Airline passenger news and views

In one of life’s little ironies, a neighbour has just taken delivery of a new 4x4 for the school run.  She will deny the latter but cannot hide the fact that the big gas guzzler takes up the space of a small bus. 

I mention this not in terms of environmental damage or social mobility but in terms of her holiday plans. She, husband and brood are going to the Gulf coast of Florida for their holidays.

This coast, of course, adjoins the pristine waters where, keen to meet her fuel hungry needs, BP had their recent mishap. Big alert – risk of oil on the beaches – find somewhere else to go.

Taking a less bitchy approach, I can see the problem if you have booked your holiday and topped up your tan only to see the white sand dotted with black oil and little Johnny covered in slime. Can you cancel? Will the insurance pay?

Well, probably not. Travel insurance generally covers cancellations caused by death and sickness in the family and wars etc where the Foreign Office (I always find that name confusing) advise you not to go.  Cancelling because you no longer like the look or sound of it will not qualify.

My neighbour apart, this is likely to be a conundrum for a number of families. In other areas, I would expect the travel companies to have contingency plans but the Gulf coast resorts tend to be dominated by self-bookers who will not have that protection.

At the moment, the contamination is limited to the northern shores and it is still a very long way away from the beautiful west coast (Tampa to Naples). Hopefully, it will stay that way but I still think she should buy a more sensible car.