Booking a holiday right now is a daunting prospect, especially in these uncertain times. If you’re willing to book for next year even, you can grab some deals and flexibility that are literally unprecedented.
Why do we think booking a holiday now might be a good idea?
- Airline booking policies are more flexible than ever
- It’s an opportunity to take advantage of incentives before they disappear
- It’ll make you feel better if you’ve canceled a trip already
The risks of traveling are real, there’s no question about it, but who knows where we will be this time next year or in two years. If booking a deal now can save you a small fortune in a couple of years, it’s worth considering. Ultimately, there will be a risk associated with booking a trip. But with so much flexibility, the chances are you can change your destination, departure date, or even cancel and get your money back if you want to. Let’s get you some more details.
Airline Booking Policies are More Flexible than ever
So it’s no secret that the travel industry has been hit very hard in these uncertain times. Predictably, the big airlines are keen to encourage people where possible to book flights in the future and are willing to incentivize people to do so. Here are some of the things that we are seeing at the moment. Keep an eye on the links that we’re going to mention as terms and conditions will change over the next few weeks and months.
Emirates Airlines are offering the best flexibility in our opinion for anyone who has booked or is willing to book future flights on or before 30 June 2020 for travel or on or before November 2020.
You can change, amend or request your money back for your Emirates flights for any of the following reasons:
- Flight cancellation: If your Emirates flight is canceled or your route is suspended
- Travel ban: Where the government prohibits travel from either point of journey origin or destination, so whether you’re affected to or from your destination.
- Travel advisory: If the government advises against non-essential travel in general.
- Visa process change / Quarantine: If visa processes or quarantine measures change, e.g extra isolation periods for example.
- Passenger is unable to reach the airport: If you can’t get to the airport because of lockdown restrictions.
There are some other perks too:
You can extend your booking for up to 24 months from your original booking without any additional fees.
This is a game-changer – Extending your booking for up to two years can mean a crazy deal when this pandemic is hopefully over and prices may have already gone up.
You can change your destination without any additional charges as well.
Or you can just request a full refund if your cancelation is related to the current Covid-19 situation!
For more information: Have you ever seen this kind of flexibility? We haven’t. You can find out more through the Emirates official website here.
What About Future Travel with the Other Major Airlines?
British Airways
British Airways are offering some flexibility. Bookings made from 3 March until 31 July 2020, with a departure date up to 31 December 2020, can be extended until April 2020.
One of the issues we have with the extension is that you have to fly and arrive back before April 2020. Any refunds are also likely to only be in the form of vouchers.
For more information: It’s worth keeping an eye on the terms and conditions though in case they change, here on British Airways Website.
Ethiad Airways
Etihad Airways have noted that bookings made after 29 April 2020 for travel between 16 June and 31 August 2020, are fully flexible and refundable.
For more information: As a premium airline, they have not given too much flexibility yet but it’s worth keeping an eye on their terms and conditions here, linked to Etihad’s official website here.
KLM
KLM flights booked on or after 22 April can be changed or rebooked for no fee until 30 June 2021.
For more information: Check for changes in KLM’s full policy here on their official website.
EasyJet
Even Budget Airlines are offering flexibility in their booking, let’s take a look. EasyJet seem to have the best flexibility available at the moment in our opinion. As an airline they are all about low-cost travel around Europe.
EasyJet – They are offering lower deposits when booking your flights at just £60 per person for any package deal as well as a whopping 23kg luggage allowance per person.
When it comes to amending your holiday, if you’ve paid the full balance in advance you can cancel your holiday with no fees and get Easy jet credit towards another trip.
You won’t get your money back in cash, but you do get credit to book another trip with a departure date whenever you want. You just have to place the booking within 12 months of your cancelation.
Given that that your holiday will be a good deal anyway, it’s a risk worth taking in our opinion.
Alternatively, let’s say that you have not paid the full balance of your holiday. In that case, the following rules apply:
- More than 60 days – Loss of deposit
- 60 – 40 days – 50% of total price retained by EasyJet
- 39 – 22 days – 75% of total price retained by EasyJet
- 21 – 0 days – 100% of total price retained by EasyJet
If EasyJet cancels your holiday for whatever reason, they’ll give you a full refund back to your original payment method.
For more information: You can find more information on the Easyjet website here.
Jet2 Airlines
Jet2 Airlines another popular budget airline, have not really made too many changes yet to their terms and conditions for canceling flights post-June 2020 yet. Therefore you will not be entitled to any privileges amidst the following crisis.
For more information: For the latest travel updates, you can check Jet2 Holidays travel notification via their official link here.
Ryanair
Ryanair has not made any significant changes to their travel terms and conditions. To be honest, we don’t expect any significant changes here, but it’s worth keeping an eye on them in any case. We are after all in unprecedented times.
That said, Ryanair are surprisingly more flexible than you would think when it comes refunds and cancelations of flights as long as your request.
Flight dates/times/routes can be changed up to 2.5 hours before the flight departure time, although you will be subject to fees. Given that Ryanair is a budget airline, this is going to be expected.
For more information: For any changes in Ryanair’s terms and conditions, here’s a link to their general terms and conditions. For information about disruptions and refunds, check out Ryanair’s website here.
It’s an Opportunity to Take Advantage of Incentives Before they Disappear
We predict that there are going to be some insane deals coming down the pipeline in the next few weeks and months to encourage people to book holidays in the coming months and even years. With consumer confidence at an all-time low, expect some bargains.
TUI Holidays for instance are offering some free “Kids Places” deals which basically allows you to go on holiday with your partner and take one child with you for FREE! The “kids place” qualifies the child to a return flight ticket, accommodation transfers, and food!
What age of a child qualifies as a child? Any child up to the age of 17 qualifies for this deal! How brilliant is that?! Click here to see what kids places deals are currently available with TUI .
Deals on cruises, unsurprisingly are going to be fantastic! This is expected given that cruises have had arguably the worst press following this pandemic.
This should not deter you from booking a cruise, to be honest, it should really be the opposite. Cruises are notoriously expensive, and NOW is a great time to book a cruise in the future with the premium cruise liners.
We always like to look at the glass is half full. Our opinion is that the premium cruise lines are going to be taking extra precautions and will hopefully be safe to travel with, and you can validate this for yourself with the Cruiseliner prior to your trip as well.
Princess Cruises for instance are offering insanely low deposits of around £50 per person for cruises in 2021 and 2022. Check out deals here that Princess Cruises are offering right now.
At the time of writing this post we were looking at an Australian cruise for £249 per person for four days. That is actually nuts! Just check the terms and conditions as well as the cancelation and refund policy. Here’s a link actually, just to help you guys out.
It’ll Make you Feel Better if you’ve Canceled a Trip Already
If you have been burned with a canceled holiday or if you’ve just decided to cancel a break due to safety concerns, our advice is to simply book another one in advance – 2 years if you want.
We’ve already gone over the reasons to book a holiday as well as some of the deals that we’re seeing right now.
The chances are that you are going to get a deal, that you are not going to get in the future when this pandemic has hopefully disappeared. With the low deposits and crazy flexibility, you really do not want to kick yourself!
In Conclusion…
We really hope that you’ve found this information useful. If you’re not ready to book a holiday right now, that’s ok, this post is intended to highlight some of the great deals available and some others that we think are on their way.
It’s always good to know what’s out there, and we wanted to play our part in highlighting this.
If you enjoyed this article and want to know more – check out some more of our content that we have linked to below!
