I was bumped from my extra-legroom seat while Qantas staff sat in them

Musical chairs

As a Qantas Gold Frequent Flyer for the past few years, we chose the airline for a recent trip to New Zealand and booked extra-legroom seats at an additional cost, with window and aisle seats. At the gate, I checked the boarding pass on my phone to find I had been moved to the middle and the row shifted.

After the frankly disinterested gate staff changed it back, imagine my surprise to not be in an extra legroom row and find that several of those seats were given to Qantas staff. Paying customers obviously don’t matter to Qantas. In future, I will always check the boarding pass and memorise every seat layout plan.
David Lewis, Gladesville, NSW

Letter of the week: Guiding light

I enjoyed reading your story on Intrepid’s rail trip from Paris to Istanbul (Traveller, January 18). My husband and I feel fortunate to have done this trip in October last year. While the author of the piece, Anthony Dennis, barely mentions the tour guide in his story, we can’t speak highly enough of our wonderful multilingual guide from Croatia, Dora, and her role in making this a fantastic journey. She looked after the five of us brilliantly and handled any issues with ease. At each stop, Dora would give us an orientation tour and make further recommendations that we could explore at our leisure.

Staying two nights in most of the cities on the train trip meant we had time to experience some of the main attractions on our own or with others from the group. For example, in Vienna, we were able to see a performance of the Spanish Riding School and go to a Mozart concert in the evening. We found the hotel accommodation was of a good standard with excellent breakfasts.
Jan Stewart, Bellbrae, Vic

EDITOR’S NOTE Anthony Dennis did reference, if, regrettably, only in passing, his Intrepid guide, “Ivan the Wonderful”. He also confirms that, like his exemplary Croatian countrywoman, Dora, Ivan, too, helped make for an equally successful trip.

Cup of cheer

Waiting at Ghent station, we were amazed to see a sign proclaiming “Melbourne Coffee”. It was a welcome sight for we Melburnians who’d been missing our local style of coffee while travelling in Europe. We rushed in to order and drank our lattes on the train back to Brussels, and, yes, the quality lived up to our high standards. It turns out Melbourne Coffee started around 2017 and has a few outlets in Belgium. We also spotted Australian ice cream shops in Belgium and an Australian pub in Bordeaux. Well done to these innovative Australians bringing our culture to Europe.
Penny Repse, Brighton, Vic

EDITOR’S NOTE What other surprising Australia-related sightings, for good or bad, have you made while travelling abroad? Write to us and we’ll publish the most interesting, if not amusing, letters.

One battle after another

Lee Tulloch’s Venice scam piece (Traveller, February 3) was a poignant reminder of my experience last year in Lyon, France. Within an hour of arrival in Europe, my cards and driver’s licence were pickpocketed on the metro by a very professional group. Like Lee, I had not had anything stolen in many years of travel and also felt like an idiot. The subsequent positive experiences with the (French) police and financial institutions mirrored Lee’s, with the exception of Qantas Pay, which took three weeks to activate a digital card, despite constant follow-up.

And without a driver’s licence, I was unable to rent a vehicle in Italy, so my holiday plans were replaced by lugging heavy cases on and off trains to travel to and from large cities. Accommodation costs in large city hotels were significantly more than the Airbnbs I had originally booked, but Allianz travel insurance compensated me without question.
Ian Davies, Kew, Vic

Had by Etihad

As a treat, my partner and I booked business class flights to Europe on Etihad. I was looking forward to their premium business class product as advertised on the airline’s Boeing 787. However, due to a switch, the segment from Abu Dhabi to Europe will now be operated by an entirely different airline and aircraft (Hi Fly Malta) with significantly older business class seats. What made this worse is that when I called Etihad, its customer service indicated that the business class product was the same, but later admitted that they did not even know if the new seat was lie-flat. No compensation was offered. Other travellers, please be wary of Etihad’s practices.
Stephen Ngai, Naremburn, NSW

Best of British

I am a dual UK and Australian citizen and intend to visit the UK in June. Due to the recent rule changes, I’ve had to apply for a new British passport. I completed the application online and sent off my expired British passport with a photocopy of my Australian passport. The process was easy and, every step of the way, HM Passport kept me updated on the progress of my application. The new passport arrived 19 days later. Now that is efficiency. This is in contrast to a Christmas card sent from England in early December that arrived in mid-January.
Susan McCarthy, Brighton, Vic

Moving experience

Regarding your article on Paris’ museums (Traveller, January 14), I’d like to add the Musee des Arts et Metiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) in the 3rd arrondissement (it even has its own Metro station). I visited it years ago to watch Foucault’s Pendulum in action after reading Umberto Eco’s famous novel. There’s a fascinating array of historical inventions and some beautiful musical instruments. I seem to remember it offers nocturnal visits on Friday evening and is free on the first Sunday of each month.
Joëlle Dietrich, McMahons Point, NSW

East meets best

A shout-out to China Eastern Airlines. On a post-New Year skiing trip to Japan, our family of six inadvertently missed our flight. Turning up at the check-in after the flight had left, the helpful attendants checked for later flights and put us in touch with their head office, which booked us on a flight via a different Chinese stopover later that same day. They issued the new tickets for free. Not many airlines would do this.
Paul Davis Fairlight, NSW

