Although we haven't booked yet, we are hoping to back at Christmas again this year. We are just waiting to see if the the prices come down a lot more before booking.
I say that we haven't booked yet, but I am worried that if bookings are reduced (for the reasons mentioned in the opening post), would the tour operators cancel package holidays or flights rather than offer reductions? Last year, due to sickness in the family, we could not book our holiday until November for a December holiday, but this year we don't know if we would be pushing our luck to try to book our holiday that late.
Last year we booked through Jewel in the Crown, this year we will still have to go through them again as our hotel doesn't feature in any other charter holiday brochure. The quotation we have been given is a £1000 more per person than we paid last year, which is why we refuse to book now.
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We obviously expected to pay a bit more but not that much more.