Conde Nast Top Ranking for Etihad

Etihad airways has been ranked second in the 'Top Airlines Global' category of Conde Nast's 23rd annual Travel Choice Awards.

The survey involved 25,000 participants worldwide with the results announced in New York last week.

Etihad was recognised for its outstanding achievements in the airline industry, coming second only to Singapore and ahead of its local rivals. Etihad has recently brokered a number of deals to expand its presence in the marketplace and allow passengers to fly to more destinations in the UK and abroad on a single ticket.

“We are delighted to be recognised by global travellers in this way. Receiving this accolade confirms that our direction and strategy is the right one for us and for our customers, and will push us further along our path of providing comfort and innovation to all our passengers,” said Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways’ chief commercial officer.

The awards rank the best cities, islands, cruise lines, hotels, resorts and car hire agencies as well as airlines annually.

Seasonal Jobs Available at M&S

Tis nearly the season to be jolly and anyone looking for a retail job over Christmas might be in luck.

Marks and Spencer are recruiting around 20,000 seasonal employees nationally in its 712 stores, 739 of them in Yorkshire, where it began as a humble market stall in Kirkgate 125 years ago. Marks and Spencer are looking for friendly, motivated and enthusiastic people to join their team. New employees will also undergo a two day training programme to ensure they can give customers the best possible service.

I think I'd be a bit rubbish behind the counter. I cant fold clothes nicely if my life depended on it, so if someone was purchasing a dress for the party season, I'd be struggling a bit. I wonder if there's also specialist training to carefully handle blokes attempting to buy lingerie for their girlfriends. I do have pity for them, I myself get confused sometimes looking around the women's underwear aisles... and I know what I'm looking for!

But I digress. Seasonal work can be a good way of getting your foot into the door - 23% of graduate trainees started out as seasonal recruits. Employees must be prepared to work at least 16hrs a week, and may need to work in the evening, as well as weekends and Bank Holidays over Christmas and New Year.

Water, What a Waste

As climate change continues to produce increasingly erratic weather patterns, a supply of safe, palatable drinking water is becoming harder to come by, especially for the poorest in the world.

We have all seen how the survivors of catastrophes such as the Pakistan Floods and the West African Food Crisis are struggling to survive with little potable water and the ongoing threat of disease.

One of the effects of climate change is increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, with extremes becoming more common. A side effect of this is that water supplies can be polluted by floodwater, dry up in the case of drought or the population is forced to abandon their homes.

Blog Action Day is raising awareness of these issues and you can find out much more about them on their site. They have also provided this informative video, so spread the word!

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Flights to Thailand Promotion from Etihad

The latest promotion from Etihad Airways and Bangkok Airways allows Etihad guests travelling return from Bangkok to Europe via Abu Dhabi to earn a "free" return ticket on Bangkok Airways to any of its Thailand destinations.

Bangkok Airways is a codeshare partner of Etihad and have called their latest campaign "Europe for Fun, Thailand for Free!". Etihad guests travelling to Europe in Coral Economy class will earn enough miles to redeem a return ticket on Bangkok Airways to any of its popular Thai destinations. New members enrolling in the FFP that travel in Pearl Business class will earn enough miles to redeem two free domestic tickets.

To redeem their miles for the Bangkok airways flights, guests simply need to contact the Etihad Guest Service Centre.

All applicable fees, taxes etc on the "free" ticket need to be paid at the time of ticket issuance.