Buying flight tickets? Why has the price fallen in the last month?

GettingItRight

Hi all,

I'm planning to goto Brazil in April 09 and I want to try and get a direct flight. The only options seem to be with using TAM (Brazilian national airline) or with British Airways. I would prefer to fly with British Airways and I have been watching the prices in recent months for British Airways as they always seem to be the cheaper option.

When I first saw the cost of the BA flights, in October they were about £927.00. Now the price has steadily fallen and yesterday I have found the same tickets priced at £776.00 through BA's website. I'm tempted to buy the flight tickets now and grab the money saved.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with buying flight tickets, as I'm curous to know why the prices have fallen so much. I know in the previous year flights for Brazil were alot cheaper and appear to have risen greatly over this year. Am I right in thinking this price decrease is related to the cost of petrol? Does anyone have any recommendations on how far in advanced flight tickets should be purchased?

Anything shared is greatly appreciated

Kindest regards,

Gary.

cundall

cost of oil has dropped and also less people are now traveling too.

Its always a gamble when you book your tickets... when you think you have got a good price get it and never look back.

sturll

Lets have a look, in June this year (approx) i booked flights for 2 adults and 3 children from MAN to MCO with Virgin flying out in Jan for 2 weeks.

Total cost was: £1,610.04

Having a look now the total is: £2,204

So it goes up and down.

GettingItRight

Hi cundall & sturll. Yeah it's a bit of a gamble holding out. I've been talking to a few people today about and it's a mixed bag really. One person is looking at going to Hawai and they said the price has fallen. I think for now I will just keep a daily check on it.

I could jump for the cheaper indirect options, but its going indirect which is the problem. I had one indirect flight to Florida and felt that was more hassle than what it was worth. I admit that the flight was delayed and this alone probably added to the tiredness and frustration of it all. With Sao Paulo being so far away, I don't want to be swapping flights in Europe after 1-2 hours of being in the air. Maybe I'm just an awkward picky individual

sturll

GettingItRight wrote: »

Hi cundall & sturll. Yeah it's a bit of a gamble holding out. I've been talking to a few people today about and it's a mixed bag really. One person is looking at going to Hawai and they said the price has fallen. I think for now I will just keep a daily check on it.

I could jump for the cheaper indirect options, but its going indirect which is the problem. I had one indirect flight to Florida and felt that was more hassle than what it was worth. I admit that the flight was delayed and this alone probably added to the tiredness and frustration of it all. With Sao Paulo being so far away, I don't want to be swapping flights in Europe after 1-2 hours of being in the air. Maybe I'm just an awkward picky individual

Delta in the US have a huge network and i was recently on a flight from LAX which was bound for somewhere in S America via Atlanta.

I would be tempted to go to Orbitz.com. At a guess the cheapest option would probably be something like UK - Amsterdam - Atlanta - Sao Paulo. But flying to S America is inherently expensive.
Also i understand your frustration at changing flights but AMS and ATL are two of the friendliest and easiest airports to transfer through i have ever been to. Literally your bagage is checked to your final destination - you get off the plane and walk straight to your next gate. No messing about.

GettingItRight

Hi Sturll, thanks for your comment. I will check out the Orbitz website and see what is available. I have once been to AMS airport, but I never did a transfer through it.

I am holding fire for now, with regards to buying tickets, but will keep a daily check on the prices. I could be slightly more flexible with regards to my dates of travel, so with this in mind, if tickets are selling and the price starts going up, then I could adjust my travel dates in April if the tickets are a better price.

Thanks again

Voyager2002

Check out all the fares on Kayak.com

Personally, I have always accepted the minor hassle of changing 'planes as well worth the bonus of a lower fare. Do bear in mind that airports vary: Amsterdam is convenient and efficient, while Paris CDG is quite the reverse (and with unpleasant ground staff as well). A break of a few hours can be a pleasant distraction from the journey, particularly if there are good airport-city links (Amsterdam scores again on this).

I was surprised by Sturll's praise for Atlanta. I was under the impression that transit passengers in the USA were obliged to collect their checked luggage; pass through customs and immigration; and then check in for their onward journey. OTOH in most other countries you just wait in a transit area, never see your checked luggage, and do not enter the country unless you choose to do so. Perhaps Atlanta is different from other US airports.

sturll

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I was surprised by Sturll's praise for Atlanta. I was under the impression that transit passengers in the USA were obliged to collect their checked luggage; pass through customs and immigration; and then check in for their onward journey. OTOH in most other countries you just wait in a transit area, never see your checked luggage, and do not enter the country unless you choose to do so. Perhaps Atlanta is different from other US airports.

Quite the opposite in fact, Atlanta (whilst being huge) is well connected by a tram/train which connects the farthest terminal in minutes. Then - like in AMS you literally walk to your gate.

If you are flying within the US i have always found this to be the norm, on the same trip we had a transit through Birmingham and Sacramento and both times the bags were checked through to the destination and it was a simple straight forward case of getting off one plane onto another - in most cases (unlike UK) the gate is given at the point of online check in 24hrs previous. The only point i would make is that often the flight in the US has 'drop off points' for example your flight to Atlanta may well be down as Cancun, wait for the screen to change and it'll show that it actually calls as Atlanta first.

On the whole Internal flights in the USA are extremely straight forward and i would say less hassle than catching a train in the UK.