Help! Cape Town in March, flights just went up £150!

littlesnuggy

Helppppp!
I'm meant to be going on holiday to Cape Town in March with OH's family, was looking at 9th-21st (they have rented a house from 4th-24th). For some stupid reason I didn't book our flights but kept checking prices every few days. With Virgin they've been £713 return each for a while, including yesterday, but now when I've decided to get a move on and book them they've jumped to £880! And there's nothing cheaper within the date range

I've checked other airlines and they're no cheaper. Would really rather go direct, but have seen at £670 option with Swiss Air going via Zurich.

Does anyone have any experience with Virgin flights; are they likely to go up further if we leave it longer, or might they have a sale between now and then and bring them down..? It's about 6 weeks from now.

Thanks for any suggestions

bagand96

BA's sale ended yesterday, not sure when Virgin's did, but they also had a January sale. The effect of BA's sale ending may have bumped fares back up across all the airlines.

I can't see fares falling much being so close to the date now. Have a look at Kayak.co.uk that site compares many airlines and agents. For those dates there are some direct BA flights for £860 odd. However, KLM with a stop in Amsterdam coming up at £570, which is a significant saving; its up to you whether the direct flights are worth a £300 premium, thats a fair wedge of spending money!

Barneysmom

Hi, you never said where you are flying from?
I picked Birmingham because it's central and found Emirates @ £716.10.


http://fly2.emirates.com/IBE/SearchResult.aspx

Sorry, that one is a Dubai stop/change.

littlesnuggy

bagand96 wrote: »

BA's sale ended yesterday, not sure when Virgin's did, but they also had a January sale. The effect of BA's sale ending may have bumped fares back up across all the airlines.

I can't see fares falling much being so close to the date now. Have a look at Kayak.co.uk that site compares many airlines and agents. For those dates there are some direct BA flights for £860 odd. However, KLM with a stop in Amsterdam coming up at £570, which is a significant saving; its up to you whether the direct flights are worth a £300 premium, thats a fair wedge of spending money!

That would explain it - I had stupidly thought the January sales would be on til the end of the month

£300 does seem a lot, but the KLM flights add about 4 or 5 hours onto a 12 hour journey, and I can anticipate OH having a major strop when tired & grouchy about the faffing around, particularly on the way home!

We live in the South West but were anticipating flying from Heathrow (or Gatwick).

Is it worth phoning airlines and haggling, eg saying you were about to book at the previous price but now not sure...? Can they do deals or is it one price regardless?

copa_feela

littlesnuggy wrote: »

That would explain it - I had stupidly thought the January sales would be on til the end of the month

£300 does seem a lot, but the KLM flights add about 4 or 5 hours onto a 12 hour journey, and I can anticipate OH having a major strop when tired & grouchy about the faffing around, particularly on the way home!

We live in the South West but were anticipating flying from Heathrow (or Gatwick).

Is it worth phoning airlines and haggling, eg saying you were about to book at the previous price but now not sure...? Can they do deals or is it one price regardless?

Airlines will not haggle. A few extra hours should not be too much of a problem, especially if transiting through Amsterdam, lovely airport.

bagand96

As the above poster said, you aren't going to be able to haggle with airlines, the price is the price I'm afraid.

Have a play around with the KLM site. The shortest times from Heathrow would be 13h 55 out and 16h 05 back, and this is available for £578 with ebookers.

Not sure how good Birmingham is for you but thats even better, with 14h 20 on the outbound and 14h 30 on the inbound. Only £572 booking with KLM.

Yes connecting takes longer but those times are only a couple of hours; and there's worse places to do it than Amsterdam. But again, its your call on whether its worth £300 each. One thing for sure, BA and Virgin won't be having a sale between now and then; and I can't see anything else that would bring ticket costs down this close to travel.

Voyager2002

If you are leaving from the Southwest of England, then a KLM flight out of Bristol (with a change of 'planes in Amsterdam) would be much more convenient than the long trek to a London airport. You might even be able to fly out of Exeter: I know that Flybe code-shares with Air France for long-haul flights out of Paris, and they may have a similar arrangement for Amsterdam flights.

keystone

LHR - JNB or CPT vv is a price cartel of BA, Virgin and SAA. Their prices are never cheap and never will be. You'll really have to look for a connecting flight elsewhere.

Cheers

Takecareofthepennies

Flying from London on or around the dates you gave:

KLM £542
Air France £672
Emirates £679
Swiss £689
BA £717

Run your search through www.kayak.com
Happy Holidays!

littlesnuggy

Thanks so much for all the responses!
I think we'll end up doing a non-direct flight, which leaves me with another question:

If we booked the KLM/Swissair flights as a 'package' including the two legs, I'm assuming that if the first one is delayed and you miss the connection, it is their responsibility to get you on a later flight... If however we sorted out the legs independently, ie finding a cheap flight from Bristol to Zurich/Amersterdam/wherever and then booked the leg to SA separately, then we'd be up the swanny if the first leg was delayed? Is that right?

And with a packaged two-leg flight, they sort out your luggage but if we did it ourselves we'd have to collect then re-check it in at transfer airport?

Finally, what's Birmingham airport like? Are there cheap parking options? We usually go from Heathrow long haul, where we use a ParkAtMyHouse chap who's very good.

The_Groat_Counter

littlesnuggy wrote: »

Thanks so much for all the responses!
I think we'll end up doing a non-direct flight, which leaves me with another question:

If we booked the KLM/Swissair flights as a 'package' including the two legs, I'm assuming that if the first one is delayed and you miss the connection, it is their responsibility to get you on a later flight... If however we sorted out the legs independently, ie finding a cheap flight from Bristol to Zurich/Amersterdam/wherever and then booked the leg to SA separately, then we'd be up the swanny if the first leg was delayed? Is that right?

Yes - best to book it as a through ticket.

And with a packaged two-leg flight, they sort out your luggage but if we did it ourselves we'd have to collect then re-check it in at transfer airport?

Sometimes it's possible to check luggage all the way through even if you have two separate tickets, for example if the airlines are members of the same alliance - however policies vary, and you're much safer just having the one through ticket.

Finally, what's Birmingham airport like? Are there cheap parking options? We usually go from Heathrow long haul, where we use a ParkAtMyHouse chap who's very good.

One of the cheaper parking options can be Birmingham International rail station car park:
www.virgintrains.co.uk/routes-stations/bhi/