My long-distance romance is stuck in a budget airline nightmare

Oh, Vienna

Snapping up a cheap deal to Europe on the low-cost airline Scoot to finally meet the woman I fell in love with after a chance encounter on a Facebook group last year seemed too good to be true (as did the love affair, to be honest).

One reader has had an unhappy attempt to Scoot back from Vienna.Credit: iStock

The love story blossomed like the wildflowers that grew around her apartment block in Finnish Lapland and the weeks went by like a dream, until it all ended in a nightmare at Vienna Airport in Austria. We’d paid through the nose to get seats together on the same flight back to Melbourne (she suffers anxiety when travelling alone), only to be met by incompetence and negligence at the check-in counter.

A passport number wrongly entered led to her being denied boarding and being stranded in Vienna with no support offered. Scoot has yet to respond to our pleas for them to honour their obligations under EU regulations. We’re now stuck in limbo, unable to buy another flight while waiting for resolution and our joyful reunion. Some low-cost airlines are a price too high to pay.
Sam Quinlan, Preston, Vic

Letter of the week: High times

The Matterhorn and the Gornegrat railway.Credit: Getty Images

Ten years ago, we, too, thoroughly enjoyed touring in Switzerland, with one accidental bonus (Traveller, July 5). We arrived at Zermatt station just before a train was due to leave on the Gornergrat Railway. We rapidly decided that this was for us, so we bought tickets and got on. This was a serendipitous choice. The year 2015 was the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn (which on a clear day can be seen from the railway) and, by chance, we encountered a group commemorating the efforts of the original mountaineers who had set out on July 14, 1865.

Ours was a group of locals including the band of the mountain guides, all in period costume and travelling to Gornergrat for a short concert, lunch and photo shoot. The Matterhorn is 4478 metres above sea level with Gornergrat at 3089 metres, just across a glaciated valley, so the view is magnificent. So, not only did we have this view, but also, quite inadvertently, we had our lunch with the local Swiss mountain guides.
Simon Allen, Cooma, NSW

Bring them home

Qantas says to me and to millions of other Qantas frequent flyers that its “focus is on doing all we can to support you” in relation to the hacking of 6 million customers’ personal information. The best and most secure thing Qantas could do for its customers is to end its outsourcing of all of its contact centres, and return all Qantas call centres in-house, and based in Australia, along with all Qantas data centres. If Qantas did that, there would be the added bonus of a massive improvement in Qantas frequent flyers’ customer satisfaction. Even the Qantas tin ear must be aware of the massive dissatisfaction with its call centres.
Merv Keehn, Melbourne, Vic

Low rent

Yet more letters about the business practices of Europcar. It seems some writers do not heed warning letters. If my memory serves me correctly, other travellers have been complaining about them in this column for years. I scratched Europcar off my list back then.
John Swanton, Coogee, NSW

Good guess

In a previous letter (Traveller Letters, June 21), I complained about being ripped off by Europcar at Heathrow Airport via an involuntary “upgrade”. After trying several avenues to gain redress, we looked up the chief executive’s name and wrote to him, having guessed at his email address from the standard company format. Lo and behold, we received a refund of the excess charges. It still didn’t make up for having to use a car that was uncomfortable and unsuitable for the driving conditions, though.
Erica Smith, Newington, Vic

Going private

Richard Dowling’s experience of a ticket price increase straight after trying the same booking again (Traveller Letters, July 5) sounds familiar. He might try using an incognito (private browsing) tab to eliminate prior cookies set by the website he was using. Some booking sites play with us by remembering previous attempts, only to increase fares.
Jens Korff, Greenwich, NSW

Details fail

Your correspondent Richard Dowling is not alone in having his fares bumped up by Qantas. Several times I have entered all of my details when booking online, only to receive a “sorry, cannot complete the booking” notice at the end of the process. Invariably, the booking works the second time around but for more dollars or more points. Other friends have had a similar experience.
Hugh Barrett, Sanctuary Point, NSW

Do a Kakadu

Your intriguing story about “Tasmania’s Kakadu” (Traveller, July 3) omitted one key point. Unlike the Northern Territory’s Kakadu, Tasmania’s Moulting Lagoon is a duck-shooting site. Every autumn, shotguns shatter the peace as well as the birdlife. The din also disturbs feeding patterns of migratory birds trying to fuel up for long flights across the globe. Victoria too has “Kakadu” potential, with key wetlands internationally recognised for abundant birdlife, and important for Indigenous heritage. Sadly, the Victorian government, like the Tasmanian government, is wedded to duck shooting rather than conservation and wetland tourism.
Joan Reilly, Surrey Hills, Vic

Snail mail

For a moment, I thought Stuart Ewing’s snail stencil on his suitcase (Traveller Letters, July 5) was intended to reflect how long it often takes these days for luggage to reach the carousel at many airports, especially Sydney International. I also noticed, from the photo with the letter, that, despite his design, he prefers a soft shell case.
Ross Duncan, Potts Point, NSW

