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?

As PPs have stated the lots will be on fixed energy deals, food prices haven't peaked and mortgage rates are still low. Although there is lots of talk in the media of price rises many will justify blowing their savings or taking on credit as they've had a shit few years with covid.

Lots of people have done quite well over covid and will have extra cash sitting about. My investments have soared since 2019. Everyone really isn't in the same boat.

Holidays carried over from pre covid or holidays booked on last minute reduced out of season deals

Electricity fixed before the huge increases occurred

Prioritise travel over other things0

You probably just dont actually know what they earn/other details of their finances.

Friends probably don't realise how much DH & I earn because we don't live in a very flash way. In fact we have massive savings pots and have heavily overpaid the mortgage so it's only 1.5 times our income (we are mid thirties). We've also had some serious windfall bonuses.

0% interest card…put the holiday on it before all of of the rises though. Won’t be doing it again!

We're about to jet off on the holiday of a lifetime- rolled over twice from 2020. If it wasn't being rolled over I'd not be booking it now, even though our finances are better than many. I know quite a few people I the same (roll-over/rebooked) position.

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.

What I was thinking. We’re going to Disney World in October, I saved for a long time to be able to afford it and thought we wouldn’t be able to go for at least another year but I got fucked so hard my tax last year I got an almost 5k refund so used that to pay for some of it. Had a couple of people say about me putting it on my credit card but I don’t nor ever have had a credit card.

I was sat here scrolling through Facebook last night, past endless luxury holidays and wondering what I am doing wrong!

It also hasn't really hit for me yet - I'm fixed term energy until June 2023 and my fixed term mortgage ends winter 2023. That's when it will really hurt and that terrifies me. Right now it's petrol and food prices that are affecting us but is manageable, just doesn't leave a lot of capacity.

I just assume it's because people earn more than me.

We have to scrimp and save like fury to afford a holiday yet I see acquaintances jetting off here there and everywhere.

We don't however put anything on credit, have inheritances, a large joint income or a lottery win unfortunately. I assume this is how other people afford it.

As a general rule I think "saving for things" is seen as quite unfashionable or unusual now, as opposed to buying on credit. We saved for 7 years for the holiday we are about to take.

holiday booked and paid for over a year ago.

Not everyone is struggling and not everyone going on holiday will be doing it on a credit card.

We've always booked and paid in advanced and spend hours looking for the right deals etc. Many people like to scorn and belittle this though as prefer to believe we are living on the credit cards. I've already seen answers here that insist it's all on credit!!

This years holiday for us was booked last year, next years summer holiday is booked and paid for and we are now deciding where to go for 2024.

We save £250 a month in our holiday account and use this to pay and we also do things like booking hotels direct with the hotel as it's often cheaper.

Next year we have 14 nights in Greece in August, bed and breakfast and flights for 2 adults and 1 child for £1750.

Weve always had a holiday fund and would redirect it if needed elsewhere but we make a holiday one of our priorities as it's our guaranteed two weeks family time. We don't have many summers left with our child so making the most of it!

Not everyone is experiencing a financial crisis 🤷🏼‍♀️

Someone else said it , but not everyone is struggling the living crisis . Plus a lot of people have money saved up from lack of travel during the pandemic.

What is so wrong with using a credit card anyway? Much easier to sort out any cancellations that way.

Inheritances from the baby boomers
Savings from COVID
Older people passing down wealth and treating family that they have barely seen
More of a fuck it attitude from being locked up and unable to travel
Cost of living grants
We're not struggling as we're at the age where we have no dependants, mortgage free, savings, pensions and a big holiday fund that we've saved for years for and are now spending - had two holidays abroad so far this year, two more booked.

The people who are / will be most impacted by the cost of living crisis are not the people who would be going on holiday several times a year at the best of times. They are those on benefits and very low paid jobs who are hanging on by the fingernails and not able to afford luxuries that many enjoy

Nothing wrong with paying on a credit card and paying it off in full. However if you are paying the 29.9% APR or whatever credit cards charge then it becomes a very expensive holiday. Even on 3 or 0% if you are still paying that off it puts you in a financially perilous position with the increased costs and if anything else unexpectedly happens, large car bill, boiler issues, job loss etc then how do you cope?

I've been able to book because;

I don't run a car because I live in a small city and can easily get the bus to work

I don't have particularly high food costs- I don't eat very much anyway and don't buy things like joints of meat or bake from scratch

I don't buy much clothes, haven't bought a new bag or coat in a very long time. I have recently started buying things from vinted very cheaply.

Just been away and somewhere better than we'd normally stay and did more/spent more than we normally would, it's money that I got paid from not being able to have any annual leave in over 18 months because of the crisis in care, I got paid my holiday entitlement instead. We also got a little in 'bonuses' for working through covid, I used some of it to 'get ahead' and have a decent amount on things like gas and electric, and went away for a week and enjoyed not having to count every penny.
I'm in a better financial position anyway to deal with the cost of living increases, as in my income has increased, but my living standards will stay the same as the increase will cover the increases in everything else.
After what I experienced and how it affected me through working in a care home during covid, being unable to take any leave because it would leave the unit too understaffed, I switched jobs - which not only pays better but allows you some time off too, and enjoyed the money that I had earned, that said, I would have preferred the time off at the time and not to have had the trip we've just had, I didn't have much choice though.

not every body is hard up, as the news would have you believe
the news just focuses on those who are really struggling.
people manage to save money and have holidays

So many people are doing this. Not rebooks either . We are OK atm but we won't be ok in October.

The majority of people I know going on holidays are low income or on benefits. I have a friend who just had her 60th and has basically just thought 'fuck it, I'll enjoy myself'. I didn't realise how little she had put by until we were chatting recently, I just assumed she could easily afford it if she was going away regularly.
Others I know have the attitude that the taxpayer will bail them out anyway and a holiday (or several) is more important to them. They've always had the attitude that someone else should fund them sitting on their arse, so it's not new thinking. These are people who have never worked, not people working and also claiming benefits due to not being able to cope on a low wage, before anyone starts on me.

My neighbours go away regularly but they appear to be loaded. My brother and SIL are away all the time but they have a decent income and no kids. They go away with her parents a lot and I reckon some of it is funded by them, otherwise I can't see how they can afford the constant new cars and holidays lifestyle they live (it's not on credit).

We can't afford to go away despite my DP having 3 jobs (and I'm on maternity leave) so it'll probably be several years before we have a short break. I don't fancy taking 2 small kids anyway. We had a few days away last year and 13hrs stuck in heavy traffic with a screaming, puking 18mth old nearly tipped me over the edge.

I think it's just down to how people feel they should budget. We would personally rather be miserable and not do anything than use money that could be used to pay for more important things. Others feel they deserve a holiday over saving for the crisis coming as they're already having a rough time.

I agree and not everyone is struggling. I live in London and Westfield is heaving with shoppers and trolleys are piled high in the supermarkets.