FLIGHT Spring into giving your direct debits a check

Voucher problem is sorted after plane

AI’M DELIGHTED to say that easyJet responded very quickly to my email. They sent me this statement..

“We are sorry that Mr Riddell was incorrectly informed of his options.

“Our team has now been in touch to apologise for the error and provide a full refund for his flights.

“Following the decision that easyJet would be closing its Newcastle base last summer, any customers with flight vouchers who are no longer able to use these as a result of the base closure will be able to receive a refund instead.

“We contacted all customers whose flights have been impacted by the base closure with clear guidance on their options, which include switching to another flight free of charge, receiving a voucher or a refund.”

Kenneth has since been in touch again to confirm that he has had contact from easyJet and he will receive a full refund very soon.

That’s a great result, and I have to say I’m impressed with the way easyJet dealt with this case.

They responded quickly, admitted they had made a mistake and corrected that mistake.

That’s all that most customers are looking for companies to do when they contact them with a problem.

Instead so many small issues grow

HOPEFULLY, we’ll all have much more freedom to get out and about a bit more over the next few weeks but, while we’re still stuck at home, why not use any free time you have to give your finances a bit of a spring clean?

There’s no better place to start than with your bank account.

Get a hold of your most recent statement, whether that’s a paper copy or one you can access online.

Go through it line by line to make sure that you understand every credit and debit on the statement.

“Why should you have to do that?” I hear you ask.

“Surely the bank will just pay the debits I ask them to pay, deduct all the items I’ve bought with my debit card and credit my salary or pension or any other money that I have transferred into my account?”

Well, in a normal month that is what you would expect to happen, and in the vast majority of cases it is exactly what will happen.

But what about the direct debit you set up for a six-month trial of that new magazine you fancied checking out for a bit?

Or the free trial for a newspaper that insisted that you gave them your bank details when you set it up. Did you remember to cancel it at the end of the free trial period?

Are you still paying for that gym membership even though you haven’t been allowed to use the gym for a year, or for a satellite TV subscription that you forgot to cancel when you switched to cable a couple of months ago?

What about Netflix or Amazon Prime that you said you would merge with your partner’s account when you moved in together. Are you still paying for two accounts?

The list is almost endless. And quite often it’s not a case of a company trying to rip you off, it’s simply that you’re not on top of your administration and you forget to cancel a mandate when you should have done.

Take the time to do it now. You never know what you might find.

THE trout season has rolled round, renewed permits landed in the post and pretty much all the waters have opened up.

On the fishing calendar, this is the unofficial new year and I love to get out as close to opening day as I can.

Normally, I’d be out fishing nymphs on the river or have a day pulling wets on a boat but I kept the conventional equipment locked up and took the light lure gear instead.

I’ve seen a lot of American anglers using soft plastic lures to great effect for brownies – the sort of lures I’ve filled my box with perch, pike and light rock fishing (LRF) species.

With a micro jighead and a fry-sized soft plastic lure, they manage to catch decently sized brown trout.

It got me thinking, “Could I do the same on my stretch?” Plus the perch gear was in the boot so it saved a swap.

Rocking up at your banker swim with the wrong rod is a bit of an anathema.

I’ve fished it many times and have caught plenty of fish. Maybe not to the size I’d like but beating a blank on your first trip of the year sets a good marker. It felt very alien to me. If I’m spinning for trout, it’s almost certainly using a Mepp or Rapala and on a neatly presented fly.

I got there, rigged up a neat little micro jighead and a red-bellied fry lure with a paddle tail to see if a brown trout spotted it.

Working my way along the river, I cast into pools and eddies, retrieving in a start/ stop method to make the lure look as though it was struggling, trying to swing and bounce the little lure across likely spots.

I’d had an almost immediate hit – most likely from smaller fish nipping at the lure – but not enough to set the hook on them. I downsized again and matching the hatch made a difference as the follows became positive bites.

My reel sang as I struck into a noticeably larger fish that took from under deep cover, bending the light lure rod like a banana as it tore about in the current.

With a daft grin on my face, I managed to land the biggest brown trout that day – a perfect pan-sized fish I released back in the water.

The lure rod allows you to cast into much tighter spots and the little scented lures can be rigged for a more weedless approach.

I was able to target parts of the river that are usually out of bounds and work bits of water that are usually too sluggish for the fly, but perfect for sinking and drawing a shad.

Getting a fresh look at a familiar river is always fun, I even picked up a river pike – a first for me.

I’m not trading in my fly gear just yet, but I’m sold on the little micro lures.

Brown trout are bold-asbrass territorial predators who reckon anything smaller than them that swims by is fair game – and we love them for it.