Lanzarote Magazine Launches Online

by Nick Ball

The popular holiday island of Lanzarote now has its first online lifestyle magazine. Thanks to the launch of Lanzarote Magazine – www.lanzarotemagazine.co.uk

Image © Lanzarote Magazine
Image © Lanzarote Magazine

Lanzarote Magazine features all of the latest news from across the island. Covering lifestyle, sports, food and drink, events, property, travel and much much more besides.

The website’s attractive and easy to use design provides the ideal backdrop for high quality photography and images of the island. Along with daily news snippets and in-depth feature articles.

According to the publishers; “Lanzarote Magazine is designed to provide both tourists and residents alike with all of the latest news from the island in an easy to read format. Despite the current economic climate Lanzarote will still welcome hundreds of thousands of English speaking tourists this year. Whilst the island also has a sizeable expat population.”

“Currently there isn’t really any English language media out there that provides up the minute news information and good quality lifestyle features. We aim to change that and have plans to introduce a print version of Lanzarote Magazine in the future.

“Lanzarote Magazine also has an interactive element. Visitors to the site can get involved by commenting on stories and submitting their own news.”

The popular holiday island of Lanzarote now has its first online lifestyle magazine. Thanks to the launch of Lanzarote Magazine – www.lanzarotemagazine.co.uk

Lanzarote Magazine features all of the latest news from across the island. Covering lifestyle, sports, food and drink, events, property, travel and much much more besides.

The website’s attractive and easy to use design provides the ideal backdrop for

high quality photography and images of the island. Along with daily news snippets and in-depth feature articles.

According to the publishers; “Lanzarote Magazine is designed to provide both tourists and residents alike with all of the latest news from the island in an easy to read format. Despite the current economic climate Lanzarote will still welcome hundreds of thousands of English speaking tourists this year. Whilst the island also has a sizeable expat population.”

Currently there isn’t really any English language media out there that provides up the minute news information and good quality lifestyle features. We aim to change that and have plans to introduce a print version of Lanzarote Magazine in the future.

Lanzarote Magazine also has an interactive element. Visitors to the site can get involved by commenting on stories and submitting their own news.”

Fluege zu buchen kann schon mal kompliziert werden

Wir haben kürzlich Flüge nach Lanzarote gebucht und das war gar nicht so einfach.

Erstmal muss ich  erklären, dass wir Flüge von Frankfurt am Main aus buchen wollten, sodass sich unsere Suche auf deutsche Seiten konzentrierte. Außerdem buchten wir für einen zukünftigen Monat. Es ist erstaunlich was es im Moment für einen Preisunterschied gibt und was für seltsame Alternativen wir angeboten bekamen.

Auch ein häufiges Argument ist, dass die Flüge während der Schulferien sind und deshalb teurer sind als während der Schulzeit. Wir begannen unsere Suche bei expedia.de wo uns eine Auswahl an Flügen zwischen 290EUR und 1478EUR angeboten wurde.

Flüge bei Iberia gingen in eine günstigere Richtung und wir sind schon früher mit Iberia geflogen, nur waren wir mit dem Service an Bord nicht so zufrieden. Normalerweise bedeutet so ein Flug, dass man in Madrid umsteigen muss. Dieses Mal wurden uns Flüge angeboten wo man erst nach Madrid, von dort aus nach Las Palmas und dann erst nach Arrecife fliegt. Einige Tage später bot  dies dieselbe Suche nicht mehr an, stattdessen eine Wartezeit von 14 Stunden (über Nacht) in Madrid.

Das teuerste Angebot kam von KLM (Codesharing mit Air Europa), hier müsste man in Madrid und Amsterdam umsteigen.

So entschieden wir uns nach Alternativen zu suchen. Nachdem wir in verschiedenen Suchmaschinen und Reiseagenturen gesucht haben, nur um herauszufinden, dass direkte Charterflüge keinen großen Preisunterschied ausmachen, entschieden wir uns für ein Angebot von SpanAir und buchten direkt auf deren Webseite. Mein Mann flog letztes Jahr mit SpanAir nach Madrid und trotz, dass die Crew an Bord nicht viel Englisch sprach, war der restliche Service besser. Plus, der Preis war in Ordnung und die Flugzeiten waren ungefähr so wie wir sie uns vorgestellt hatten. Dann war auch der zusätzliche Bonus vom Umstieg in Terminal 2 in Madrid, damit wird der lange Weg und die Bahnfahrt zwischen Terminal 4 und 4S vermieden.

