What’s the best airline for travelling to Vienna this autumn?

Q I am thinking of booking a flight from Gatwick to Vienna later this month on Vueling. It’s the cheapest and most convenient time but some of the online reviews are appalling. Should I pay a bit more for another airline?

Penelope C

A November is an excellent time to travel to the Austrian capital. Until this year it has been difficult to find really good value fares between the UK and Vienna, but thankfully something of a proxy fares war has broken out between two aviation giants. Ryanair recently bought the Austrian carrier Laudamotion, and promptly started cutting fares from Stansted to Vienna: as low as £11 one-way this month, which is £2 less than the Air Passenger Duty the airline must pay to carry you.

Laudamotion is up against Level, part of the International Airlines Group which also includes British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling. When you try to book a Level flight from Gatwick to Vienna through flylevel.com, you are told: “For the moment, we’re taking you to our partners at Vueling to book flights to and from Vienna.”

This has been happening since the flights first went on sale. But Vueling will not be doing the flying: you will find yourself on a shiny new Airbus operated by Level. But in any event, I would question how much credence you should put on online reviews.

Vueling is generally a good, well-run airline, though when disruption intervenes sometimes it does not cope as well as it should. And searching online for “Fly Level” and “reviews”, you can find plenty of adverse comments for Level, too. But again, the very strong chance is that you will have a perfectly pleasant, low-cost flight.

I certainly wouldn’t pay more for a less convenient alternative flight.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder