Are you booking holidays in the current volatile situation?

[Tanyyya]

We are looking to book a holiday in Italy in August, but slightly nervous prices will go up a lot. On one had, I want to lock in the flights and rental cars, but the other hand I worry about the price of petrol, food etc if current war / Trump madness continues. What are other people doing?

I’ve booked five holidays for this year already. Just been invited on another one!

We have Italy booked for September and are looking at a couple of places in Spain for November / February. Whilst we booked the Italian holiday a while back, it hasn’t occurred to me not to carry on looking at / booking further holidays in Europe. I wouldn’t book Cyprus and might have reconsidered Turkey had I been planning there, but I’m not at the moment. We aren’t planning car hire in any of these places, although at some point there will be an impact on the price of flights.

We only have holidays in Europe. We're already talking about summer 2027.

I'm so tempted to go to Vietnam next month. Flights are good value, but via the Middle East. Not sure if it's a completely mad idea!

We have booked a holiday to Japan in December, normally I wouldn't book this early but am mindful of rising flight prices. We were planning a holiday to the US originally but with dh social media usage we can't risk it.

We have friends coming over from Melbourne in the summer. They’re coming through Instanbul. Booked before Iran started, but it was significantly cheaper then than Middle East or Singapore.

I have booked our holidays for this year - Namibia, Cornwall and Romania.
We are thinking about next year but trying to avoid USA, Cyprus, Middle East and Turkey just in case the situation is ongoing

We’ve got a holiday booked in the south east of Africa this year, flying via Ethiopia. Unless you were planning to go to or via the Middle East, it wouldn’t even occur to me not to book a trip.

Almost snap we are also doing Namibia in August which is booked and Romania is on my list for May half-term but haven't quite fathomed how to make Romania fit around children's sporting commitments just yet, so we may end up elsewhere. Just flown in this morning from Jamaica.

The thing that troubles me most is the threat of flight cancellations at individual airports, due to fuel shortages. If we're in our house in Spain it's not so bad, but if you're in paid for accommodation it's more of a pain. Luckily we're retired, so less commitments.

Edited to add this is already a threat that airlines are being warned about.

It depends. I would book to go to Europe or some other places in the world if it was in the next few weeks. I don’t see the point in booking anything 3-6 months in advance because jet fuel shortages mean it’s likely lots of flights will be cancelled. Then you have the headache of trying to get your money back. I’m going to wait and see how things are by late summer as to whether I’ll book for winter sun instead. Planning to see some parts of the UK I’ve never been to this summer.

Agree with the above, I am worried about fuel shortages. We are booked to go to Aus in July via Asia and are concerned about the flights being cancelled so have been hesitating booking things in Aus.

Just booked for Prague for next month and will be going to China later on in the year. TA will hopefully absorb any flight hikes. Only concern is we have connecting flights in Dubai!

We booked Rome back in October and due to fly later this month. The airline have already charged us an additional £30 to cover the increase in jet fuel.

I guess some of the concerns about booking holidays isn’t just about the safety of the location - it is also about economic stability. The cost of living is already high and soaring, and there’s a high possibility we will enter recession and with that comes job losses.

For me, it’s less about where I am travelling to and more about the fact that there’s so much financial uncertainty right now. That’s what has me dithering.

I’m in Egypt right now, fly home tomorrow. Might go to Europe (Spain) next year or year after.

Are they allowed to increase prices when you’ve already paid and did you get the option to cancel?

My other half booked it so left it all to him. I would assume there was an option to cancel but I wouldn't do that. I can't wait to go.
I imagine in the small print the airline have the right to increase prices due to unforeseen circumstances.

Yes I wondered this too

Europe, I wouldn’t worry at all. We have three short trips, booked recently, still to go for this year. We have unfortunately booked flights for our main summer holiday via Dubai so I’m holding off booking accommodation for that until we can be a bit more certain that it will actually happen. If the price of petrol and food is a concern, I’d be finding somewhere with a self-catering option anyway.

Oh thanks. Turkish airlines?

If the margin is that small that an increase in fuel is a deciding factor it sounds like you can't afford it anyway

I’m coming over from Melbourne, via Germany next month, booked before Donald’s antics, flying with Cathay. Prices have gone up a lot since!
My friend who’s flying from Perth had their Qatar flight to Rome in May cancelled today. She’s managed to book again with Qantas - apparently they’ve put on extra flights, so might be worth looking at those? Non stop Rome to Perth. You could then do a budget airline from the UK to Rome and the same Perth to Melbourne.
Another friend has taken to flying via Helsinki with Finnair, Germany to Melbourne. You can play around with different hubs and airlines to avoid the ME

We have nothing booked. DH starts a new job soon and we are going to have to move but we aren't sure when. DD1 is getting married in July and we are doing the bulk of the work ourselves so we can't go away before that and there is a three line whip family event the following weekend so we can't go away immediately after the wedding, by which time we are into the highest prices.
We generally go on holiday in mainland Europe, sometimes flying and other times driving but I don't know what we will do this year.

Not booked but will, likely Spain.

I am keeping a contingency fund for any surcharges added to flights/holidays, once booked due to increases in fuel costs. (Can remember this happening ‘back in the day’)