Flight prices hiked

[LeonieM]

I saw my friends at the station this morning (because our trains were late, and we were able to chat for once instead of waving at each other through the train window as they pulled away). One said she's trying to book her flights for next April/May, but the prices are horrendous. I said that once you get to within a year, they go down a lot, but she said that even allowing for that, they're hundreds more than the equivalent for this year.

Another friend said that colleagues of hers had even paid their full fare up, but just got an invoice for over £200 in fuel surcharges recently!

At this rate, we're not going to be able to afford to go on holiday again ...

They all agree that flying BA is a great experience - but they're much more expensive than Virgin ...

[CheshireCat]

Hi...interested to read your post. I've just logged in to try and get some advice from other forum users about travelling at Easter, as we are planning our next trip for Easter '09 :) and have already booked villa but are now having kittens about the cost of flying!!
Been checking Virgin every few days for last couple of weeks and they are just about showing return flights up to 8th April. Prices have jumped from @£450pp to anything up to £1000pp - couldn't believe it! Its scandalous that they can still get away with these sort of price changes just because the kids are on school hols - talk about cashing in! It makes my blood boil! :angry:
Our final trip dates are not yet there (1st-18th Apr 09) but does anyone have any experience about booking flights for the Easter period....we thought we should get in there early, but maybe not.....?
Even contemplating now seeing if the villa we have chosen would be available at another time, then we can take the kids out of school and sod the Government!

[hannahs mum]

hi think its the same all over the prices to go with first choice for 2 weeks in may without upgrades for 2 adults 1 child were all over £3500 for disney it was well over£4000,for this year we are £2890 for 2 weeks leaving on the 13th of december with virgin staying at the sheraton vistana a few people have said even at that time of year its more expensive than they are paying with other airlines with upgrades.If you take your child out of school you get a letter from the education department dont know if it is different in england they are getting very strict here about it however i decided they dont do much on the last week anyway.

[mellymouse]

I'm waiting to book May09 flights and the March/April 09 flights on VA site are £446 at the moment....which I think is pretty reasonable?? They vary by the day though and the flights I've been watching for a price comparison for the last few weeks have been up and down a few times between the £446 and around the £417 mark.
However....I've noticed that the advertised flight price is quite often NOT the one you pay on the VA site - it's often lower!!!!! For example, today a flight I priced shows up at £446 per person, but if you go to continue to book....the actual price is no longer available and is selling for £437 (and £378 for a child)
Flights on same dates through First Choice website are £519 with children at £499. For our family that equates to a difference of £500!!

[ADRIAN C]

We got a good deal for next year thats why I booked. were going in may with first choice/Thompsonfly to Pop Century for £2600 for 2 adults and 2 children.:happy-thumb

[louloz]

hi, we are going at the end of July this year. I booked it at the end of July last year. 4 months after booking, the price of our holiday, through virgin, went up about £1000!!:eek:
I couldn't believe it!! We wouldn't have been going, if i had been quoted at that price!! unbelivable!!
Then a couple of months ago, i looked again. priced up the same holiday.Virgin had stopped selling it as a package holiday. This meant that, flight and accomodation had to be booked sepretly, resulting in nearly £2000 extra:eek::eek:

Thank god i booked when i did! Don't understand how the price can change so much, or that they get away charging these prices!

[Simon Veness]

I think, increasingly, it is going to be a case of getting in as early as possible with the tour operators, to take advantage of any early-booking discounts and 'kids go free' deals that they may offer. I know TCD have just announced their programme for summer 09, so it may be worth looking to see what specials they are offering for early bookers. It really looks like flying is going to be substantially more expensive in the near future, so it pays to look around and see what's available as much as possible.

[1969steveb]

We also were looking at going at Easter 09 but even with an independant travel advisor that i have used a few times she said that prices had gone up to Orlando by an average of £300 per booking. We are really are being penalised because we are restricted to school holidays. I have looked on TCD for both Easter and July and for a flydrive and they are well over £2000, they as a company rip us off with extortionate rates for car rental:angry:

Steve.

[LeonieM]

I booked our flights literally 2 days after the cheap allocation became available, grabbing our flights for just £469 each - and that was during the school holidays. On Virgin's own website, the prices were a stonking £800 for the same flight!

I think the thing is to get the school holiday dates as soon as you can, and then as soon as the cheap flights become available jump in and get them.

My friend can't book her cheaper flights yet, because even though the prices for the flight out are now available, the dates to fly back are still outside the 'reduction window' and she'll need to wait another week before the cheap prices become available.

We can't afford to go again before Easter 2010 - and Emma will be 16 by then. The trouble is, we'd need to book our flights in April 2009 to get the cheap fares, and I really don't think we'll have the money a whole year ahead - not with the extortionately high cost of living at the moment.

