PERFECT TIMING
I’ve just lately found Rex Airways. I’m not certain why it has taken this lengthy. The perfect on time efficiency of all of our home airways, together with the perfect cancellation fee. Wonderful service and great historical past. Not too long ago named “Airline of the Yr 2022” on the Australian Aviation Awards. My first possibility any longer. Excellent.
Jodi Clues, Toorak, Vic
AIRLINE ACCOUNTABILITY
My twin four-year-old grandsons who’ve a bodily incapacity just lately travelled on Virgin Australia airways from Denpasar to Sydney. On arrival at Sydney, Virgin gate workers refused to assist the household safe their mobility aids from beneath the plane. The cabin crew from the flight walked previous the clearly distressed household with out providing any help. When my daughter protested about this therapy, the Sydney gate workers mentioned they weren’t liable for serving to the household. This behaviour was in distinction to the assist offered at Denpasar airport the place the mobility aids had been obtainable when the household emerged from the plane door. It appears airways resembling Virgin contemplate themselves not accountable to incapacity laws developed at state and federal ranges in our nation. The deterioration in service offered by airways may be very obvious of their attitudes to our kids with their incapacity.
Lindsay Gardner, Fletcher, NSW
WATER RIGHTS
Earlier than boarding a Scoot flight leaving Changi for Melbourne we needed to eliminate our water. I had by no means encountered this earlier than however as soon as aboard noticed why. There is no such thing as a free water and the worth of bottled water is exorbitant. It actually quantities to extortion and with the well being dangers of being dehydrated on lengthy flights is inexcusable. Woe to those that packed their bank card in checked baggage.
Barry Lizmore, Ocean Grove, Vic
LETTER OF THE WEEK
IN DEEP IN PARIS
The foundations of French swimming pools could be difficult for foreigners. Picture: Alamy
Oblivious, typically have I swum, in small-town French swimming-pools. In bathers, shorts even, and naked headed. Nobody ever corrected me. Not so in Paris. For as soon as, my outer-arrondissement lodge sat immediately alongside an inviting 50-metre pool, certainly one of varied in Paris. However the lodge man warned me upfront – my blue shorts and bald head would not move muster. No worries, the pool safety guard confirmed me how you can purchase a €4 swimming cap. And madame on the entrance desk lent me a good becoming navy blue costume from her basket beneath, leaving me trying barely much less silly than the one different permissible possibility – tight becoming budgie smugglers. However I used to be in. Even then, I did not learn the fantastic print. After I had purchased spiffy Calvin Klein bathing trunks and returned to the piscine, the lifeguards pounced: “Pas de calecons! Pas de shorts!” (No underpants! No shorts!). By no means thoughts, madame humoured me for the rest of my five-day keep. And I promised to carry the prescribed gear upon my return for the 2024 Olympics. “On vous attend,” (We’re ready for you), grinned the safety guard.
Stephen Saunders, O’Connor ACT
FEEL THE FEAR
I am with Lee Tulloch (Traveller, August 20). I do not just like the bumps of flying both, particularly over mountains and huge oceans. My concern of flying got here to a head 20-plus years in the past once we lived in Wellington and that is once I determined to take a Worry of Flying Course that coated: how planes are examined; what they will nonetheless fly with (or with out); climate patterns; level of no return; and how you can attempt to stay calm when it is turbulent. The ‘reward’ was a flight to Auckland so we may follow our new discovered expertise. The day of the flight was excellent – not a cloud within the sky and unusually, not a breath of wind. Since then there have been many alternatives to follow attributable to missed landings and as soon as when the captain suggested the touchdown hydraulics weren’t working. I nonetheless follow these strategies – seat upright, toes flat on the bottom and wiggle your toes, palms open going through upwards in your lap, and breathe – in to the depend of 4 via your nostril and out counting to 6 out of your mouth a minimum of thrice. The final half is difficult with a masks.
Helen Cooper, Canterbury, Vic
BAG MAN
Jan Naughton’s experiences of being caught in a French elevate (Traveller Letters, September 10) are one thing we have by no means skilled on lots of our journeys to France. My spouse, who does the entire reserving, appears to have the knack of discovering lodging that requires me carrying baggage up a number of flights of steep, slender outdated stairs. Give me a elevate any day.
