Holidays are back and we're here to help!
While travel was on hold we've upgraded our service to get you the help you need in lightning-quick time. We're back and faster than ever. Our team is ready to help in any way we can - the easiest way to reach us is by live chat (check our opening times). Or if something has gone wrong and you'd like to give us some feedback, get in touch with our dedicated customer team and we'll look into it for you.
We've worked hard on our flexibility and introduced FLEXTRAS - if you buy your holiday extras from Holiday Extras, you'll be getting the most flexible terms anywhere. We're also investing heavily in our app with a big focus on HEHA! - The Holiday Extras Holiday Assistant which makes it even easier and even faster to search, book and save.
You're welcome to email me about anything at all - ideas, suggestions and feedback. I read every email and will make sure your query is swiftly actioned with the right people. If needed I'll follow up in person too.
Thanks for choosing Holiday Extras. Wishing you safe and happy travels.
Simon Hickie
Associate Director - People
My journey so far
I joined Holiday Extras in December 2013 as maternity cover for the Head of People role. My enduring memory is coming in for an interview with Matthew Pack, seeing the "no fun, no point" sign on his door and pinning my hopes on getting the opportunity to work in such a unique environment. Thankfully, I was hired! .
From the minute I walked onto the HX Campus I was struck how the business lives up to its "no fun, no point" mantra. The energy is infectious, the license for creativity unlimited, and the team talented and driven. Travel is the lifeblood of millions of people and we play a key part in helping them maximise their holiday time - and that's important.
My role, and that of my talented team, is to help create an environment in which everyone can really thrive. The working world is changing and the best people want freedom, flexibility and challenge - something we provide in bucketloads. I'm passionate about diversity and inclusion at work and firmly believe that is what powers commercial success.
Over my time with the business, I've had the privilege to work with each of the group companies and support them in their people proposition at varying stages of growth and development. The variety is an important part of what makes my role so challenging and exciting.
Life before Holiday Extras
I graduated with an MA in Classics from Cambridge University which didn't really open up many obvious career paths other than academia! So I did the logical thing and upped sticks to move to Athens where I took a job supporting EU development projects in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. I turned up on my first day under the impression that everyone in the company spoke English and, boy, was I wrong. My understanding of Ancient Greek was about as useful as Chaucerian English so I went back to basics and learned (modern) Greek from scratch. Having only intended to be there for one year, I stayed for three, living and working every day in Greek. I made many unintentional language mistakes over my time there, most of which are not appropriate to be shared here!
I returned to the UK and took a job with Bloomberg in London where I initially built up a UK team covering global M&A activity in real-time and then moved into HR to follow a passion for people development. As a global organisation, my colleagues were scattered across the globe and I became a master at calculating time differences in a split second! (Mostly - I did once call the CEO in the middle of the night having added rather than subtracted). I had the privilege of travelling literally right around the world at Bloomberg and my passion for both travel and people was firmly cemented.
After 7 years there, I took the role of HR Director at Rightmove splitting my time between London and Milton Keynes. This was a golden opportunity to build up the people function from scratch for a high-profile, well-respected brand, prove the value of the HR remit, and work as an integral part of an extremely talented and entrepreneurial leadership team.
Ready for a new challenge, I took a few months out to spend time in Perth with my now-Aussie sister before getting a call from a headhunter about the HX role minutes after landing back at Gatwick. And I've never looked back...
Life outside of Holiday Extras
I live in west Kent with my partner Mike and our 10-year old Border Terrier, Cassie (who pretty much rules the roost).
We are avid theatre-goers and are regulars at the Marlowe in Canterbury as well as the West End. You can't beat the immersive atmosphere of live theatre and we spend many a happy evening watching productions of every description.
Most recently we have developed a passion for escape rooms with a (currently) unbroken record across most of those we can find in Kent with plans now to go further afield. Miraculously, we've managed not to fall out while playing them yet in spite of our highly competitive natures!
We love to travel whenever we can and most recently embraced our inner children at Disney World and Universal in Florida where Mike transformed his lifelong fear of thrill rides into an insatiable passion for roller coasters.
We're equally content being homebirds enjoying our daily dose of TV soaps which get discussed in far more depth than is probably healthy. I firmly believe everyone needs some escapism. We have a long-overdue trip planned to visit the Emmerdale set and have a picture taken sitting on the Dingle sofa!