the times Saturday May 28 202258 Travel
Don’t put
up with this
Cancellations have
eroded trust in BA
Using vouchers, I rebooked two
Glasgow-Oslo flights via Heathrow
with British Airways (BA) in late
2021 and am scheduled to travel
next month. BA has cancelled the
outbound flights and rearranged the
return flights to arrive in Glasgow at
midnight, after a nearly ten-hour waitin Heathrow. I can’t travel home from
Glasgow airport this late by public
transport, so would need a hotel or
taxi (costing about £100). I tried to
ring BA to discuss this, and after
calling twice a day for two weeks I
eventually managed to speak to
someone, However, they transferred
me incorrectly to a colleague, who
then transferred me to a line from
which I was cut off. I need a refund
for the cancelled flights at the very
least, plus a decent arrangement for
our return to Glasgow. Can you help,
or at least publicise the shocking
service that BA is providing?
John RadfordI could fill this page with complaints
about BA cancellations — not only do
they leave long-awaited rebooked trips
in ruins, but it’s far too difficult to
rearrange flights. After my intervention,
BA rang and offered you a better
Heathrow-to-Glasgow connection time
and an alternative route from Glasgow
to Oslo. However, you’d already booked
this with another airline because you’re
joining a cruise in Svalbard and need to
be sure that you would get there on
time. You told me that five out of the
eight BA flights you have booked in the
past six months were cancelled and
you’re not sure you can trust the airline
for further trips. Who can blame you?Q
My husband and I are
planning a celebratory
break in October. We’d
like some sun, good food
and no more than ten hours’
flying time. Our first choice would be
the Caribbean, but the weather looks
dodgy then, as it does in a number of
places. We’ve got about £7,000 for the
two of us. What can you suggest?
Janey Simpson
A
If you’re looking for
guaranteed sunshine, Oman
is less than eight hours away
and the average temperature
is a toasty 30C in October.
Start at the glamorous Chedi Muscat,
which has a tranquil private beach on
the Gulf of Oman, 21 acres of gardens
and a palm-lined pool that’s one of the
longest in the Middle East. As it’s a
celebration, spend your last two nights
in a villa with a private pool and terrace
at the Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar
Resort, styled on a traditional Omani
fort and perched on the edge of a
canyon in the Al-Hajar Mountains.
Unwind in the fabulous hammam and
book Diana’s Point, the canyon
platform, for dinner à deux and
stargazing. Seven nights’ half-board,
with flights and transfers, costs from
£3,400pp (tropicalsky.co.uk).
Alternatively, Morocco or southern
Spain would also be glorious in October,
and you could combine the two on
Audley’s private nine-night tour, which
includes a stay in a kasbah hotel in the
High Atlas Mountains, a chance to
explore the souks of Marrakesh, and
tours of Seville, Ronda and Granada.
It costs from £3,470pp, including
flights and activities
(audleytravel.com).
Q We returned from a very
enjoyable river cruise with Saga
on April 20. But when we checked
in at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam
we discovered that Saga had booked
us standby tickets. Our flight was
overbooked and we had been
bumped off it; we were put on the
Travel doctor Solving your holiday dilemmas
Julia Brookes
Consumer expertQ My wife and I plan to visit
Amsterdam and Munich in August,
over about eight days, but can’t
seem to get travel insurance. Does
any company do insurance for over-
eighties? We have the new health
insurance cards, but what are the risks
of travelling without travel insurance?
John RichardsA The new Global Health Insurance
Card allows access to state healthcare in
European countries on the same terms
as a resident, but it doesn’t cover
emergency repatriation. And, of course,
you need cover for any cancellation,
whether that be Covid-related or not, as
well as lost or stolen baggage and so on.
Try All Clear, which offers over-eighties
insurance covering all existing medical
conditions (allcleartravel.co.uk).
Alternatively, PJ Hayman offers Free
Spirit single or annual cover for people
with medical conditions, with no age
limit (pjhayman.com), while Staysure
also has no age limit on its single and
multi-trip policies (staysure.co.uk).Contact us
If you have a gripe, suggestion or question
relating to your holidays, please email
[email protected]next flight, three hours later. A KLM
employee apologised and gave us
compensation vouchers, which she
assured us were easy to redeem online.
However, that has not been the case.
It now appears we may have to claim
through Saga, but it has proved
impossible to speak to anyone
who can help. Can you?
Maureen WilcoxA Saga didn’t deliberately put you
on standby because you can’t buy
standby tickets, but you may well
have been bumped from the flight
because you didn’t check in online
in advance, as many other
passengers would have done. You
might have hoped that your tour
operator would tell you that early
online check-in was advisable, and you
were certainly right to expect help with
sorting out compensation after the trip.
After my intervention, Saga has now
sent you an online link so that you
can make a claim. “We cannot control
the decisions made by airlines, or the
information they give out regarding
refunds, but we apologise that Mrs
Wilcox and her husband were unable
to contact us for assistance. We are
pleased that the matter is now
resolved,” it said.Q I’m looking for a villa on the Lisbon
coast in which to celebrate my 40th
birthday at the end of August. I’d like
to be near a beach and have buzzy
restaurants in the area. We’d be a
group of eight to ten people and would
ideally need at least five bedrooms.
The budget is about £800 a night,
but for somewhere stunning we could
stretch this. An outdoor pool is the
must-have, and great decor a bonus.
Any thoughts?
Francesca MillsA Villa Leonor is a spacious beauty in
a brilliant location, worth booking for
the ocean views alone. A converted
farmhouse, it sleeps up to 20 in seven
bedrooms, and there’s a heated pool and
a first-floor terrace on which to dine. A
week at the end of August costs £3,489
(oliverstravels.com). You’d have a beach
within walking distance, but don’t miss
the fabulous surfing spot Guincho, a
ten-minute drive away; its long, wide and
pristine beach is set within the dramatic
scenery of the Serra de Sintra hills, and
there’s a fantastically chilled restaurant
tucked against the dunes. You would also
be about five miles from the summer
playground of Cascais, packed with
excellent seafood restaurants such
as Monte Mar and Mar do Inferno.Old Muscat, on the Gulf of
Oman; below, Villa Leonor,
on the coast near LisbonGETTY IMAGES; OLIVER’S TRAVELS*