Should I buy my brother a Ryanair Christmas voucher?

Q I have just received an email headed: “Make your Christmas shopping stress-free.” I’m all in favour of that. The invitation is from Ryanair and urges me to “gift your loved ones a Ryanair gift card”. My brother has a house near Pisa in Italy and regularly flies there on Ryanair. Should I be tempted to send him £100 worth of flights?

Sarah A

A This is a question I tend to get each December, and my answer remains the same: no. I welcome the general trend towards giving experiences rather than goods. What better, you might wonder, than the gift of travel? But if you buy a gift card for a particular airline, you risk providing a distinctly inferior experience.

Airlines love selling vouchers. They take in cash in exchange for a future obligation to offer air travel to the same value; Ryanair even asks the donor to pay an extra £2 on top for administration. Some people will forget to use their present by the expiry date (a year after issue in the case of Ryanair), which then gifts the carrier some useful free money. Some travel gift vouchers, but not Ryanair’s, insist the voucher is used in one go; your brother would not need to use the full £100 in a single transaction, and any balance is carried forward to use within the year.

Yet even if your brother is assiduous about using the voucher, it is not a helpful asset. Ryanair has a good range of flights to Pisa, from Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, London Stansted, Manchester and Prestwick. But it has no monopoly from the UK: easyJet flies from London Gatwick and Manchester, while British Airways departs from London Heathrow. If a rival airline has a more convenient departure airport, timing or fare, you will inadvertently prevent him from the ideal itinerary.

May I offer an alternative? Credit his bank account with £102 (which is what a £100 Ryanair gift card would have cost you), and give him a card explaining that you would like to buy him some flying. You might even want to print out my response to you, to show him what you were thinking. And thank you for the opportunity to remind people to steer clear of travel company-specific gift vouchers this Christmas.

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Q I am visiting relatives in Kentucky for Christmas, flying via Atlanta. I am taking presents in my checked-in luggage. I hope to be flying back with some, too. I have heard that security staff can break into your baggage if necessary, though I also heard you can get special locks that they can open. Can you advise?

Josie H

A In the US, all airport security is handled by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). One of its many requirements is that all connecting baggage from passengers arriving from overseas must be rechecked before an onward domestic flight. You will need to pick up your checked-in luggage from the carousel on arrival, take it through customs and drop it off again at the airline check-in. At this stage, your baggage becomes of interest to TSA screeners.

The TSA says: “The majority of checked baggage is screened without the need for a physical bag search.” But yours might be pulled for a hand search – especially if it contains items such as tightly packed books, which are difficult to identify on scanners. I don’t use locks on checked luggage, because I find them more trouble than they are worth, but many people like to deploy them. If you prefer to lock the baggage, it’s easy to buy so-called “TSA-compliant” locks, including in the UK. These are typically combination locks that you can set yourself. What makes them useful is that the manufacturer has provided a master key to the TSA so that they can be unlocked without damage.

That, at least, is the theory. The TSA says it “has no position on the validity or effectiveness of these products as a security measure and will be forced to remove these products if necessary during the inspection”. The odds, though, are in your favour.

On your return journey, you can check the baggage right through from the local airport in Kentucky to your final destination; the TSA regards screening done at one location to be valid at other US airports on the bag’s itinerary.

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Q I have booked flights to Colombia at the end of February for 18 days. I have nothing else booked yet, but I am planning to visit Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena – possibly including the Rosario Islands. Any other suggestions?

Pat W

A What a joy to be able to look forward to a trip to Colombia in the northern winter. It is South America’s most generous nation, in terms of the breadth of experiences on offer: Caribbean beaches, Andean peaks, Hispanic history and Amazonian adventures.

With just 18 days to make the most of the country, I suggest you start lining up some domestic flights; while the terrestrial scenery is impressive, the highways are very dangerous and I always fly rather than travel very long distances by road. Bogota to Cartagena is over 400 miles by air, and a lot more by rail.

Assuming you are flying to Bogota airport, get a plane straight out as soon as you arrive: the capital is certainly interesting, but best appreciated when you are more in tune with Colombian life. Head for Cartagena, the most enchanting Spanish city in South America. After a day or two of immersion in its colonial grandeur, you should certainly head over by boat to the Rosario Islands. If you are a beach person, stay overnight in one of the laid-back resorts, otherwise make it a day trip.

You could go overland to Medellin (opt for the highest quality bus you can afford). This high-altitude, high-energy metropolis is in the middle of some superb landscapes. Cali, further south, is also superb for music and cuisine. For more colonial ambience head south to Popayan and possibly Pasto, close to the Ecuadorean border.

Finally, fly back to Bogota. You will enjoy your time here more with some street smartness. Stay in the once-neglected but now restored Barrio La Candelaria, its charming historic heart.

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