New Year’s Eve in Sydney, hotel downgrade, Ryanair pilots’ strike

Q Six of us want to fly from London to Sydney on 27 December 2019 to be in the city for the New Year’s Eve celebrations. What is the best deals for air tickets, and when is the best time to book?

Nicholas S

A Seeing in the new year in Sydney is one of the great set pieces of travel (along with, I must say, the fireworks on 31 December in Funchal, Madeira). But as it is also the height of summer in Australia’s largest and most-visited city, air fares are correspondingly high. The cost will also be affected by how quickly you need to return. If you can enjoy the luxury of flying back in the middle of January, you will avoid the demand bulge – and, as a consequence, price spike – that happens immediately after the new year.

Going out on 27 December and returning on 8 January (when demand has subsided), the cheapest tickets I can see are for two-stop connections via China at around the £1,000 mark for a return trip – excellent value if you can afford the time and don’t mind a lot of hanging around in airports.

For only a couple of hundred pounds more, Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong is available. Because of all the strife in Hong Kong, demand for this superb airline is weaker than it might be. In your position I would also build in a stopover, even if merely of the “arrive in the morning, fly on in the evening” variety.

If you can possibly travel on Christmas Day, you will find fares significantly lower, and the airport process more benign, as few people are prepared to fly on 25 December. I travel quite often on Christmas Day (which also happens to be my birthday) and find it an enjoyable experience. You could even find those Cathay Pacific flights for less than £1,000 return on 25 December.

Finally, if you intend to visit anywhere else in Australia on the same trip – such as south of the state of Victoria, which is beautiful – then consider an “open jaw” itinerary, flying into Sydney but out from another city, to avoid doubling back.

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Q Six months ago I booked a holiday to Indochina, taking in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, through a well-known tour operator. I searched the hotels and cruise vessel online and was happy with them. I also paid to upgrade the flight to business class. The total was over £8,000 for each of us. But now six of the 10 hotels have changed, and the boat downgraded to an inferior one: from a paddle steamer to a junk.

In the small print it states that hotel changes are “insignificant” if the accommodation is the same or higher standard, but they are now not centrally located. The original hotel is still being advertised on the website. The change of vessel is also hugely disappointing. Is there anything I can do, or am I just at their mercy because of the small print?

Name supplied

A I suggest you decide what you would like by way of amends. Cancelling the trip with a full refund, on the grounds it is now so different from what was originally promised? Continuing but demanding a significant discount? Or an explanation about why they are advertising something they have denied to you, and a request for the properties you expected to be reinstated on your booking?

Give the company a chance to respond to your satisfaction. If you are not happy, you could send a complaint to Abta, and consider arbitration through the travel association. But you might find the arbitrator dwells on the operator’s terms and conditions – which, I can safely predict without studying them, will include a considerable amount of latitude allowing the firm to diverge from the agreed itinerary.

So I suggest instead that you become legalistic – and, given the very substantial cost of the trip, consider engaging a solicitor. There are three legal grounds I can see.

The first is whether the holiday company has breached the Package Travel Regulations 2018, which say: “Where the organiser offers proposed alternative arrangements which result in a package of lower quality than that specified in the package travel contract, the organiser must grant the traveller an appropriate price reduction.”

Next, you could seek redress under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which requires a service to be carried out with “reasonable care and skill”. Failing to confirm even half the planned hotels does not look either careful or skilful. Alternatively, a lawyer might argue the travel firm is engaging in “unjust enrichment” by selling a high-priced product but delivering something substandard. But give the holiday company a chance to respond before commencing legal action.

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Q We are due to fly back from Milan on 2 September with Ryanair when they are threatening to strike. What would your advice be?

Jacqueline H

A Pilots employed in Britain by Ryanair are in dispute over a range of grievances. They are planning industrial action against Europe’s biggest budget airline on 2, 3 and 4 September – three of the busiest days of the year for returning holidaymakers – as well as next Thursday and Friday (22 and 23 August).

While a strike will not ground all Ryanair flights, tens of thousands of passengers will face disruption if the walk-out goes ahead. What this means for you depends how urgently you need to be back. Should your flight be one of those chosen for cancellation, Ryanair will give you two or three days’ warning. The airline will initially offer you an alternative flight on its own services.

As Milan is a high-frequency city for Ryanair, it may be that the option is a departure on the same day at a similar time to the original. In that case, of course you should take it. But experience suggests that the next available date may be a day or two later. In the happy (but possibly unlikely) event you have no pressing need to return home, then you can simply relax. Ryanair is obliged to book you a hotel and provide three meals a day until you return, so you can extend your trip at the airline’s expense.

But if you cannot wait for a couple of days, you will need to rely on the Civil Aviation Authority’s stipulation that if a rival airline has a seat on a suitable flight significantly earlier than Ryanair, then Ryanair must buy you that seat – even if it is business class on British Airways. BA (and easyJet) have many flights from Milan.

In the event that tens of thousands of people have their plans disrupted, I accept that it may be difficult to insist Ryanair arranges a new ticket for you. In that case, so long as you can demonstrate that you gave the airline every opportunity to deliver the required remedy, go ahead and book it yourself – claiming back the cost from Ryanair.

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