Iceland Express (Source: IcelandExpress.com)

Iceland Express just announced sale fares to seven European countries in June for $399 roundtrip, including taxes.

Fly from Newark to Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Poland, England, Norway and Luxembourg. All flights stop over in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Click here for reservations

Route:
From Europe to United States, or vice versa.
- Destinations in Europe: Aalborg, Berlin, Billund, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Krakow, London Gatwick, Luxembourg, Oslo, Warsaw.
- Destinations in United States: The Big Apple itself — New York Newark airport.

Booking period: From 25 May to 30 June 2010.

Travel period: From 1 June to 30 September 2010.

The small print: Limited availability and selected dates. Taxes and fees, including the 11 Sep security fee, are included. Please eat your vegetables.

Most people heading for European destinations had relatively minor problems despite a few cancellations. But severe disruption continued to hit transatlantic flights as aircraft were forced into long detours around the ash cloud, adding hours to flight times.

All European airports were open this morning after ash concentrations over the continent dispersed, but ash may head back towards Portugal and Spain this afternoon, causing more problems.

Airlines were reducing flights to some destinations but providing bigger aircraft to carry more passengers as they tried to keep to their timetables after another weekend of travel disruption.

The Eurocontrol air traffic body said it expected 28,500 flights in European airspace today, about 500 below average. Traffic levels yesterday were 1,500 flights down as the plume closed airports from Scotland to northern Italy.

Flights to and from the US, Canada and the Caribbean were often several hours late, while Ryanair cancelled 18 flights today, including some between the UK and Faro, in Portugal.

EasyJet, which had to cancel some flights yesterday, said it was operating a near-normal service today with “only a very small number of cancellations”. British Airways said it was trying to keep passengers informed “but it is a challenge when the cloud keeps moving around”.

The Civil Aviation Authority, which agrees no-fly zones based on Met Office data, said current forecasts indicated skies over Britain should remain clear for the next 18-24 hours.

Reported from: guardian.co.uk

If you are reading this and have an internet connection, then you can read CNN’s post on the updates on flight departures, arrivals and opening of airspaces country-wise.

Read at: Developments in volcanic ash affecting air travel

Stranded? Broke? Send us your stories by comments.

Read more at: Most Travel Insurance Companies Covering Travelers Affected by Iceland Volcano Eruption Says US Travel Insurance Association

Update:
We just read this post on a UK-based website that Co-operative Bank will honor travel insurance claims for volcano ash. Here’s what the post says:

The Co-operative Insurance said its travel insurance customers will be covered on an ex gratia basis, subject to standard policy limits. “Although the volcanic eruption would not be ordinarily covered under The Co-operative Insurance’s travel policy, as a customer centric organisation we have taken the decision to honour any customer claims on an ex gratia basis for the delay or cancellation of flights and/or accommodation,” said a statement issued by the insurer. “We would also advise customers to contact their flight provider or travel agent directly.”

Customers with a Co-operative Bank or smile packaged current account have been told they will also be covered for their travel insurance on a similar ex gratia basis.

Read more at: Travel insurers to honour volcano ash claims

Also read: Direct Travel Insurance to Pay Claims for Travellers Impacted By Volcanic Ash Cloud

Original Post:

Source: dailymail.co.uk

We all know how much chaos the Iceland volcano has created in the last few days. Sources say that an estimated 7 million passengers are stranded world-wide because the airlines have grounded the planes. To add to the woes of these cash-stricken passengers, travel insurance companies are refusing to cover claims brought on by the disaster, says the Wall Street experts.

Here’s what the Wall Street Journal says:

As of April 13, travel insurance policies generally stopped covering the disruption that resulted from the ash cloud from Iceland.

It’s called the theory of the burning house. If your house is ablaze, you can’t go out and quickly buy homeowners coverage. In travel, as soon as a storm or event is known, you can buy all the insurance you want but it won’t cover those “known’’ events. Once a hurricane is named, most policies won’t cover it if the insurance was sold after the moment the storm was identified.

“In general, travel insurance policies don’t cover events related to natural disasters that are in progress or that have just happened. Even an approaching hurricane wouldn’t be covered if officials have already given it a name,” said Chris Harvey, chief executive of Squaremouth.com, a travel insurance comparison site.

