Would you risk booking this New York trip?

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My partner turns 50 in a couple of weeks and has always wanted to go to New York for it. Clearly we can’t this year. I’ve found a really good deal (as in too good to want to miss out on) for next April. Travel company seem to be good with refunds etc for this year but can’t (or won’t) commit for next year. Scared it’ll go up in price unless I go for it now. Would only pay the deposit at the mo.

Would you risk it?? Or WIBU to risk it?! 🙃

Any views? 🤷🏼‍♀️

I'm not booking anything abroad at the moment until I have more confidence in the situation. So I wouldn't book it but it's an entirely personal choice.

I have the same dilemma - it's my 50th in March and we had planned NY. It seems very imminent though and I might consider leaving it til later in the year. Which company are you looking at, if you don't mind me asking?

If it's only deposit atm then yes I would!

No, I wouldn’t.

It depends whether you can afford to lose the deposit or not I guess.

We have booked to go abroad for Christmas and I have no idea whether we’ll actually be going or not obviously - nobody does atm. But we’ve bought the best insurance possible and if we lost the money (which really shouldn’t happen - we should at the very least be able to move the holiday) it wouldn’t be the end of the world (il be really gutted though!)

My reckoning is that it’s something to look forward to and as we would be allowed to go there atm with a negative covid test why wouldn’t we be allowed at Christmas? I’m not sure what the rules are atm for NY though.

Really depends on the company, OP.

You can book on a credit card and get great insurance (Battleface are good for covid cover, or were last year); however the issue you’ll have is that if infections go through the roof and you don’t feel comfortable, you may not be able to cancel unless the flight / hotel cancels on you IYSWIM?

We had a real ballache with booked flights last year (Virgin) and it took them 5 months and a lot of chasing to get our money back. Similar for Booking.com

I’m now of the opinion to book last minute. Yes, it may be more expensive, but there really is a price to pay for piece of mind and a holiday is meant to be relaxing, not loaded with stress.

Say you did take a punt and book the good deal now, would it drive you crazy between now and then checking if ‘it’s ok’ to go etc etc?

Make sure you book a package that’s covered by ABTA and get good travel insurance before you book. Pay the deposit by credit card. If you do all that then you’ll be as covered as you can be.

It really depends on how good a deal it is. I’m in the book last minute category at the moment.

Yes I would but only with an airline I could move the dates free of charge (I have booked a trip with Emirates and they let you do this for three years). We were meant to be going in September but we are going to move it to January.

If you can afford to lose the deposit (either because it ends up non-refundable/unchangeable or it's just too much faff) then book it. If not, I wouldn't. I'm hoping to go to NY in September but won't book anything more than a week or 2 ahead. At the moment you have to isolate when you arrive and I think I'm being optimistic hoping that will change anytime soon. Next April is anyone's guess.

We're booked for Orlando next Easter. It'll be 3rd time lucky. Obviously with travel restrictions in the USA people are unsure what's going to happen. However, there's no point missing out if things open up fully to international travellers. We haven't had any issues whatsoever in getting refunds. Once with travel agents and twice where we'd booked flights and accommodation separately.

Once borders were closed and people couldn't physically get in, there is no issue with getting refunds. With the travel agent it was just deposits which they refunded and the other two times it was full payment for flights and accommodation. It actually wasn't as bad getting the refunds, simple paperwork. If you're booking with a travel agent you won't have to pay in full till either 6/8 weeks before travel so you will have a better idea then how things go, if everything is still up in the air 6 weeks before travel then you'll know not to pay in full.

I've priced our holiday since I booked it when flights were released in May and it's gone up 5k in total. So I'm glad I booked it, I got a great price, it's just the deposit and if all going well we'll get to go on this holiday without having to pay silly inflated prices.

I’d book it if you don’t mind/can afford to lose the deposit. Will you be vaccinated?

I've booked a trip for next April, I've only paid a small deposit, so hoping it goes ahead but can stand the loss if it doesn't.

I'd take the risk. Surely to god by next April travel will be a lot more straight forward and no expensive isolation hotels 🤞🏻

My friend was on a trip in NY a few weeks ago. Go for it

Is your friend from the UK? I thought we couldn't travel to the US?

At the moment British people can’t travel directly to the US unless they are green card holders or they have a visa and a National Interest Exemption letter from the US embassy. ESTAs are suspended for direct travel from the U.K. and Europe. There seem to be other ways to get in if you are, for example, Nigel Farage, but for most people the doors are closed unless you fancy spending two weeks in a third country first, Mexico, for example. Life actually in the US is relatively normal now. The hope is that travel will soon resume; maybe if we relax rules for quarantine for US citizens they will reciprocate.

New York is in good shape. I don't know about travel from the UK, though.

Thoroughly check out the company and their reviews, if they’re good and have COVID cover then yeah I’d book it.