EasyJet’s Free Flights for Grandparents
Published 01 March 2024
Multigenerational trips with children, parents and grandparents are becoming more commonplace as families seek uninterrupted bonding time. To help ease the financial burden on older family members, British budget airline EasyJet is offering a limited-time deal on family trips whereby grandparents travelling with family fly for free.
EasyJet launched its Grans Go Free campaign – a twist on “kids go free” – following its study revealing that 51% of British families have never holidayed abroad with their grandparents. This is despite more than half (59%) saying they want to spend more time with the older generations and 57% stating they’d like to make more memories with their grandparents.
Nearly three-quarters of grandchildren say they would use a multigenerational trip to learn more about their grandparents’ lives, while 23% believe going on holiday as a family brings them closer.
However, not all grandparents are getting a free ride, as many are heavily contributing to travel costs. According to US-headquartered safari provider African Travel, 40% of its family booking in 2023 was funded or partly funded by grandparents, to make bucket-list trips a reality. Elsewhere, 27% of British parents travelling with their adult children say they’ve paid for some or all of the travel expenses (Starling Bank, 2023).
It’s not just finances that can pose a potential problem. Planning trips that suit all family members is often a challenge due to the broad range of ages, interests and physical abilities. In the US, more than half of multigenerational groups profess to finding this daunting, and, as a result, 68% of families want more bespoke offerings to help them plan these sometimes complex itineraries (Mintel, 2023).