The expert view

With Easter out of the way and the first May bank holiday already with us, there will now be a run of three weeks when demand falls away sharply but the Mediterranean weather will begin to warm up in earnest.

For anyone who has the flexibility to book a lastminute break in Europe, this is a great time to travel. Two or three hours on a plane in May or June will get you to some of the best-value sunshine of the year. A slight hiccup follows in the form of half-term, which incorporates the spring bank holiday and this year kicks off on Saturday May 27 (in some cases a week later), then there are at least five weeks before the schools break up in early July, and peak season really begins.

I say act spontaneously because, unusually, prices for late booking are falling rather than rising. I know this to my cost. I bought flights between Luton and Florence (final destination Umbria) in January for travel on May 20. However, it turns out that I paid over the odds. I just checked the fares again and they have dropped from £160 to £127. That fall – for midday flights on a Saturday – shows just how weak demand is at this time of year.

Out of interest, I researched fares over the next eight or nine weeks. There is a useful function on skyscanner.net that gives an overview of a whole month for a particular route, so you can immediately see the pattern of fares overall, and which are the cheapest and most expensive days to travel. There are lots of good deals out there. I found, for example, returns between London and Majorca for £50 over the next four weeks – compared with about £200 for the half-term weekends. Accommodation will be good value, too – hotels mostly now price according to demand, and May offers some of the lowest prices of the season for villa rentals. If you are booking at the last minute, there will be lots of owners and agents offering discounts even on these lower rates.

Of course I’m talking here about rural and touring holidays. If you are looking for time on the beach or want to float away the day in the villa pool, I’d wait until mid-June, and even then head reasonably far south – the Greek islands or Cyprus; Sardinia or Corsica; the Costa Blanca or the Costa del Sol – for the best prospect of hot weather.

For me, though, it is May that is the most beautiful time of the year to travel. Not only are there fewer people about, and the roads and the sights are quiet again after the Easter rush, but, in Umbria at least, the landscapes will be at their most colourful, the market stalls will be replete with the first fresh local produce of the season and it will be warm enough to eat outside in the evenings, cool enough to sleep easily at night, and, with any luck, too early for mosquitos.

So, if you have the time, the inclination and the flexibility to book and travel now, do. You probably won’t find a better holiday at lower prices for the whole of 2017.

airline that did not land in India. I asked if we could fly the first leg to Kuala Lumpur as this would save us money. The airline also refused this request.

We gave up and flew back to London the following day on Garuda, paying an extra £1,500 for the new flights. Is there anything you can do to persuade Air Asia that it is in the wrong here? BOB CURTIS

AAir Asia is a budget Malaysian airline. It is so no-frills that it’s not even a member of the International Airline Transport Association (IATA), the industry body that sets the code of conduct for most of the world’s international airlines. This means that Air Asia does not have “interlining” agreements with other airlines and thus cannot check bags through to the customer’s final destination if part of the journey is aboard another airline.

As the baggage-claim area in Delhi’s T3 is beyond immigration, anyone who has hold luggage cannot travel to India visa-free. You spotted this problem in advance and sent your suitcase home separately.

I contacted Holiday Inn Express in Delhi, which confirms that an Indian visa “is not a prerequisite for passengers coming from an international destination transiting through Delhi to the next international destination”. But its terms do say that customers must hold a valid international airline boarding pass to access the hotel.

You did not have a boarding pass for your onward Jet flight when you departed Bali as online check-in opens 24 hours before travel. In all likelihood, you could have obtained boarding passes on arrival in Delhi, either by using your phone to check in online or by going to the Jet Airways transfer desk.

However, Air Asia is sticking to its guns. It says that no customer is allowed to board its flights without a visa for India, otherwise it may have to fly them back again (and incur a fine). It insists that all transit passengers have to clear immigration, but this is not the case. The airline also says that it could not fly you on the first leg of the journey from Bali to Kuala Lumpur as your “fly-thru” ticket did not allow for changes in destination. This seems unfair.

I sent the email from Holiday Inn Express Delhi confirming that passengers can stay overnight without a visa to Air Asia as proof and asked again for a refund, but the airline has refused to respond.

On the subject of staying over at Delhi airport, the Holiday Inn Express also has a domestic wing for passengers arriving off an international flight and taking a domestic flight from Terminal 3 the following morning. However, customers have to undergo several security checks and be personally escorted to the hotel. It is quicker to take a courtesy bus to one of the hotels in Aero City.

Questions should be sent by email to asktheexperts@ telegraph.co.uk. Please provide your name and nearest town and, if your query is about a dispute with a travel company, your full address, daytime telephone number and any booking reference. We regret that we cannot answer postal or telephone queries.