OK, let's break down the realistic cost of one of your tours:
Apartment: Obviously a tour company would take out a long-term lease, or indeed buy, an apartment so there would be none of this $50 or $100 a night nonsense, the realistic costs would be nearer to $10 a night thus 10 nights = $100 for accommodation.
Transport: Well with flights direct from/to Moscow and Nab. Chelny (Begishevo) let's exaggerate costs and say $20 for airport transfers, $10 per transfer.
Day 1 intro totally unneccesary and pure scamming.
Interpreters: Presume by translation you mean an interpreter. Let's say $10 per hour for 12 hours per day, 120 hours in total, that's $1,200 BUT ONLY IF THE LADY DOESN'T SPEAK THE MAN'S LANGUAGE, thus if they both can speak and communicate in the same language then the man is being charged for something he will have no need for. To charge for 24 hours per day is another total scam.
And all your other services are extra's thus charged in addition to the $4,200.
So I've just accounted for $1,320 of your quoted $4,200, would you care to explain how you can justify a mark up of some $2,880, a mark up of some 220%?
My "x fionca" (what the hell is that anyway) is still longinf for me. According to her, I'm a tough guy to get over.
Are you a tough guy to get over danny? Oh wait - YOUR ex ran as fast as she could out of the coutry taking a lot of your money with her. Oh yeah. I guess you aren't so tough to get over. (And once the house you are buying this one is actually BUILT and PAID for - I bet she won't have a tough time etting over you either.)
Regarding the fridge magnet - if some guy could turn her head by giving her such a tiny gift - he would have turned her head anyway. You still don't get it.
When she boots you out danny - after you paid for the house - her NEXT guy will simply buy her a doormat. She will then think of HIM each time she enters the house, but ironically think of YOU each time she wipes her feet on the doormat the HE gave HER!
danny,
Very many people will need to fly internally to get to Kazan airport also, the international destinations served from Kazan are very limited.
But it's all about giving a customer the choice, air fares internationally into Moscow will be very competive because so many airlines fly in/out of Moscow, you're not paying for the air fares, he is, so if he chooses to fly into NBC, through price or convenience, then he shouldn't be charged for transfers from/to Kazan.
And I fly on FSU built aircraft quite regularly, yes I have a choice to fly internationally into Dnepropetrovsk but with little or no competition on that route Austrian Airlines and/or UIA can, and do, charge very high fares, similar high fares as would be charged to fly internationally in to Kazan.
And, just for the record, when I was in Oz we got stranded overnight on Kangaroo Island with an aircraft flat battery and, the next morning, we jump started the aircraft from the airport fuel truck to fly back to Parafield, over the great white sharks, and in a single engined aircraft so starting an aircraft in such a manner is not of a dangerous nature.
And just to prove the point danny, from my local international airport the prices and schedules are below, not only is travelling internationally into Kazan, for me and others, extremely inconvenient but it is over four and a half times the price of flying into Moscow and that wasn't the cheapest fare to Moscow, it was the cheapest fare to Domodedovo to connect with flights to/from Nab. Chelny:
Total price: £ 389.30 GBP
Departing 13:30 Birmingham International Airport, United Kingdom
Arriving 22:35 Moscow Domodedovo Apt, Russia
Departing 17:20 Moscow Domodedovo Apt, Russia
Arriving 22:15 Birmingham International Airport, United Kingdom
OR TO KAZAN:
Total price: £ 1,821.40 GBP
Departing 07:15 Birmingham International Airport, United Kingdom
Arriving 08:45 + 1 day(s) Kazan, Russia
Departing 06:45 Kazan, Russia
Arriving 17:35 Birmingham International Airport, United Kingdom
danny,
I don't call saving $2,000 (ish) on a solitary return trip to be being tight ot saving a few bucks. More a case of 'don't be totally stupid', I could probably flying around the world for less than it would cost me to fly from my local airport, internationally, to Kazan.
If you're scared of flying then that is for you to deal with but you're passing on your fears of flying to your potential punters and that is totally unprofessional business practice.
And those aircraft you refer to are not 1950's, more like 60's, 70's, 80's and there's plenty of those era's of aircraft still flying throughout the world, tell me, how many passengers flying with Tatarstan Airlines to/from Nab. Chelny have lost their lives over, let's say, the past 5 years?
