Hacker Khan
Yurt Dwelling, Yoghurt Knitter
No it isn't. 7 weeks short haul, 18 weeks long haul https://www.skyscanner.net/news/7-secrets-finding-best-low-cost-flights
Cancelling flights.
- Thread starter User101
- Start date
No it isn't. 7 weeks short haul, 18 weeks long haul https://www.skyscanner.net/news/7-secrets-finding-best-low-cost-flights
I was with Cabby. The industry has led us to believe that was the case.
Old Skier
Tour Winner
Most times it can be but steer clear of booking Fri-Mon apparently.
Cake
Club Champion
This is right in my wheelhouse (much more so than any golf advice I could give), so apologies for length...
On a basic level it can look like this but Revenue Management is sophisticated, and airlines look to maximise the price they get for each and every seat on the plane. To that end each seat in a particular class (Economy, Business or First) can be sold in a number of different selling classes (on BA Economy has 12 - Y, B, H, K, L, M, N, S, V, Q, O, G) each of which has a different price tag associated to it. This allows the airline to force higher prices on tickets sold to typical business travellers (Monday-Friday, with no weekend included), but offer lower prices to cost conscious leisure travellers (who would probably include a weekend)
When a flight goes on sale some algorithm will determine how many of the economy seats to put in each bucket, with the cheapest ones at any point in time being offered (the cheaper ones have less flexibility so you can choose to go up the list if you need that). Typically each flight may not initially be offered with seats in the cheapest classes, and over time as the flight fills up the algorithm may decide to open up the cheaper classes if it is not selling as well as expected... this constant tweaking to maximise revenue can lead to prices going down.
Obviously when you get very close to the departure gate the airline have a choice about how to price unused tickets... very cheap to at least get something for them, or VERY expensive as someone buying a ticket at the last minute is either on expenses or absolutely needs to fly. The smart long term move is to go high, so as to protect your revenue... if people believe it will get cheaper at the last minute they won’t buy tickets early and the airline will be left with half empty planes unsure if they will be filled or not.
One top tip (if you have read this far) is that because there are limited tickets in each selling class if you are booking a group all the tickets will get priced into the lowest selling class with sufficient tickets left to include everybody... often if you look at prices for a subset of the group you can squeeze them into a cheaper ticket class, with the rest in a separate group in the higher priced bucket - bringing down the overall price for the group.
Thanks Cake 👏.
Crazyface
Tour Winner
Fantastic.....er what does mean?????
I read and re-read my quote and it still sounds like I'm having a pop, but I'm not.
Cake
Club Champion
That it is not as simple as the price of a seat will go up as you get closer to the departure date... they can go up and down as the airline tries to maximise their £ for the whole flight as they get better understanding of how seats are selling
Hacker Khan
Yurt Dwelling, Yoghurt Knitter
As with a lot of things nowadays, they are value selling you the price of a flight. And the price may change depending on the value of it to you or the seller on that specific day. I think comparing the costs of your flight once you have bought them is pointless as you must of thought they represented sufficient value to you when you did purchase them.
