What Kind of Lunacy is This? (2014 flight prices)

Same old story isn't it? If you see a price you are willing to pay, grab it. Otherwise don't pay and wait or don't go.

When I was young, I travelled trans-atlantic once every 2 years if I was lucky; I take the family at least 3 times a year now, and my daughter of 11 no longer has that "buzz" of travel as she is so accustomed to it - my goodness, how things have changed.

A little perspective may be appropriate here.

Flight prices fluctuate hugely for all the reasons people have posted, there seems to be little chance of predicting movement, so set your parameters on what you are willing to pay, check back often, and grab it when you see it.

I agree. That is what I do. I have an amount set aside that I am willing to pay. When I see the price I can afford I just grab it. Yes I probably could get less if I bought S fares and waited for Gs (but these may not come available).

I too only travelled overseas once every few years as a kid and always loved the "buzz" of travel. As an adult I dont get to go more than once per year (if that) but still have the "buzz" of travel. Love it.

Increasing fares is pure Greed, Greed, Greed !

Otherwise known as Business, Business, Business.

Train companies charge higher fares at rush hour. Cinemas charge more at weekends. Hotels charge more when it's busy. It's basic economics - when you have a product that's in limited supply, you can charge more when demand is higher. It was always thus

Totally agree, my local cinema charges significantly more for evenings and weekends than daytime or midweek, most the restaurants round here have deals only available if seated before 6-00pm mon-Thursday, the local bus company won't sell a return fare before 8am insisting on an expensive day traveller fare instead, my gym charges me more if I want a peak membership rather than off peak and buying advance train tickets from Bournemouth to Waterloo costs me £26 return at the weekend or leaving after 10am on a weekday, leave an hour earlier and the price is in excess of £90!

Peak times cost more always have and always will, it's a shame but don't think it will ever change

London Underground charges more for peak travel

Take Balham to Victoria

Monday to Friday from 06:30 to 09:30 the fare is £ 3.20. At any other time it is £2.70. Now that is only 50p but it may be enough to make some people think about traveling slightly later and reducing congestion in the morning.

But doing the same journey on the railway is

Monday to Friday 06:30 - 09:30 and 16:00 - 19:00 the fare is £3.10 at all others it is £ 2.10.

Again the difference is to try and make people travel when it is cheaper. Problem is many people either simply don't want to or have jobs that require them to start at a particular time

(both using Oyster pay-go)

Other examples might be a restaurant charging less on a Monday Night than it does on a Saturday Night or doing a 2 for 1 offer during the week but not at the weekend.

Or a hairdressers offering a discount to certain groups if they come in on a Tuesday Afternoon rather than on a Saturday - prices are being used to try and shift demand.

And back to airlines. Ryanair and Easyjet do exactly the same by charging more for certain times of the year. They even different fares for different days of the week yet somehow all that is marvelous and wonderful and the market working as it should (competition and all that) yet when virgin or BA do it it is awful and a breach of all sorts of laws and rights.

And if anything the LCCs appear to be more vigorous in increasing prices when they know it is going to be busy at certain destinations due to popular events taking place - I have some friends going to Berlin next month and they booked months ago but the price they are paying for their weekend are much higher than the weekends either side - simply because there is a big event on the weekend they are going.

Sorry but my kids went on holiday when school ended. Yes it was more expensive, but lots of people had to go away on the two week shutdown, there are to many teacher training day holidays already. But i do agree that we should not have to pay through the nose when schools are on 6 week break. v(

Yeap so many many examples of how prices raise a bit during the peak times. However the point is these examples are happening day in day out, week after week.

The last poster said it all, parents should not have to pay through the nose just because schools break up, or I'll add because it is a particular season. It is wrong but it is a practice which will continue because we (and I unfortunately include myself) collude with this rip off. We stand back and take it because its inevitable. Thank god my grandfather didnt have this attitude 50 years ago, or who knows who would be in charge of our country

I have always been campaigner for fairness and equality but when it comes to service providers I accept that this just doesn't happen.
I like to see one fair price all of the time, not have something increase just because its Easter, Christmas or whatever.

