Help me, hardened travellers. Panicking about travel to Germany!

[Bromeliads]

A few months ago, we thought it would be a good idea to go abroad for a few days with our children in the summer holidays and we settled on Germany. We're flying out at the end of the August for three nights, but I am starting to panic that it will be a disaster.
1/ DS2 and I are waiting for our passports. I am not really worried about this as there is still plenty of time and they've been in progress for several weeks already, but still, we don't have passports.
2/ We're flying Easyjet. Will our flights be cancelled? Is there any way I can check on the likelihood of this? I saw someone saying that they had been monitoring their flight to see how frequently it was cancelled. What's the best way to do this?
3/ We have to pay for the accommodation by the end of July, but if the flights are cancelled, we will lose that money in that we won't be able to use the accommodation.
I am debating whether to write it off, risking losing the money for flights, but at least not losing anything else. This seems a bit extreme. Or, we could cancel the accommodation and book something else with a later cancellation date. Or I could pay for the accommodation and hope for the best. What does anyone think? As you may be able to tell, we don't travel abroad much at the best of times!!

3 nights? I would probably lose the flights for 3 nights. Also in this day and age, book a package so both elements are covered if there is an issue. Also book longer. 3 days with even a flight delay is awful. DD just done a short stay in Amsterdam. Went on the train. Much more reliable she said. No stress.

I think 3 nights is perfectly reasonable for a city break!

Regarding your second point - literally just Google your flight number. You'll be able to see the flight history for the past 7 days.

Thank you, BlackLambAndGreyFalcon! I think I might stalk the flight for a bit and see how it fares!

EasyJet just cancelled our July flights to Munich.
We got a refund very quickly but rebooking with Lufthansa has cost over double the original flight times. As it was over 14 days before we were due no compensation.
We have booked a house there and are due to pay the balance soon But we really wanted to go as we love it so we decided to just suck it up.
We are going for 2 weeks though, for 3 days I might have cancelled completely

I agree two weeks is a different matter entirely! Glad you got something sorted at least.

We travel frequently, not least because my husband and I are from different countries and we live in a third country.. all in europe. In the 30 years since I moved away from home I have had a very small handful of journeys that have not gone to plan and most were my fault, I can only think of two that were weather / airline related and they all worked out fine in the end without too much stress. We never book package tours. The current situation with Easyjet seems somewhat unusual, if they don't start to fix things soon it will do long lasting damage to an already suffering industry so it is in their interest to fix this. Step boldly, hold your nerve and enjoy planning your trip.

Ah, thank you @ChateauMargaux. I did used to travel a fair amount and must say that my previous experience was in tune with yours apart from a memorable night sleeping at Luton airport. I looked up the flight and it has recently fared very well - worst was a 50 minute delay so I am feeling a little less panicked now 😅

I thought you needed a visa for Germany now - assuming you don't all have old style passports?

What route are you flying? If something like London-Berlin, you’ll be ok - even if they cancel your flights, they’ll move you to another one. If Bristol-Hamburg, that might be more of an issue.

Can you find some other accommodation which offers free cancellation until 2/3 days before? That will give you the peace of mind you need about a last minute flight change etc.

Also, get insurance. Now. Don’t leave it for the day before because it won’t cover anything if you take it out then.

My local airport is a big German hub and an easyJet Europe base, and the good news about easyJet flights to/from Germany, is that most are operated by easyJet Europe instead of easyJet UK. They’re also having a few issues and shortages, but nowhere near the UK chaos. It’s more likely your flights will run. I have a few in/out of Germany tickets on easyJet this summer and none cancelled so far - touch wood!

As a tourist you don’t. They’ll just stamp your passport on the way in (and maybe the way back, depending on the airport).

No visas needed for Germany (yet)
And what are old style passports?

@Hoppinggreen sorry to hear that. We fly from Manchester to Munich in less than 3 weeks. Trying to stay calm.

How much notice did they give you?

I have been flying back and forth the the UK frequently over the last few weeks. I haven't had a flight cancelled yet (though another tomorrow so fingers crossed )

That's good to hear!

A different issue and I don't want to add to your stress but we flew from Frankfurt on the way back and the queue for the non-EU passengers was horrendous. We got to the airport earlier than we would typically have and eventually got through passport control with 20 mins to spare re our gate. Children exhausted and crying in the queue; adults crying who thought they'd miss their flight; 'late' passengers trying to jump the queue (they nearly got lynched by those who had been waiting patiently for hours). They only had one passport control office open for the huge queues and because it was non-EU, there was more checking and double-checking of passenger passports. So, it's worth being aware of this for your return.

Ryanair cancelled our flights from Manchester to Berlin in August last week. Luckily I'd booked as a package so didn't lose the accommodation. There were literally no alternative direct flights from Manchester or Birmingham.

At least they cancelled early, so we've rebooked a different trip without flying.

Get travel insurance, problem mostly solved

we we due to fly on 25th and they emailed last Thursday

If it is over the bank holiday I might cancel, not otherwise. Remember the Borders Agency cannot cope with bank holidays even though it is now about 50 years since the August one has been last Monday, not enough notice for them to plan accordingly.

Thanks, we're flying 24th so hopefully that means it's still going.

Fingers crossed!

@Bromeliads
Yes. It was reasonable. Whether it is now, is a moot point. If a flight is moved to the next day, what then? Personally I would build in an extra night these days. Plenty of stories abound about short haul flights being cancelled. That in itself is stressful. Hope you go if you want to.