Christmas travel: emotion and disruption are both running high

Simon Calder’s Travel Week [SUBSCRIBE]( [SUBSCRIBE: £1 FOR 3 MONTHS]( December 23, 2022 [View in browser](   [The Independent]( [The Independent]( Every journey involves emotion. This Christmas, the passion for travel is stronger than ever. For many, it is the first December since 2019 when they are free to spend time with those they love, or make a midwinter escape to a beach, mountain or city. Euston, we have a problem: Avanti West Coast passengers waiting at the London terminus High emotional investment makes [the extreme stress of the travel industry this Yuletide]( all the more unfortunate. On the railways, today represents the last-chance saloon for many people with long journeys to make. Passengers are being warned to avoid attempting to travel tomorrow ahead of the next national rail strike. RMT members working for Network Rail will walk out at 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on 27 December. [The final trains on 24 December]( will leave as early as 8am (except on East Midlands Railway between Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester and London, where they won’t leave at all due to a separate strike by members of the Unite union). By lunchtime today we should know the true effect of [the strike by members of the PCS union working for UK Border Force at the nation’s three busiest airports]( – Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester – plus Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff. Airline passengers arriving today could find their passport is checked by a soldier, or perhaps a high-ranking civil servant brought in to try to limit the damage caused by the walk-out. Inbound travellers have been warned to expect delays of two hours (to which a cynical passenger might say that they should get through around the time their baggage appears on the carousel). The worst-case scenario: overcrowding in arrivals halls triggers an order to pilots to keep passengers on board, delaying turnarounds and disrupting departures. If Heathrow can successfully handle the first wave of arrivals this morning, with 50 planes scheduled to bring in more than 10,000 passengers before 7am, equilibrium can probably be maintained. The alternative: disruption spiralling out of control, with mandatory cancellations of some later flights. I believe the airports will cope (though Lord knows my predictions have been wrong many times before). Here at Gatwick I have just spoken to passenger Joe Temple, freshly arrived from New York, who reports a smooth passport control experience. And the pressure at Heathrow has been unexpectedly eased because around 400 passengers on a Qantas Airbus A380 from Sydney, due in at 6.15am, are currently stranded with their SuperJumbo in Baku, Azerbaijan. The plane diverted with a technical issue and thereby eased the early morning pressure at the UK's busiest airport. “I really want to urge people who have got plans to travel abroad to think carefully about their plans because they may well be impacted.” That is the home secretary speaking ahead of the strike. Do you detect echoes of the depths of the Covid pandemic? Suella Braverman is picking up where previous ministers left off. You might recall that, in May 2020, Phillip Schofield of ITV This Morning asked the then-health secretary [if summer was essentially cancelled](. “I think that’s likely to be the case, yes,” Matt Hancock replied. “We haven’t made a final decision on that yet.” A couple of months into a pandemic, uncertainty was contagious and the British people were reasonably accepting that holidays and family visits were off the agenda with a terrifying virus out of control. But the government has the antidote for the travel fiasco we now face. I have covered pre-Christmas transport crises pretty much since Biblical times, and have never seen quite such a convergence of avoidable chaos as Yuletide 2022. Governments meddle with travellers’ emotions at their peril. [Read our regularly updated guide to all the Christmas and New Year strikes on the railways and at UK airports](   [Get inspired...]( [Viennese whirl]( How to find the perfect balance of cool and kitsch on a winter trip to the Austrian capital [I'm an image]( [Desperately seeking Santa]( How to have the perfect family holiday in Lapland [I'm an image]( [Basel breaks]( Where to stay, eat, drink and shop in Switzerland’s underrated capital   Enjoying this newsletter? Unlock unlimited, ad-free reading on the website and in The Independent app when you subscribe – plus, benefit from our [welcome offer when you join today](.   Tip of the week: Le Havre is back on the cross-Channel map The fascinating French port of Le Havre, a Unesco World Heritage Site and gateway to the Seine-Maritime region, is getting reconnected with the UK. From 1 March 2023, Brittany Ferries’ Cotentin will sail from Portsmouth on Sunday and Thursday nights – returning in the evenings on the same days. One-way fares start at £109 for a car, a driver and a passenger. [Our latest city guide to Le Havre is here](   Deal of the week: Sunday by rail in Northern Ireland One part of the UK has had dependable trains all year: Northern Ireland. Equally dependable is the extraordinary value offered by the Sunday Day Tracker – which offers unlimited rail travel throughout the nation on the Sabbath for £8. You can travel east from Derry/Londonderry along the north coast, into Belfast and across to Bangor or south to Newry. Buy on the day from a ticket office or the on-board conductor. [Why Belfast should be your next cultural break](   Question of the week: Should I give a flight voucher as a gift? Q I’d like to give flight vouchers as Christmas presents. What do you think? A Giving experiences rather than goods is commendable, and what better than the gift of travel? But if you buy a voucher for a particular airline, you will consign your nearest and dearest to what is likely to be a distinctly inferior experience. Airlines love selling vouchers. But from the recipient’s perspective, it is a recipe for regret. It excludes the possibility of travelling on a different carrier. So if a rival airline has a more convenient departure airport, timing or fare, you will inadvertently prevent the recipient from the ideal itinerary. The gift voucher will doubtless come with strings attached, typically with a time restriction within which it must be used. And if for some reason the recipient does not spend it all at once, any remaining balance may have to be spent on a sub-optimal purchase supplemented with real cash. Happily, there is a solution: a hand-made card with an inscription entitling the recipient to, say, a weekend for two in Barcelona during 2023 (if you suspect the beneficiary could be profligate, you might wish to stipulate a cash limit). They will thank you for your thoughtful gift. And if they decide to go to Dublin or Amsterdam instead, I am sure you will not mind. [The 36 best Christmas gifts, according to my colleagues at IndyBest]( STAT OF THE WEEK 43 [Number of Eurostar trains cancelled on Boxing Day as a result of the next strike]( by members of the RMT union working for Network Rail. At least 20,000 international travellers between London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam have had their travel plans torn up. What you might have missed... - Cash bonus: [French rail passengers get twice their money back when trains are cancelled by a pre-Christmas strike]( - Troubled times: [First possible date for normal rail services: 9 January 2023]( - Stranded in Paradise: [A British Airways technical problem left Elizabeth Hurley stuck in Antigua]( SIMON'S DIARY       Every day from Monday to Friday I tackle a top travel story, or explore a topic in more detail than usual in ‘Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast’ – available free on [Spotify](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Pocket Casts]( or [Acast](.         Every day from Monday to Friday I tackle a top travel story, or explore a topic in more detail than usual in ‘Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast’ – available free on [Spotify](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Pocket Casts]( or [Acast](.         I find the easiest way to rush out stories is to tweet them. It’s also an easy way to contact me. 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