My own fare this year to LA returning from Las Vegas was a special reward flight deal upgraded by an AmEx voucher to PE. I paid just £396 whereas my travel partner had to fork out over £1200 for the same seat on the same plane. So I guess I have to say, I had a cheap seat at their expense. Sitting across the whole row in front of us was either staff or other 'perk' passengers who were probably travelling on a freebie or deeply discounted fare. The cc supplied this lot with upper class meals and drinks thoughout the flight. I couldn't raise an opinion on this because of my own ridiculously cheap ticket but my fellow passengers who had paid a decent price for their tickets certainly voiced disapproval.

A little local independant supermarket in my town opened up last year. They put a huge sign in their window : No sales, No discounts, No offers, No loyalty Scheme, No refunds and No exchanges - the price you see is the price you pay every day of the week . On talking to the owner, they operate a thriving and successful business.

Sometimes I wonder how much more profit airlines, supermarkets and every money making service provider who currently offers 'loyaly schemes' would actually make if they stopped their expensive incentive bonuses. With the airlines, they could offer two sorts of fare regardless of the time of year, a reasonable priced fully flexible kind or a discounted fare when sales are sluggish - both in all classes & only upgradeable by cash not miles, points or status ): ): Initially would make some folk unhappy but like it has been said throughout this particular debate - if you don't like it, don't do it. ii)

That's it, promise not to cause any more heart flutters with my sugguestions

A little local independant supermarket in my town opened up last year. They put a huge sign in their window : No sales, No discounts, No offers, No loyalty Scheme, No refunds and No exchanges - the price you see is the price you pay every day of the week . On talking to the owner, they operate a thriving and successful business.

Sometimes I wonder how much more profit airlines, supermarkets and every money making service provider who currently offers 'loyaly schemes' would actually make if they stopped their expensive incentive bonuses. With the airlines, they could offer two sorts of fare regardless of the time of year, a reasonable priced fully flexible kind or a discounted fare when sales are sluggish - both in all classes & only upgradeable by cash not miles, points or status ): ): Initially would make some folk unhappy but like it has been said throughout this particular debate - if you don't like it, don't do it. ii)

That's it, promise not to cause any more heart flutters with my sugguestions

I think that is quite interesting.
I wonder just how much extra they make ?
Perhaps those sums have already been done and that's why it happens that way
Free market economics + capitalism
But interesting point I thought

No refunds and No exchanges

no refunds and no exchanges could very well be illegal!


As to your suggestion I could just see an airline making the 'reasonably priced' aka 'the more expensive' option available during the busy times and the 'discounted' options available the rest of the time.

Or on a flight of 300 seats just have say 10 cheap seats available.

So exactly as now ...

The last poster said it all, parents should not have to pay through the nose just because schools break up, or I'll add because it is a particular season. It is wrong but it is a practice which will continue because we (and I unfortunately include myself) collude with this rip off. We stand back and take it because its inevitable. Thank god my grandfather didnt have this attitude 50 years ago, or who knows who would be in charge of our country

Sorry but for what it's worth I can't agree with those sentiments -- you make VS (or basically all airlines which follow this policy) out to be some sort of unethical monster here and I think that's rather unfair. As has been pointed out already in this thread, it's really no different to all manner of other businesses and in my opinion at least, it's perfectly reasonable. Why not charge more when demand's more, and offer deep discounts to fill empty seats in quieter periods? That strikes me as the sensible way to operate, and certainly the only way to run a business. To suggest by offering lower fares proves that it would be profitable to do so all year round is laughable -- especially given that VS made a loss last year! To attempt to legislate against this practice would surely only force airline prices to be consistently higher than they are now, or put the companies out of business... ?|

I know you are likely to be fined if you take your children out of school. This pricing policy was the same in the 80's & 90's when my children were at school age. I always took my children out of school for the family holiday in term time due to limitations when I could actually time off and also to avoid paying school holiday prices. It' didn't do my children any harm as they we're all successful in obtaining university degrees.

Of course you could ask do airlines actually raise fares at peak times?

Or do they simply charge standard fares and discount them when it's quieter?

Then it's not a penalty for families who have to travel in school holidays, simply an incentive for passengers who opt to travel when it's quieter. Seems fair.

