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Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on traveling whether you're just dreaming of a great escape, looking forward to one or actually away and having the time of your life.

And it's the kind of trip that you're looking forward to that I want to address today because of the rising cost of

fuel. I've just checked back. If you look at the price of US Gulf Coast jet kerosene,

the price in April 2020, so just under two years ago, was 40 cents per US gallon.

I've just checked the spot price and it's around $2.73.

Basically that's about seven times higher.

Now, airlines will have hedged the price of the fuel that they buy in general. Some of them lost their shirts early on in the COVID crisis, but they're still doing it. That means that your costs are pretty fixed and somebody else takes the risk that the price could change. Obviously, you pay a margin for that.

Anyway, those agreements are gradually unwinding.

A lot of airlines will have benefited greatly for them,

but now their costs are rising.

And this really takes me back to the bad old days of 2007, 2008, when there was a really

steep increase in the price of oil and many firms imposed surcharges on their customers.

And I've had people getting in touch saying, hang on, I've booked a trip.

Can they come after me for more money after I've paid in

full? Or indeed, after I've only paid a deposit. The short answer is yes, but as you can tell,

perhaps from my tone of voice, it's slightly more complicated than that. And also, you shouldn't

be too fearful about it.

...