Not sure whether it was as a result of hiring a car in the UK and Ireland or just being an Australian rent-a-car member, but my details – including name, address, phone number, credit card and driver’s licence information – were lost in an Avis data breach. It took a month after they were aware of the incident to advise customers. They now won’t reply to emails and I cannot get through on the phone number provided. Not good enough, Avis.
Jenny Knox St Leonards, Vic

Pay day

A recent letter writer tells of having a phone snatched by a passer-by in London (Traveller Letters, October 5). I had my phone lifted from my bag one night in the middle of a downpour in a street market in Hanoi by an old woman selling fruit. Our tour guide sent a message to my phone from his (in Vietnamese) stating “we’ll pay”. Sure enough, she called the guide back, and after agreeing a price of one million dong ($60). It was a lot of money to her, no doubt, but not much to us. We were advised where to meet her to “buy” the phone back. And it worked.
Anne Burton, South Melbourne, Vic

Economy of scale

Your readers might be interested to know of what I believe is an unannounced change in accruing Qantas Frequent Flyer points. We have made three return business class trips to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Sydney in the past 12 months on Malaysian Airlines, a member of the One World alliance. In September, Qantas advised us we were being downgraded from Qantas Platinum Frequent Flyer membership to Gold. When we asked why, we were told that business class flights on Malaysian Airlines now only count as economy class flights for Qantas points. The cost of a business class fare on Qantas and Malaysian is about the same. It appears this change has occurred in the past year.
John Tucker, Reid, ACT

Dressing down

Brian Johnston’s cover story on how to be a perfect cruiser (Traveller, October 5) was spot-on. I was particularly impressed by his encouragement to Aussie blokes to at least make an effort to put on a clean pair of trousers at night. Brian’s note was almost apologetic and who can blame him. There is a group of people out there who are incredibly resistant to making even the slightest effort to dress up. We are not talking white tie and tails here, just perhaps a shirt with a collar.
Ross MacPherson, Seaforth, NSW

Surprise, surprise

In April, I booked return December flights to Europe with Etihad Airways. In August, Etihad changed the time of each of the legs, giving me only an hour and a half transit time each way, with the options of rebooking, a credit or a refund. I went for the refund, which their system indicated could take 30 days. I was pleasantly surprised to find the full refund in my bank account 24 hours later. Thanks, Etihad for making the process so simple and prompt.
Penny Teutenberg, Parkdale, Vic

Better translate than never

I really enjoy learning some basic words when we travel and it’s amazing how much people appreciate us making the effort. I had a particularly kind woman cleaning my room in Durres, Albania. The extent of my Albanian was unfortunately limited to “hello” and “thank you” so as I was about to head out, I typed “have a good day” into the Google Translate app on my phone and showed it to her. Her eyesight wasn’t good and neither was her literacy in her own language. She took the phone over to the window so that she could see it better and followed each word with her finger then her face lit up as it dawned on her what I had tried to say. She spontaneously hugged me and I think it made her day as well as mine.
Susan McMahon, Lismore Heights, NSW

Rocky Mountain highs

I have just returned, as a solo female traveller in my 70s, from Montana and Idaho in the US. With no intention to self-drive, I used Greyhound and Jefferson buses between cities, travelling through the Prairies, the Rocky Mountains right through to Idaho, the Glacier National Park and the Going to the Sun Road. The scenery was stunning, with huge lakes, massive numbers of pine trees, alpine meadows and deep green hanging valleys. As always, the Americans were friendly and helpful.
Lyn Clarke, Carnegie, Vic

An F for BA

On a recent trip to the UK travelling Qantas business class, the Singapore-London leg was a codeshare with British Airways, in Club Class. Whoever designed it should be made to travel in it for a night. The pods are narrow and the only storage is a small drawer at floor level. When the seats are flat for sleeping, this drawer becomes inaccessible, leaving nowhere to put any necessities such as a water bottle or in my case, my glasses. I had to clutch them in my hand as I tried to sleep, hoping that they wouldn’t get damaged.

Added to that, the configuration of the seats is such that you may have to climb over sleeping passengers if you get up at night – not easy if you are elderly. It was such a relief to fly the final leg home on Qantas.
Mary Lyon, Camperdown, Vic

Tip of the week: The two of us I

I have just returned from an absolutely wonderful five-night Canadian Empress cruise along the St Lawrence River from Kingston to Ottawa (pictured above) with my Canadian girlfriend of 25 years (Traveller, October 4). We have travelled happily together on many cruises over the years, including going to the Greek Islands, the Caribbean and Hawaii. This trip, however, was our most challenging with two small single beds and a tiny toilet and shower. However, we discovered nothing, including a leaky toilet and flooded cabin, would stop us enjoying each other’s company and the beautiful St Lawrence River trip. A wonderful and true friend is all you need in any situation.
Sue Conwell, Malvern East, Vic

The two of us II

I have just returned from a four-week holiday to Spain and Portugal with my great friend of 30 years. We have had a few short holidays with our families over the years, weekends away, tropical resort holidays and skiing, but this was the first time we travelled without them and overseas. What a fabulous time. We got on famously and our friendship is as strong as ever. Two things helped: first, we didn’t share a room (we made sure we had a suite, so we had room to spread out); secondly, for two of the weeks we went on a tour with the legendary food journalist Maeve O’Meara. It was a first for both of us and immersing ourselves in the food of Portugal and Spain proved an extraordinary experience, with the group dynamics giving us some space. I’m looking forward to lots more holidays with my friend Heidi.
Roslyn Rossettin, Birchgrove, NSW

Munchen magic

Michael “The Tripologist” Gebicki makes some excellent suggestions in his column (Traveller, October 11) for a stay in Munich between December 24 and 28. I have a couple to add from my own visit. Remember that in most European cities, including Munich, Christmas Eve is the key day of celebrations and many or most restaurants will be closed. We chose to stay at the wonderful Sofitel Munich Bayerpost (inside a restored old Post Office building), which allowed us to book a beautiful Christmas Eve dinner and a lovely Christmas Day lunch as well without needing to leave the hotel. The highlight of our visit was going to the opera on Christmas evening, a Munich family tradition at the Bavarian State Opera House. We saw The Magic Flute and this year it’s Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment. I only wish I could be there again this Christmas.
Alison Smith, Shepparton, Vic

From tents to tense

Your recent story on Africa (Traveller, September 8), reminded me of a scary experience on the Serengeti in Tanzania last year. My wife and I slept soundly in our luxury tent until 2am, when we were woken by a close, low growling and a consistent bumping on the tent wall behind our bed. What we thought was one lion, turned out to be three, according to staff. This interaction lasted for some time as the lions also lapped run-off water from our shower. Needless to say, we were quite shaken, but I courageously refrained from blowing the supplied emergency air horn. When we approached the staff at breakfast, they were nonplussed. “You just need to shine a torch in their eyes and they’ll run away,” was the advice. Warning: keep a torch handy.
Warrick Hannon, Blue Bay, NSW

The Letter of the Week writer wins three Hardie Grant travel books. See hardiegrant.com

The Tip of the Week writer wins a set of three Lonely Planet travel books. See shop.lonelyplanet.com