In 2 years' time, goodness only knows how much it'll cost to fly ...

[tinkerbell83]

i work for thomsons and the prices are ridiculus (even with my staff discount!!)
ive been looking for flights for august since before christmas as i wasnt sure if id be able to go and even now the prices are still alot higher than i paid 2 years ago. :angry:

the best way to get cheap flights (well cheaper) is to go for a scheduled airline that goes via somewhere or if its for english school holidays, try flying from a scottish airport as their hols are different from ours. we saved about £200pp by flying from glasgow last time even with the extra cost of travelling.
:happy-thumb

[mellymouse]

My friend can't book her cheaper flights yet, because even though the prices for the flight out are now available, the dates to fly back are still outside the 'reduction window' and she'll need to wait another week before the cheap prices become available.

LeonieM..........what is the 'reduction window' then???

[spencem]

we've just booked August 09 though TCD at £6,405 for a fly drive for 8 of us, with one full size car and 1 full size convertible and their full insurance package. They are charging almost double what we could book the cars for elsewhere, but if you take them off the booking they add a £50 a head surcharge to the flights.:angry: With this taken into account the prices were within a couple of pounds to booking the car separately.

Virgin wanted £950 EACH for the same day for an economy car and no insurance.

[pete21]

hi i went last oct my wife & son & paid £1.900 from first choice.when we came home we booked for oct 08 with a extra person the price was £2.100 but we have to go a week early from the school hols if we booked it when the schools was off it was goin to cost us £3.300 big diffrence.lookin for prices for next year its already £600 a diffrence for the same holiday same time.they are also chargein u for 5kg of luggage rip off.

[Susan Veness]

It's crazy, isn't it, pete21? Some internal US flights have added a luggage fee, and they're talking about adding a fuel surcharge for internal flights in the US now, too. I also just heard something on the news saying all the extra fees are amounting to more than the price of the flight in some cases! :angry:

tinkerbell83, that's a great tip about flying out of Glasgow....! :happy-thumb

[martin1]

im not suprised to be honest they are increasing prices on the internal airlines in the u.s . i have been monitoring other disney forums and on www.disboards.com i have seen several stories of low cost airlines going bust at a moments notice. sad really but i can see all airfares rising due to the excessive oil and jet fuel costs

[palmer gang]

ryanair a cheap flight operator have been charging for luggage for some time now it is becoming more common with the budget airlines they just want walk on passengers no check in they probably get a better return carrying cargo in the hold as well

[LeonieM]

LeonieM..........what is the 'reduction window' then???

Basically - and I have trouble trying to describe it properly - the prices drop dramatically when you get to a specific period before your chosen date of travel. Let's say you want to fly on 1st April 2009. Well, the flight prices will show on line at over £1,000 until about 8th April 2008. After that date (it's 11 months and so many days - I don't know the exact number) the price will drop. I'm sure that when I booked our flights, only the flight out date was inside the specified period. My find tells me that she has to be within the 'window' to get the lower price flying home as well.

Unless this has changed since last time ...

I also think it depends who you book through. We booked through a third party , and even though it was a real hassle, we saved at least £1,500 that way if you go by Virgin's own published fares for the same period, so it's not rocket science!

Whether this will apply next year for 2010 flights is another matter, of course.

[dolphingirl]

This has nothing to do with a discount window. Scheduled airlines work with a number of different fares: IATA fares are common to all airlines on a certain route. They are kind of the maximum IATA will let the airlines charge on any given route. Each individual airline then has their own published or market fares that are lower than IATA fares (and often significantly so). Scheduled airlines only release their market fares about 11 months in advance. On top of that airlines usually do special offer fares that are very restrictive (usually none changeable and non refundable once booked). They tend to get offered off peak only and much nearer the time. For instance Virgin Atlantic offers N class fares that are their rock bottom fares. They are usually available 3 or 4 months prior to departure. We booked our N class tickets for August/ September this week. Usually there are very short booking windows for those kind of fares (usually 7 days). I don't know how charters work as they are a mystery to me, but all scheduled airlines work to this basic blue print.

dolphingirl

[LeonieM]

Well, I did say I didn't know the technicalities! lol

My travel agents told me that so many tickets at X price are released a certain date before the flight (the 11 months + certain number of day), and once those seats are sold, they have to charge a higher rate. That's why it's so important to get in as soon as possible to get the cheapest possible rate. This is where that wonderful word 'from' comes in handy for them - when they advertise prices 'from £xxx'.

We are open to trying a different airline next time - but it would have to fly from Gatwick and it would have to fly direct to Orlando. I know that does rather narrow the choices down, but I'm sure I've been told some US airlines do that route. ... and great though the tip of flying from Scotland is, as we're right down below London, it's really not an option for us.

