The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

the times Saturday April 9 2022

58 Travel

Don’t put

up with this

Crystal lacked clarity

on booking changes

My holiday with Crystal Ski, which I

booked more than 18 months ago,

has been changed 11 days before my

scheduled departure date. When I

received an email with the final

travel details I was surprised to find

that the resort had changed and

the accommodation had been

downgraded from a hotel with four

stars to one with three. I called

Crystal and, after holding for an

hour, was told that the original hotel

had reduced the number of rooms

available. Through an online forum

I discovered that this had happened

to numerous customers, sometimes

with as little as three days’ notice. I

have now received an email with a

£138pp reduction in price, which is

very poor recompense for a ruined

holiday. We could cancel, but with so

little notice there are no alternative

holidays available.

Paul Smith

It’s not been an easy ski season for

tour operators to navigate, but Crystal

should have warned you of the

problem with the hotel and avoided

that nasty surprise. It apologised for

changing the booking at such short

notice, saying it had been caused by

an overbooking of its room allocation.

This was a “significant change” to

your package, and you were initially

offered the option to cancel the

holiday with a full refund or accept

the change with a refund in the price

difference plus £50pp compensation.

You have now been offered an extra

£50pp, as well as a £500 discount on

a future holiday. “We understand how

disappointing this was and have

offered Mr Smith an additional gesture

of goodwill as a further apology for

the upset caused, which we hope he

will accept,” Crystal said.

Q

My wife and I will soon

be celebrating our 40th

wedding anniversary and

are interested in visiting

Anguilla. Could you

suggest the best route from

Manchester and time of year to go?

Eddie Birchenough

A

Anguilla’s exquisite powdery

white beaches would make

a fabulous backdrop for your

anniversary trip. From

Manchester you would need to fly with

Air France via Paris to St Maarten, then

take a 25-minute boat trip from there to

Anguilla. Alternatively, fly from London

to Antigua, from where it’s 40 minutes

by light aircraft to Anguilla.

Travel between Christmas and Easter

and you’ll get the best weather, but also

high-season prices; go from April to June

or from November to early December

and the rates are lower, it’s easier to get

reservations in the best restaurants and

you can still expect good weather.

However, for the best deals you’d

need to travel between June and August

when you will have more rain, but

should avoid the worst of the hurricane

season. If this option appeals and you’re

happy to splash out, Cap Juluca — one

of the island’s swishest hotels — has a

celebration package that includes seven

nights’ B&B in a Deluxe Beachfront

King room with a bottle of champagne

on arrival, a dinner for two on the beach

and a couple’s massage. With flights via

Paris and transfers it costs £4,260pp

(inspiringtravelcompany.co.uk).

If you’d rather a winter break, the

much-loved Carimar Beach Club has

condo-style suites, great service and

a fabulous location on Meads Bay.

A week’s room-only, including

flights via Paris and ferry

transfers, starts at £1,920pp

between November 15 and

December 15 (tropicbreeze.co.uk).

Q We’re hoping to spend a few days

in Oslo this summer, then rent a

cabin by the water somewhere close

by. It would need to be accessible by

Travel doctor Solving your holiday dilemmas

Julia Brookes

Consumer expert

covered in the terms and conditions).

Can you help?

Brendan Field

A The travel agency says that its

customers are given a full price

breakdown before they buy and its fees

cover the services it provides, including

its technology platform and “searching,

comparing and assistance during the

booking procedure”, so are non-

refundable in the event of cancellations.

While it won’t reimburse you for the

Flexible Dates service (£32.94) or a

Service Option Premium (£21.96), it

admitted that the £74.46 you paid for

the selection of six seats should have

been refunded, and this has now been

returned to you, along with a discount

voucher “as compensation for the delay”.

Given these unavoidable extra fees, the

next time you are tempted to book

flights through an online travel agent

it would be worth checking the cost of

booking directly with the airline.

Contact us

If you have a gripe, suggestion or question

relating to your holidays, please email

[email protected]

public transport because we won’t

be hiring a car, and suitable for

young teenagers. Any suggestions?

Elizabeth Hendron

A Tonsberg is Norway’s oldest town

and stands on the sunny side of the

Oslofjord, the capital’s summer

playground. It’s little more than an

hour from Oslo by train and there

is plenty to keep the teenagers

entertained, including great hiking

and biking trails, fishing and boat

trips to Verdens Ende (“World’s

End”), where they can ride horses.

Stay at the beachfront Furustrand,

a collection of cottages and cabins

including some built in the style of a

Viking fortress. These sleep up to five

and a week at the end of August costs

from £1,045 (furustrand.no).

Q We’re hoping to travel to Italy in

June and pay for our accommodation

by credit card when we check out.

The UK government advises that at

Italian border control we may need

to show proof of sufficient funds to

pay for our stay, but we’re not sure

what that would entail. We will be

taking some cash, but not enough to

cover the hotel cost. Would a credit

card statement be acceptable?

Penny Ayre

A This is a post-Brexit requirement for

travel to Europe, but it’s unlikely that

you will be asked to provide proof of

funds at the border. To be on the safe

side, though, a credit card or other bank

statement would do the trick. Visitors

from the UK should also take out

adequate insurance, so even if you have

the Global Health Insurance Card —

which, like its predecessor, the European

Health Insurance Card, is free and

covers medical services — you’ll also

need a policy for the things it doesn’t

cover, such as emergency repatriation.

Q I booked Jet2 flights to Krakow,

costing £490.20, through eDreams,

and on top of this was charged a

“mediation fee” of more than £100.

The flights were cancelled last month

and Jet2 refunded the £490.20 a few

days later. However, since then it has

proved impossible to contact eDreams

to ascertain whether I am entitled to

a refund of the mediation fee (the

purpose of which has never been

explained to me, and I can’t see it

Cap Juluca Resort on

Anguilla and, below,

the Oslofjord in Norway

GETTY IMAGES

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