Tsunami watch lifted after quake in Aceh, Indonesia

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled its tsunami watch for the Indian Ocean on Wednesday hours after a massive 8.6-magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks struck off Aceh, Indonesia.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled its tsunami watch for the Indian Ocean on Wednesday hours after a massive 8.6-magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks struck off Aceh, Indonesia.

Panicky residents poured into the streets of Banda Aceh, which was near the epicentre of a 9.1-magnitude quake in 2004 that unleashed an Indian Ocean tsunami which killed 230,000 people including 170,000 in Aceh province.

Wednesday's quake was felt as far afield as Thailand, where skyscrapers in the capital Bangkok swayed. India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Reunion Island, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma all issued alerts or evacuation orders.

Small tsunamis hit Indonesia and Thailand, with waves of up to 80 centimetres in Aceh, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. US seismologists then cancelled the tsunami warning, saying the quakes had generated only small waves and were nowhere near the scale of the disasters that struck Asia in 2004 and Japan last year.

It has been reported that Thailand's Phuket International Airport has re-opened after a brief closure following two large earthquakes in Indonesia. The airport reopened yesterday night local time after disaster prevention officials lifted a tsunami warning that had been issued for six of the country's Andaman coast provinces following Indonesia's earthquakes.

Indonesia's Simeulue Island airport in Aceh remained closed, however, preventing disaster experts from arriving in the area to assess the damage there.

Westminster continues to closely monitor the recents events in the region resulting from yesterday's earthquake. We are glad to inform that we do not have any affected travelers in Phuket at this moment. However, our main focus is to ensure our clients and their travelers affected in such an event to be quickly informed.

WTL/Apr12-001

Emirates Check-in Counter ' Closed at 60 minutes before flight departure

Please be informed that effective 01 April 2012, Emirates' check-in counter would be closed at 60 minutes before flight departure. 

We would appreciate if you could reiterate or reinforce to all the travelers on the required check-in time at all airports whenever they fly on Emirates.

First / Business Class Passengers

Be at Check-in counter 90 minutes prior to flight depature.

Economy Class Passengers

Be at Check-in counter 3 hours prior to flight departure.

Note:  All passengers are required to be at the Gate at least 35 minutes before the schedule departure time.

Source: Emirates Airlines

WTL/Mar12 -002

Congestion at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport is now facing congestion at all immigration locations (Departure/Arrival/First Port and Visa on arrival). This has caused many flights being delayed since early of the year 2012 and there will be more congestion in the coming months of March 2012.  This is because of security checkpoints construction and lack of local immigration manpower especially in March 2012.

In order to secure the flights on-time departure at Bangkok airport and maintain passengers travel convenience and satisfaction, the respective airline(s) have requested your kind co-operation and support as follows:

A. Please arrive Bangkok airport at least 3 hours prior to departure and   immediately proceed to immigration with complete immigration card after check-in.

B. For visa on arrival, please be reminded that visa on arrival process will now take averagely 2 hours processing time. Therefore we strongly recommend all passengers travelling to Bangkok to get their entry visa for Thailand before travel. 

C. For passengers traveling to Bangkok, kindly complete the arrival immigration card prior to the arrival at the immigration area.

D. For First Port immigration, please be advised that check-through passengers with destination to 6 CIQ domestic stations to immediately proceed to First Port Immigration area located at Level 2 Intersection between Concourse C and D with complete arrival immigration card, passport and their second boarding pass.

Remarks: Kindly be reminded that for First Port registration check-through means both passengers and bags. Re-tagging facility from Bangkok to destination CIQ domestic station is not available due to local customs regulations.

Source: Thai Airways International Public Co Ltd

WTL/Mar12-001

SAS Credits is a loyalty corporate program for small and medium sized companies to earn and collect points every time employees travel.

We call these SAS Credits. Your company can use earned SAS Credits to purchase new tickets that can be booked in any booking and service class.

Our services classes are Business, Economy Extra – our premium economy – or Economy.

Kindly indicate Westminster Travel (S) Pte Ltd as your OFFICIAL SERVICING travel agency. 

SAS Credits

a corporate loyalty program that earns 8% discount

SAS Credits in a nutshell

– Earn valuable points, so-called SAS Credits, and redeem them for free flights

– Earn 8% credits on the net ticket price in Economy, Economy Extra and Business class

– 1 SAS Credits = 1 Singapore dollar

– All SAS Group flights – SAS (SK), Widerøe (WF) and Blue1 (KF)

– All booking classes – Business, Economy Extra and Economy

– All booking channels – online or via your travel agency

– No limit on how many SAS Credits can be earned

– All SAS Credits stored in one single company account

– SAS Credits for the company and EuroBonus points for the traveler at the same time

– Easy online registration at www.flysas.com.sg

– Easy online account administration at the SAS Corporate Site  (https://cap.scandinavian.net/Home/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fcap.aspx)

– No sales target and no joining fee

Step 1 – Register online

Join SAS Credits - SAS

(http://www.flysas.com/en/sg/Corporate/SAS-Credits2/Join-SAS-Credits-/?vst=true)

Step 2 – Confirmation email

Once you are registered, we will send you a confirmation email including the agreement code (CMP-code) for your flight tracking.

The log-in details for your company account will be send in two separate emails.

Step 3 – Earning SAS Credits

You can start earning SAS Credits immediately. There are no restrictions on how you use your SAS Credits.

Simply book your flights as usual through your travel agent or online.

Step 4 – Redeem SAS Credits

You can redeem for new tickets with SAS Group flights, fully using SAS Credits.

Partial redemption using SAS Credits with credit card payment is possible.

More information can be found at our SAS Credits page.

(http://www.flysas.com/en/sg/Corporate/SAS-Credits2)

Source: SAS

WTL/APR12 -003