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Posted by: europeantickets     

 
FIFA has warned that thousands of fake or bogus tickets for the football World Cup this summer in South Africa are being sold on websites such as eBay and Gumtree for many times their face value.

One of the first sellers behind the first World Cup ticket listing on eBay, the auction website, admitted to this. “kobi5842” wanted a starting bid of $3,400 (£2,223) or a “buy it now” price of $5,400 (£3,531) for two tickets to the World Cup final with a total face value of $1,200. He wrote: “I will try my best to personalise the tickets to the buyer of this auction, but I won’t refund the sales amount in case Fifa does not agree.”

A listing on auction site eBay was offering a pair of seats for each of Italy's three opening games with a 'buy it now' price of $5,500 (£3,606). Nobody had opened the bidding at the desired price of $5,000 (£3,279). A seller on Gumtree said he had 24 first round game tickets to sell at £90 each.

It added that sellers were seeking to profit from fans desperate to buy tickets of the now sold-out England group games, semi-finals and finals.

Fifa has said that it would not issue paper tickets until a few weeks before the competition starts — supplying them to the original applicant at collection points in South Africa.

“Genuine tickets are sold online exclusively via the official website Fifa.com. A special team from Fifa's legal affairs division is working with international authorities to monitor the internet for such illegal offers and to take action to combat them,” The Times quoted a FIFA statement, as saying.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police central e-crime unit said: “Tickets will only be issued in South Africa for the World Cup. So anyone claiming to be able to supply tickets will be either supplying counterfeit tickets or nothing will be received.

“Given that tickets for the World Cup can only be collected in South Africa, it appears that any site offering tickets will have criminal intent,” it added.

FIFA's rules state that tickets may only be used by the ticketholder named at the time of purchase, whose name will be printed on the ticket.

Nevertheless, companies in Britain and overseas are openly reselling tickets for sold-out matches at a hefty mark-up.

England fans wanting to buy valid tickets can go to Fifa.com on April 15 when returns may be available.

Tags: Tickets, Fake, World, Cup, South, Africa
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Posted by: Editor     

Strong demand for summer breaks has prompted TUI Travel, Europe's largest tour operator, to increase the number of holidays it has to sell for the first time in at least three years.   TUI – which owns the Thomson and First Choice brands – said that it believed the worst of the downturn was now behind it, as it added 3 per cent capacity to the summer market for UK customers and said it was monitoring demand carefully and could increase capacity again.   It has also added an extra ship to meet demand for cruise trips, and has increased its presence at regional airports in the UK.   The holiday company said that it was seeing sustained improvements in booking volumes over the last three to four months and was very confident that it would have a strong summer.   Holidaymakers may be booking later but they are still taking summer breaks and they are spending more on their holidays than ever before. The average price of a family summer holiday has increased by 9 per cent, while the average price for a winter holiday has increased by 10 per cent.   “People are prepared to pay more for some of our specialist products. All-inclusive holidays are up 27 per cent and sales of differentiated properties, a type of holiday village, are up 17 per cent,” a spokeswoman said.   TUI has also seen “exceptionally strong” demand from the Nordic region, where it has increased capacity by 11 per cent by putting on extra flights with other airlines.   The tour operator has been slashing capacity for at least the last three years, in the face of weaker demand for package holidays. Following the merger between TUI and First Choice in September 2007, the capacity cuts were accelerated as uneconomic capacity was cut across Europe   Peter Long, chief executive of TUI, said: “Our flexible business model allowed us to manage the impact of the first full winter season since the height of the economic downturn by ensuring demand was in line with profitable supply.”   “As anticipated, trading has been difficult, especially against a tough comparative period, but sustained improvements in demand over a number of months leave us more confident that the worst is behind us,” he said.   The company reported an increased operating loss of £107 million in its first quarter to December 31, after a £35 million loss the previous year.   Tour operators traditionally make a loss in the first half of the year and do not become profitable until the fourth quarter, which includes the key summer period.   TUI Travel said it had faced a tough comparative period, particularly for winter bookings, as the first quarter in 2009 had come before the worst impact of the recession.   The group said it had seen a significant improvement in profitability in the second quarter with improving trading trends in each of its major markets, and it had fewer holidays left to sell than at this stage last year.   Bookings for summer 2010 had risen by 6 per cent in the UK and 40 per cent in the Nordic countries.   Analysts expect TUI to make a full-year pre-tax profit of £352 million and the company said that it was confident that it could meet the board's expectations for 2010.

