That they have not yet appeared is partly due to the fact that Eurostar is struggling to fill its trains

That they have not yet appeared is partly due to the fact that Eurostar is struggling to fill its trains from London and Ashford. A new attempt to get upmarket bums on to some of the 10 million seats this winter begins tomorrow: a day return to the French capital, in first class, for pounds 75 - less than a quarter of the normal fare.THE FIRST no-frills kid on the European block was easyJet, which started to re-draw the aviation map four years ago next week. Like its low-cost competitors - Ryanair, Go and Virgin Express - it has a flawless safety record. Indeed, Southwest, the US airline that started the whole idea, is the world's safest. But not every easyJet customer is at ease.Amsterdam airport, 9pm.

Christine Collette's flight to Liverpool, on easyJet's last departure of the day, seemed routine enough at first. "We all got on to the plane, and began to fasten our seat-belts ready for departure," she says. "Then an announcement was made that we should leave the belts unfastened, because the plane was being refuelled."The implication, she says, was that there was a risk of fire and that passengers should be able to leave the aircraft quickly in the event of any mishap.Ms Collette was appalled. "I immediately left the aircraft and went back into the terminal."Refuelling aircraft while passengers are on board is by no means unusual; indeed, on many charter flights the occupants are legally required to remain on the plane during "technical stops" to refuel. But it seems, to say the least, curious that an easyJet captain should alarm passengers by raising the prospect of danger, however slight. The easyJet spokesman says that Ms Collette misinterpreted the pilot's announcement.

"He was merely suggesting that passengers could make themselves more comfortable until the aircraft was ready to depart."ONE OF the more enjoyable tasks here is receiving readers' opinions on our stories - especially when they robustly dispute our writers' views. "The hotel where the writer stayed," says Margaret Lewis of Northumberland, about La Residence on Mauritius, "is a monstrosity that should never have been built on an unspoilt beach." Eureka House was described in our story as a "dull tourist spot", but Dr Lewis describes it as "fascinating, with its furniture made from precious tropical woods, and gives a rare sense of 19th-century Mauritius". And as for the pounds 954 our writer had paid for flights on British Airways: "I would never recommend anyone to travel on BA with its boring runway stop in Nairobi, when you can fly direct on a much superior Air Mauritius Airbus So there.". THE 1858 Old Chapel in Pitt, three miles from the centre of Winchester in Hampshire, was converted to a private home in the Eighties. The Grade II-listed former school and chapel has a vaulted ceiling and two galleries, three bedrooms, a 25ft kitchen, dining area and a sitting room with double arched doors, vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows The gardens are enclosed Offers around pounds 260,000 to Penyards, on 01962 860300. THE BELL House Chapel in Alton, Hampshire, was the location for the film of Ruth Rendell's Achilles Heel. The main area is open with a 56ft barrel-vaulted ceiling and was a photography studio, with plans for a mezzanine floor.

Grade II-listed, and built by WD Caroe in 1913, it has a darkroom, vaulted kitchen area with gas Aga, a bedroom in the former vestry and a gallery used as an office. Price pounds 350,000, John D Wood, on 01252 737115. THE CONVERSION of Boltby Chapel, five miles from Thirsk in Yorkshire, includes a service lift linking the three levels. It has a security system, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and two shower rooms, an open-plan 33ft living-room, and dining and kitchen areas on the top floor which make the most of the exposed truss beams. Priced at pounds 275,000 from Strutt & Parker (01423 561274)..