British Airways Launches The Great Big Sale

British Airways launches its great big sale with thousands of flights in all cabins and hundreds of holidays on offer.

The twenty day sale offers discounted flights to over 100 destinations worldwide as well as 100’s of holidays for various travel departures from August 26, 2010 right through to June 30, 2011.

To launch the sale, model Nell McAndrew posed on a big deck chair (the size of a double-decker bus) outside Tower Hill in London wearing her favourite beach wear – a Melissa Odabash bikini.

Nell said: “I’m excited to be launching BA’s great big sale. Bag a bargain and jet off in style and comfort to one of many destinations.”

For a late summer getaway, hot spots include flights to Dubai, Antigua and Grenada. Those looking for ski breaks head to North America and experience the Rockies with deals on flights to Denver and Vancouver. For short city breaks, British Airways have a wide selection of destinations such as Zurich or Geneva.

Travellers wishing to jet-off in style and experience British Airway’s award-winning Club World beds can check out flights to Cairo, Delhi, New York,
Bermuda and Calgary. BA also offers flights to Barbados and Houston that allow customers to take advantage of the luxurious first class cabin.

Destinations closer to the UK include Jersey, Dubrovnik and Salzburg as well as Gothenburg in Sweden, which a new BA route takes-off to at the end of November.

As well as special offers on flights, British Airways is offering value for money holiday packages in a variety of destinations such as a two night stay at the 3-star Merton Hotel in Jersey that includes return BA flights from Gatwick and accommodation only. Package deals at Sharm El Sheikh’s 3-star Oriental Rivoli also include return BA flights from Gatwick and accommodation only.

A new BA non-stop twice weekly service to Cancun commences November 3, 2010 and customers can stay for seven nights at the 5-star Dreams Puerto Aventuras Resort and Spa in Riviera Maya including return BA flights from Gatwick and accommodation on an all-inclusive basis. Those looking for complete escapism can check out holidays in the Maldives and relax for seven nights at the 4-star Adaaran Select Hudhuranfushi including return BA flights from Gatwick, in-resort transfers and accommodation on an all-inclusive basis.

British Airways offer fly-drive holidays in exciting destinations such as Orlando including return BA flights from Gatwick and inclusive Avis car rental.

Richard Tams, British Airways head of UK & Ireland Sales, said: “This sale is a great opportunity for anyone looking for last minute getaways, winter sun, ski or city breaks to take advantage of savings in all our cabins. We also have a great range of holiday packages available on ba.com where you can save even more time and effort by using our new ‘lowest price holiday finder’ with the added reassurance of ATOL protection.”

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Notes to editors:
The sale runs from August, 26 2010 until midnight on September, 14 2010 All packaged holiday offers are based on two sharing and are ATOL protected

About British Airways:
British Airways plc offers a wide range of worldwide destinations – including holidays, hotels, flights, car hire and experiences. Customers can save time and money with ba.com when booking ATOL protected holiday packages, ATOL number is 5985. Passengers are offered added peace of mind to their holiday plans and the security of travelling with British Airways. British Airways plc constantly seeks to exceed customers’ expectations, both in terms of the value for money and quality of the service provided.

For further British Airways / British Airways Holidays Ltd media information please contact:
Katja Cooper
Astral Towers
Betts Way
London Road
Crawley
RH10 9XA
01293 722513
www.ba.com

Companies around the world losing thousands of pounds in website downtime

Companies located around the World are being urged to become more aware of the financial costs of web downtime.

Andrew Hilton, Technical Director at QuadroNation, said companies were in danger of losing thousands of pounds in revenue after recent studies showed almost one in four companies have suffered an outage that lasted more than one business day.

Amazon and Twitter are just two of the major brands that have been affected, having both experienced one full hour of outage earlier this week.

In order to combat the problem and after requests from their customer base, Andrew and the team have developed a web monitoring service entitled ‘UporNot’, which alerts businesses the minute they have an issue with their website, email server or any web accessible service for that matter.

Andrew said: “When a company suffers from IT downtime it means that it is having a direct affect on that business. Some firms can lose up to £10,000 an hour or even a staggering £1m a day, which means that the problem needs to be taken more seriously.”

“What we have now created is a tool to stop that from happening. The moment there is something wrong with a website, we are alerted and the problem can be rectified as soon as possible.”

The need for strategic IT support is becoming increasingly important as firms strive to provide high levels of service to retain long-standing customers.

Andrew added: “IT support companies are still as invaluable as ever to any business, however, if a site goes down, it has to be treated in a different way than when there is something wrong with an email system, for example and being aware of the issue is really the first step.”

UporNot, which has now gone live, has already attracted global interest as it provides its services to companies around the world.

www.upornot.com