Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://www.atmob.org/events/travel/TTChinaNewsletterATMoB-3.pdf Дата изменения: Sun Nov 23 21:46:48 2008 Дата индексирования: Mon Oct 1 21:19:52 2012 Кодировка: Поисковые слова: virgo cluster

China Solar Eclipse Expedition Newsletter # 3
Hello again to all our tour members on the ATMoB eclipse tour to China next July 2009. This, the third newsletter to our group of eclipse tour participants, comes as we are now less than one year of our expedition to China for the July 22nd eclipse next year. cited in my September 11th email, $330 for the short tour, and $650 for the long tour.

Travel Documents
Virtually everyone on the tour has opted for China Travel Service, our inbound travel operator in San Francisco, to obtain their China visas for them/their family members. I have spoken to CTS management, and they need for you to ensure that you send in your U.S. Passports directly to them during, but not before, May 2009. Please note that you must NOT mail your passports before next May, as doing so will be counterproductive to obtaining your visa for the expedition. This is because single entry Chinese tourist visas are only valid for 90 days after their date of issue. Thus, if you were to obtain your visa in March, it would expire prior to your starting the tour, and you would have to obtain another visa for the period of our tour. The cost of a visa is $130 each. This is the base cost for the visa itself. The final cost of the visa through CTS is $160, owing to their processing fee and return shipment cost that is added to the base fee. The final cost of the visa using CTS may increase slightly before next May, but I will inform all tour members of this final fixed cost, well before you need to send in your passports.

December Progress Payment
As was covered in my last newsletter, there will be another progress payment due before the end of this year. I have moved that payment from its original November time slot, as I wanted to give tour members a bit more time to arrange their finances to effect that payment. Specifically, the due date for the 2rd progress payment is Friday, December 19st. The required payment due on December 19th will be $900 for those on the long tour itinerary, and $375 for those on the short tour. As all of you were notified by email a couple of months ago, the final cost of the ATMoB tour next July to China has now been finalized at $1375 for the short tour itinerary, and $2875 for the extended tour, per person, on a double occupancy basis. There shall be NO further changes or increases in this price before the commencement of our tour, as these are the final fixed prices for the trip. For those of you who have single occupancy of their hotel accommodations, the supplement/added cost will be, as


Airline Flights
By now, I assume that all of you have arranged for your airline flights from the U.S. to China and back. Some very critical information which I need from everyone on the tour is the air carrier, flight number, scheduled arrival time, and the date that you will arrive in Shanghai next July. I mention the inclusion of the arrival date, as I am aware that some of you have opted (or have been compelled by flight availability) to arrive into Shanghai before the "official" start of the tour on Sunday, July 18th. I ask that you please furnish me with that flight information requested above, by December 12th, 2008. For your convenience, Bernie Volz has kindly created a flight information form, which should assist you in organizing the information that we require from you. Additionally, it is very important for those arriving into Shanghai before July the 18th, to inform me what hotel you shall be staying in, as we need to know where you need to be driven, after you clear immigration and customs formalities at Shanghai Airport, and are met by our local tour representatives.

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Unfortunately, TravelGuardTM was purchased by none other than AIG Insurance, several years ago. Unless you have been totally out of touch with current events, you can appreciate why I am currently hesitant to continue to direct tour participants to TravelGuard now. That said, another major travel insurer that currently has no outstanding issues and has been in business for some time is TravelEx --- the same firm that is known as a leader in foreign currency exchange. You can investigate and obtain a travel insurance quotation from TravelEx through their main website portal/URL of: www.travelex-insurance.com .

Cancellation/Penalty Policy
As we are now approximately 8 months away from the start of the tour, and we have provided the inbound tour firm (China Travel Service) our rooming list and bedding requirements for tour members, it is time to remind folks of the cancellation policy terms that were part of the original tour registration. To review, the cancellation terms are as follows: Effective December 1, 2008 until February 28, 2009: 30% of the tour cost · From March 1, 2009 until May 31, 2009: 70% of the tour cost · From June 1 until the start of the tour (July 18, 2009): 90% of the tour cost. · Failure to appear at start of the tour/no show: Full tour cost (100% forfeited) Please contact me, if you have any questions pertaining to the above cancellation fees. 2 ·

Travel Insurance
A number of tour participants have asked me about sources of travel insurance. As a tour organizer that is neither an ARC nor IATA appointed "travel agency", we do not sell or underwrite travel insurance policies ourselves. In the past, I have directed our tour members to check out TravelGuardTM insurance, as a purveyor of what many


I appreciate everyone's attention and cooperation with respect to the above information.

I thank you again, both for your patronage, and for your attention to this newsletter. As usual, I encourage you to contact me, should you have questions regarding any detail or aspect of our upcoming adventure to China. Until next newsletter, be well, stay in touch, and Clear Skies, Joel Harris President Twilight Tours Inc.

Last Thoughts
I would be remiss if I failed to mention in passing, the great fiscal upheaval that our country has been enduring the past several months. While no one can say with certainty how long or how much deeper this crisis will go, many people have been significantly impacted by what has happened over the course of the past weeks. One reason that I intentionally framed the payoff/payments for our tour in the incremental manner that I have, was to seek to lessen the overall impact of the tour cost on our participants as we progressed towards the commencement of the trip. This approach was conceived back at the inception of the tour over two years ago, long before the current economic crisis emerged... Fortunately, virtually everyone on the tour is in the advantageous position that you have, effectively, paid approximately Ѕ of the tour cost --- save for your airline flights (although some of you may already have now paid for that as well). With two approximately equal payments remaining --- next month and this coming March (equal to $900 and $925 each respectively for the long tour and $375 and $400 for the short trip), you currently are well situated. As mentioned previously, it is my intent to pack this trip with as much added value for you, the client, as I possibly can, to ensure that your hard-earned and valuable investment will reap a top-notch, delightfully memorable trip to observe the eclipse of 22 July 2009. 3

Twilight Tours Inc. 31555 Rustic Oak Drive Westlake Village, CA 91361 Phone: (818) 575-9580 Fax: (818) 575-9588 Email: twilighttours@pacbell.net