Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

Extreme wintry weather plus air-traffic control strikes in France spell a miserable day for many travellers. Problems are likely to continue into the weekend. Good luck, everybody.This podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. To get it delivered to your inbox every Friday, subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’m in the Taurus mountains of southern Turkey, beside a tranquil reservoir, but the row over how much each passenger at the UK’s busiest airport should pay for the privilege is rumbling.Heathrow says the average £27.50 per person charge prescribed by the Civil Aviation Authority is not nearly enough to deliver the standards passengers deserve; airlines are furious and say the figure is way above other airports.The blunt truth is that Heathrow is more popular with passengers – and airlines – than any other airport on the planet, and that without the CAA cap charges would be stratospheric.This podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. To get it delivered to your inbox every Friday, subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Members of the RMT union working for Network Rail have called off their strike that was set to take place on 16 March. They called off the strike (along with overtime bans) while a referendum takes place on the latest offer.Many more trains will now run on that day. But strikes by staff at 14 train operators on 16, 18, 30 March and 1 April are set to continue.This podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. To get it delivered to your inbox every Friday, subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Baggage, a sometimes fraught and confusing system many of us encounter when things go awry. In today's episode, I sit down and go through the post bag, answering your questions on baggage - how it works when things go wrong, who's responsible and how best to go about being reunited with your luggage.This podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. To get it delivered to your inbox every Friday, subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I’m on my way from London to Leeds – the pretty way, via Sheffield, using a £45 Advance ticket on East Midlands Railway to a station called Darton – where I will spend another £6 to complete the journey. Yes, it takes a good hour longer, but saves around £50.Of course, this podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday by subscribing here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I'm recording from a live test of the new Luton Airport DART system connecting the Parkway rail station with the terminal.I talk to Javeria Hussain who is chair of Luton Rising – the organisation that runs Luton Airport — about the new system.Of course, this podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday by subscribing here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Norse Atlantic is the new kid on the block from Gatwick to the US this summer. It might have a terrible name, in my opinion, but could it mean savings galore on travel to the United States?Of course, this podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday by subscribing here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the first of March — Happy St David's Day — so I thought I should warn you about what you can expect if you're travelling around by train this month.This podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is about what to do if a passenger name is incorrect on a booking. Airlines are very eager that names be correct, while trains in the UK aren't bothered at all. In this episode, I guide you through what the rules are and what you can do about an incorrect name on a booking.This podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. Subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I regularly trawl the European Union site for news about the “ETIAS” scheme and have seen that they have quietly changed the target date.It turns out that British travellers to the EU will not need a £6 “eurovisa” until 2024 at the earliest.The scheme has been under development for at least the last seven years and was due to begin in 2021, but has been repeatedly postponed. This podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.