Which UK operator has the most free child places?

TUI has by far the largest allocation, because it also has the largest family-hotel inventory. Jet2 is the closest competitor on volume and often wins on Balearics summer weeks. easyJet holidays and First Choice have smaller pools but can be strongly priced on specific hotels; First Choice is TUI-owned and shares much of TUI's supplier base.

When do free child places for 2026 get released?

Operators release allocations in waves rather than all at once. The main summer 2026 release happened in autumn 2025, with the largest top-up wave in January and February 2026 and further refreshes in April, May and September. Cancellations are re-released continuously, which is why availability changes daily.

Are kids go free holidays really free for the child?

The child's accommodation and flight fare are removed. Small residual costs almost always apply: government taxes on the flight ticket, a modest per-day board supplement on some all-inclusive hotels, and any optional extras the child uses (transfers, seats, luggage). The saving on a two-week family package is typically several hundred to over a thousand pounds.

Can I combine a free child place with other discounts?

Usually yes with low-deposit terms and general price reductions, and usually no with named percentage-off promo codes. Operator checkout systems apply whichever combination gives the largest saving and show the breakdown before you pay.

Travel · Free child places

Free child places for 2026

Free child places, kids-go-free deals and child-free-places offers all describe the same thing: a booking where one or two children fly and stay for nothing on a family package. This page compares every big UK operator so you can see who has what, and where the strongest 2026 inventory actually sits.

Last updated: July 2026. Free child place availability changes daily; we refresh this page as operators release new dates.

The four operators worth checking

Free child places exist across the UK package market, but four operators cover the overwhelming majority of family bookings. Each has a different sweet spot.

How to compare them properly

The trap most families fall into is searching one operator's site, finding a free place, and booking on the spot without checking the other three. On any given week and destination, the same hotel can appear on two operators at very different total prices, because the free-place discount interacts with different underlying fare structures.

Pick the destination and week first, not the operator.
Run the same search on TUI and Jet2 as a minimum. Add easyJet if you can be flexible on flight times.
Compare the total price after the free place is applied, not the headline "you save X" figure.
Check the return-flight time on both operators. TUI more often flies at family-friendly times; Jet2 sometimes wins by £200 with a 5am return.

What each operator calls it

TUI: Kids Go Free / Free Child Places
Jet2holidays: Free Child Places
easyJet holidays: Free Kids Places
First Choice: Free Child Places (TUI-group terminology)

Search engines treat all of these terms as the same thing, and so should you. Any operator's own site takes the phrase you type and maps it to their own filter.

Release timings for 2026

The main summer 2026 free-place inventory was released across September, October and November 2025. The next major top-up sits in the January to February 2026 sales window. If a date you want has nothing showing today, put a reminder in for late January and try again.

Free child places, answered

A free child place is a discount that removes the whole accommodation and flight cost of a child from a family package holiday, provided the child shares a room with adults paying full fare. It's an allocation-based deal — every operator has a limited pool of rooms, per hotel, per date, that qualify.

Where to go next

If you already know you're leaning towards TUI, the TUI free child places guide goes into their scheme in full detail. Otherwise pick the operator page that matches where you're likeliest to book, or start from a destination: the Greece, Spain and Portugal guides all cover which family regions to shortlist first.