Travel Question of the Day: Best deal on flights to Tenerife for October?

Have a travel question that needs answering? Ask our expert Simon Calder

Travelling to Tenerife in October can be expensive if you don't choose your dates wisely (Getty)

Q We have booked a hotel in Tenerife in October, however the flights still need to be booked. We are travelling from Newcastle to Tenerife South. Could you offer any advice on how to get the cheapest flights possible?

Name withheld

A I’m interested that you have already booked your holiday hotel, but not the flights; I always try to book them together, to avoid the risk that there might be a spike in air fares or hotel rates due to a particular combination of circumstances (for example, school holidays in Spain, or local festivities).

I have been looking at the second week of the month, flying out on Saturday 8 October and back a week later.

Looking on Skyscanner, the lowest fares appear to be on a combination of airlines: out on Jet2 and back on easyJet for around £235 per person, or out on Thomas Cook and back on easyJet for £250.

But a word of caution about such combination flights: if you book a return trip on a single airline, then if the outbound flight is cancelled for any reason (such as another volcanic ash incident) you will get a full refund for the whole trip. But if you are on two different airlines, and fail to get to Tenerife, the homebound airline has no obligation to give you your money back.

So Thomas Cook looks good at around £270 return, with fairly reasonable flight times as well.

Over the main school half-term, from 22 to 29 October, those Thomas Cook flights increase to £470 return. If you are constrained to flying during this week, you can save by travelling out a day later and returning a day earlier (£340 on Thomas Cook), or by heading over the border to Edinburgh.

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