Even if purchased before April 13, travel insurance can be of limited utility to travelers. If airlines refund tickets for canceled trips, for example, there’s no claim with insurers. If you haven’t left home, you won’t get money for hotels and accommodations under most policies. And many policies have limits on daily expenses if you are stranded away from home.

Are you stuck and reading this? Did you purchase travel insurance before this calamity? Send us your thoughts by comments.

Read original post: Travel Insurance Warning: No Ash Coverage Anymore
Also read: Insurers See Millions in Claims by Travelers

The 13 guides will be free until Thursday, 22 April from the iTunes app store. You can access them via the links below.

The cities included are:
Amsterdam
Barcelona
Berlin
Budapest
Copenhagen
Istanbul
London
Moscow
Munich
Paris
Rome
Stockholm
Vienna

Read original article: Free iPhone guides for stranded travellers

A spokesman for Arlanda airport in Stockholm said all transatlantic flights there were taking a longer route south to avoid the ash.
Cohenhagen airport is reporting severe disruptions. The Danish part of North Sea air space is closed, Danish air traffic controller Navair said, with further sectors of air space expected to be closed throughout the day as the ash cloud moves across the country. Ryanair said it would try to operate some flights out of southern Ireland today. The national carrier, Aer Lingus, canceled at least 40 flights in or out of Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Belfast. A spokesman for Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport said about 40 inbound and outbound flights had been canceled, mainly from Britain, Scandinavia and Russia.

The United Kingdom’s airspace was closed about noon Thursday (7 a.m. ET) and will be closed until at least 7 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) Friday, air traffic authorities said.

Some of the links or news articles that may be important:
- Google News on Iceland Volcano
- CNN: U.S. airlines cancel Europe flights
- Daily Mail UK: Icelandic volcano ash cloud cuts UK off and leaves thousands of passengers stranded
- Times Online: Volcanic ash cloud grounds flights over Britain
- CNN: Explainer: Why ash cloud endangers aircraft
- National Post: Airplane versus the volcano: why ash and planes don’t mix
- The Star: Volcano eruptions in Iceland could last for years
- New York Times: Volcanic Ash Shuts Down Air Traffic in North Europe

From Vanity Fair:

Just after October 6, 2008, when Iceland effectively went bust, I spoke to a man at the International Monetary Fund who had been flown in to Reykjavík to determine if money might responsibly be lent to such a spectacularly bankrupt nation. He’d never been to Iceland, knew nothing about the place, and said he needed a map to find it. He has spent his life dealing with famously distressed countries, usually in Africa, perpetually in one kind of financial trouble or another. Iceland was entirely new to his experience: a nation of extremely well-to-do (No. 1 in the United Nations’ 2008 Human Development Index), well-educated, historically rational human beings who had organized themselves to commit one of the single greatest acts of madness in financial history. “You have to understand,” he told me, “Iceland is no longer a country. It is a hedge fund.”

Wealth tripled, the stock market multiplied nine times, and a country the size of Kentucky with as many residents as Peoria, IL found itself at the forefront of investment banking. Trouble is, they didn’t really have any idea what they were doing.

More from Vanity Fair:

For the past few years, some large number of Icelanders engaged in the same disastrous speculation. With local interest rates at 15.5 percent and the krona rising, they decided the smart thing to do, when they wanted to buy something they couldn’t afford, was to borrow not kronur but yen and Swiss francs. They paid 3 percent interest on the yen and in the bargain made a bundle on the currency trade, as the krona kept rising.

Read more:
Wall street on Tundra [Vanity Fair]
Iceland warms up to frugality [Market place]

Currency Conversion:

For exact information on currencies visit Landsbankinn website

Here’s the tour itinerary:

Also check out NomadicMatt’s post “Seven things to do in Iceland”

Seven Days Around Iceland’s Ring Road  A complete guide to all the places – fjords, museums, hostels, hotels, sights, etc. – around the Route 1 (Ring Road) in Iceland. Kindle price: $15.99

Víðimýrikirkja

Þingeyrar Church

Svalbarðseyri Lighthouse

Skogafoss

Seyðisfjörður

Seljalandsfoss

Reynisfjara

Krafla

Kerið

Godafoss

Arnarstapi

Akureyri Church

European Countries:

^* Countries under the Schengen Agreement

Armenia
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