Be carefull when booking "cheap flights"

Pete.g

I've just been checking thompsonfly.com for flights in Oct for my stag do, looking at either Magaluf or Prague. The prices I got were:

Doncaster-Prague:

For a group of 10.
Outward £28.99 Inward £40.99 total inc taxes £104.78pp

However, Just out of curiousity I then put that there was only 1 person traveling and the prices came back as:

Outward £14.49 Inward £28.99 Total inc taxes £78.28.

So you are desriminated for booking a large group to the tune of £26.50 per person. Which I think is disgraceful.

Also another possible destination for the stag do is Magaluf so I checked that.

Doncaster-Palma:

10 people traveling,
Outward £52.99 Inward £94.99 total inc taxes £192.69pp

And for 1 person,
Outward £30.99 Inward £72.99 Total inc taxes £148.69.

Again each individual in the group is out of pocket to the tune of £44 just because they are part of a group travelling.

Surely there must be some sort of industry rules that say you can't charge groups more than individuals for exactly the same service?!!

Not sure if other so called budget airlines are up to the same trick or not.

Pete.

blindman

I suppose a timely reminder is in order, BUT this has been discussed several times before.

Doonhamer

I think the price of seats goes up as the plane fills up and the price you get when you book 10 seats is the average of booking 10 individual seats. If you booked them one at a time you would likely see the price go up on the last few you book. It's the way budget airlines model their prices.

If you book early you might get a seat for £10, but if you had a party of 180 people you wouldn't get every seat at £10.

robin123_2

It is due to the fact that only certain seats on a plane sell for a certain price, so there may be 5 seats at £78.28 but because you want to take 10 and the next 5 seats are £104.78 everyone in the group is charged this price.

A way around this is to make seperate bookings and then only some of the seats will be charged at the higher price ad you can then average out the total costs between the group.
Hope this makes sense........

jaymac_2

It looks cheaper going out on Sundays or Mondays and coming back fridays or Saturdays but that's not much good for a stag weekend! Going out 29 or30th is £1.49 plus taxes as are returns on 1st 2nd and 3rd of November. Alternatively book them in groups of 2 or 3...you know they have seats if you can get a price for ten.

coastergirl

Hi

Just wanted to say - the only way you can even hope of getting all the flights at that price is to have 10 individual computers all on the website with the quote on, and book simultaneously. Otherwise, as people have said, the price will likely increase as more seats are filled. The other downside to booking individually is that you are all going to have separate booking references and be treated as separate. If there is any need to bump passengers due to overbooking etc, they can do it to some of you. Your booking wouldn't be treated as a "whole". Hope that makes sense and hope you have a nice time wherever you go!

Rachel

MarkyMarkD

Even doing what you suggest, coaster, will likely not work - each transaction will go through seconds apart and likely the later ones will fail, as the price available when they quoted will no longer be available when you press "accept". It depends on their systems, though.

cruyff73

Doonhammer wins the prize on this one. It's an average price. Book'em seperately it'll cost the same overall.

stamford

Stuff about ryanair here

http://www.ryanair.org.uk/

trisontana

Interesting story in today's Money Mail about some of the supposed "extras" charged by airlines :-
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=410595&in_page_id=2&ito=1565

GlennTheBaker

cruyff73 wrote:

Doonhammer wins the prize on this one. It's an average price. Book'em seperately it'll cost the same overall.

Not necessarily. If, for example, there were only 9 seats available at £x and the next price bracket was £y, booking a party of 10 in one go would result in everyone being charged £y, whereas booking 9 @ £x and 1 @ £y would be the only way to ensure you got the cheapest possible price overall.