The bargain-hunt can go beyond consumer goods. Travelex, a London-based currency exchange company, said dollar purchases in Britain had risen by 40 percent since the pound began to hit new highs -- partly on demand for shopping, but also on a gamble that the greenback itself may, at current levels, be a steal.
"We're ... seeing that customers are taking advantage of the current rate by actually stockpiling U.S. dollars," Antony Hudson, its UK retail director, told Reuters.
"Those travellers actually visiting the States are changing up much more than they need so they have a surplus to draw on for a future trip, or others are actually changing up money now in anticipation of a holiday in the future."
They are riding in the slipstream of professional investors who anticipate slower economic growth in the United States by lightening purchases of U.S. securities, which undermines demand for the dollar.
With markets expecting the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, investors are switching funds to countries with higher returns: in Britain, the key rate is 5.75 percent so in turn, demand for sterling adds to upward pressure on the pound.
OFFSET ONBOARD
By this time next year, currency strategists expect the dollar to have recovered slightly. Analysts polled by Reuters predict the pound can stay above $2 for the next six months, but is likely to ease back.
But whatever the exchange rate, environmental campaigners acknowledge that concerns over climate change are unlikely to dent people's enthusiasm for flying -- for bargains or not.
"Realistically people are still going to fly, so the best thing for them to do is to offset those emissions," said John Buckley, managing director of Carbon Footprint Ltd, a company which campaigns and consults on lowering emissions.
Airline Virgin Atlantic -- making a marketing virtue out of environmental vice -- is offering vouchers to passengers on transatlantic flights so they can offset carbon dioxide emissions.
Passengers pay a fee to counterbalance the emissions from their flight, which goes towards projects such as a hydropower plant in Indonesia or Indian biofuel technology.
On a return flight to New York, that costs an extra 23.94 pounds. Not everyone is sold on the idea.
"I don't actually understand what they'll use it for," said Krista Smithers-Brown. "I think it's another excuse to make money."
