That makes sense, I think if I had a £2k ticket on the line though I would fly back to Melbourne at least 24hours in advance and stay the night in a hostel there before my main flight, but then I suppose why would they do that when Ana said they assumed they’d just be put on the next flight if they missed it.To be fair, most Australian EC routes go south to north, from Melbourne/Sydney to Cairns due to wet season I think? So its not like they specifically chose to do it that way, its just the most common route. A problem with that is that Cairns is a smaller airport, so most routes home would involve flying back to a larger Australian airport first before leaving the country (although I know you can fly Cairns -> Singapore?) If you did north —> south, you would encounter the same issue that you’d probably have to fly into Melbourne or Sydney then fly to Cairns. I suppose at least doing that though the most you’d risk if you were delayed is losing the first day of your tour, rather than your entire flight home.
It’s hilarious that the flights are the only thing the whole trip they had to plan themselves and they got it so wrong, I wish they’d done the whole holiday without the tour brand’s help, the absolute chaos of it might have actually been worth watching in the vlogs