if we change Jet2 booking to next year will we have to pay an additional cost if prices shoot up?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Any info about this? We have a balance on a Jet2 package to pay in a week's time, for travel immediately after the schools break up and trying to decide what to do. It's unlikely that the holiday can go ahead, I know, but we are tied to school holidays as I work in a school and the only option if not trying to get a refund (ha!) would be to switch the booking to a year ahead.

Anyone in the industry know the mechanism for this? If we switched would we be expected to pay a further cost if the holiday price for next year was very much different to this year's? (a distinct possibility, I reckon). Or is the cost of this year's holiday what I would pay, even if the same holiday for 2021 was costing £400 more, say?

I am wary because we had a flight to Rome booked with Ryanair for a special trip at Easter, and we asked for a refund for that as we simply don't know when we will be able to travel there again with regards to our own family circumstances, not even considering coronavirus. And obviously, no refund has been given and they are trying to push vouchers on to us and it's all up in the air as to what we will get back when. I think people are wary at the thought of accepting vouchers as it suggests that it is simply money towards the cost of a future trip. But if that future trip costs WAAY more than than the original booking, it could mean you being forced to spend much more money on top of the voucher cost, surely? I guess it's a vicious circle because the more people take money out of the system now the less the travel companies have available to try and keep costs for future travel down for customers.....

It all seems to risky accepting an offer to switch a holiday to another date when no-one knows the likely outcome of ANYTHING at the moment. No-one can envision what a package holiday abroad might look like in 6 months time or a year's time and no-one wants to sign up for an experience that might be totally different from what it was at the original time of booking, even if you want to support the travel industry to keep going by letting them hold on to your money for a year.

I've been wondering the exact same thing OP. I've got a villa and separate flights booked for 28th July and have sorted the villa out if we can't go, I can either have a refund or move the holiday at no extra cost. It's the flights I'm worried about, I got a great deal on them minutes after they were released, will I just be able to use the same dates next year or will they want lots of extra £££ off me? It's the not knowing that's the most stressful thing

My understanding is that you would need to pay the higher price

The other issue I imagine would be that jet2 have only cancelled up to 17th June. Would you have to pay a fee to change the booking?

Yep you would pay the higher cost and your deposit carried over to the new holiday then you don’t need to worry about the balance until next year

Don’t change over or pay your balance when due you will loose your deposit

Some agents are absorbing up to 10% of any additional cost and waiving admin fees, but yes, you will need to pay any difference. Moving now you’ll probably get a decent deal. Leave it a few months and who knows?

I think it really depends on the travel company My parents had a holiday booked to Spain in May which has obviously been cancelled. They ended up booking for May next year and the company didn't charge them for extra (although it was only about £100)

We have had a full, cash, refund from Jet2 for our holiday that was supposed to be over Easter.....

If you commit to a holiday NOW, you pay the price they are advertising now. If you take vouchers, and next week the prices double and stay at that level, you pay double.

Jet2 were offering a discount on next years price if you took a more expensive hiday. I'm not sure what they are offering right now.

Good luck!

Thanks all. I wouldn't want to change our holiday to next year at this point anyway as I think it's just too far ahead to know how things will be - my mum is not well and I don't know how the land will lie there by this time next year. I'm looking at either just keeping the booking for July and going with whatever happens (and if flight is cancelled being prepared to accept vouchers that we may not be able to use, or have to pay an additional cost on topfor a more expensive holiday at a later date)OR cancelling now and forfeiting the deposit and having no holiday booked.

guess I should have said that my belief is that the flight will be cancelled by Jet2 and the holiday will not be able to go ahead as planned, so what would my options be like after that point (as not happy with our Ryanair offering!). I mean, even if the flight goes ahead, will restrictions ruin the holiday? Will there be long long queues in the airport, wearing masks on the plane, waterparks shut etc? If all those things happened on our holiday I would rather not go to be hones.t

But then no-one has a crystal ball, do they?

My gut is just to cancel now and forfeit deposit rather than risk the hassle of a shitter holiday if it does take place, or have to fight to get our full amount of money back if we are unable to go at a later date.

I work in the industry and have just cancelled mine for July and lost the deposit rather than pay the balance. Prices for next year are high at this time of year, they normally come down in July or August for the following year although this year is.not typical so who knows. Its £40pp to change, payable now with Jet2. I'd rather have the money in my bank account and book at my leisure when we know how things are progressing and if I still have a job. I won't travel while insurers are not covering covid-19 and social distancing in bars and restaurants would make the while experience depressing.

I could have written your post! I have exactly the same dilemma and like you think I want to forfeit the deposit. It annoys me that they are still taking money for holidays which probably won’t happen but I’m sure I don’t want to go even it does. The thought of potentially having covid on the Greek islands does not appeal!! I wish the govt would extent the travel ban to a set date. It would help so many of us

@Ilikefresias I've just been doing some digging about what the individual countrries are saying about starting the holiday season up again. Canaries look like they're saying it won't be open to international travel until October, and that they will first open to their own Spanish tourists. But while searching, I found something on Greece that said they will be looking to open to everyone in the summer. I think partly because 65% of hotels could go bankrupt otherwise but also because they have the virus pretty much contained over there, according to Greek friends. Their govenment has dealt with it much better than us from the start. They have very few cases, even in the built up areas. So while you might be fine while there, it's the plane journey and airport experience here which may be unpleasant I suppose.

@CeeceeBloomingdale Sorry about your job worries. So very unsettling and devastating for the travel industry. I think that's why I've been putting off makng a decision about what to do. I want to support it, I don't want companies going bust and people losing their jobs.

