Just curious really........
We're hopefully going to Florida for a holiday and I usually book the various elements (flight, hotel, car etc) myself as opposed to a package holiday via a travel agent. Anyway, I priced up direct flights with Expedia @ £490 rtn (which matched the airline price on their own website). I did the search again but this time, included a 4 night stay in a hotel (as the other 7 days will be on a cruise) and the cheapest combined price came in @ £436 inc the same flights??
I checked for a price on the flights again and it was back up to £490?? How's this happening?? How can return flights plus hotel stay be less than just the flights? I have an idea/theory as to what's going on but thought I'd ask any fishes who might be more knowledgable......
KC Cantiaci;2509929
There is no overall answer to your question because it depends on what airline you book with.
I use EasyJet for 4 return flights to Spain each year and here the approach is simple, book six months in advance when prices are at their cheapest. Mrs Mick has it off to a fine art and we pay peanuts for flights and this is helped by always avoiding school holidays and flying out between Tues - Thursdays, which is easy for us.
If your use one of the biggie company's who can sell via agencies as well as direct, then it gets a whole lot more complex.
Tickets can increase / decrease in price literally by the hour. If there is an upsurge in people booking close together, the computer pushes up the price and then reduces it when demand falls off. Booking at weekends is a case in point, the price often rises when you are booking during your week end break and the prices will drop Monday mornings when activity eases off. Generally speaking the prices will increase as more seats are sold.
The situation is also confused when airlines when sell a block of say 50 seats to a merchant (often known as a consolidator) who will buy in bulk at a discount and may or may not agree not to sell to the public for a few weeks, depending on the time in order to allow the airlines to push up prices. The consolidator usually holds back and starts selling at weekends and closer to the flight date but they can change their pricing very quickly.
People who fly long distance tend to book well ahead, so prices tend to be consistently high after a few weeks whereas in Europe, it is often more last minute, even just days before the flight, so prices bounce up and down more.
For Florida, you have a good choice of air lines and if you do it yourself, book as early as possibly, preferably sitting in front of your PC early afternoons between Tuesday and Thursday. Avoid booking during the evenings and at weekends because that is when prices tend to increase and will slowly lower on Mondays. Also flying out mid week usually gives a lower price but during the school holiday period, less so. That will not guarantee you the best prices but it will swing you up a few notches to buying at low prices.
If you fly during school holidays, the best advice has got to be, book around 6 month ahead because prices tend to inch up two points but only lower by one.
The airlines tend to buy 66% of their fuel on a forward contract and the lower price of oil should result in lower prices next year.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Mick
