Every summer we head for Toronto: why is a flight suddenly so expensive?

Simon Calder answers your questions on air fares, refunds for cancellations, train luggage and transfer of tickets

Fares to Toronto and other Canadian cities have risen sharply in recent years (iStock)

Q My Canadian wife and I travel from London to Toronto every summer, and fares have always been reasonable. However, for August 2020 the cost has really shot up. Can you help us find something affordable? She would travel out on 9 August, I would go 10 days later, and we would both come back (ideally together!) on 29 August. What do you suggest?

John R

A Fares to Canada have risen fairly relentlessly over the past few years, especially in summer. The takeover by Air Canada of the old favourite Air Transat, which has had cheap fares for decades, is not helping prices in 2020.

But Montreal-based Air Transat, which is still branded as such next year, has a pretty good deal for your wife: £562 return from Gatwick. Your dates are even cheaper at £549 return – and you would get to fly outbound on the new Airbus A321LR, a narrow-bodied plane that I think is a cut above the normal cheapies.

Even with the stinging £110 return surcharge for a checked bag plus seat selection, those fares come in at below the £700 return mark that I would expect to see at this point in the booking cycle. I think you should snap this up, because I don’t see fares falling significantly.

Fares on WestJet, Air Transat’s budget Canadian rival, are not significantly higher. This carrier also from Gatwick.

If Heathrow and/or a “full-service” airline is important to you, then Air Canada looks cheapest at around £900 including a checked bag – though you can shave £100 off if you make do with Air Canada’s generous two-piece cabin baggage allowance.

One more thought, though. Through online travel agents, British Airways has a fare of around £525 return (including lots of cabin baggage) so long as you start in Brussels, and connect at Heathrow. So if you would like a couple of trips to the Belgian capital thrown in, then find a cheap ticket on Eurostar and join the BA plane at Brussels, with a short stopover at Heathrow before the transatlantic flight.

After a Flybe flight was cancelled, one reader had trouble getting a refund (AFP/Getty)

Q My flight on Flybe from Manchester to Dusseldorf was cancelled at the last minute. I have contacted Flybe on several occasions who now tell me they have refunded £116 of a ticket costing £219 to eSky through whom I booked. But eSky tell me this cancelled flight is not eligible for compensation. Can you help?

Anne B

A I am sorry to hear that you chose to book a flight from the UK to Germany with a Polish online travel agent. The Katowice-based company (full name eSky połka Akcyjna) acquires business by bidding for airlines’ names through search engines. You click through to what you think is the carrier, but it turns out not to be.

The reports I have heard indicate that the customer service is poor. But in your case I believe you should be refunded in full since UK consumer law will apply.

Furthermore I imagine you have a case under the European air passengers’ rights rules for cash compensation of €250 (£211) for the sudden cancellation.

The compensation is the easy part: simply apply to Flybe, explaining the flight you were on and quoting your booking reference.

For a refund of the missing £103 that eSky did not refund, you will need to start getting legalistic. First, tell your credit-card company (assuming this is how you paid) about your case, and ask them to refund the difference.

They may say that, as you booked through an agent, the appropriate law known as Section 75 does not make them jointly liable to provide the service – or refund you.

If this happens, then you will need to initiate proceedings against eSky under the European Small Claims procedure. This is relatively easy, and Citizens Advice will provide help if you need it.

In future, as I am sure I do not need to say, make sure that the site you are booking through is the genuine article rather than a company seeking to divert you.

In flight-booking terms, does a break-up constitute an ‘unexpected event’? (iStock)

Q I organised a trip to the US for myself and my boyfriend, starting in Florida and continuing to San Francisco. We have now broken up. Although things are still amicable, my ex is stressing over the cost of the lost flight out and back on British Airways. He is convinced we are able to transfer the ticket to him to use on another destination or at least have some money back. I am pretty sure that none of this is possible. What are your thoughts? Any advice?

Name supplied

A British Airways is reasonably generous in its terms for unexpected events. The airline says: “If you have been prevented from travelling by events beyond your control and all or part of the fare for your ticket is non-refundable. we will give you a credit for the non-refundable part of the fare.”

This applies if you have yet to start your journey, and have told BA as promptly as you could, so it can try to resell your seat, and can provide “evidence of these events”.

The credit can be used for future travel on British Airways and can even be used for a different passenger.

“We may take a reasonable fee from the credit to cover our administration costs,” says BA, which is fair enough.

But the question is, what constitutes “events beyond your control”? The term is aimed at the sorts of incident that a decent travel insurance policy would cover, such as the ill-health of the traveller or a close relative.

A break-up, however sad, probably doesn’t count. I estimate the chances as less than 50-50, though, and a refund of Air Passenger Duty (£78, so worth having) is about all he can expect.

However, his ticket could be used by someone else of the same name to travel in his place. This happens quite frequently in such circumstances with people changing their name by deed poll, getting a new passport in that name and then changing back afterwards. Annoying and expensive (total cost around £200), but sometimes worth doing. It must be someone of the same gender.

Simplest of all, he could of course travel on the flights as originally booked and spend his time doing something entirely different in Florida and California. You don’t have to sit together on the plane.

Is Avanti serious about its new luggage restrictions? (PA)

Q I enjoyed reading your “obituary” to Virgin Trains. As a frequent traveller on the West Coast main line, I look forward, in eager anticipation, to Avanti’s operation and service. However, I am somewhat surprised to discover that their new timetable “for all Avanti West Coast routes to and from London Euston” states on page 4 some restriction of allowable baggage.

I quote: “You can bring: one item of hand luggage that can fit on your lap; two larger items of luggage, each not exceeding 30 x 70 x 90cm in size.”

Is this a new restriction? And what happens if you exceed this limit?

John M

A I happen to have Virgin Trains’ most recent paper timetable (perhaps I should get out more) and it entertainingly says exactly the same – except that a typo means it stipulates that the larger items should not be bigger than 30 x 70 x 9cm. Yes, the last dimension is less than four inches. No one was ever brought to book by having a bigger bag than this, and I don’t suppose this will happen under new management even with the correct rules.

In practice, it would be extremely difficult for one passenger to handle one piece of luggage of the maximum dimensions (twice as big as a chunky rollalong case), let alone two.

So I think the National Rail Conditions of Travel rule, which covers the whole network, is reasonable. It says: “You may take up to three items of luggage into the passenger accommodation of a train unless your luggage is such that it may cause injury, inconvenience or a nuisance [or] your luggage would obstruct doorways, gangways or corridors [or] the loading or unloading may cause delay to trains.”

There is a long tradition of people being able to take whatever they like on a train, which is in contrast to the increasingly minimal free allowances on planes. While of course some trains are inconveniently crowded with luggage – especially “going-home-for-Christmas” trains, and airport services – everyone seems to muddle along without too much fuss. Long may that continue, although if new low-cost expresses are brought in, then you can expect some serious luggage limits to come into force.

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