In regard to Helen Painter's letter (Traveller Letters, August 22-23) regarding business class allocated seating on British Airways – seriously, cry me a river (and that's both the Dinah Washington AND the Justin Timberlake versions)!

Listen to yourself. You're flying business class and most travellers don't have that opportunity. I assume that nobody forced you to pay an additional fee to allocate seats; that was your choice.

What was the worst that could have happened if you didn't have allocated seats? You were separated from your travelling companion for one leg of your journey?  I'm sure that British Airways will not even notice your future lack of patronage, you've just worked yourself up over nothing.

Thekla De Rango, Toorak, VIC

BUMPY CONDITIONS

My wife and I used Qantas frequent-flyer points to book business class seats from Melbourne to Rome on Qatar Airways. We checked in at Melbourne airport without a hassle and received our business-class boarding passes. However, when we went to board the plane we were told it was "overbooked" and one of the boarding passes was taken and replaced with an economy-class seat.

No explanation was given how this could happen two hours after check-in and no compensation was provided.

When I returned home neither airline accepted responsibility and told me to seek compensation from the other. The customer service I have received from both Qatar Airways and especially Qantas has been appalling.

Nathan Wolf, Caulfield North, VIC

HERO WORSHIP

I read Craig Platt's article (Traveller, August 29-30), hoping he had been to the land of Scott and Shackleton. But no, Craig's trip was to the Antarctic Archipelago. If you are truly enamoured with Antarctic heroes of 100 years ago, you can visit their old huts in McMurdo Sound.

Gobsmacked, you will stand by Scott's bunk at Cape Evans, read a 1917 inscription on a wall, scribbled by Australian Dick Richards, and stand in Titus Oates' horse stables. Everything there is frozen in time. Heritage Expeditions will take you, on the Spirit of Enderby.

Wilson McOrist, Bonville, NSW

BORNEO AGAIN

In the "Six of the Best" article relating to Borneo (Traveller, August 29-30) cruises to the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak​ were mentioned. It stated that the cruises visited Camp Leakey​ and the surrounding Tanjung Puting National Park, which implies that this was in the Malaysian states.

I wanted to point out that Camp Leakey and Tanjung Puting National Park are in fact in the Indonesian part of Borneo in the province of Central Kalimantan. This is in the south of Borneo, whereas the Malaysian states are in the north. I visited Camp Leakey some years ago and would highly recommend it.

Les Lawrenson, Currarong, NSW

HEAVEN GHENT

Thank you, Kay O'Sullivan, for your excellent  commentary on your cruise through Belgium. (Traveller, August 29-30) I must agree with your praise of Belgium as a tourist destination. If it were not for the cold winters I could quite happily live there. Interesting places such as Bruges and Ghent are wonderful but the town of Ypres further to the south is also an interesting place.

Anyone wanting to spend time on the Western Front will find Ypres a convenient town to be used as a base. Day trips are possible to many World War I  battlefields with Fromelles, France, just over the border.

The cruise sounds luxurious, but the train system also works well in Belgium and driving is not difficult. Some will say Brussels is boring but I have always found it to be interesting and an excellent gateway to London on the Eurostar  train.

Robyn Lewis, Raglan, NSW

CHEQUES AND BALANCES

The problems encountered travelling with bank debit cards (Traveller, August 29-30) is to do with the fact that they are a dubious product that you might be better off without. It is all about the bank having access to your money, rather than the convenience to you of cash or credit cards when travelling.

Difficulties accessing your money sounds surprisingly similar to the old days of bank-issued traveller's cheques that you often could not cash anywhere.

John Swanton, Botany, NSW

BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Earlier this year, illness obliged me to cancel a fully paid-for five-week trip to Paris, organised through Airbnb. I did this six weeks before my planned departure date, but was nonetheless, in accordance with Airbnb's stated terms, obliged to forfeit a month's rent, of some $2700. After an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a refund, I told my sad tale to Rants & Raves. Imagine my astonishment when this prompted an almost immediate email from Brandon, a very pleasant Airbnb employee. A fortnight later, Brandon had secured for me a refund of all $2700.

Thank you, airbnb, and thank you, Traveller Letters.

John Golder, Bondi Junction, NSW 

LETTER OF THE WEEK

I spent a couple of  relaxing weeks on a Malaysian island – which I won't name for fear that it may be infected by Australians and their debilitating "safety from all and every danger – real and imagined" syndrome.

It was great to meet a friendly, happy people, cheerfully having a smoke without a guilty feeling, wearing a seat-belt if one can be bothered, putting on a helmet only if you didn't want the breeze to ruffle your hair and parking when, where and how you wanted. And not a drunk to be encountered.

I was amazed to watch a youngster gleefully hanging onto a beach parasail as it swept around the bay, an action that would have our council busybodies closing down the operation with the poor guy subjected to finger-wagging counselling by Worksafe.

Back to "safety at any cost" Melbourne  to be nearly trampled by app-addicted zombies, buds in ears, eyes fixated on screens, oblivious to anybody in their paths.

We really need to get a life.

John B Quinn, Avoca, VIC