Travel with Katie Butler: Don’t miss out on holiday discounts

Katie Butler, Total Travel, writes: I can’t say for certain if the cold weather across the UK assisted in an exceptional week for new holiday bookings but last week both our Heckmondwike and Ossett stores pulled in some amazing results.

It is not just us, as agents across the UK reported record-breaking sales last week.

Due to the high demand in summer holidays bookings – Jet2holidays announced the release of hundreds of thousands of free child places.

Including free child places to travel in the main school holidays!

CEO Steve Heapy said: “With the schools going back we are seeing demand for family holidays increase as people get planning and booking their holidays”.

We welcome the rush of bookings but we are glad to see the back of the minus temperatures.

Whilst the freezing conditions may have enhanced summer holiday bookings, of course it came with a price – as freezing conditions and snow in some parts of the UK caused travel disruptions in localised regions.

We all know the challenges we can face when travelling to Leeds Bradford and even Manchester at any time of year but particularly in the winter.

Our advice on getting to the airport is to plan ahead – check the weather and set off in good time, very good time.

There are few, if any insurance companies, that will cover you if you miss your flight due to an accident en route or a vehicle breakdown.

If you have an early morning flight – why not consider travelling the night before.

Quite often you can get an overnight hotel with parking at a really good price.

It certainly takes the stress out of the journey, especially if you are unlucky enough to be making the journey in bad weather.

Breaks to Iceland have continued to operate over recent weeks with little disruption.

Although the most popular tourist destination – the famous Blue Lagoon had remained closed it re-opened on Friday, January 12.

Unfortunately, no sooner had the attraction reopened, it was quickly closed again following an increase in seismic activity detected in the area.

This was a precautionary measure and the eruption site is at a safe distance from the Blue Lagoon.

Not many people know this – but your local independent travel agents usually have access to the same discount codes available to you when you book online with the major tour operators.

As it is January there are some huge discounts to be had with the likes of Tui, Easyjet Holidays and Jet2holidays to name a few, and even better – we have access to these deals too.

Before you book online do check with your local agent and choose to shop local if you can – our high streets need you!

May and June were the top selling months for last week taking a huge 21.5 per cent of our total sales.

Tenerife and Majorca retained top spot for the most popular destination for the second week in a row.