Oh dear, danny is scared of flying, he believes that all western aircraft are well maintained, I could tell a few stories or two to the contrary :)
I had a constantly drunk uncle once. He would come to all family get-togethers, get drunk and say the stupidest and most offensive things. Everybody hated him - but what could you do? He always showed up. He always got drunk. And he always annoyed evryone else by being a beligerant idiot.
When I was young I used to try to explain things to him - I figured he was just misunderstood. As I got older I realized that he was just a really mean and lousy person - so, like everyone else, I tried my best to ignore him.
Well its time to treat danny-boy like my annoying, idiotic, drunk uncle. Let him say his retarted things, and just thank god that he hates America and lives far far far far away.
I am going to try my best to ignore danny from now on. And when I do refer to him I will call him Uncle Danny in memory to my late drunk uncle.
And danny,
The way that a 'tour agency' should be organised is they have a website whereas, on that website, they have one or more apartments with prices per night, per week etc. for that apartment(s). They also have a transportation page itemising airport transfers, and different costs, from/to Kazan, Begishevo etc. Then the website has an interpreter page with languages spoken and prices per hour/day, then a 'tours' page of fishing, skiing or whatever with some scenic pictures and prices.
You don't just pluck a figure of $4,200 out of thin air, you allow the customer to tailor make there own tour, you don't 'mandatory' dictate that they must pay for unneccessary airport transfers, unneccessary intoduction and model making class, unneccessary interpretaion if the lady may be English, German or whatever speaking, what you propose to 'mandatory' offer is just a joke, no it's not a joke, it's a scam.
The point is danny that you won't go, on what you consider to be, an unsafe aircraft or fairground ride but you'll happily go through an airport, an entire airport made of sub-standard materials, that is proven to be dangerous.
danny,
Aircraft areas, runways etc. have to have strength certifications to accommodate aircraft based on the all up weight of an aircraft and the configuration of the landing gear etc.
These 'monster' aircraft are 'banging down' on those sufaces every number of minutes and if these structures are not up to spec. then they will, sooner or later, just give way under the weight.
Well Qantas, it's 'Qantas', easy to remember because it stands for Queensland & Northern Territories Aerial Services, I feel would be more than happy to use the new airport after they crashed a B747 at the old airport, but airlines are not given a choice, 'you fly to our new airport or you don't fly at all' and commercial pressure upon the airlines, well it's a cut throat industry.
Fix the problem you say? Sure, knock down & dig up the entire airport and start again, just a cheap 5 minute job and where are the airlines going to fly to in the meantime?
The airport is rotten to the core, it's not a fairground ride that is dodgy, it's the entire bl00dy fairground!
So what is a 'not normal scam'? Surely a scam, a scam being something that is dishonest and/or fraudulent, is either a scam or it's not a scam. Was it dishonest and/or fraudulent? Yes, I do believe it was!
Oh, a person got hit by a truck the other day but it wasn't a normal truck, this truck had five wheels on it, so the person wasn't really hit by a truck at all :)
Russian airplanes, flying crates and old bombs..do they still use propellers as the jet age has not reached them yet..thats a joke, I know they fly 30 year old russian tupalovs or old 727S from the 60s and 70s..sounds interesting...is the aircraft interior nicotine stained too, that yuck dirty yellow colour you see in the roof material of some cars from all the russian cigs as well?
I have read maintenance standards of commercial aircraft in Ukraine and Russia/CIS don't meet the US FAA requirements and are very questionable and some of these airlines are banned to fly into the E.U because of serious safety concerns...some FSU airlines, its not recommeded to sit in them if you are a smart traveller!
aussieman,
There are one hell of a lot of Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, Saab, ATR, Bombardier, McDonnell Douglas (Boeing), BAe and other western airliners operated by airlines in Russia, Ukraine, CIS that fully meet with international requirements and safety standards. With regards to the older FSU aircraft the problem is, as with older western aircraft, the noise levels that they emit, in this day and age the majority of airports & countries only accept 'stage 3' noise compliant aircraft which many of these are not.
And ..... the largest flying aircraft in the world is the Ukrainian built Antonov 225, there's a second 225 that has been under construction in Kiev since the fall of the USSR, it's a 6 engined jet and it operates worldwide as do many other Antonov built aircraft.
danny,
I hate to be the one to tell you but a scam is where one is deceived out of money, some of these occur during emailing and others occur after the two people that met but they're all scams.