LNIDA: I am one who books at least a year in advance. failure to would mean we would not be able to book the hotel of our choice, unless we do it a year in advance.
I have had to guess the dates we are going for May 2016 as we had to book the rooms last month to guarantee our dates.
Over the last five years, we have had one major change and that was a complete drop of the flight last year. Jet2 would only allow us to change our flight out on a later date. We accepted a total cancel, went out 48 hours earlier and pocketed £150 for the change, enough to pay for another two nights in the hotel, a win win event.
I do it with a zero rated purchase with my credit card, which I dont have to pay off until we return in May 2016