Have you recently found yourself paying excess baggages charges on the return leg of your holiday?

Were you told you would have to pay excess after the luggage had gone onto the conveyor system?

Did you find that they only accepted cash in payment for the excess baggage costs?

Were they many others also having to pay excess baggage charges on the same flight?

What better way to make money than to alter the scales on the check in desks by a tiny percentage, one turn with a screwdriver to adjust the scan is all it would take in some instances. No credit card transactions so that the money paid could be shared out by those in on the scam!!!!! Poor holiday makers scared that their luggage would not be waiting at their home airport.

Now you know that there is a potential for this to take place my advice is to

• weigh your luggage if possible before you reach the airport.
• make sure you obtain a receipt for payment which shows the amount of excess weight you are carrying.
• weigh the luggage on your return home and then report and differences to the airline involved.
• add a comment on this page as to the airline and airport you flew back from including where possible the date.

Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (ATOL) --- ABTA The Travel Assocoation

Cheap Flights Travelwise

Shopping around on the Internet can result in getting some really good deals on flights so arm yourself with some knowledge before beginning the quest.

I shall be adding some links to different companies that offer cheap flights later on so do check the categories from time to time for new additions.

Low cost airlines tend to have the better deals if you book earlier and in a lot of cases you only have to pay for the airport taxes and a few pounds for the actual flight. There is however something to consider and that is that baggage charges will have to be added if you are storing anything in the hold. There is with some low cost airlines a different split of your baggge allowance. 10 kilo grams hand luggage and 15 kilo gram hold limits apply to some and you need to watch the hold luggage since this will incur charges if over the allowance.

Scheduled flights are those run by major airlines and seem to be in my experience the more expensive option, however that being said you do generally have certain extras available to you.

Chartered flights are those arranged by a travel company and more often not these days will be part of the travel group. The cost of these flights seem to get lower the closer to the depature date. More often than not the baggage allowance is hand 5kg and hold 20kg.

Since the flights can be the most expensive item it is worthwhile booking the flights first since you can then move forwards or backwards a day or two to get the cheapest flight. You can then book the hotel after since generally the price will not be different.

Obvious to some perhaps but still worth note is that you can enter cheap flights and the destination into most common search engines like www.google.co.uk for example. This will return many sites to begin your search. However, you will soon become exhausted looking. There are several websites that will search through a number of different airlines for you and some of these as I mentioned earlier will be mentioned.

You will notice that not alll the options are direct flights and some may include a transfer and although it could work out cheaper you do need to consider the extra time it will consume in the transfer process. Consider that you have to initially travel to the airport, 1 hour, 1 hour allocated for incidents enroute, 2 hours booking in time, flight times on both aeroplanes, immigration and baggage collection say 1 hour, transfer time of say 2 hours. So that is 7 hours plus the sum of both flight times and then you need to add in the time waiting to depart from the second airport.

Alicante to Benidorm transfers

For those that have booked a package holiday a word of caution, do check that the transfers are included in with the price.

No doubt some of you will be having car hire while over in Benidorm and then you will more than likely pick up the car at Alicante airport.

To the others however you need to search online for the best deals since the taxi fair is expensive. For those that are considering making your own holiday arrangements for the first time it can be a worrying time especially if there are several in the party. I have yet to hear of anyone that booked transfers that have had problems and again I know that there must be. Do keep your booking documents with you and a spare copy with another member as insurance against you losing them. In most cases they are not needed since the driver of the coach or mini-bus will have a manifesto with your name on it.

I have to say that the journey from Alicante to Benidorm can take some time depending upon the number of drop offs before you reach your hotel.

Do check online at a number of different companies to try and get the best deal or for added safety use the one recommended by the booking agent if not too much more than you found.

The UK dialling code is 0044, then you knock the leading zero off the STD code that you would normally use within the UK. However the reason this is a travelwise entry is that there are phone cards available in Benidorm that you enter a code and can speak to the UK at lower rates. The cards are 6 euro and seem to last an eternity when used in a public phone box. Should mention that the number to dial to Spain is 0034 and then you drop the 9 from the number.

Travelwise Benidorm

Like any holiday resort not only are holidaymakers attracted to the area but also the criminal element, Benidorm is no exception.

You will notice a crowd around conmen with the old find the marble trick. Do not be tempted to try your lady luck since you will lose for sure. Those that do win are generaly those in on the con.

What do always find in crowds, pickpockets? Take extra care when you are in a crowd like if you visit the market or when watching Fiestas

Travelwise Copy your Passport

Your passport is a valuable document, not only to you but to those with criminal intent.

Even though you may take the greatest of care there are still occasions when your passport maybe lost or stolen. My husband's passport went missing after staff took it to be photocopied at Levante Hospital in Benidorm. So what can you do about it

In the first place most of us now have printers and copiers available that can make damm good reproductions of the main passport page. Make a couple of copies of the main passport page and save one yourself and then leave the other with a member of your family or a friend. Keep your copy in a seperate place to where the passport is. One easy way is to exchange the copies with other members of your party.

Should the worse happen you will need to report the loss to the local police but at least you will have the passport details with you or can get them with a phone call home.

Travelwise Luggage labels

Although I have not heard of anyone I know that this as happened to it is still worthy of highlighting.

If you put your return address on any luggage on the outbound journey you are leaving yourself open to coming home to an empty house. Criminals do not wear masks and could be even your fellow passengers? Consider how easy it would be for those with criminal intent to acquire your address from the luggage label and then pay a visit to your home while you are away topping up the tan.

So never put your home address on your luggage labels until the day of your return home.

Travelwise Luggage Cases

Travelwise are little tips that can prevent mishaps from spoiling your holiday.

You may have yourself heard of people that have lost or had their luggage delayed in transit as I have. Well one such story I heard of was on a cruise when the airline lost one of a couple's cases. This meant that she did not have any clothing to wear and had to go purchase some. Yes, the insurance did pay out for her but no the less it cost them the excess and the case did eventually turn up. Since it turned up then no doubt on the return they would have extra baggage and this may have incurred extra costs if over the limit.

So if you are not a lone traveller then mix clothing into two cases such that if one case goes missing then you will still have some items of clothing to wear. I have still to hear of both his and her cases going missing, no doubt someone will have had the experience though!!!