Caitríona Redmond: What to consider when booking a summer holiday this year

Should you book a summer holiday now if you haven’t already? My advice is yes, but to be prepared to be flexible with your travel arrangements

Where flights have been rescheduled to within 24 hours of the original departure time, you may not be able to make a claim on your travel insurance.

Have you heard of the ‘airport dad’? It’s sometimes used to describe an individual who becomes hyper-organised and slightly bossy as soon as they get to the airport. Maybe I’m the quintessential ‘airport mam’!

I’m the one who organises the household travel — a hangover from my days working as a personal assistant, and I like to think I’m pretty good at it.

I meticulously plan the flights, transportation, and accommodation for the family, along with activities. It’s like putting together a puzzle to make the most of our budget and ensure everyone’s interests are covered.

This year’s conflict has placed quite a fly in my holiday sunscreen.

I have tickets booked for a music event in the UK this summer and have allowed a little wiggle room on either side for flight amendments. I also have a contingency plan if the flights prove sticky. I have visions of myself travelling with the lads, slowly building up a head of steam and getting stressed as I lead a rag-tag bunch of teens and himself, but at least we would get there on time.

I realise this sounds like I’ll be living in a John Candy movie though, so I hope that vision never comes true.

Should you book a holiday or flights this summer if you haven’t already?

My advice is yes, but to be prepared to be flexible with your travel arrangements.

It is worth keeping in mind that where flights have been rescheduled to within 24 hours of the original departure time, you may not be able to make a claim on your travel insurance. That means either making do with what you have booked or having a hotel booking that’s moveable or can be cancelled at short notice.

I’ve paid a slight premium on our hotel bookings so I can cancel up to seven days before travel and receive a full refund. I think it’s a small price to pay for that peace of mind, considering I haven’t booked a package break.

For those who have booked a package holiday — that’s a flight and accommodation trip booked with a bonded travel agent — there is scope for the agents to increase the cost of your holiday if there are fewer than 20 days until departure.

If they contact you to increase your package holiday price before then, and the price increases by more than 8%, you can cancel without any charge being applied. A package holiday can only increase for specific reasons though — that includes fuel, fees, taxes or charges, or exchange rates. This is why having a small contingency travel fund is always a good idea.

One of the benefits of booking a complete package holiday is that the travel agent is responsible for assisting you with any changes or cancellations. There is a lot of reassurance to be had there.

When consumers book a package holiday, they will receive quite a large terms and conditions document. Even if that means ticking a checkbox on a website, go back to that original document to check your rights.

Regardless of your travel arrangements, make sure you have travel insurance in place.

As with all insurance policies, the small print of a travel policy tells quite the tale if you want to find out how the current conflict covers you (and your family). My household is insured with one of the most popular Irish travel insurance providers, so I dug out the 39-page document to see how it would affect me. This is standard, so it may apply to other readers, too.

Unsurprisingly, my policy lists a number of countries — including Iran and Syria, as well as Cuba and areas in Ukraine — where coverage doesn’t apply. It also says I’m not covered in areas where the Deptartment of Foreign Affairs advises against all but essential travel.

That travel list from the department is quite interesting. As of writing, you can add Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan to the list. That rules out Dubai and Abu Dhabi, both very popular destinations for Irish travellers. Although that is just the headline travel list due to the recent conflict, you may be unaware that certain areas of Türkiye (Turkey) and Russia are also off-limits.

The most important thing is to make sure you have your travel insurance in place before you book your holiday. 

If you’ve got insurance and a package holiday booked to one of the ‘no non-essential’ travel zones, your travel agent should be able to help you with either rebooking elsewhere or arranging a refund. 

If you’ve booked flights and accommodation yourself, liaise with your insurance company, as the flights may still depart on time despite the advisory.

As the summer holidays approach, this airport mam will be monitoring the airline schedules and watching FlightRadar like a hawk. I won’t be the only one.

REDMOND RECOMMENDS

Did you know you can register your details with the Department of Foreign Affairs before travelling? This will help them provide you with automatic updates and travel assistance if needed while you’re abroad.

It has a helpful area on its website called ‘Travelwise’, which contains all the information and advice you may need, including around safety, security, contagious diseases, and embassy contacts.

This may sound very simple. Still, in the event of a natural disaster or conflict in the area you are travelling to, the department can prioritise you for communications and assistance to get home.

As a precaution, I keep a secure digital copy of all my vital travel documents in the cloud. This means if my personal items go missing when I’m on holiday, I still have a back-up. You might consider doing the same.