As a travel journalist, Claire Dodd has checked into five-star hotels and set sail on butler-staffed cruises. But when she books her own vacations, she goes for something decidedly more low key: Jet2 Holidays, the British budget tour operator she declares “a fricking delight.”
“They’re so nice to deal with at the airport,” she says. “You get there, and instead of the slightly begrudging service you sometimes get from a budget airline, they actually look happy to see you. They’re super-organized — there’s never a queue because there’s some jolly customer service agent directing you where you need to be. Everyone seems happy.”
Dodd isn’t alone. Since its 2007 launch, Jet2 Holidays has grown into the UK’s largest tour operator, offering flight-and-hotel “package holidays” with transfers included. Known for its lively red branding, upbeat staff and smooth operations, it’s quietly become a cult favorite among British vacationers.
Now, unexpectedly, its cult status has gone global.
It all started with an ad that aired back in January 2024. A jaunty, 30-second affair pitching package holidays discounted by “£50 per person — that’s £200 off for a family of four.”
In the original video, a family (of four, of course) race with breathless excitement toward the Jet2 check-in desk, gleefully board a Jet2 plane, high five the cabin crew as they disembark and proceed to enjoy a holiday in the sun. Discounted, of course, by a whopping $66 per head, and accompanied by the hook from singer Jess Glynne’s 2015 song “Hold My Hand.”
The discount deal has long since expired, but it lives on in memes. On social media, the family has been erased, and the audio alone has gone viral. So far it has soundtracked more than a million TikTok videos, usually to accompany footage of a vacation going very wrong, including being arrested on a Jet2 flight.
Anything negative seems to work: dodging mosquitos in Italy or floodwater gushing through the carriages of the New York subway. This week, Jet2 Holidays even landed in Hollywood, as Jeff Goldblum contributed his own video on TikTok, narrating the same script but branding it “Jeff2 Holidays.”
Free advertising or negative publicity? Asked by CNN about its unlikely social media fame, Jet2 didn’t offer a response.
‘No worries’
For the internet, it’s a fleeting crush. But for those who’ve been on a Jet2 Holiday, it’s a long-term relationship.
“You know where you are pricewise, your baggage is included, it usually includes a transfer and you can upgrade to a private transfer if you don’t want to sit on a coach for hours going round everyone else’s hotels,” says Dodd, from London, who recently traveled to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands with Jet2 Holidays.
Tanya Kirk, an art therapist from Northern Ireland, is another repeat customer. “It was a great experience from start to finish,” she says of her last Jet2 Holiday, to Benidorm in southern Spain. “When we had an issue — mum left her travel wallet with money and documents on the coach transfer — they were very helpful and did everything they could to trace the lost wallet and return it to us.
“It can be stressful enough booking flights, hotels and organizing transfers. Booking with Jet2 Holidays makes that all so straightforward so you can relax into your holiday with no worries about these things.”
Five-star reviews
If all you know about Jet2 Holidays is that at some point you could’ve got £200 off for a family of four (48 pounds of baggage included), here’s a 101 on the UK’s largest tour operator.
Despite its current buzz, Jet2’s origins are rather mundane. It began in 1971 as Carpenter’s Air Services, flying flowers from the island of Guernsey to the UK mainland on Douglas DC3s. In 1975, it rebranded as Express Air Freight, and four years later changed its name again to Express Air Services. In 1983, under new ownership, it became Channel Express.
In 2001, with two Boeing 737s on its roster, it branched out into charter flights for the public, rebranding as Jet2 and launching scheduled flights from its Leeds Bradford airport base in the north of England two years later. Jet2 Holidays followed in 2007, packaging up flight, hotel, and transfers between the two — and sowing the seeds for 2025’s song of the summer.
Today, Jet2’s fleet of 120 Boeing and Airbus airplanes scoop up people in search of a wallet-friendly vacation from 13 regional airports around the UK, and drop them off around Europe’s sunny hot spots. In 2024, just under 19.4 million passengers flew with them, on nearly 115,000 flights.
They enjoy themselves, too.