Or indeed one could argue that leisure fares are almost always heavily discounted -- when compared to non-Saturday-night fully flex fares that businesses often have to pay.

I know you are likely to be fined if you take your children out of school. This pricing policy was the same in the 80's & 90's when my children were at school age. I always took my children out of school for the family holiday in term time due to limitations when I could actually time off and also to avoid paying school holiday prices. It' didn't do my children any harm as they we're all successful in obtaining university degrees.

And nowadays it means that the school will be marked down by OFSTED as having unauthorised absences, which in turn means that through no fault of their own the dedicated, trained and committed staff may now end up losing their jobs. As with all things, depends on the lens through which you view the world.

I know you are likely to be fined if you take your children out of school. This pricing policy was the same in the 80's & 90's when my children were at school age. I always took my children out of school for the family holiday in term time due to limitations when I could actually time off and also to avoid paying school holiday prices. It' didn't do my children any harm as they we're all successful in obtaining university degrees.

And nowadays it means that the school will be marked down by OFSTED as having unauthorised absences, which in turn means that through no fault of their own the dedicated, trained and committed staff may now end up losing their jobs. As with all things, depends on the lens through which you view the world.

A fair point but you could argue that why should someone who works in the service sector for say £20k p.a. with 28 days holiday a year care? It's not the fault of businesses who are maximising income, it's an outdated education system that need to reform thus allowing more flexibility for people to take holidays. In the 80's I believe if the parent submitted a holiday request then it was not marked down.

[Darren Wheeler]

...it's an outdated education system that need to reform...

Actually, that's a very good point. The only reason we have the long summer holiday is to allow the children to help bring in the harvest.

Seeing as it's pretty much mechanised now and child labour has been outlawed perhaps it is time to change. I remember a while ago talk of moving to a system of longer terms but with the current 13 weeks or so holiday spread out more.

Totally agree Darren. Here in Spain schools have 12 weeks in the summer with less half terms. Also they don't bat an eyelid if you take child out they just provide the missing coursework.

...it's an outdated education system that need to reform...

Actually, that's a very good point. The only reason we have the long summer holiday is to allow the children to help bring in the harvest.

Seeing as it's pretty much mechanised now and child labour has been outlawed perhaps it is time to change. I remember a while ago talk of moving to a system of longer terms but with the current 13 weeks or so holiday spread out more.

Yes I saw a proposal for something like 7 week terms with a shorter summer holiday period. Idea was that too long a break got children out of the learning habit.

But it will take a massive culture change for anything to happen and it would cause all sorts of other problems such as when exams get taken and university entrance etc etc. And these changes would not only affect the Education system - remember parents work in all sorts of industries and an adjusted school timetable would affect those too.

It might even result in a fixed Easter Holiday !

But spreading out holidays might only make the cost of holidays worse - with even more demand in a much shorter period. After all people want to have their summer holiday in the summer ...

As to absence being recorded it always was - my attendance was always listed on my school report - but it is now factored into the league tables and therefor one of the indicators of it being a 'good' school or not.

I know you are likely to be fined if you take your children out of school. This pricing policy was the same in the 80's & 90's when my children were at school age. I always took my children out of school for the family holiday in term time due to limitations when I could actually time off and also to avoid paying school holiday prices. It' didn't do my children any harm as they we're all successful in obtaining university degrees.

And nowadays it means that the school will be marked down by OFSTED as having unauthorised absences, which in turn means that through no fault of their own the dedicated, trained and committed staff may now end up losing their jobs. As with all things, depends on the lens through which you view the world.

Yeap things were different in the 80's & 90's - for one thing the world was a much smaller place and family holidays were centred very much around the European countries. I certainly took my own kids out of school perhaps a fews days before they broke up and like PaulS said ... it didn't harm their education.

As for fining parents, I think I would be turning the tables somewhat and I would like to fine the school for all the extra school closures!!! Fristly there's all the extra closures for teacher training days & religious festivals, shutting schools coz there is a dusting of snow on the ground, sending kids home coz its too hot/cold, days off to allow the school to set up for the exams or getting ready to show the new entrants around and lastly of course the strike days .... these unplanned absences cause turmoil in a working family's routine, thank god for grandparents.

