africa and Asia are the most striking features of the winter schedule. Commencing Sunday, October 30, the new schedule will show an increase in seat capacity of 7%. KLM and Air France continue to align their networks. Air France will suspend services between Paris and Kuwait at the start of the winter schedule. Our French partner will offer its passengers service to and from Kuwait on KLM's flights through Amsterdam. At the same time, KLM will suspend services to Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), offering its passengers service to and from this East-African city on Air France flights through Paris. EUROPE - Alignment of the AF-KL European networks is also progressing. KLM will take over Air France services on the Amsterdam-Bordeaux route. Roundtrips will be operated twice daily with KLM cityhopper Fokker 70s. KLM will suspend operations on the Rotterdam-London City route at the start of the winter schedule. Air France will begin operating thricedaily roundtrips between Eindhoven and Paris Charles de Gaulle with ATR-5 equipment. On December 11, Dutch Railways NS will begin operating high-frequency, direct rail services between Eindhoven and Schiphol Airport. Effective from the same date, KLM cityhopper will suspend its flights on this route. NTH AND SOUTH AMERICA - Effective October 30, > KLM will introduce an exclusive Business Class product between Amsterdam and Houston, operating six weekly roundtrips on this route with a 44-seat Boeing business jet. These new services will > supplement KLM's existing daily roundtrips on this route, which offer the regular two-class product. The new Airbus A will operate services to Washington and Newark. Capacity will be increased on the Amsterdam-Toronto route by operating all flights with Boeing equipment. KLM will maintain the higher flight frequency to San Francisco and Sao Paulo that was introduced this summer. This means daily services will be operated to both cities this winter. AFRICA - KLM will begin operating thrice-weekly Boeing 767 roundtrips between Amsterdam and the new destination Entebbe (Uganda) at the start of the winter schedule. KLM will also deploy larger aircraft between Amsterdam and Nairobi (Kenya), so that more passengers will be able to access Kenya Airways' hub network in East Africa. KLM will maintain its roundtrips connecting Amsterdam with Addis Abeba (Ethiopia) and Khartoum (Sudan). KLM began serving these cities this summer. Frequency to Abuja (Nigeria) will be reduced by one flight a week. MIDDLE EAST - KLM will begin operating Airbus A service between Amsterdam and Bahrain/Abu Dhabi towards the end of the winter schedule. Frequency on the Amsterdam-Dubai route will gradually be raised from seven to twelve weekly roundtrips. The daily roundtrips between Amsterdam and Tel Aviv (Israel), introduced this summer, will be maintained this winter. ASIA - Hyderabad will be added to the KLM route network this winter. KLM will operate thrice-weekly, MD-11 services to this Indian city. KLM will maintain the daily, direct service to Manila (Philippines) launched this summer. Similarly, KLM will maintain the daily service to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Jakarta (Indonesia) launched on July 4. KLM CARGO - This winter, KLM Cargo will increase freighter frequency between Amsterdam and Hong Kong from four to five weekly roundtrips. On September 5, KLM added a fourth weekly freighter frequency on the Amsterdam-Shanghai route.

4 Association Page 4 your messages/ photos for the next issue or website to webmaster@klm-rauk.co.uk Your Committee: Chairman: John Long webmaster@klm-rauk.co.uk Vice Chairman: John Connolly jc@klm-rauk.co.uk Secretary: Terry Brennan terry@klm-rauk.co.uk Congratulations to Stan & Mauricette Smith Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!" Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!" Treasurer: Brian Frackelton brian@klm-rauk.co.uk Travel Desk: Simon Aartsen simon@klm-rauk.co.uk Pension Trustee: Irene McKeeman irene@klm-rauk.co.uk ISA Queries: Les Drake dsirfrancis@aol.com KLM/CSC HR Liaison: John Gidlow JG@klm-rauk.co.uk on their Golden wedding anniversary Caught on camera IT'S FUN TO BE RETIRED! Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. I went to the store the other day. I was only in there for about 5 minutes. When I came out there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. I went up to him and said, "Come on, how about giving a senior a break?" He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a Nazi, he glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires. So I called him a piece of dog s***. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first, then started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote. Personally, I didn't give a damn. My car was parked around the corner. I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important at my age. Advisors: Stan Saunders stan@witches86.fsnet.co.uk Vera Engels veramfrans@amserve.net Jean Bauling jeanpbau@lineone.net Hazel Furley Derek Powell We re on the Web! See us at: Spotted in a job application. "The company made me a scapegoat, just like my three previous employers."

5 CHRISTMAS LUNCH Wednesday 07 December 2005 Bird Hills Golf Complex, Brerkshire. ** CHOICE OF CARROT & CRIANDER SOUP MELON POACHED CHICKEN BREAST ROAST SIRLOIN OF BEEF BAKED CAJUN SALMON ALL SERVED WITH SEASONAL VEGETABLES AND ROAST POTATOES **************** MINCED TART WITH CUSTARD FRESH FRUIT SALAD COFFEE & MINTS COMPLIMENTARY GLASS OF WINE FREE RAFFLE Members and Partner pp Guests: pp Please complete attached form and return ASAP.