Travel: Brittany grumble

MY complaint about the infuriating Thomson Holiday ad ('If Thomson don't do it, don't do it') has brought a letter from John Churchill of East Sussex, who is irritated by the current Brittany Ferries double-page advertisement.

'It depicts a woman reclining at ease on one of their boats. Our recent experiences taking a car on the Portsmouth-Caen route have been far from relaxing. Almost without exception, by the time we have been loaded, every reclining seat lounge is already full. Either taken over by a school party or filled with earlier passengers - presumably foot passengers.'

Given the size of its new superferries, writes Mr Churchill, couldn't some space be allocated to car drivers and their families? 'We appear to come third in priority after lorry drivers and school groups.'

Peter Lever of Northamptonshire complains about Brittany Ferries' move towards superferries, which he says results in worse, not better, service. 'This summer on Portsmouth to St Malo, for example, Brittany is introducing a new big ferry and cutting the number of services per day from two to one. I would rather have smaller ferries and more frequent services. I travel frequently on other routes on the big ferries and there are just too many people on them.'