Tags: TUI, Europe, Tour, Holidays, Vacations, Organisers
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Posted by: Editor     

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The best way to buy European train tickets is direct from the various European train operators, online. It's the cheapest way, as it means no booking fees or agency mark-ups. It puts you in control, so you can easily browse availability & prices for different dates & departure times at your leisure. Unfortunately, there isn't just one website for all European trains, so you will need to use different websites depending on what journey you're trying to book. But don't worry, Seat61 will explain which website to use for which journey. Just click one of these links: 
 
How to buy European train tickets online if you're a UK, Irish or other European resident 
 
How to buy European train tickets online if you're a resident of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or worldwide 
 
 
There are a few situations where it can be better to buy tickets by phone: 
 
First, if there's a persistent technical problem with the online systems, it can save further frustration to just pick up the phone (people seem to forget you can still do this!);
 
Second, if you have any very specific requirements, such as wanting a specific seat or a seat in a specific carriage;
 
Third, there are many journeys that simply can't be booked online at all, for example the Lisbon-Hendaye 'Sud Express' and many eastern European journeys such as Cologne-Moscow, Warsaw-Kiev or Bucharest/Belgrade-Istanbul to name just a few; These can all be booked by phone, although there's a few trains which can't be booked at all outside the country in question, for example trains within Greece.
 
Finally, if you're booking a more complex journey online this sometimes means making two or three bookings on two or three websites, and making sure that each of these connects. For example, London to Malaga might mean booking London-Paris & Paris-Madrid at www.raileurope.co.uk, then Madrid-Malaga with Spanish Railways at www.renfe.es. Seat61's step-by-step instructions make this easy, but if you really find this too daunting you may prefer to book by phone and let someone do it all for you. 
 
 
Buying tickets by phone...
 
You can usually buy exactly the same train tickets by phone as online, by calling a specialist UK European rail booking agency. However, a booking fee (which varies between £8 and £35 depending on the agency) normally applies to phone bookings. Some agencies are better than others for particular journeys because of the reservation systems they use, so for journeys starting in the UK, simply select your destination country from the menu on the left and the relevant country page of this website will recommend the best agency or agencies to call for that particular journey. For general advice on which agencies to call to book European train tickets, use the links below: 
 
How to buy European train tickets by phone or in person in the UK 
 
How to buy European train tickets by phone or in person in the Republic of Ireland 
 
How to buy European train tickets by phone in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand & worldwide

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Tags: Advice, Europe, Rail, Tickets, Online, Phone
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Reason  

Posted by: Editor     

 

Summer Angel, 24-25 July in Fruerlundparken, Øster Hurup, Denmark

Langelandsfestival 2009,  25 july-1 August, Langeland, Denmark

Africa Now, 14-16 August, Aarhus, Denmark

Pori Jazz, 11-19 July, Pori, Finland

Sonisphere, 25 july, Pori, Finland

TUSKA Open Air Metal Festival, 26-28 June, Helsinki, Finland

Jazz in Marciac, 31 July - 15 August Marciac, France

Sziget Festival, 11 - 17 August, Budapest, Hungary

Rock en Seine, 28 - 30 August, Paris, France

Berlin Festival 2009, 7 - 8 August, Berlin, Germany

Dockville 2009, 14 - 16 August, Hamburg, Germany

Wacken Rocks, 27 - 30 August, Aurich & Rieden-Kreuth, Germany

Storâfestivalen 2009, 30 July - 1 August, Trondheim, Norway

Peer Gynt Festival 2009, July - August, Vinstra, Norway

Døgnvill Festival 2009, 28 - 29 August, Tromsø, Norway

Marés Vivas, 16 - 18 July, Gaia Cabedelo, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal

Optimus Alive! 09, 9 - 11 July, Passeio Maritimo de Algés, Lisbon, Portugal

Super Bock Super Rock, 11 and 18 July,  Estádio Bessa XXI, Porto and Estádio Restelo, Lisbon, Portugal

16th International Istanbul Jazz Festival, 2 - 15 July, Hagia Eirene Museum, Cemil Topuzlu Open Air Theatre, Istanbul

Rock'n Coke, 18 - 19 July, Istanbul Park, Turkey

Unirock Festival, 17 - 19 July, Istanbul, Turkey

Global Gathering, 24 - 25 July, Long Marston Airfield, Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK

Sonisphere, 31 July – 2 August, Knebworth Park, Stevenage, UK

Tartan Heart, 7 - 8 August, Inverness, UK

 

Tags: European, Festivals, 2009, Turkey, France, Portug...
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Reason  

Posted by: Editor     

Tags: Ticketmaster, Search
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