[Simon Veness]

Sadly, only BA and Virgin fly direct from Gatwick to Orlando. Everyone else goes via Atlanta, or Philadelphia, or Detroit or Raleigh-Durham or.......!! You could look at some of the charter airlines (First Choice, with their Star Premier would be worthwhile), but no other scheduled airlines fly to Orlando direct (unless you count Aer Lingus, from Dublin!).

[CheshireCat]

Morning everyone....very interested to read all the replies - thanks for all the info.
I rang DialAFlight yesterday (a company who we have booked with before) and the guy there told me that Virgin had not yet released all their Std Economy seats even for the dates showing on the website, so he advised checking back with them in a week or so, when our dates would be fully covered.
I also had a look at flying out of Dublin (!) and could book flights with Aer Lingus now for about £500pp. We'd still have the hassle/cost of getting there though. We actually did this route the 1st time we went to Florida back in 2001 and whilst the outward journey was an adventure, the home leg was painful cos we arrived back in Dublin early and had to wait around for about 2 hrs for our connecting flight! The only other upside of flying out of Dublin though was you actually clear US Immigration at Dublin Airport, so you are straight out at the other end. :)
Anyway, lots of options to consider yet.
The only other thing I want to ask everyone is whats the best way to pay? I mean, should we be trying to pay in full straightaway for flights so the prices are guaranteed....if we just pay a deposit, are we more likely to get stung with a surcharge if the prices continue to increase? :confused:
Any views??

[dolphingirl]

It depends on the airline and on the kind of the price increase. First of all, airlines usually set a travel agent a ticketing time limit. The fare gets stored at the point of making the booking and is then valid until the ticketing time limit. Provided the travel agent issues the tickets on or before that date, the price is safe. This applies to the base fare.
Taxes are a different matter entirely and yes, fuel surcharges are classified as a tax. If there is an increase in tax, then the airline is in there perfect right to pass on that increase to the customer irrespective of whether the ticket has been paid for in full and has been issued or not. Whether or not the airline chooses to do that or not is up to them. I remember that when the UK departure tax doubled about 18 months ago, most airlines charged there customers on the day of departure for that tax increase. Others (like my employer) decided to absorb this cost rather than pass it on. I think I read on here a few days ago that somebody got a fairly hefty bill for a fuel surcharge even though they had paid their tickets in full ages ago. I don't think this is particularly ethical, but there you go. Of course I work for an airline that decided a while ago that a fuel surcharge is not ethical. They have decided that fuel is part of the normal operating cost and should therefore we worked into the base fare rather than to be collected as a tax. Again, all this information applies to scheduled airlines only as charters are not subject to the same rules and regulations.

dolphingirl

[LeonieM]

Hubby went into one of the travel agents in Bluewater today while we were there, and asked hundreds of questions!

Basically she informed him that BA hold several 'sales' a year, their prices are the same as Virgin's, their baggage allowance is also the same, and he believes that meals and stuff are also included even though he didn't think to ask. He was told that BA offer more room on their planes that Virgin, but I don't know how true that is.

Despite the fact that BA do 'sales', you can bet your bottom dollar that they won't have 'sale' prices during school holidays!

So, depending on my colleague's reporting back on her return from Orlando via BA, we could well defect - especially as Virgin have wiped all my air miles from the last 4 holidays which I think is disgraceful.

[mellymouse]

Leonie..........
We got 'sale' prices through VA for whit week (+ a week) last year....so school holidays DO sometimes become available in 'sales'
For information purposes....we booked sale prices at the end of August for the following May.

[karalma]

Just trying to decide when to book for next year. Got some brochures today. Any advice on the best time to book? Last year we just did it on a whim.

[Millie]

We went with BA last time and thought they were better than Virgin, we had a special deal and as we couldn't get the dates we wanted with Virgin we thought we would give it a go. We would of liked to of used them for the next trip but it worked out more expensive so have gone back to Virgin had a bit of a discount with them for August, just hope we are not too disappointed again. Could not fault BA at all.

[LeonieM]

It's just that Virgin have really lost the plot. The last month or so their flights have been really up the spout.

[ADRIAN C]

Its great when you have already booked I dont have to worry about the prices going up anymore.:happy-thumb

[Mickey Mouse]

why did they wipe your miles leonie?


although Virgin have been a little unrealiable of late....How tempting
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/specialoffers/economytotheusa.jsp

:eek::happy-thumb

[daz1107]

Booked my flights for 12 Decmber this year, flying back on Boxing Day evening, directly through the Virgin website. Manged to use some of our 'Virgin Miles' so the cost came in at £338.00 per person which I thought was very reasonable.

I'd been watching the prices for a few weeks before I actually booked and they varied by as much as £100 per person!! :eek:

£338.00 was the lowest I saw them at, so I grabbed em quick!! :cheers: