One question came in from a parent frustrated at the high prices families have to pay to go away during the summer holidays. They said that in their case, they were happy to take their children out of school and pay the fine each time to avoid the peak time prices.
Mr Lewis said this is unfortunately an issue with global market demand. Fortunately, he did have a “clever” piece of advice to “work around this” and potentially get a much better price when booking your flights.
‘Can be far cheaper’
He explained: “If you’re in Scotland, going away before the English summer holidays start can often be a lot cheaper. If you’re in England, then going away in the last couple of weeks of the English school holidays – and the Welsh school holidays are similar as well – can be far cheaper.”
The consumer expert went on to say you may want to buck the trend here. He said: “People always tend to go away in the first weeks, it’s much more expensive. Going away in the last weeks of the summer holidays is often much cheaper to book.
“If you’re in the north of England, even better, if you want to go away in those last couple of weeks, once Scottish schools are back, and you can book yourself to fly from a Scottish airport, you can find that prices get even cheaper.”
Key dates to note
Schools in Scotland tend to break up for the summer in late June and return in mid-August, while English schools often finish in late July, with students returning in early September. Exact dates can vary, so check with your local council.
So if you live in the north of England, you may be able to get a cheaper deal by booking flights from an airport in Scotland in the last two weeks of August, such as from Edinburgh Airport or Glasgow Airport. You’ll need to factor in the extra travel costs of getting there of course.
Having answered the question, Mr Lewis shared an interesting figure. He explained that he was “mindful” that not everyone can afford a trip abroad. He said that when he polled his fans, 30 to 40 per cent of people said they choose not to jet off abroad for their holidays.