How are so many people booking holidays if they are struggling with the cost of living?

[Brinnyloowho]

This is definitely not meant in a snarky way but so many people around me are going on not one, but multiple holidays over the next year. Ordinary, not particularly well-off people. All the news of airports and travel being pushed to their capacity. All at the same time I'm seeing about the cost of living crisis. Yet, in reality I'm not seeing it.

Maybe all of these holidays were booked pre-crisis (I know ours was). Does this mean travel will slow down again after the summer?

Living in sin with their flexible friends is my guess. (Credit cards)

People are making cutbacks where they can but they can't sacrifice every luxury or life would be bloody miserable.

Well I'm not but they could be rebooking from previously cancelled ones.

Yes many were booked pre covid and just moved. But I guess others have prioritised a holiday over other things, smoking, drinking etc. Some may have decided to just whack it on the credit card after a rubbish couple of years and worry about it later. But also not everyone is struggling, plenty of people can afford a holiday

I think travel will slow. I also think a lot of people are indie a rough ride when the cost of living catches up with them.

My generation (I'm 30) have only ever known low interest rates and free credit. It's the norm. Or it has been...

Maybe you're not in touch with a wide cross section of society.

I agree with pp, credit …or using up covid cancellations (holidays booked a year or two ago).
This amount of credit combined with the cost of living crisis isn’t going to end well but I imagine the real crisis will hit in a year or so.

some people made a lot of money in covid and have savings to spend

We book ours right when everything shut down for covid. It was an absolute bargain.

Not everyone is struggling yet. 5 years ago I would have been, massively so. Equally I don't have much of a commute or any childcare costs, some people spend a grand a month just on those, so I can still afford holidays for now.

Pre-covid, credit, saved money during lockdowns etc.

The cost of living has only hit those in real poverty right now, give it till winter if the government continues to do nothing.

Some people have their holiday rolled over from the last few years, it could be on credit, or shocker, not everyone is struggling.

Ours was a cancellation from covid! Couldn’t really afford to go but went anyway as we knew that it’s going to be a long long time till we get away to go again.

The trip we did at Christmas was paid for by a inheritance no way was it going on bloody bills I spent it on the kids having fun. Again probably their last trip for a long time.

Everything now is being stripped back to the bones! Going to be 6 hard long weeks with the kids but we will make do!!

I'm very Central London and I have said this to Dh many times recently. If you walk past the areas here, you will wonder what cost of living crisis. It doesn't seem to exist here.

They might have saved up for their holiday.

Dunno, just earn a good wage I guess. Energy's a problem but mostly we're unaffected. We don't buy petrol or train tickets or other stuff that's gone up. Our food bill hasn't changed. We don't drink. Or commute. Or have any childcare needs.

It's really fucking annoying to earn enough to enjoy yourself but everyone says 'oh I guess it's on credit.' I don't even own a credit card. I just don't earn £3 an hour.

Not everyone is in the situation obviously.

The cost of living crisis doesn’t affect everyone though. For most people it could be building but a lot of people can easily absorb a 10-20% increase in food costs, they aren’t impacted by interest rates rising for years potentially on a fixed rate and energy increases don’t mean much in the middle of summer.
It is a crisis for people on the lower end of the income scale but the reality is the majority of the country will not be in debt for day to day costs.

This is exactly what I mean. People who I know are on a lower income, going out to eat, going on holidays, it just doesn't make sense when you see what is shown in the media.

I know not everyone is struggling (we're certainly not) but the people I know on much lower incomes aren't struggling either

In reality a lot of people are doing just fine and can still afford to live well despite their bills going up. I earn an average wage and I don't enjoy paying more of it for stuff that used to cost less, but I can certainly still afford a holiday.

We had savings in our holiday account because we didn’t go abroad the last 2 years due to covid so we’ve used that money for this year (going to Turkey). We’re unlikely to be able to afford a holiday abroad next year.

I’m going to be honest here… we booked our first foreign holiday for next year for the 4 of us recently and paid on our (0% interest) credit card (£3.5k, term time). Yep it was probably irresponsible. We’re a very low income family, dh earns a low ish full time wage, I don’t work due to disabilities and Ds is also disabled. We get tax credits and disability benefits. I will admit I am a bit scared about the rising cost of living, we have £2.5k in savings which is slowly going down but to balance this out we do have some disposable income and can afford the cc repayments to the point by the time we go on the holiday it will be paid off.

People wouldn’t have a clue about our finances if they met us. We live in a nice area, in a nice ish house that we own outright due to inheritance and previously high incomes. I know some people would be horrified we’ve splurged on a holiday in this way but like everyone else we’ve had a terrible few years, with no proper holidays or breaks at all and we feel you don’t know what’s round the corner (covid taught us all that) so we want to live in the now. Our kids are also getting to the point one of them is 19 so may not even want to come in on holiday with us for much longer!

I mean we’re not exactly food banks and breadlines but it’s a stretch for us. We’re not a well off family by any means. I suspect a lot of other families are feeling the same way and just thinking fuck it.

the cost of living crisis is just warming up.

Same here, but I guess a lot of people shopping, eating out, spending money in London are tourists, either from the UK or overseas. The area we live in has seen a lot of new luxury flats sold to overseas buyers so they won’t necessarily have the same financial pressures as British citizens as their currency might be strong against the pound.

And not everyone is yet feeling the pinch in the same way, particularly if you don’t drive. The energy bills hike in winter scares me, but as yet things aren’t too bad.