Even if you’ve already booked and paid for a holiday this year, the oil crisis means that firms can legally demand you pay hundreds of pounds more.
Under the Package Travel Regulations UK holiday firms can, in certain circumstances, add up to 8% to the cost of your package holiday, without giving you the right to free cancellation.
One of these circumstances is if there is a significant rise in the cost of fuel.
It's one of the reasons we require any holiday company made a Which? Recommended Provider to guarantee it will not do this, no matter the circumstances.
When we asked the ten biggest holiday firms by Atol licence, not all were prepared to make the same pledge.
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Which? Recommended Holiday providers are those that received the best scores in our survey - but we also make additional checks, and ask them to guarantee that they won’t introduce unexpected surcharges.
Book with Trailfinders, Destination2, Kuoni, Jet2 Holidays, Olympic Holidays, Beachcomber Tours and you won’t have any unwelcome surprises. All have committed to not surcharging.
When we asked the biggest UK holiday firms, On The Beach and BA Holidays also said they definitely wouldn’t surcharge customers. Loveholidays didn’t quite provide a guarantee but did say it ‘has not imposed surcharges before and we have no intention of doing so in the future.’
Lastminute.com said it wouldn’t surcharge itself - but couldn’t guarantee that customers wouldn’t end up paying extra for airlines’ additional costs. Tui and Booking.com (which now has its own package holiday wing) both said they’d reply - but hadn’t given us a response at the time of going to press.
EasyJet Holidays and Expedia haven’t replied.
Holiday companies can hit you with an additional fee for an already-booked package holiday in three circumstances.
They can increase the cost up to 8% without having to offer you free cancellation. If you cancel you’ll lose the booking. If they increase the cost by more than 8% they have to allow you to cancel for free.
They can only ask for an additional payment up to 20-days before your trip - and only if they’ve included the possibility of this kind of price rise in their terms and conditions.
If a tour operator’s prices decrease for similar reasons then they also need to refund you the saving they’ve made.
Airlines and holiday companies are often keen to warn that prices could rise- and customers should book straight away.
There is a risk of airfares being driven up by increasing fuel prices because of the war in Iran - but this is not the only driver of holiday prices. Supply and demand is just as important in setting prices, and it's not yet clear what impact the war is having on demand.
Either way, budget airlines shouldn’t be affected immediately as they hedge fuel costs and so won’t yet be paying higher rates.
For airfares, we recommend tracking prices on Skyscanner or Google Flights. If you see a low price then do grab it - but don’t feel pressured into buying an expensive flight, out of fear that the price might go up. Fares often go down before they start going up again in the last few weeks before a flight.
For holidays, you can also compare prices with Skyscanner’s new package holiday comparison page - or with other sites such as Travel Supermarket.
Bear in mind that the cheapest option is not necessarily the best - particularly in the event of travel disruption. Choose a firm that has good customer service.