Shute happens

I have painted the first letter of my surname in letters 50 centimetres high in white paint on my suitcases. It looks terrible, but I can identify them within seconds of them coming out of the shute.
Keith Masnick, Woollahra, NSW

Running ribbons

Look twice. On a trip to Hobart several years ago I tied a bright tartan ribbon to my plain black suitcase making it easily identified. Sure enough, I spotted it on the carousel straight away. Once retrieved I smugly headed out of the terminal with my bag, only to be chased by a hysterical fellow traveller claiming I had taken her bag. As it turned out, she was right. We’d both tied the same tartan ribbon to our black suitcase. My case was still riding the carousel. All was forgiven, and we proceeded on our merry way. I now tie two different coloured ribbons to my luggage.
Rosemary Featherston, Torquay, Vic

Low rent

It’s all very well to stay in a location for an extended time (Traveller Letters, July 5) but most travellers are on limited time with limited budgets and need to get the most bang for their bucks. I would have loved to have spent more time in Venice or Paris but had to make the most of my limited time.
Michael Deeth Como West, NSW

Tip of the week: Monkey business

The long-nosed proboscis monkey.Credit: iStock

Our tour of Sarawak, along with Sabah, one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo, began with a visit to Bako National Park and Semenggoh Wildlife Rehab centre, where we saw proboscis monkeys and orangutans. Elsewhere in Sarawak, we stayed at a traditional Iban longhouse where the villagers were welcoming and authentic. Among other highlights were the UNESCO heritage caves of Mulu and Niah, where we walked five hours exploring the vast system. We also visited Deer and Lang caves, via plankwalks and concrete paths, with the immense Deer cave abundant in flora and fauna and Lang featuring unique stalactite and stalagmite formations. At Mulu, we stayed at the Marriott Resort & Spa, a rainforest sanctuary. A remarkable experience.
Vincent Chong, Beecroft, NSW

Train in Spain

We recently spent a wonderful six days and five nights on the Costa Verde Express across northern Spain from Santiago de Compostela to Bilbao. On a previous trip we also enjoyed one of Renfe’s state-run train journeys in southern Spain on the Al Andalus from Granada to Seville. These luxurious trains have great daily excursions with fantastic food taken either on train or at local restaurants, some Michelin starred, with all drinks included at meals. The trains are stationary at night, allowing a great night’s sleep. With only 48 passengers and a range of nationalities and ages, the rail journeys are more individualised than, say, a river cruise. It’s definitely recommended and with the journey fare comes “free” travel on Renfe trains within Spain.
Denise Pollock, Sapphire Beach NSW

Heaven sent

Swiss rail centres, including Zurich, enable you to send your luggage to your destination, including direct to your accommodation. This proved a wonderful service when landing from Sydney, when my luggage was safely transferred to Grindelwald for me.
Marjie Williamson, Blaxland, NSW

Feeling had by Etihad

I was travelling late last month on a confirmed Etihad Airways business class return fare from Australia to Israel. When conflict escalated in the region, Etihad abruptly cancelled my return flight. What followed was not just poor customer service, but what felt like a deliberate failure of care and an attempt to maximise profit in a crisis. Etihad provided no support, no rebooking options, and no contactable service. I was forced to co-ordinate my own evacuation from Tel Aviv, travelling via Amman to London, the only viable route at the time.

Despite this being an emergency, and Etihad not operating flights from Jordan, I was charged an additional $4000 to return home, on top of the $11,500 I had already paid. When I later queried the charge, I was told via chat that I could have changed my ticket for free had I travelled via Egypt or Turkey. That option was never offered, and was physically impossible under the circumstances. This was all compounded by the complete breakdown of Etihad’s support systems – hours on hold, robotic live chat replies, glitches on their website and app, and a complaints form that couldn’t be submitted until after the journey ended. Have any other readers had a similar experience?
Neil Pharaoh, Kyneton, Vic

Enough rope

The rugged coast of Pitcairn Island.Credit: Alamy

We’ve returned from Pitcairn Island, home to 32 descendants of the 1789 mutiny on The Bounty. In a journey of 53 hours each way by air and sea, up to 80 hours are afforded ashore to experience the mix of Polynesian and old-world British culture and food, take a swim around the Bounty’s remains, walk and quad bike around the little island’s mountains and talk to the wonderfully friendly locals. Only a few dozen visitors annually make the two-night trip in Pitcairn’s own vessel, the MV Silver Supporter, a cargo-passenger vessel that’s smaller than a Sydney ferry. The journey involves a flight to Tahiti, then another to Mangareva, in French Polynesia. Disembarking at Pitcairn involves going over the ship’s side, down a rope ladder and into a longboat, with a further kilometre to navigate through possible surf to the wharf. Our respective partners avoided sea-sickness by staying at home.
Harry Tys, Canberra, ACT and Richard Gould, West Melbourne, Vic

The Letter of the Week writer wins three Hardie Grant travel books. See hardiegrant.com

The Tip of the Week writer wins a set of three Lonely Planet travel books. See shop.lonelyplanet.com