Traveller letters: $6 for wine? It's a Qantas cost-cutting measure

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Traveller letters: $6 for wine? It's a Qantas cost-cutting measure

WINE CHARGE SAD COST-CUTTING MEASURE

Travelling on a 6.20pm Qantas flight to Coolangatta to visit my granddaughter I was presented with a hot meal but, to my surprise, if I desired a wine with my meal it would cost me $6? Yes, this was a Qantas flight. I was informed by the staff that Coolangatta is regarded by Qantas as a holiday destination and therefore charges apply for your alcohol. Apparently Cairns and Alice Springs fall into the same classification. This is a sad cost-cutting measure from Qantas.

Marie Davies, Penrith, NSW

LETTER OF THE WEEK

As a bloke with a proud Welsh heritage, I gave the big thumbs up to Brad Smith's photo, "Waterfall Country" (Traveller, February 6-7). The Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales is indeed picture-postcard territory. I have magnetised Brad's photo to the fridge – it's often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. "Waterfall Country" is a work of art and will surely encourage more snap-happy travellers to visit Wales.

Wales is a beautiful place, yet it gets little publicity when compared to England, Scotland and Ireland. The Welsh are known for their love of song and the telling of a yarn, it's a friendly place with a unique charm. It's easy to fall in love with the magic of Wales.

Kevin Nathaniel, Riverview, NSW

GALLIPOLI IS NO TOURIST TRAP

Ute Junker's introduction to Puglia (Traveller, February 6-7) was excellent, but I was amazed and disappointed by her advice to "skip the tourist trap towns such as Gallipoli". My wife and I used Gallipoli as our base to explore Puglia in September 2014 and found it a beautiful, friendly and quiet historic town.

Perhaps being past the peak season helped (yet it was still warm enough to swim most afternoons after returning from our day's drive), but we hardly saw another tourist all week and enjoyed great food in the numerous seaside cafes and amazing hospitality from our apartment owner, Andrea.

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One important tip – make sure you stay in the ancient centre, located on an island attached by roadbridge to the less attractive, modern, mainland part of town.

Tony Cogan, Blairgowrie, Vic

DARTCHARGE TOLLS FOR ALL

Last August, we were visiting Britain on a fly/drive holiday and had to use the Dartford Tunnel to cross the River Thames. There is a toll of £2.50 which can be purchased online or via a retailer either before the crossing or immediately after. We decided to purchase it from a retailer two days before, a big mistake.

After completing the crossing without event, we returned to Australia having left the receipt in the car when we dropped it off at Heathrow. Imagine our surprise when two months later we received a bill from Hertz for £42 for administration charges resulting from a penalty notice issued by DartCharge for failing to pay the toll. The big problem was, because we no longer had the receipt, we were unable to prove that we had paid the toll via a retailer.

This resulted in much correspondence with DartCharge over three months when the case ended up at the Road Traffic Tribunal (at this stage DartCharge were asking us to pay a fee of £37.50 to close the matter) who eventually directed us to pay the toll again, which we reluctantly did. So we ended up out of pocket £47 even though we had tried to do the right thing in the first place – not a happy camper!

Duncan Campbell, Greensborough, Vic

NO PROBLEM WITH HAWAIIAN AIRLINES

Regarding Tim Maunsell's letter (Traveller Letters, January 30-31) where he wrote of his difficulties encountered flying Hawaiian Airlines, we would like your readers to know that we did not encounter any such problems or any unexpected charges.

My husband, adult daughter and myself flew to Hawaii with Hawaiian Airlines both ways last July and experienced no baggage excess charges or any other problems. All our flights were booked and paid for prior to our departure for Hawaii. The airline allows a passenger up to two bags, each with a 30-kilogram limit, as well as a carry-on bag.

We also travelled on three inter-island flights with Hawaiian Airlines, again with no problems or extra costs. At every airport we went through, we obtained our luggage tags and boarding passes at self-serve kiosks. Once the tags were attached, we dropped our bags at a "Bag Drop" counter to be loaded onto the flight.

Robyn Johnson, Epping, NSW

INDIA E-TOURIST VISA NO SPEEDY SOLUTION

India has introduced a promising e-Tourist Visa process (Traveller Letters, January 30-31) but, at the moment, it seems worse than the traditional system.

Within days of our online application and payment, the system issued e-Tourist Visas by email for myself and my two young children. Turns out it was too easy.

On arrival in Delhi, we headed directly to the traditional immigration queue, to be turned away and sent to the e-Visa queue. With my two young children I waited there for more than an hour, despite being fifth in line – there was only one officer working and seven vacant desks. Each traveller took more than 10 minutes to process, plus the wheelchair passengers who went to the front of the single queue. This suggests that the visa processing actually takes place on arrival and the online system is merely for payment and lodgement of photos.

The sole immigration officer told the remaining passengers to take a seat in the arrivals hall as processing would take some time, but no one was game to lose their spot in that line. My rough calculation indicated it would take about five hours to process our Air India flight from Melbourne. Readers are cautioned not to apply for an India e-Tourist Visa until the authorities sort out their processing.

Kate Brown, Malvern, Vic

WE WELCOME YOUR TRAVEL-RELATED OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES

The writer of the letter judged the best of the week will receive a Lonely Planet prize pack. See www.lonelyplanet.com.

Letters may be edited for space, legal or other reasons. Preference will be given to letters of 50-100 words or less.

Email us at travellerletters@fairfaxmedia.com.au and, importantly, include your name, address and phone number.

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