Travelling to England

Travel Discounts

Top Flight Travel

, the official travel agency for INCOSE 99 , has negotiated very special airfare and car rental discounts exclusively for INCOSE conference attendees and their guests. To inquire about these discounts and for assistance with your travel needs, please contact:

Top Flight Travel

2021 San Elijo Ave.
Cardiff, CA 92007 USA
Phone :
1- (from the US)
Fax:
E-mail:

If faxing or e-mailing your inquiry to Top Flight Travel, please provide your name, phone and fax numbers, e-mail address, your dates of travel, number in party, preferred airline, and any other details about your travel plans. A Top Flight representative will get back to you with information within the next 1-2 business days.

Please note that many rates and fares are subject to company-imposed inventory limitations and date restrictions. To qualify for the best fares and rates, we encourage you to book your travel needs early.

Electrical Adapters

If you are traveling from outside the UK, remember to bring electrical adaptors for any electrical appliances you may have packed. The electricity supply in the UK is 240V 50Hz.

UK Telephones (by Paul Davies)

The UK is now pretty much converted to touch-tone phones and digital exchanges. The better hotels (including the Metropole) have wall sockets rather than the phones being hardwired to the wall. The format of the plug is 6-pin, longer and flatter than the RJ11 or RJ45 that I believe are used in the USA, with the locking tab to one side rather than on the
bottom. I gave up on trying to get the Metropole receptionist to understand the difference and give me a definitive answer, so please assume the UK standard. You can buy conversion cables from PC suppliers, and from Tandy or RS over here, so it might be possible to procure them in the USA in advance.

However, my IT department have warned me that for safe use they need to be approved by BABT, a regulatory authority over here. Apparently in the past there have been problems with modem signals bringing hotel exchanges crashing down. On behalf of the UK Chapter organisers, we will attempt to ensure that a number of conversion cables are available at the Symposium.

Since the hotel has a PABX exchange, you will need to modify your dialling software to prefix the number with '9' to get the outside line, preferably followed by a short delay. There is normally only one phone socket per room, so your internal phone will be 'off air' while you are using the modem.

The UK electrical mains is 220-240V single phase 50Hz, with large chunky 3-pin plugs completely unlike those in the USA or anywhere else in Europe. Most PC's sold over here have an auto-detect for voltage and frequency, and work on both, but be warned! Certainly if your modem has a separate low-voltage power supply, it's worth checking that it will accept 220V 50Hz - many don't. Again, I volunteer to have a number of adaptors and UK plugs available at the symposium. Thanks again to the Committee at Mesa who did
the same for me in reverse.

A word of warning about UK hotels. They very often charge the earth for external phone connection time. Some of the smarter ones monitor the numbers you are using, and levy a service charge if you use a phone card or other access method to another service provider. This is apparently legal.

The above reads a bit negatively, but please don't be put off. We have frequent visits from US customers, suppliers and partners, and they always manage to get their stuff working quickly and easily enough.

Paul Davies
Chief Systems Engineer
Racal Radar Defence Systems Ltd
Tel:       Fax:
   (work)
   (home)

Customs and VAT Refunds

General international travel rules apply. All visitors to the United Kingdom must show proof of citizenship and must be travelling on a valid passport. We recommend that you carry a photo-copy of your passport with you, separate from your actual passport. Under UK HM Customs & Excise regulations, attendees from all countries are required to pay 17.5% VAT on most purchases in the UK. The attendees company may reclaim VAT paid on business expenses such as hotel accommodations, conference registration fees, meals, car hire, and telephone and fax expenses. Many companies doing business internationally have a reclaim system in place. Because VAT reclaim issues are complex, we strongly encourage you to investigate VAT refund policies and procedures as they pertain to you and your company prior to your departure for the conference. In some circumstances, it is possible for VAT to be refunded to tourists who purchase goods; however, VAT reclaim procedures for non-business related pur-chased goods may differ. For further information, please check the following web sites:

EuroVAT Refund, Inc.: www.eurovat.com
Britain in the USA: www.britain-info.org/contents/v.htm

INCOSE recommends that you contact EuroVat Refund, Inc., a VAT reclaim corporation, for assistance with business-related VAT refunds if your company does not already have a reclaim system in place.

What you need to know... travelling from the USA

by Jim van Gaasbeek

James Sanchez summarized the information in an article in a 1998 issue of Insight. If you have not seen it, there are four areas of concern:

Go to your local customs office and fill out the paperwork to show that the computer was taken from the United States. If asked upon returning, you can show the paperwork and not have to pay a duty.
Ensure that the computer is not on the export restricted list. This applies to very high-end machines, covered by the CoCom agreements.
Ensure that there is no export-restricted data stored on the machine. This has to do with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Either remove any software from the machine that includes any form of encryption, or be prepared to assert that the machine was always in your possession and that you did not download any encryption-capable software from the machine.

I have travelled a bit internationally, and have never seen anyone stopped upon entry to the US to check their laptop. I was never stopped on those occasions when I was carrying a luggable. Complying with number 1 is probably prudent, 2 - 4 is being thorough.

Travel Options for Travellers from North America

If you are interested in a pre- or post-conference visit to London, Sterling Tours has arranged special hotel packages, and can arrange for the purchase of transfers to and from Brighton, as well as London metro and Underground cards and London theatre tickets in advance of your arrival. In addition, Sterling Tours can assist with full-day and half-day sightseeing trips in London and the countryside, rail passes, Eurostar reservations, and hotel reservations in Scotland, Wales and Paris.

For details and further assistance, contact Sterling Tours at +1-, or via e-mail at: .

Transfers to and from Brighton One-way prices:

Gatwick Airport - Train ticket to Brighton: $9 (US)
Heathrow Airport - Speed Link coach (bus) to Gatwick Airport and train ticket to Brighton: $41 (US)

London Pre- or Post-Conference Options 3 night package; additional nights available:

Pre-Conference : London Arrival 3 June
Post-Conference : London Arrival 10 June or 11 June

Packages include: 3 nights accommodation, one-way train ticket to or from Brighton, one-way airport door-to-door shuttle service, breakfast daily and all taxes.

Grosvenor Victoria Hotel
4-Star Victorian style

$413 (US) per person double occupancy
$749 (US) per person single occupancy

Royal Garden Hotel
5-star modern hotel, Kensington

$612 (US) per person double occupancy
$1092 (US) per person single occupancy

London Theatre Tickets: Dramas from $55 (US); Musicals from $75 (US)

Travelling to England
Travel Discounts Electrical Adapters UK Telephones Custom and VAT Refunds	What you need to know Travel Options for Travellers from North America Getting to grips with the Language