Tip of the week: Child’s pay

Our son’s passport was recently stolen in Ecuador. He lodged his replacement application at Australia’s honorary consulate in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. To support the application, our local post office here in Victoria verified his identity by lodging online with the Australian passport office photographs of him, a copy of his birth certificate and a witnessed guarantor form. His emergency passport will be replaced by his new passport, at a cost of $900, from the Australian embassy in Bogota, Colombia. So, the advice is, before your kids jet off overseas, have spare signed photos of them, their birth certificate and other ID ready, as well as good travel insurance, WhatsApp and an eSIM.
Tony Danino, Wheelers Hill, Vic

Talking Turkey

Your reader, B. Pink, might be confused about the information provided by Michael “The Tripologist” Gebicki in his column (Traveller, January 30) regarding stopover options for the reader’s five Stans trip if they had read the previous day’s issue of Traveller. The Tripologist suggested that Turkish Airlines, flying via Kuala Lumpur, could be an option, however, in the review of Turkish Airlines published in the previous day’s Traveller (January 31) it was mentioned that “Turkish Airlines doesn’t have the rights between Malaysia and Australia, meaning it can only fly passengers through to the final destination”.

If passengers try to book such a stopover, they will be disappointed that it is not possible to have a Kuala Lumpur stopover with Turkish Airlines. If their planned trip is later in 2026, Turkish Airlines will have started its direct flights from Istanbul to Sydney with a 17-hour journey time compared to the current journey time of 20 hours and 15 minutes. They might be able to take advantage of the Turkish Airlines stopover offer which could provide up to three free nights’ accommodation in Istanbul thereby making the prospect of a 17-hour flight a little more palatable.
Gary Miller, Beverly Hills, NSW

Editor’s note: Thank you for pointing out the lack of stopover option on Turkish Airlines in Malaysia. Michael Gebicki will tackle the issue of “Fifth Freedom Rights” (which allow airlines to take on passengers between legs on long-haul journeys) in an upcoming Monday column.

Take the train

On our recent trip to Ireland we caught the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead in Wales. Before leaving Australia we organised a rental car through Enterprise which is the only option in Holyhead. We had comprehensive travel insurance, but the slick-talking workers at the Enterprise office had us convinced it was inadequate and, under pressure, we forked out £350 ($672) for additional insurance. On returning the car, we discovered that our liability had been overstated. I sent several emails to the company in an attempt to clarify whether our car rental excess of £5000 was adequate. I still don’t have a clear answer to this question and would suggest getting a train to a larger centre where there are more car-hire options.
Debra Miniutti, Ashbury, NSW

Think small

If you’re travelling independently in South-East Asia, the smaller national airlines (Air Cambodia and Lao Airlines) are a very comfortable and surprisingly affordable way to get between cities like Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Luang Prabang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. However, if you’re flying Lao Airlines don’t be late. Our flight on February 2 departed as soon as all 20 passengers were on board. We landed in Hanoi five minutes earlier than our scheduled departure time from Luang Prabang, Laos.
Ed Cooley, Buderim, Qld

Editor’s note: Although both of the mentioned airlines have achieved the prestigious IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certification status, other smaller carriers in these parts of South-East Asia have not. Therefore, it’s worth researching the safety record of such airlines before you book.

Fare go

In response to Doug Reynolds’ letter (Traveller Letters, January 31) related to taxi overcharging, I want to remind readers about the NSW Point to Point Commissioner. A similar thing happened to my 85-year-old mother on a recent trip to the airport. She contacted the Point to Point Transport Commissioner who then liaised with the taxi company which agreed to repay the fare “discrepancy”. With receipts, the repayment process was very simple for her to navigate. We must all hold the taxi industry to account especially to protect more vulnerable riders who are no doubt targeted.
Jenni Davidson, Balmain, NSW

I empathise with Doug Reynolds who has migrated from taxis to Uber as a result of continued rip offs. For those who would still like to support the taxi industry there is an alternative. Most reputable companies, for example 13CABS [which operates in both Sydney and Melbourne] have an app you can download. Plug in your trip details and you can get a fixed fare for your journey there and then. You can either pay the driver, or load up your credit card details beforehand and prepay. The same app also shows when your job has been accepted, the name of the driver and you can track their location. Close your eyes and pretend it’s an Uber. Incidentally, I have no interest financially or otherwise in any form of transport operation.
Ross MacPherson, Seaforth, NSW

Hoof it

There is a simple fix to the high transport costs from the suburbs to Sydney International Airport. No more rip-off taxis, Uber, or the airport station access fee. Save money and jump off the train at Wolli Creek station, and then walk for 25 minutes alongside the Cooks River to the international terminal. The path is flat and the surface fine for wheeled baggage. Many airport staff use this route also. If you are dragging along your dispirited teenagers, they may some day recognise your resourcefulness. It may not be a stylish start to a trip, but your smug self-satisfaction balloons. The cost? $2.50, with a senior Opal card).
Mike Robertson, Kirrawee, NSW

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