Should my son make more fuss about his cancelled flight?
Simon Calder answers your questions on Bilbao, touring Asia, and airport drop-off fees
Q My son and his wife and their daughter are having a spot of bother. They have been in Romania with his wife’s family, supposedly flying back tonight, but their flight has been cancelled. Help from the airline seems to be nonexistent. His father-in-law is driving back – a journey of an hour each way – to collect them. My son also says that he will have to arrange his own replacement flight, which seems wrong. My son is a bit reluctant to make a fuss, unlike his grumpy old father!
David H
A It won’t necessarily make your son and his family feel any better, but they are among at least 10,000 travellers to and from the UK who had their flights cancelled on the second day of the new year. A combination of lousy weather in several parts of Europe, accompanied by air-traffic control restrictions, caused many flights to be grounded just at a time when everyone needs aviation to work well.
The duty of the airline that cancelled the flight is clear. Under air passengers’ rights rules, travellers whose flights are grounded at short notice are entitled to be flown to their destination as soon as possible on any airline, and to be provided with meals and hotels until they get there. This obligation is regardless of the reason for the cancellation. There should have been no need for his father-in-law to drive for an hour to pick them up, unless they specifically wanted to stay an extra night. The airline should have provided a hotel, or at the very least assured your son he would be reimbursed for booking a room.
You are quite right that arranging a replacement flight is the airline’s responsibility, not your son’s. Yet carriers know that there is little risk of any meaningful penalties for failing to meet their obligations. They cannot, though, escape the liability for all the costs reasonably incurred by passengers.
Your son should keep receipts for spending triggered by the cancellation, including the replacement flight, meals and fuel. In addition, he can apply for cash compensation: the airline must demonstrate, with evidence, that it was not at fault. Unless it can do so, your son and his family are owed £350 each.
Q There are new flights from Edinburgh to Bilbao with Vueling in 2026. Is spring a good time to go for four nights?
Andrew M
A Like you, I relish the chance to plan fresh adventures for the year ahead. And new airline routes play an important part in that. Scotland is particularly well placed in the next few months. EasyJet starts flying from Glasgow to Rome and Lisbon in February and March, respectively, and in March, there are new Ryanair links from Glasgow to Warsaw and Edinburgh to Milan Malpensa. The start of April sees a crop of new routes from the capital to Ljubljana in Slovenia and Billund in Denmark. And your chosen route, from Edinburgh to Bilbao on Vueling, starts in March – flying twice weekly, on Wednesday and Saturday. That gives the choice of three or four nights in the Spanish city, and I certainly recommend the longer option.
Bilbao itself is well worth 48 hours. It is almost three decades since Frank Gehry’s groundbreaking Guggenheim Museum opened and put the then-little-known Basque city on the map. Looking like a deconstructed jumbo jet and perched spectacularly on the banks of the Nervion river, it immediately spurred a surge in visitor numbers. And new arrivals discovered a city that has a wealth of interest, from a beautifully preserved Old Town (Bilbao La Vieja) to a beach resort, Plentzia – accessible on the Norman Foster-designed Metro. The food and drink is predictably excellent, with pinxtos (as tapas are known) in the Old Town the real highlight.
I urge you, though, to spend only two nights in Bilbao and the other two along the coast in San Sebastian. You can make the journey along the coast speedily by express coach or prettily by narrow-gauge train. As I mentioned in answer to a question in November, San Sebastian is one of the great Spanish coastal cities, alongside Barcelona and Malaga. It has a magnificent location just beyond the western end of the Pyrenees, and arguably even better cuisine than Bilbao. Check into a beachside hotel to enjoy the superb setting. And at the end of the stay, buses run swiftly and directly to Bilbao airport for the flight home.
Q My wife and I are planning a three-week tour of Indochina for our delayed honeymoon – taking in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Hue, Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Travelling out on 9 or 10 November 2026 and then back early December. All the regional flights are as cheap as chips and I can book separately – it’s just the longhaul section that I’m unsure about. I want business class, as it’s our honeymoon and my wife has never flown longhaul business class before. Heathrow is best for us, but I’ll accept Gatwick at a push. What do you advise?
Phil H
A My advice is to wait a while, unless there are some outstanding deals in the new year flight sales. The reason: you are planning to travel at the best possible time in terms of low demand and therefore cheap tickets. In your position, I would start looking in late August, which is typically when summer seat sales begin.
I recognise, though, that my “relax, it will be fine” attitude does not suit everyone – and that at this time of year the idea of looking ahead to business-class comfort to Asia appeals. So I recommend you structure your itinerary to make logical geographical sense: arriving in Hong Kong, departing from Bangkok, with Vietnam and Cambodia in between.
British Airways will happily sell you an “open-jaw” itinerary (out from Heathrow to Hong Kong, back from Bangkok to Gatwick). But that is currently looking at over £5,000 each in Club World. You could fly on the excellent Turkish Airlines to and from Heathrow via Istanbul for less than half as much. Add in a stopover of at least 24 hours in beautiful Istanbul, and your air passenger duty (APD) liability falls from £253 per person to just £32. The savings will pay for a night or two in an excellent hotel in Turkey’s biggest city. (Note that APD does not apply to travelling inbound to the UK).
To get it all booked, I recommend talking to companies such as Trailfinders, DialAFlight and Travel Nation and choosing the best quote with personal service. A good agent may also be able to add intra-Asian flights on classy airlines for no more than the budget carriers charge.
Q Do you have a view on airport drop-off fees? I understand the need to encourage as many passengers as possible to use public transport, but in many airports, it is poor. Also, plenty of travellers are infirm but do not have a blue badge. So what do you think?
Katriona G
A Four weeks ago, I answered a question about whether we could expect charges for dropping off passengers arriving by car at railway stations. Since then, the debate about the purpose and legitimacy of drop-off charges has swung back to airports. This month, the big two London airports – Heathrow and Gatwick – are raising their fees for dropping off a passenger in front of the terminal by 17 per cent and 43 per cent respectively. And the only major UK airport without a fee, London City, will bring in a fee of £8 on 6 January.
The east London airport stresses that the aim of the charge is to nudge travellers to make better choices. London City is telling passengers: “This move is part of our commitment to encourage more travel to and from the airport via public and sustainable transport modes, which two-thirds of our passengers already use.”
Unlike some airports with poor public transport – of which Bournemouth is the prime example – most passengers can access London City reasonably easily, either on the Docklands Light Railway (which is usually efficient) or a local bus (which can be erratic and slow).
The Docklands airport is unusual in that there is no official free” drop-off alternative. Other hubs typically have locations at mid-term car parks linked to the terminal by a shuttle bus or a 10-minute walk. It seems likely that some motorists dropping off at London City will use local residential roads. But as you say, travellers needing assistance really need to be dropped at the terminal.
To answer your question about my view: I am conflicted about drop-off fees. Air travel is quite expensive and complex enough without adding extra friction and cost, as these charges do. But I believe passengers benefit from competition between airports; for that to flourish, airport bosses must have commercial freedom.
Ultimately, as I wrote a month ago, the argument for drop-off charges would be more convincing if the revenue were ring-fenced for improving public transport to the airport.
Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @SimonCalder
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