Peter Miniutti, Ashbury, NSW
TRIBUTE RUN
I loved your latest article on visiting cemeteries (Traveller, September 3). On our first go to to Rome in 1985 we stayed close to the Central railway terminal. I discovered the one close by inexperienced spot for operating and escaping the chaos of the roads was the Quadriportico Verano Cemetery. Made the error on a mid afternoon run of getting into the cemetery and raised quite a lot of eyebrows at a graveside service happening. After that fake pas I’d run on the walled outdoors of the cemetery. It was fascinating to see the stone masons, florists and others establishing within the morning. By the top of per week of operating, I used to be being greeted with waves and “ciao” from the florists.
Alex Gosman Lyneham, ACT
TIP OF THE WEEK
CHECK ONE, TWO
My spouse and I are planning to journey abroad within the first quarter of subsequent yr and we now have journey insurance coverage offered by Cowl-Extra via our Commonwealth Financial institution bank card. I searched the product disclosure assertion (PDS) for the phrase COVID and it wasn’t talked about, so I assumed we had COVID cowl beneath the final medical cowl. However after checking with CoverMore their recommendation was {that a} new PDS had been issued and it did present COVID cowl however beneath the prevailing PDS that I had, my current coverage didn’t present COVID cowl. They additional suggested that they did not intend to let me know of this transformation however I used to be capable of cancel the prevailing coverage and take out a brand new coverage beneath the brand new PDS. My recommendation is to test that the phrases of your journey insurance coverage haven’t modified between the time you’re taking out your cowl and the time that you simply journey.
Dennis Leman, Varsity Lakes, Qld
POLICY ISSUES
We booked a visit with Princess Cruises however then needed to cancel and ebook one other date. Inside seven days after taking out the coverage I telephoned Cowl-Extra to alter the date of journey on the coverage. I used to be on maintain for greater than six hours however by no means linked and my letter to them on July 4 has had no response. On July 22 I lastly spoke to a consultant, who mentioned I could not change dates on a coverage however needed to have one other coverage issued and that I couldn’t get a refund. I defined what number of occasions I attempted unsuccessfully to contact Cowl-Extra with no success – inside the required 14 days cooling off interval. I used to be supplied a refund of 75 per cent and instructed when my letter was processed I’d obtain the 25 per cent steadiness. Thirty-eight days later I’m nonetheless ready to listen to from them.
Claudia Sterling, Nunawading, Vic
PLAN B
My spouse and I just lately returned from a vacation in Broome, WA. I used to be nearly to order an Uber X taxi once I seen the fare was $88 from Perth airport to our home. The identical journey from our home to the airport per week earlier was $32. We as a substitute took a normal taxi that price us $52. It pays to be on guard for Uber’s surge pricing and considers different transport.
Brian Smyth, Wembley, WA
PASSION PROJECTS
For individuals who, like me, have a love of pictures, I might counsel brushing apart all of that recommendation of leaving your photographic machine again residence so that you could give attention to having fun with the second. Specializing in the framing of numerous images as we stroll alongside world highways and byways not solely provides to my pleasure in these many moments, but in addition provides us a means of reliving our travels again residence. For every vacation spot we will then later sit collectively going via the (actually) hundreds of downloaded images to pick the 370 or so that may match comfortably into every digitally ordered photograph album. And, in fact, as we undergo them we speak concerning the recollections they carry again, and savour the sights that we’re reliving. There may be, too, the bonus – if travelling with a baby or grandchild – of giving them a replica of the album as a memento of a really particular time in all of our lives.
Anne Ring, Coogee, NSW
SINGLE
Whereas single travellers really feel a single complement is unfair, have a look at it from the hoteliers’ perspective. The lodge room is usually the identical dimension, so the share of charges, electrical energy, mattress tax and the like is mounted whether or not there are one or two travellers. The price of cleansing, laundering of sheets, towels and the remainder is identical for one or two occupants. The hoteliers’ prices should not halved if just one individual is within the room, therefore the one complement for journey involving lodge stays.
Louise Kloot, Doncaster, Vic
HOW TO WRITE TO US
We give choice to letters of 100 phrases or fewer and so they could also be edited for area, authorized or different causes. Please use full sentences, do not use textspeak and do not embrace attachments. Electronic mail us at travellerletters@traveller.com.au and, importantly, embrace your title, handle and telephone quantity.
The Letter of the Week author wins Hardie Grant journey books value greater than $100. For September, that features We Dwell in a Caravan; Life Unhurried; and Paris or Die. See hardiegrant.com
The Tip of the Week author wins a set of three nice Lonely Planet journey books, together with Epic Hikes of Australia and New Zealand, Epic Street Journeys of Europe, and Epic Street journeys of the Americas. See store.lonelyplanet.com