Wir buchten die Flüge und waren schon bereit online mit der Kreditkarte zu bezahlen, wie wir es schon früher gemacht hatten, auf einer Buchungsseite. Aber nein! Auf dem letzten Schritt der Buchung mussten wir ein Formular ausfüllen mit den Angaben der Kreditkarte und dieses dann an eine spanische Nummer faxen. Noch dazu mussten wir das Call Center der SpanAir anrufen um den Kreditkarteninhaber gegenüber SpanAir zu bestätigen oder man muss persönlich zu einer SpanAir Agentur gehen, innerhalb von 24 Stunden. Als wir gebucht hatten war es Samstagabend 23 Uhr.

Wir mochten wirklich nicht sonntagmorgens eine SpanAir Agentur finden müssen -wahrscheinlich am Frankfurter Flughafen- wir beschlossen also im Callcenter anzurufen (ja, Samstag um 23 Uhr in der Nacht). Normalerweise nutzen wir für internationale Anrufe Skype, aber Skype ließ uns zu dieser Nummer nicht durch. So mussten wir das Festnetz nehmen – dies hatten wir für internationale Anrufe schon lange nicht mehr gemacht.

Mein Mann erzählte dem Mitarbeiter in seinem besten Spanisch warum er anrief und sie antwortete ihm in gutem Englisch. Der ganze Anruf dauerte nur ein paar Minuten und am Ende hatte er in seinem E-Mail Posteingang die e-Tickets.

Wir haben uns ein bisschen darüber geärgert, dass wir nicht vorher wussten, dass wir das alles machen müssen. Aber wir müssen zugeben, dass sich der Anruf im Callcenter gelohnt hat. Er findet, sie hat ein besseres Englisch gesprochen, als manche Flugbegleiterin.

Booking flights can be complicated

I have been booking flights to Lanzarote recently, and it was not an easy thing to do.

Firstly, of course, I have to explain that I want flights from Frankfurt am Main in Germany, so my search was concentrated on German sites.  I am also booking several months in advance.  It is amazing what price difference there is at the moment, and what sort of strange options I was being offered.

As is often the case, flights during the school holidays tend to be more expensive than during term time.  I started by looking at Expedia.de, which offered me a selection of flights ranging from 290EUR to 1478EUR per person.

Flights with Iberia tended to be the cheapest, and I have flown with them on previous trips, only to disappointed with the on-board serivce.  Normally flying with them means changing planes in Madrid.  This time I was being offered flights that would take me to Madrid, then on to Las Palmas, and finally a short hop with Binter Canarias to Arrecife.  A few days later, the same search did not show this option, but instead a wait of 14 hours (overnight) in Madrid.

The most expensive option was with KLM (codesharing with Air Europa), changing in Madrid and Amsterdam!

So I decided to search online for alternatives.  After going through various search engines and travel agents, only to discover that even direct flights with charter airlines were not going make much difference to the price, I finally settled for an offer from SpanAir – booked directly via their website.  I flew with them last year to Madrid, and although the crews did not speak much English on board, the rest of the onboard service was better.  Plus, the price was good and the times were approximately what were were looking for.  There was also the additional bonus of changing planes in Terminal 2 in Madrid, thus avoiding the long walk and underground ride between Terminals 4 and 4S.

I booked the flights and was ready to pay for them online with my credit card, as I had done previously and would expect to do on other booking sites.  But no!  At the last stage of the booking, I had to fill out a form with my credit card details and fax it to a Spanish number.  Then I either had to call the SpanAir call centre (in Spain) to confirm them or go in person to a SpanAir agent in Germany within 24 hours.  And this was Saturday night at 11pm.

As I didn’t really want to have to find an agent on Sunday morning – probably at Frankfurt airport – I decided to call the call centre (yes, at 11pm on a Saturday night).  For such international calls I usually use Skype, but Skype would not let me call the number.  So I had to resort to using a normal land line – something I had not done for international calls for a long time.

I told the agent in my best Spanish why I was calling, and she answered in good English!  The whole call lasted only a few minutes, and by the end of it I had my eTickets in my Inbox!

I have to admit to being a little bit annoyed, that I wasn’t told in advance that I was going to have to do this.  But I have to admit that the call centre agent was efficient.  Actually, I think she spoke better English than a  lot of the cabin crews!

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