If my flight is cancelled due to bad weather, can I transfer to a new one?

Simon Calder answers your questions on disruptions to air travel and getting into Australia

Raincheck: storms have wrecked the travel plans of thousands of people this month (Getty)

Q We are due to fly to New York for five nights with British Airways Holidays, booked as a package. If bad weather means we do not get to travel, either on our shuttle from Manchester to London Heathrow or onwards from there to JFK, could we ask to be transferred to the direct flight from Manchester to New York if that would save the trip?

Name supplied

A Devastating weather has wrecked the travel plans of tens of thousands of people this month – with Friday’s Storm Eunice and Monday’s Storm Franklin doing particular damage. I’m interested that you didn’t book a nonstop for a winter trip in the first place, and instead chose a routing via an airport, London Heathrow, that is extremely susceptible to weather (and other) disruption. In normal times, it is the busiest two-runway airport in the world, with little slack in the system.

During extreme weather it is normal for flights to be cancelled en masse at Heathrow, because the “flow rate” of arriving aircraft is reduced: air-traffic controllers cannot handle the usual number of flights. Short domestic hops are often the first to go, rather than profitable long-haul departures.

Anyway, if there is disruption on the day on either sector, it is certainly worth asking to be transferred to the nonstop Manchester-New York JFK flight on Aer Lingus (sister airline to British Airways). Either ask airport staff or try the difficult business of getting through on the phone to BA. If it works and you get switched, you would have a much better journey: Manchester is 110 miles closer to New York than is London Heathrow, and you will also save many hours compared with your indirect trip: flying in the wrong direction for 45 minutes, then hanging around for an hour or two.

Regardless of severe storms, changing planes can cut the fare but always increases complexity and risk. If you are going to do it, then next time can I suggest you transfer at Dublin to reach the US? Not only is it less of a detour, but you can pre-clear US border formalities at the Irish airport, meaning that when you arrive you are treated as a domestic arrival and can head straight into Manhattan.

The online information is unclear about whether ‘departure’ is defined as the time your first flight leaves in your itinerary or your final flight into the country (Simon Calder)

Q I plan to go to Australia but I am unsure about testing. Would I require a PCR in the UK before leaving for Australia? But what happens if I want to stop over for a day along the way somewhere? Would this mean getting a test en route for the second stage of journey?

Morag

A Despite many rumours to the contrary (and indeed an assertion I heard while checking in yesterday for the first leg of my journey to Sydney) you don’t need a PCR for Australia. It’s possible to take a cheaper, faster lateral flow test within the 24 hours before departure.

The online information is unclear about whether “departure” is defined as the time your first flight leaves in your itinerary, or your final flight into Australia. Happily, I can confirm that for direct or directly connecting flights, that means within 24 hours of the first leg. In my case, flying Japan Airlines from London Heathrow via Tokyo to Sydney, I took the test at 7.10pm on Friday for a 7pm Saturday departure and was allowed on board.

Covid rules mean I couldn’t stop over in Tokyo, even though in normal circumstances I certainly would. Instead, I have a three-hour gap between flights at Haneda airport in the Japanese capital.

I am not entirely sure how far you could push this. For example, I really like flights that arrive in Singapore early in the morning, where I spend the day enjoying the city-state before an onward overnight hop to Australia. I don’t imagine a 14-hour “change of planes” would be allowed. So you might go for the PCR option anyway, because you can have that within three days of your departure to Australia.

You could, for example, take a PCR test in the UK on Monday at 6pm, which would then be valid for connections from Dubai to Australia up to 2pm local time on the following Thursday.

As always, though: please don’t book any tests until very shortly before departure (certainly no earlier than a day ahead) to avoid the risk of paying for tests that you turn out not to need. Rules are changing fast, and by the time you travel to Australia they may be very different to those I have complied with.

Malagueta Beach, in Malaga, will soon be accessible direct from Jersey (Simon Calder)

Q I’m looking for a week’s holiday to celebrate my 60th birthday in June. I would prefer an adult-only hotel with a beach and good food, and a good reputation. I’ve looked at Turkey and Cyprus, but I can’t decide where to go. Can you help? I’ll be travelling from Jersey.

Pauline S

A Given your location, so close to France, I am tempted to suggest somewhere like the Ile de Re, just off the Atlantic coast beside the fine city of La Rochelle. You could make the journey in three hops via delicious cities: the ferry from Jersey to St-Malo, a train to Rennes and another to Nantes before the final leg to La Rochelle. But I sense you are after somewhere Mediterranean.

Cyprus and Turkey are both fine, but in June they can be a touch too hot. Corfu is an excellent alternative that is two or three hundred miles further north – though I don’t know any specific properties to recommend on the island.

Quite honestly, though, in your position I would look no further than the two Mediterranean destinations that I understand will be offered direct from Jersey this summer: charters on British Airways CityFlyer jets from the island to Mallorca and to Malaga. A good Jersey travel firm will package these up with a decent hotel – of which my choice would certainly be in the city of Malaga. It has superb places to eat and drink, as well as a reasonable beach named Malagueta. Exploring more widely is really easy thanks to the rail lines along the coast and inland to Seville.

If Mallorca appeals instead, any resort will work: June is refreshingly child-free, due to them being at school. I like Cala d’Or, in the far southeast. While the prices from Jersey will be significantly higher than those of packages from, say, Gatwick, I suggest you give yourself a birthday treat of a stress-free journey without the hassle of connecting flights.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder