29 Years of life | 10 Years of Independent Travel | 5 Continents | 47 Countries |

Welcome to the Inaugural edition of Let’s go Ajala! A newsletter created by me - your personal flight deal-finder Demi, to support and encourage you to continue expanding your worldview while saving money on one of the most expensive elements of a trip - flight costs.

It’s also my birthday today - hence the theme😊. Wanna know an awesome way to wish me Happy Birthday? Please send my newsletter to 3 of your travel loving friends so they can subscribe. This and your continued support and feedback will be massively appreciated!

£299 and under flight deals ✈️📉

I’m now 29 so I set myself a challenge to see how easily I could find long-haul flights for under the figure of… £299! I had a lot of fun finding ridiculous deals to destinations. Some not so sensible with 1000 layovers, some mistake fares which sadly vanished as quickly as they were found, but none-the-less check out the great prices I found for destinations our LGA community have expressed an interest in:

My unexpected FREE Birthday Holiday

I LOVE celebrating my birthdays, mainly with loved ones but there have been 3-4 occasions where I've chosen instead to be in another happy place: on a solo-trip involving nature and sunshine. I’ve hiked Zakopane in Poland, explored vast sand dunes and the lake district surrounding Liverpool and just this week I was soaking up Bulgaria’s mineral water, mountains and monasteries.

Reflecting on my 26th year of life in Dubrovnik, Croatia was an unplanned blessing funded by my favourite budget airline EasyJet. This was not a sponsorship though! They had essentially mucked up their summer flights and mine was cancelled with no way to fly home for several days. This may have caused panic, but to me it was an awesome opportunity to see more of Croatia. I had travelled through Croatia before and highly recommend it for solo traveling. My first trip started in Zagreb, going through Plitvice Lakes and onto Split, which I fell in love with and didn't leave (lol). So now with some extra days beyond the hen do I was celebrating in Split, I figured it was time to finally push through to Dubrovnik all expenses paid. Check out my itinerary and cost breakdown on instagram:

💬 Question: If you could revisit one holiday destination for a special occasion, where would it be? Reply & let me know!

My whole trip cost £396. My bank statement shows I had £63.53 reimbursed in food and £36 reimbursed in taxis. Plus I received accommodation for the 2 nights I was delayed in a 4* hotel that retailed at around £200 per night. This plus the £350 compensation I received because of EU261 covered my entire trip and left me with £62.50 leftover - enough to buy another return flight to Europe!!!

EU261: What’s the latest?

EU261 is a European regulation that dictates what airlines must do to protect and compensate airline passengers in the event of flight delays or cancellations. My birthday trip was sponsored by this regulation, and I've benefitted from it at least 4 times!

Time thresholds and amounts could all be changing however, with the Council of Europe proposing that compensation will only be claimable if the passenger has been delayed for 4 hours or more, instead of the current two and three hour rule depending on distance. Likewise, long-haul flight passengers will soon have to wait 6 hours before being compensated at a reduced amount than current law dictates.

The UK has regulation UK261 based on the original EU261 which applies to delays and cancellations from any airline flying out of the UK and UK carriers arriving into the EU or UK. So most of you won't be affected unless the thresholds here also change in line with the EU ones (which I doubt).

As for EU flight carriers, I’m not sure when the changes will start as, although agreed upon by EU countries, it still needs to become law. Until then do continue to have this regulation in your back pocket when traveling to Europe this summer and out of the UK.

Here's my top tips on what to do when experiencing a delay:

• Ask the airline for the specific reason for your flight’s delay. Unless it's due to things like extreme weather, strikes or political instability you are entitled to compensation.

• As the delay time elongates, find out how the airline will cover your meals and accommodation. If they want you to pay first, ask about the spending limit.

  ^{Different airlines will have different methods. TAP Portugal gave me vouchers and arranged my accommodation while easyJet made me pay for meals and sometimes accommodation, but later reimbursed me up to a certain amount.}

• Keep all your travel documents, like boarding passes and booking confirmations, and take pictures or screenshots of the delay and reasons for it. If you can't get this information from staff, try an online chat with customer service.

• Submit a compensation claim directly to the airline quoting EU261 or UK261 rules. If they don't respond, keep following up!