Why can’t I get a full refund now Aer Lingus is no longer flying from Manchester?

Q I am one of the passengers who booked Aer Lingus transatlantic flights from Manchester. The airline has now confirmed it is pulling out of Manchester. I booked via a third party, and this company says it will charge me a fee to process a refund. It will also not refund the costs for assigned seats. Surely I should be entitled to a full refund?

Alison M

A How maddening for you and others who committed cash in good faith to Aer Lingus for flights to the US this coming summer, only for the Irish airline to end its Manchester transatlantic operation by the end of March. Booking through an online travel agent (OTA) can often save money compared with buying direct.

While this may sound odd, Aer Lingus and other airlines use OTAs to provide additional sales power in the price-sensitive market, while preserving higher fares for people who prefer to book direct. But going through a middleman comes at a price if anything changes. In this scenario, the agency is allowed to charge a reasonable cancellation fee that reflects the cost of returning your money. I cannot for the life of me see why, though, the amount you paid to reserve specific seats should not come back to you.

Contact the agency and ask for an explanation for the amount it is withholding. Just asking may be sufficient to extract the fee for seats. If you are still not satisfied, say that you are contemplating a case against the OTA for unjust enrichment (when a business profits unfairly from a customer). A fee of more than around £50 looks hard to justify. Should this still not work, you could contact the issuer of the card you used to explain the situation and ask for the seat fee to be refunded, or go to Money Claim Online.

If you still plan to travel and have not yet booked alternative flights, remember that you can insist Aer Lingus rebooks you on your intended days of travel – though as I have written in answer to a previous question, the Irish airline may say you have to go via Dublin on its flights.

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Q What are your tips on avoiding solo supplements?

Sally H

A Solo travel has many advantages and I am an ardent practitioner of exploring on my own. Making a journey on your own gives you a deeper immersion in the culture you are experiencing. You have more independence and can take advantage of serendipity or whim to change plans.

Even dining alone is a pleasure: the solo diner can relish every morsel of a meal without distraction, except for some quiet eavesdropping on other diners’ conversations. There are many practical advantages, too. You won’t be held up with a companion who hasn’t remembered the airport security regime, insists on checking in a suitcase containing his or her extravagant wardrobe. On a fair number of occasions, I have grabbed the last seat on a plane or bus. And if an airline is dishing out upgrades due to overbooking in the cheap seats, the solo traveller is more likely to get lucky.

Going alone has drawbacks, too. Safety can be a worry: I have been the target of robbers while alone in Krakow, Lisbon and San José, Costa Rica. For single women, there is the extra concern of sexual violence. Next, many travellers love to share their experiences with a partner, friends or family, and the internet is a poor substitute for being there. And as you imply, the mainstream travel industry is designed for couples. For a standard room in a city hotel, a package to the Med or a cabin on a cruise, a solo traveller will typically pay up to twice as much as the per-person cost for two. Single supplements are a pain.

When travelling alone, I seek out smaller, family-run hotels where there is often a single room; this is easier in Europe than in North America. Elsewhere, hostels are a good bet. While I am a proponent of the package holiday because of the extra consumer protection it brings, if the solo price is disproportionate, I will assemble a DIY trip. Yet there is one advantage that most single travellers possess that allows them to keep the cost down: unless you work in education and are tied to school or college holidays, you can travel off-peak and save a fortune.

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Q Any views on the best airline to fly between Mendoza in Argentina and Santiago in Chile: Latam or Sky?

Baila B

A Thank you for asking such a niche question with, I hope, a useful answer. Mendoza and Santiago are the two cities located on either side of the highest Andes. Each is well worth exploring. Mendoza, in the foothills of the mountains, has a handsome colonial core and is the heart of Argentina’s wine industry. The Chilean capital, Santiago, rewards an investment of several days to explore its cultural repertoire and scenic location. But how best to travel between them?

The direct distance between the airports of Mendoza and Santiago is only 122 miles, which would normally be a quick half-hour hop. But flights – on Latam, Sky and also JetSmart – are scheduled to take over an hour. That is because the two cities are separated by the highest peaks of the Andes, including Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the southern hemisphere at nearly 23,000 feet. Planes between Mendoza and Santiago fly a U-shaped route in order to cross the range over a pass.

Were I to fly, my choice would be for any daytime flight in which I could guarantee a right-hand window seat clear of the wing. That should mean spectacular views to the north while crossing the mountains. Yet I recommend the eight-hour bus trip instead. The highway reaches an altitude of over 10,000 feet. The international crossing is made at the vast frontier post with about seven separate checks; this part of the journey is a pain, to be honest.

Once into Chile, the road descends through spectacular curves into increasingly benign countryside before reaching Santiago’s reasonably well-organised bus station – from which your hotel will be a short and cheap taxi ride away.

Ideally, you could stay for a night at a mountain lodge to experience the Andean highlands; you can pre-book with a bus company to drop you off at somewhere like Portezuelo del Viento on day one and pick you up the next day to complete the journey. In summer, you will meet climbers who are starting or ending attempts to reach the top of Aconcagua – one of the celebrated “seven summits”, the highest mountain in each of the planet’s continents.

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