road | Digital Crosstalk

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Brian and team, who work for a digital marketing agency run this Digital Crosstalk blog.
Occasionally we might blog about companies and people we work with but for the most part we'll simply be blogging about stories and events which we find interesting.

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9th
FEB

Overturned lorry causes beer spillage

Posted by Brian | Filed under road

: Image via Wikipedia

Drink-driving occurred on the M20 motorway in Kent on Tuesday morning, but not in the manner one might expect after a lorry laden with beer overturned and shed its load causing the closure of the London-bound lanes.

Crates of Carlsberg and Budweiser were the main casualties as no injuries were reported.

The incident occurred around 8am between junctions 12 and 13 near Folkestone, and caused delays of up to an hour as authorities tried to gather up the beer – good luck with that!

Tags: beer, kent, m20, motorway, spillage

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20th
OCT

Security worker saves couple’s holiday and averts oven catastrophe

Posted by Brian | Filed under air, road

: Image via Wikipedia

How’s this for customer service? When a couple were faced with the choice of jetting off on a week’s holiday or having their home destroyed by fire after they remembered they’d left the oven on, a kindly security worker at Manchester Airport stepped in to save the day.

Liz Deverell-Smith and Rob Hayward had already been through security and were awaiting their flight to be called when they realised that they had forgotten to turn off their oven after making breakfast on the morning they were due to fly out. But upon hearing their plight, airport security team leader Paula Johnson offered to take the couple’s house keys and deliver them to Liz’s parents house in Sale so they could turn the oven off.

The relieved couple later tweeted a thank-you note on the airport’s Twitter page – before they boarded the plane. The tweet was seen by airport bosses, which led to Paula being awarded a customer service gong for her actions which she claimed were no big deal.

Tags: customer service, holidays, Manchester Airport, travel

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6th
OCT

Tripadvisor.co.uk launch all-inclusive flight search tool

Posted by Brian | Filed under air, road

: Image by stevegarfield via Flickr

Tripadvisor.co.uk has launched a new flight search engine which allows its users to add extras to their search criteria for cheaper flights, such as seat selection, baggage allowance and even snacks!

The hotel review website’s new tool went live on its website on Monday evening to enable searchers to compare like for like and also to see the true cost of added extras levied by budget airlines. Many flight search engines do not take added extras into account when searching for cheap flights, instead showing only the flight price making it difficult for travellers to properly gauge the cheapest fares.

The tool, called The Tripadvisor Fees Estimator is available for short-haul flight searches from the UK and allows users to specify the added extras required so they are taken into account when the overall price is calculated.

The Times Online ran some comparisons between Tripadvisor’s tool and prices quoted on operators’ own websites. In some instances there were discrepancies between the two but at least this is a step towards making additional fees a little more transparent to travellers looking for cheaper flights.

And, with direct relationships with several airlines and other travel search engines such as ebookers, Opodo and Expedia there is also the option to add in hotels close to a searcher’s chosen arrival airport into the Tripadvisor tool, making the process of searching for flights and hotels in one place all the more seamless, while providing a much clearer picture of the true costs involved.

Tags: search engines, travel, tripadvisor

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5th
OCT

Air India provide novel take on on-flight entertainment

Posted by Brian | Filed under air, road

: Image via Wikipedia

The Air India airline introduced a novel breed of in-flight entertainment on their flight number IC-884 between the United Arab Emirates and Delhi on Sunday – an all-in brawl between the pilots and cabin crews!

A report in the Independent online claims that the punch up which happened at 30,000ft started after a stewardess refused to provide the pilots with ‘personal favours.’ The stewardess was, according to the report abused and pushed into the cockpit and it was when a male steward became involved that fisticuffs ensued – as the passengers looked on.

The plane was flying over Pakistan when the incident occurred after having left Sharjah but tales of arguments at the pre-flight briefing have also been alleged. The flight eventually landed safely, but Air India bosses have since grounded two pilots and two members of the cabin crew over the incident.

Delhi police have been quoted as declaring the stewardess at the centre of the incident had sustained bruises and injuries to her hands and had lodged a complaint after being ‘abused, manhandled in an undignified way.’

The pilots involved, however, counter claim that a male steward started the whole escapade, with his conduct putting the lives of 106 passengers and seven crew members on board the flight at risk.

“As there have been claims and counter-claims between the parties involved, the management has ordered an inquiry, which is still in progress. Further action will be decided based on the inquiry report.” said a spokesman for Air India.