V-Flyer

I know VS revenue management will be changing pricing info based on loads etc, but I was surrpised to see a work trip I am planning in PE on VS1/2 in June was costing in at £1100 on Friday, £1700 this morning and now £908... quiet a bit of variation even today!

maybe people looking at prices and doing dummy bookings and holding I(bt not taking seats)over the bank holiday working through the system?

I was looking over the weekend and prices up and down, all over the place....I am told the system had a few issues at the weekend... :0 :0 :0

horburyflyer wrote:I was looking over the weekend and prices up and down, all over the place....I am told the system had a few issues at the weekend... :0 :0 :0

Let's hope the system is producing lower fares when we all try to book during this system issue, rather than the higher! :0

Indeed, we can only hope!!!

I think a lot of it is because people reserve tickets in - say K class - so when you look only S or W are available but next time you look the K is available so the price will vary.
For exactly the same ticket class K, S or W the price does not vary much (except weekend travel or a sale)

tontybear wrote:maybe people looking at prices and doing dummy bookings and holding I(bt not taking seats)over the bank holiday working through the system?

I agree with tonty. I can remember spending one Sunday afternoon looking for a Z fare to MCO but nothing was available except D and J. On Monday afternoon two Zs were readily available. Any query/dummy bookings puts that seat on hold for a period of time. That's why sometimes you might see a fare you like or a do a dummy reward booking and when you ring VS it isn't available. That happened to me on one occasion and when I said to the booking agent that it was probably me that blocked the seat. After a few minutes it suddenly became available again

I just booked PE to Vegas in July via ebookers for £900. VS site was over £1,300 it is getting beyond a joke.

Hoppy wrote:I just booked PE to Vegas in July via ebookers for £900. VS site was over £1,300 it is getting beyond a joke.

Not necessarily. T/As and third party sites get an allocation of seats in the lower buckets and at a lower price. These come with a load of restrictions including the near impossibility of upgrading if you so choose to do so. What has probalby happened is that VS has sold out the lower buckets in PE and are selling S and W while ebookers is still selling a K

How does this relate to the VS promise that a lower fare will not be found online?

Just completed the booking that prompted my initiate posting in this thread and indeed the fare class issued was a K.

I see Expert flyer load check does show K availability so worth keeping an eye on that if the VS price seems off, in case ther eis K availability but the VS website tries to sell a W or S.

Has expert flyer ever shown reward class availability ie U etc?

EF alledgedly shows award availability for some airlines but I have found it to be very inaccurate - possibly because airlines chop ad change award availability regularly depending on loads.

honey lamb wrote:

Hoppy wrote:I just booked PE to Vegas in July via ebookers for £900. VS site was over £1,300 it is getting beyond a joke.

Not necessarily. T/As and third party sites get an allocation of seats in the lower buckets and at a lower price. These come with a load of restrictions including the near impossibility of upgrading if you so choose to do so. What has probalby happened is that VS has sold out the lower buckets in PE and are selling S and W while ebookers is still selling a K

Nope...VS flights were all 'K's, just £440 more.

As it happens they have uploaded some of the cheaper fares on to the VS website today, many days after advertising the start of the Sale??

Just looking at this again for a flight in September - in K class ie taking in a Saturday night. A couple of days ago VS had this shown at £908, as did BA. Now I check the same flight and VS show it as £1071.93. Guess what BA also show it as £1071.93.

VS & BA seem to price match to the penny on many flights. I know it may not be pricing fixing - but it sure feels like it could be.

And in Economy both companies have the cost at £566.93

honey lamb wrote:Not necessarily. T/As and third party sites get an allocation of seats in the lower buckets and at a lower price. These come with a load of restrictions including the near impossibility of upgrading if you so choose to do so. What has probalby happened is that VS has sold out the lower buckets in PE and are selling S and W while ebookers is still selling a K

So if VS maintains its promise of 'never knowingly undersold' online then they should be subject to a flood of lawsuits ...

I just don't believe this part of the organization has got its act together.

I know this might seem to be a pet topic of mine right now... but a colleage booked a return PE ticket to JFK in September for around £720 two weeks ago. I will be travelling with her - my ticket cost £1071. I see a search now shows the ticket at £719.33. Each time I have checked this I have also checked simialr flights with BA - each time the VS price & the BA price have matched to the penny.

The variations across two weeks seem suspicious since they are following BA or BA are following VS to the penny each time.

So much for competition in this area.