Both Jet2 and Jet2 Holidays get glowing reviews from Which?, the UK consumer association, which compiles its ratings from customer feedback. Jet2 has topped the short-haul table in its annual “airline satisfaction” survey every year since the pandemic. “Jet2 is one of our best rated travel firms,” says Naomi Leach, deputy editor of Which? Travel. “A huge draw is that the brand has friendly, helpful staff who often go above and beyond to assist. If something goes wrong they are likely to have staff on hand to help.”
There are, of course, negative reviews. Scroll through a site like Tripadvisor and it’s clear not everyone enjoys their Jet2 Holiday experience. But those one-, two-, three- and four-star reviews combined don’t come close to matching those with five stars. That’s a far better showing than for other rival European budget carriers like Ryanair and EasyJet.
‘Blasting in everyone’s ears’
For those embarking on a Jet2 plane, it’s over to Jess Glynne again. “Darling, hold my hand!” she sings, over and over again on the PA system as passengers board. Weeks after the vacation has ended and suntans have faded away, that earworm will still be playing in their heads.
Tina Edwards, a DJ who has performed at festivals around the world, thinks it’s Glynne’s song that’s made the Jet2 commercial’s audio go viral rather than the “£50 per person” voiceover.
“It’s funny being asked whether this track is the sound of the summer because I feel that it’s essentially the ‘Darling hold my hand’ hook that’s the teeny tiny hit,” says Edwards, who hosts a music show, Next Big Thing, for Jet2’s rival, British Airways.
It is, she says, an example of a classic perfect fifth, a musical interval known for its harmonious quality. “It sounds so complete, so satisfying.”
Glynne celebrated a decade of the track in March, which gave her her first UK number one, staying at the top of the charts for three weeks. Nominated for Song of the Year at the 2015 BBC Music Awards, it even charted on the US Billboard Hot 100. As well as being the soundtrack to all 115,000 Jet2 flights each year, it’s been sampled in a Coca-Cola ad and was part of the “Bridget Jones’ Baby” soundtrack.
Glynne hasn’t publicly commented on the song going viral, but she did post her own spoof of the ad in May, larking around in the gym with her girlfriend. “Here’s to Jet2 blasting it in everyone’s ears,” she wrote in March to mark its 10-year anniversary. She has started closing her sets with the track, as fans brandish “Nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday” signs, according to music publication NME.
She also criticized the White House after it posted its own controversial version of the meme on X, setting the audio to footage appearing to show deportation flights from the US. “My music is about love, unity and positivity — never about spreading hate,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “This post honestly makes me sick.”
‘Guilty pleasure’
Glynne’s music, along with a predictable and upbeat service, is all part of the Jet2 appeal, say those who have experienced it.
“You know exactly what you’re going to get,” says Markus Kendall-Young, director of Auria Travel, who dispatches people around Europe on Jet2 Holidays from his Leicestershire base.
“Clients absolutely love it because they know it’s stress-free, easy, they’ll get a good deal. They’ll get their flight, transfers, accommodation and they’re going to have staff around to help them every step of the way.
Flying in a Jet2 plane is an essential part of the experience, he says.
“You know you’re going to have the Jess Glynne tune playing over and over again. It sticks in people’s heads and they absolutely love it. It makes you feel like you want to have a little bit of a dance — you’re going on holiday, you want a drink.
“You know exactly which prerecorded message is next. You know it’s ‘Ladies and gents, boys and girls,’ you know they’re going to do the really corny announcements about the special offers onboard. They push food and drink really hard, and you know they’re offering you all those special deals and hoping that by the time you get to the end of your flight you’ll be well and truly inebriated and ready for your holidays.”
It is, he says, “just perfect. It puts a spring in your step going up the stairs, knowing you’re boarding a Jet2 plane.”
Rick Turner, a copywriter and designer from Leeds, is an unlikely fan. A houseboat dweller, he runs a YouTube channel with his husband Adam about slow sea and rail travel around Europe. He calls Jet2 his “guilty pleasure.”
“We live off grid so always feel a bit dirty flying, but Jet2 flights are fun, cheap, and a much nicer experience than other budget airlines,” he says.
For Kendall-Young, it’s a thoroughly British success story: “I think the UK just loves a package holiday.”