I guess at the end of the day it cetainly does "depend on the lens through which you view the world". There's the person who feels sorry for the poor hard working teacher who may lose their job ?| because of irresponsible parents who takes a kid out of school during term time. Then there's the folk who worry more about getting their G or Z fares, because those fares come around out of the 'peak' school holiday period.

Guess it's like the old old story - who cares if it don't affect me syndrome ii) ii)

Yeap things were different in the 80's & 90's - for one thing the world was a much smaller place and family holidays were centred very much around the European countries. I certainly took my own kids out of school perhaps a fews days before they broke up and like PaulS said ... it didn't harm their education.

As for fining parents, I think I would be turning the tables somewhat and I would like to fine the school for all the extra school closures!!! Fristly there's all the extra closures for teacher training days & religious festivals, shutting schools coz there is a dusting of snow on the ground, sending kids home coz its too hot/cold, days off to allow the school to set up for the exams or getting ready to show the new entrants around and lastly of course the strike days .... these unplanned absences cause turmoil in a working family's routine, thank god for grandparents.

I think that is a good point actually
I also think travelling further afield is good for education. Seeing how others live life helps to bring some perspective
I wish more people would travel outside of English resorts in the med
But back on topic while its annoying that prices change during holiday time it is supply and demand
That's the way the capitalist free market economy cookie crumbles

So all expect a sale on monday (finally?) ?

So all expect a sale on monday (finally?) ?

Cutting to the chase then

But to answer the question, I am half expecting one, I got an absolutely amazing deal last year just after the bank holiday, so am watching with interest.

Back to the prior debate though, my wife is clear that she would never take our cherubs out of school, I'm not so sure, but then she is the one that has to face the other mothers in the playground in the morning, so who am I to argue! One option may be to send them to an independent school where they have longer holidays and you can take advantage of the cheaper holiday prices on the fringes, but I'm not sure overall I'll come out ahead there!!

Qatar have a four day sale started yesterday, and have noticed some BA club fares loaded Friday Boston and Atlanta £1500k, DC was £1600 then this am gone up again, Shanghai had £2k fares but again this am gone up.

Thanks

It's certainly true that in recent years VS (and BA naturally) have had sales around the August bank holiday so there's a chance that'll happen again.

Having said that, looking back at V-Flyer from a year ago, there were sales in certain cabins and on certain routes virtually all summer. IIRC there were some seriously good UC deals like LA return for around £1600. This summer though - nothing: you'll typically pay more than double that.

If what we're being told is true and the economy is finally picking up after 5 years, it may be that bargain fares and regular sales are a thing of the past (well at least until the next recession). Let's hope not - and with any luck a sale will magically appear in the next few days!

So all expect a sale on monday (finally?) ?

Lets hope so but it will be same old issue

VS have got some good flight prices at present but these offers end 13th December and for 2014 they end on 30th March - so the offers end just as the christmas or easter school holiday 'peak' time starts :w

So all expect a sale on monday (finally?) ?

Lets hope so but it will be same old issue

VS have got some good flight prices at present but these offers end 13th December and for 2014 they end on 30th March - so the offers end just as the christmas or easter school holiday 'peak' time starts :w

This time last year, there were some great Caribbean sale prices loaded covering the Easter holidays for this year, so don't give up hope...

Hi All

not sure how accurate this is, but from our own past experiences.. when ever we try to be first to book our seats during the first few weeks one is allowed too...we find the prices are somewhat inflated (in fact very inflated). Soon after though they settle down to quite a reasonable price and some better deal appear for the M+M offers. I guess if those are the only dates you can fly and one needs early confirmation then you are at the mercy of VA price setters (bless them all!)

Cloudscudder

Can I ask what cabin this is for? I only ask because we are giving serious consideration towards heading to Florida in September 2014 in PE and conscious we can't book flights until at least next month (October).

Our dilemma is the timings of booking the flights, I know it's going to be along the lines of "How long is a piece of string?", but would we be better off booking as soon as they become available or holding out till November or December, or even January?