Whats the best last minute deal you ever had?

DorsetGirl_2

I am a big planner/organiser and I like to book our holidays well in advance (we are off tomorrow to Spain and its been booked for 15 months)

DH says that we will save much more money if we book last minute, but I hate leaving things to chance in case the availability is limited.

So I wondered what the best last minute holiday people have been on was, and how much they saved.

richardw

DorsetGirl wrote: »

DH says that we will save much more money if we book last minute

How does DH know that the holiday you want to go, on the date you want to travel, at your preferred flight times and airport, will be available at a knock down price in peak holiday season?

BusPass_2

Hi

Wasn't exactly a last minute holiday but pretty late booking and not to everyone's taste.

Ryanair had a £6 flight deal one way to Malaga. Booked up for my wife and I so got two return flights for £24 (Total payment)

I used our AirMiles to book a hotel from Air Miles web site. Cost Zero. Granted the Air Miles were collected from our Tesco Club Card points so we had to shop in Tesco and use a Tesco Credit Card (free) to accumulate the points.

However net result was a week on the Costa del Sol for £24.

On the other side odf the coin we once had a week in Corfu and found that the couple had booked last minute for a fortnight ( they were on the same plane) and had got their fortnight cheaper than we paid for the week!

I guess the moral is that you settle for what you are quite happy to pay for and get on with it. Always chasing the gold at the end of the rainbow will only bring stress and disappointment.

DorsetGirl_2

richardw wrote: »

How does DH know that the holiday you want to go, on the date you want to travel, at your preferred flight times and airport, will be available at a knock down price in peak holiday season?

Cos he isnt fussy about where we goes, and as he is SE he can go when he likes really.

ca1980

In 2001 we got a week s/c to laganas in Zante for £99 each with Direct Holidays (before 9/11 happened) and then the following Feb we got a week s/c to the Algarve in Portugal for £129 per adult! We had a great time on both!

I think the days of such low cost holidays have long gone now, or at least they seem to have gone with the "big" travel companies like thomas cook etc... i am pricing up a break in september at the moment and even self catering we are looking at £900 for a week for 2 adults and one child thats before you factor in travel to the airport, spends, clothes, etc etc

danielley

Have you tried searching to see how much your holiday for tomorrow would be if you booked it today?

Or maybe if you'd looked last week, the week before etc that would have given you an idea on how much you could have saved.

There have been a lot of threads on here recently about last minute deals, and the general consensus is that they aren't as prevalent as they were 5 -10 years ago. Especially if you want to go to somewhere specific.

Enjoy your holiday!

Matt2389

I know a lot of people like to book well in advance, but for me 15 months is tooo far as I'd like to look around slightly closer, say 6-4 months in advance to try and get a better deal etc! I've often been able to use discount codes on hotels, flights of packages, that had I booked well in advance wouldn't have been possible! I suppose it depends whether you have a favourite hotel that you know sells out quickly!

I booked my return flights to Russia (for 3 weeks ago) back in November for £150, yet after january the price rose fairly steadily!

However, I'm going to Tokyo in a month, booked the flights in April for £360 direct BA return, but had i booked further in advance was looking at around the £800 mark, and they have risen back up there now!

I think you should just book (whether last minute/ or in advance) when you are happy paying the price!

bcl999

18 night cruise, top category balcony cabin, sole occupancy, £179. Brochure price something like £2500.

fabsaver

Wow that cruise is impressive :money: How did you manage to find that?

I can't beat that but have been on many £99 holidays over the years, and a lot more at less than £150. I agree the cheap deals are not as prevalent as they used to be and you have to search hard to find anything decent. Last year we had a week in Paxos for £99 and a fortnight in Cyprus for £129. Our best deal was a few years ago when it was a really hot summer here and nobody wanted to go away. We got a week 3* half board in a lovely hotel on Lake Garda for £89. Brochure price was £600+

Unfortunately many of the smaller tour operators have been taken over by the big names and they don't discount to the same extent. I think they tend to put offers on 3-4 weeks before departure and then don't discount any further after that.

As others have said it depends how flexible you are and how many hours you want to spend searching for something. It's very unlikely to be able to find such cheap deals in August.

Doshwaster

I got a fantastic flight + hotel deal to Lisbon from Expedia a few years ago. I can't remember the exact price but the combined price of the flight and the hotel was less than the flight alone. The hotel wasn't the best in the world but it was perfectly adequate especially when the cost of stopping there was negative.

WishI'dReadSooner

In the EARLY days of the internet, well before the masses arrived we frequently won travel auctions for just 99p - that was for flights, transfers and hotel often HB included. That was for 2 people, often for 2 weeks! This was before they started adding on booking fees and taxes. We often had 3-5 holidays a year.

Being self employed we were able to book last minute when there was a lul in the business - often the departure was 2-3days later than the auction. We used to get our bags packed, have NO preferences where we went - we just went for the auctions that had no bids and we very often won them at just 99p - sometimes we went up to a massive £40 if we really fancied going to this extortionate place! LOL

We went to loads of places in Greece, Spain, Balearics and Canary Islands and we never had a bad holiday - we always had funds just in case the hotel was carp (sometimes they didn't state which hotel you'd be staying) but we were extremely lucky often ending up in 4 star accommodation. If we did manage HB deals it was actually cheaper to go abroad than it was to stay at home.

Those were the days!

We were the couple who quickly drifted away when people began to say how much they had paid for their holiday. IF you'd paid a fortune (often £1000+) for your break I'm sure you'd have been well miffed that we paid just 99p for exactly the same holiday.