Why are bargain flights a one-way deal when it comes to Cancun?

Simon Calder answers your queries on Mexican ticket pricing, breaking the train journey between London and Edinburgh, and the dream of speedy, low-stress airport security

Mexican waves: Cancun is famous for its long stretches of white sands (Getty/iStock)

Q My parents have come to visit me in Cancun. They got their flights for £270 each return with Tui. Why can’t I book anything from this side with Tui? The site doesn’t let me. Cheapest return tickets I can find to the UK are £700 on British Airways.

Andres I

A Tui has a busy programme of flights from various UK airports to Cancun in Mexico. A large majority of the seats are sold as part of packages to resorts on the Riviera Maya – the string of beaches running south from Mexico’s biggest holiday hub. I initially imagined the reason for the difficulty was to do with the rights to sell tickets in Mexico. In many locations outside the European Union, there are restrictions on sales of tickets for holiday flights – usually to do with protecting the national airline against competition. Typically a charter carrier is unable to fly people who have not been aboard the outbound sector from the UK. But I was wrong. Tui tells me it does sell some tickets for travel starting in Mexico. However, “availability is very limited owing to the fact we’re primarily a UK-based tour operator,” a spokesperson told me.

The fare your parents found is extremely low for a round trip of nearly 10,000 miles, especially since £88 of that £270 goes immediately as air passenger duty to the chancellor. My hunch is that they bought fairly late, when Tui was seeking to sell off the last few seats to fill the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Basic economics says that anything you can earn above the marginal cost of taking an extra passenger is worthwhile.

The airline wants to fill both legs: going out on a Saturday, say, and returning a fortnight later. This will be easier to manage from the British market than getting too involved with selling to people in Mexico. Having said that, I think you might get some late bargains one-way to the UK. I have just looked for a flight 24 hours ahead and can see two seats available from Cancun to London Gatwick for just £200 each – not quite the bargain your parents booked, but good enough for me. I plan to use this option on my next trip to Mexico. So thank you.

LNER, the main train operator on the East Coast Main Line, has eliminated the ‘super off-peak’ London-Edinburgh tickets (Simon Calder)

Q Now that I am no longer in full-time work, I am interested in the idea of stopping off on some of the journeys I make around Britain. For example, from London to Edinburgh, could I use a flexible ticket to stop off in York and Durham?

Neil T

A On many longer-distance journeys, you can stop off perfectly happily and legally. The trick is not to buy an advance ticket, which is strictly limited to the booked route and times. With an anytime ticket, you can hop on and off trains as often as you like, including over a number of days. But the price is steep. Much better to buy an off-peak or super off-peak. The difference between the two is that the super off-peak has tighter time restrictions but you can use both at any time at weekends. Both types generally allow breaks in the journey. From Cardiff to London Paddington, for example, the £60 super off-peak single will allow you stop off at Bristol, Bath and anywhere else you like along the Great Western line to the English capital. You do not need seat reservations.

The link you mention, from London to Edinburgh, is the most tempting of all for breaking journeys. Leaving London at 10am, you could stop for lunch in York from noon to 2pm, then pick one of the many trains to Durham (about 45 minutes) for an afternoon in the city before the onward journey in under two hours to the Scottish capital for dinner.

You could do this with an anytime ticket from London to Edinburgh but the fare is £205. Annoyingly, LNER – the main train operator on the East Coast Main Line – has eliminated the “super off-peak” London-Edinburgh tickets from its sales platforms in a bid to shift passengers to advance tickets and manage its inventory.

For a workaround, I turned to Mark Smith, “The Man in Seat 61”: international rail guru who formerly worked in ticketing at the Department for Transport. He told me: “If you want a super off-peak fare for its superior flexibility, buy one between Finsbury Park and Edinburgh and use it between London and Edinburgh.” At £95 one way, it is less than half the cost of an anytime ticket – and there is no need to visit Finsbury Park, a suburban station in north London.

Iata’s ‘checkpoint of the future’ was revealed in 2011 but we’re still waiting (Iata)

Q Many airports now have bag scanners that don’t need us to empty out cameras, phones, tablets, etc. Is there any prospect of something similar for body scanners, so we don’t have to remove our coats, cardigans, belts, watches, etc, and empty our pockets of everything, including handkerchiefs?

Keith W

A The short answer: yes, there is the prospect of such an experience. But, rather like the elusive quest to harness nuclear fusion to solve the world’s energy needs, progress towards “smart security” is painfully slow.

Aviation security is based on seeking to exclude items involved in actual or planned attacks. Initially, metal detectors were looking for guns with the aim of preventing hijackings. After the tragedy of 9/11, sharp objects that could be used to kill were put on the no-fly list. The “liquid bomb plot” of 2006 led to a limit of 100ml being imposed on LAGs (liquids, aerosols and gels) – and that familiar clear plastic resealable bag. Concern about explosives concealed in electronic gear such as laptops and tablets means many airports still require these items to be screened separately.

For screening the person, the classic metal detector arch is being steadily replaced by scanners that search for concealed weapons and explosives. These devices require that slightly awkward legs-apart, arms-out stance, with everything removed from pockets – including that harmless hanky.

Passengers have long been told that technology will come to the rescue. But the extremely expensive scanners installed at many UK airports are still not working well enough for the liquids limit to be permanently increased. All of which means that the airport security checkpoint remains, for many travellers, the main source of friction on a journey by air.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) is keen to make the experience easier and has outlined a “Checkpoint of the Future”. Basically, this is a corridor whose walls are packed with hi-tech gear that will “allow passengers to pass through security without having to remove clothes or unpack belongings”. You walk through, being scanned as you do, and out the other end – with aviation security staff taking some passengers to one side for further examination.

That vision was revealed in 2011. Fourteen years on, low-stress security remains only a prospect.

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