I'll carry on weighing things up.....

i've just canclled on the app. Feeling sad but strangely relieved that there is no more uncertainty.

I'm not sure why travel companies are not just pushing back the due dates of people's balances for the moment, rather than keeping them as they were and risking people (like me!) cancelling. If I had been able to pay our balance, say, 4 weeks before departure rather than this very long 10 weeks before, I would have kept the booking with them.

Surely that's an option for travel cmpanies?

@CurlyhairedAssassin I agree! If they were pushing back balance dates , I wouldn’t be thinking so seriously about cancelling. I feel that they are trying to get our money in order to stay afloat, but I’m concerned that if the holiday is cancelled it will be very hard to get a full refund. I’m not actually too worried about catching it over there because I know the number of cases there is very low. My worry is that if we are back at work and school then we might be incubating it when we travel and develop symptoms whilst over there? I just can’t see how it would be a very relaxing holiday at the moment. Part of me also feels that if we are able to travel in this country by then I would honestly rather spend my money with British providers, restaurants etc. Still got a few more days to decide here!!

Op. You have done the right thing. Lucky you have the choice. We have flights booked for early August all paid for. I actually think the flights will be going at that point but will basically be a flying viral tube with the massive risk of arriving abroad for a 2 week holiday and having to isolate for 14 days if you get symptoms and then can't fly back!!

I have looked at moving the booking to next year. If I do so, the flights which were already hugely expensive (£1900 for 4) are several hundred pounds more expensive next year. In addition there is a charge of £70 per person to change the booking. Absolutely shocking.

The knockout punch though is if we move the booking to 2021, we are no longer insured for any CV issues, including medical cover or repatriation if we had to isolate after arrival and couldn't fly. So basically we are going to loose £2000 and nothing we can do!

@Normalmumandwife Oh dear, not good at all, sorry to hear that. If it's any consolation, I read an interesting article at the v start of the crisis about the risks of catching the virus from the air in a plane. It's actually not as bad as you think. It's much much worse on a cruise ship as the air is not cleaned as much to try and save energy or something. Can't remember the science behind it but it did surprise me about the aircraft air quality.

Yes, the travel insurance issue alone for future travel will put so many people off travelling abroad in future, until the danger of contracting the virus is over or a vaccine is found.

Re: flight prices. You really would think that they would try and keep the prices the same as this year. Why on earth anyone would want to pay MORE at this point is anyone's guess. I suppose there are many who take the view that there won't be as many flights operating as demand will drop so there will be increased costs associated with that, as in air travel pre 1980s.

I really hope that by then things will have improved drastically and you'll be able to go with very low risk involved.

@CurlyhairedAssassin

Increasing prices...yes absolutely incredible. I couldn't believe it when I looked on the Jet2 website. Absolute disbelief and then they have the brass to charge £70 per person as well on top.

Anyone looking to move their booking must be mad if they realised that they will have absolutely no insurance cover at all for any claim related to CV...but they won't realise that. A family of four, as soon as one person gets symptoms then the whole family are straight into 14 days isolation which then means you can't use your flights back and have to purchase new flights at your own cost. In addition, no medical costs covered......I think this will kill any travel unless the insurance companies charge tack.

@CurlyhairedAssassin was it easy enough to cancel?

@Jjttmm Yes it was no problem at all on the jet2 app on my iphone. I didn't even try on the website as I'd seen a couple of people saying they couldn't see the option on there to cancel. In the app, it was just in "Manage my Booking" I think. Then "Holiday Options" then the option to cancel came up. I did have to scroll down the page though I think.

You have to select a reason for cancelling and confirm that you understand that you'll lose your deposit.

I have heard today though that they have added the optiion to move your balance due date now. Maybe that's an option if you're still hoping to go but want to leave it to nearer the time for peace of mind?

In same position with jet 2
I think how they will look at it it's better to have someone's deposit and they keep something rather than refund it all and if places are open miraculously they may be able to re sell the holiday .
The only good thing is jet 2 deposit is lower then we paid before with tui , Thomas cook but wouldn't surprise me if this changes going forward

Check your travel insurance policy wording or speak to them before deciding what to do.

My policy actually DOES cover me if we shift our holiday to next year. It needs to be the exact same holiday and as we booked pre COVID19, we are also still covered for anything that might occur as a result of the virus (including healthcare, the airline going bust etc.).

We cannot, however, cancel and book a brand new trip as we wouldn’t be covered due to the FCO advice.

I know not everyone will be so lucky with their policy but do check - you might be surprised!!

@Zodlbud

Wish I had your policy...but will recheck with mine to see if they have changed their stance

@Zodlebud

I don’t know if you’re the same person I saw on Twitter this morning I believe that Jet2holidays have now done the frankly scandalous and possibly illegal thing of removing the option to cancel your holiday online or on the app even if it’s a week or so BEFORE your balance is due

It was bad enough that they are making it difficult to get timely refunds for fully paid holidays but to actually PREVENT people cancelling a holiday in advance if they balance due date is nothing short of armed robbery.

Apparently you must email them now to cancel, and of course people are saying that their email is not dealt with in time and the money gets taken anyway. I mean, they is really fucking poor practice.

In advance of the balance due date

Not me!!!! I think Robbie Rinder might like a Tweet about this though......

I have cancelled mine, and forfeited the deposit also with Jet 2, the cancel holiday option was still there but was less obvious and not in a button anymore.