We’re off again next week. But only for a couple of days, to northern Europe, and it’s definitely not holiday.

Having blogged DFDS’ latest special offer yesterday – fares from £38 each way Dover-France in December and January – we checked it out (using the offer code ECXMAS) and every fare was indeed £38, i.e. £76 return.

But we also checked out the standard fare – on exactly the same sailings – and got it for £68 return. Mmmn.

There is a crucial difference. The special offer waives the amendment fee if you change your sailing (recently reduced from £20 each way to £10).

And you would only pay any extra on some sailings from Dover 21-22 December and all sailings from France 5-6 January (£40 each way).

To be fair to us it wasn’t entirely clear these were the only dates a supplement would apply. By the time we checked it was too late – we’d already booked the cheaper ticket.

If it goes wrong we’ll cop not just the change fee but the difference in fare on the day. Ten out of our last fourteen crossings have been amended at the last minute (at considerable cost). Oh well, it’ll make it more exciting.