Is anyone booking a holiday for later in the year?

[Swiftier]

Our June holiday was cancelled, the only other time we can go away is December which is good in a way as it’s a while off so gives us plenty of time to see what happens, I’m thinking we can always book a hotel with free cancellation etc. Just wondering really whether anyone is hopeful that fights and holidays etc will be back to normal this calendar year?

@KoalasandRabbit - why did you lose money on the school trip?

DS2 has a school trip that is all paid for. I expect a full refund if it doesn't go ahead especially as the school set the payment deadline months before the trip was due to go.

As it's been cancelled now and isn't until first week of' June. If it was in April insurance would have paid out as currently Italy travel advice is avoid all but essential travel. Insurer only pays out for immediate trips paid in full. Ours was cancelled at deposit stage though I had paid in full. Insurer classes it as disinclination to travel. Everyone could have paid in full and took a chance on insurer paying out but if FCO advice changes then insurer wouldn't have paid out anything, travel company aren't refunding anything unless legally obliged so you risk losing the lot or going at a time when the virus isn't under control.

If your school trip is in April you should get a full refund, if it's after that depends on advice at time and insurers rules. Normally if you say cancel more than a month in advice you won't be covered by insurance AFAIK.

I hoping we might be able to get a last minute med week away in May/June.

There's no way that you'll be able to fly for a holiday in May/June. It'll be Autumn at the earliest before pleasure flights start again, maybe even end of year. I think we'll still be in lockdown till May/June and flights/holidays will be one of the last things to be allowed again.

It'll be Autumn at the earliest before pleasure flights start again, maybe even end of year.

I'm not really sure what you define as "pleasure flights"..there is still a trickle of scheduled flights between the UK and mainland Europe so a reboot of leisure travel on some routes could be quite quick, as soon as lockdowns and paperwork requirements get relaxed.

If you're thinking specifically of flights with Easyjet and Ryanair I'd take a guess on them being back operating between those airports where they carry a high percentage of business traffic/second home owners by late summer/autumn. .

As for the package tour/charter type operations to the likes of the Greek Islands, Turkey....who knows?

I think the really big danger is if the UK is very slow in coming out of the outbreak relative to the rest of Europe, and as a consequence travel gets hampered by other countries entry restrictions.

That said my crystal ball isn't great, but I would say that if we are at the end of the year and there's still no leisure flying ex-UK at all then there will be very few UK airlines left to travel on.

@Kazzyhoward @notimagain Ryanair for example are still running flights on limited routes at the moment. All of the airlines will be ready to be up and running as soon as they get the green light. I’m sure they’ll all have sales to get bookings and cash in.

I can’t see that European flights won’t open up until autumn/winter. The airlines wouldn’t survive, and that won’t be in anyone’s interest. Plus many people rely on regional routes to visit family, for business etc - not just for holidays.

I’m not saying they’ll be back to normal by summer, or that we’ll be able to travel everywhere by summer, but I also can’t see a complete shutdown on flights and holidays until autumn/winter.

As the UK is just a high risk country for the virus, I can’t imagine any country wanting anyone from the UK flying into their country.

I don’t think international travel will start again until next year.

Bearing in mind this virus isn’t going away for sometime why do people want to take the risk of sitting in a plane for a long haul flight and then the possibility of being very poorly or in fact die abroad?

I'm not convinced you'd be going but there's no harm in booking a hotel with free cancellation. Fwiw flights for that time of year have dropped in price considerably (we had a price alert set up but may not be everywhere) so it could be worth booking flights if a decent price if you're happy to go through the hassle of cancellation and getting a refund.

It also depends on different countries travel advice. We could have lifted our restrictions but there could be restricted travel/open businesses etc in the country you're going to. It's just all so unknown at the moment, I don't think there's any right answer and just depends if you want the uncertainty.

We are going to wait until next year and use the money saved for a bigger holiday.

I’m using my money to buy things for my home and garden and helping my self employed friends out. I feel very fortunate that I shouldn’t be financially affected by all this.

We finally requested a full refund today. We'll review travel options on a month by month basis moving forward but we do not anticipate a similar trip this year

My current feeling is European travel will be viable sooner than longer distance, because I think more people will be comfortable travelling to familiar places, and shorter distances, sooner. Plus many people have family/friends within Europe too. I could see short haul being able to get enough bookings on key routes.

I also think there might be agreements within Europe around how to manage risks around travel going forward so that things can start to open up. Could be that those agreements will be just be within Schengen, or within the EU though?

I think longer haul travel could take longer to actually open up both in terms of government guidelines but also in terms of demand being sufficient.

I think at the moment I’ll hold off booking anything but book some time off work so I can make last minute plans depending on where I can go. We’re being optimistic but also flexible, so if we can’t go where we want to, we’ll see if we can go somewhere else, somewhere nearer etc.

Think it might be best to wait, never know if any airlines will go bust too!