V-Flyer

I';m just lookign at costs for a mid week return to Newark.

Lookign at both their websites I see an Economy return is £1308.93 with both airlines. Even down to the pence it's identical - price fixing?

And Premium Economy rates are also identical - £2050.93

When is that for? That seems ridiculously expensive.

lisanaomi87 wrote:When is that for? That seems ridiculously expensive.

I agree, but I think this is what its costs for those that need to travel at short notice. Luckily, this keeps fares down for leisure travellers who can be more choosy and/or book well in advance.

As to original question;

What is the difference between price fixing and price matching?

Collusion presumably?

expensive maybe, but you could go onto somewhere such as expedia, book midweek flight plus cheapest hotel, for half the flight alone price, and not bother using the hotel

I often do this if I need a midweek return flight, and go through Quidco for further casback

from Virgin's website - a mid week PE return between Heathrow & Newark in July is £2050.93. Looking at some mid week dates in October the cost is identical. Comparing this to a PE return mid week next week the cost is the same. I thought if you bought an advance ticket the cost reduced?

ccarmock wrote:from Virgin's website - a mid week PE return between Heathrow & Newark in July is £2050.93. Looking at some mid week dates in October the cost is identical. Comparing this to a PE return mid week next week the cost is the same. I thought if you bought an advance ticket the cost reduced?

Most likely because you are not staying over on a Saturday.

Just did a couple of dummy bookings (out Tues/back Thur) and got the same fares as you but extend the stay to include a Saturday and the price drops by 1/2.

The Tues - Thur trip comes up as a W and the stay including a Saturday is a K.

If you book without a Saturday you will get a W fare at any time of the year, S fares have advance purchasing requirements and require Saturday night stays, K fares have longer advance purchasing / Sat night stays - so you can get cheaper with advance purchasing, but that's not the only factor.

What's the reasoning behind the Saturday night stay?

I've noticed this is often a requirement for holiday packages - presumably links to the flight costs?

Is it a way to identify leisure from business and charge more for the, (presumed), business traveller?

craigmonster wrote:What's the reasoning behind the Saturday night stay?

...

Is it a way to identify leisure from business and charge more for the, (presumed), business traveller?

Erm, I'd say you've got it there. All us business travellers end up subsidising you (ooops, don't go there!) ii) .

craigmonster wrote:What's the reasoning behind the Saturday night stay?

I've noticed this is often a requirement for holiday packages - presumably links to the flight costs?

Is it a way to identify leisure from business and charge more for the, (presumed), business traveller?

I'm pretty sure it is simply a way to take advantage of (=penalise) the business traveller, who seemingly has more money than the holidaymaker. The strange thing is that through VH you can get a 3 or 4 day midweek trip to New York etc and because VH is a holiday company (and you are therefore classified as a holidaymaker) the fare is the same as the lower Saturday stay rate.

I fly mostly on business and dislike giving up my weekends, so I have used the VH option from time to time. I have also heard of people doing nested returns to overcome this.

It is a relic from the old days when the business man travelled to his destination and back during the week (to spend the weekend playing golf with chums) whilst the masses travelled at the weekends for their annual holiday and making best use of their meagre holiday entitlement.

The business man also needed flexibilty to change his ticket - maybe staying an extra day to secure the big deal or returning early due to abject failure. Hence the flexible W ticket !

It is usually cheaper to buy two tickets : LHR-USA and have the return dated in the future after a sat night has passed. Then also buy a USA-LHR using the 1st coupon as your return to the UK.

You will then actually get 2 trips for pretty much less than the price of one. There is almost no advance purchase ex-UK and 7 day advance for econ in USA.