The expert view

I’ve always tried, whenever possible, to travel off-peak; to enjoy the sights, the beaches, the whole travelling experience at quieter times of year rather than run the gamut of crowds, costs, delays and chaos that goes with the summer pinch points.

But this week, visiting Salzburg in the middle of its annual festival, and once I’d got through the grim experience of Stansted on a Sunday in August, I was reminded of the pleasures of experiencing a destination when it is at its busiest and most glamorous.

Salzburg’s Festival, which ends on Wednesday, has defined the city’s summer for nearly 100 years and is one of the highlights of the world’s opera and classical music calendar. Founded by Richard Strauss and Max Reinhardt as a musical and dramatic celebration to promote peace and reconciliation after the First World War, it was a success from the start and has mushroomed into an annual programme of nearly 200 performances.

As a result, over six weeks, the centre of this historic city teems with visitors. They form an eclectic mix. Day trippers arriving on coaches for Sound of Music tours rub shoulders with the world’s greatest conductors and opera stars, and the smart set of music fans in black tie and dirndls who congregate in the square outside the main concert halls. You can’t miss the celebrities, either. It’s entirely normal to spot Cecilia Bartoli on her bicycle, Sir Simon Rattle strolling through the market square, or members of casts and musicians relaxing in the Triangel bar. There’s a buzz in the restaurants and cafés, and there are free evening screenings in Kapitelplatz.

What’s more, if you tire of the sights and the intensity of the old town, Salzburg is on the edge of the Alps, so, if you want to head to the hills like Julie Andrews, you don’t have to go far to find some peace and quiet on a nearby mountainside.

But there is no doubt that to enjoy destinations like this in prime time you need to be organised. That way you can also do much to mitigate costs – lower price flights, tickets and hotels are possible to get, but they sell out months in advance. (Many Salzburg aficionados will have already started to book travel arrangements for next year.) And you need to be organised on a dayto-day level too. Planning where you are going to eat and booking a table, or making sure you miss the crowds at the Hellbrunn palace or Mirabell Gardens by arriving early will make a big difference to how smoothly things go.

If I can’t persuade you of the appeal of peak season, you do have another option. Salzburg also has a Whitsun festival (next year from June 2-5). It is much smaller, but of equally high calibre. And if you do take a day trip out of the city at this time, the hills will be alive with a carpet of wildflowers.

More information: salzburgerfestspiele.at; telegraph.co.uk/tt-salzburg; telegraph.co.uk/travelapp; salzburg.info was to give us a letter for our insurers and left us to find our own solution.

As we could not drive to Denver (the I-70 was closed due to a landslide), a friend drove us to Grand Junction airport, and we managed to fly to Atlanta via Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, arriving at 5am on February 19.

However, the new flights cost us over £2,500. After we had checked in, a Delta clerk told me that we would have been within our legal rights to insist that staff at Aspen re-route us free of charge. She said we should approach Delta for a refund and gave me the telephone numbers to call. This resulted in being passed backwards and forwards by its US customer care team. Finally I was told to make the claim online.

In the UK you have to deal with Delta’s partners – KLM and Air France – which were not the least bit interested. I was offered a £100 voucher and told to claim on my travel insurance. But Insure & Go says I have no cover as missed departure applies only if the customer is unable to reach the original departure point.

Expedia, through which I booked the flights, has secured a refund of £441 for the unused tickets, but says it cannot help pursue the airline for the replacement journey.

What are Delta’s obligations in this respect? ANNETTE REEVE

AUnlike in the EU, there are no US federal requirements covering compensation for delays or cancellations of domestic flights. Each airline has its own vague policy. Rule 240 of Delta’s conditions of carriage says that a passenger can either request a refund if the flight is cancelled or “Delta will transport the passenger to the destination on Delta’s next flight on which seats are available”. In my view, Delta failed in its duty of care as it could have rerouted Mrs Reeve using its own flight network.

The US Department of Transportation in Washington DC (transportation.gov) handles consumer complaints against airlines. Mrs Reeve used its web form to submit her grievance. US government departments can be tardy responders, so both of us were pleasantly surprised when a named agent came back within 24 hours. He said he had forwarded her complaint to Delta, which must provide a “substantive response” within 60 days. And if she didn’t hear back, she was to contact him again.

Delta responded 20 days later, saying there would be no further compensation as Mrs Reeve had been refunded for the original tickets.

She wrote back to say that at the time of the cancellation, she had not asked for a refund, but had asked to be re-routed. At this point Delta capitulated and credited a further £2,164 to her card account.

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