Ryanair: are they smart??

pbright

This might sound studpid, however ill explain anyway. I had my eye on a flight yesterday with rynair to barcelona at the end of march. The price for the specific flight going out was a low £2.69 pre-tax...we could even book 5 flights at the price. Since i spotted this last time, i have checked it several times today as have my friends(i was proving to them how cheap the flight was to persuade them to go). Anyway, none of us booked, so i checked back again just there for one adult and the price is now £19.99 pre-tax...where as the other dates before and after are still at £2.69.....i have a suspision that nobody has booked this date i have had my eye on since last night thought since it has recieved so many hits from us all they have raised the price as they expect a booking.....somebody please tell me i am being mad!!!!

Thanks

richardw

There is a view that flight booking software is very clever and detects all kinds of things to increase or lower prices to fill planes and maximise revenue.

pbright

really...i can believe that! So what to do...book now paying almost £20 more of hang out and call their bluff???

deva

delete your 'cookies' or try bookin on another computer and you may get a nice surprise

budgetflyer

Yes you are mad:p. tens of thousands book ryanair flights every day. There were only 5 avail at that price. Is it possible, 5 of those 10000 may have been the ones you were looking for? They are now up to 50 million passengers a year.
The 2.99 and less ones (especially at weekends) dont remain for long especially on their very popular Girona route.

alared

I have watched Ryanair flights and their prices do go up but they also come back down again.
How they work it is anybody`s guess.
Obviously weekend ,Friday and Mondays are dearer anyway,supply and demand dictates the prices really.

plane_boy2000

Flights are sold on a supply and demand basis. As the aircraft fills up the price will rise. i.e. the first 10 seats will be 99p, then next 10 will be 2.99 etc.

You need to take into account the real price of the flight including the taxes etc

alared

plane_boy2000 wrote:

Flights are sold on a supply and demand basis. As the aircraft fills up the price will rise. i.e. the first 10 seats will be 99p, then next 10 will be 2.99 etc.

If this is true how come the prices come back down?

trisontana

The system that most airlines use for pricing is called yield management . More details here :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_management

alanrowell

plane_boy2000 wrote:

Flights are sold on a supply and demand basis. As the aircraft fills up the price will rise. i.e. the first 10 seats will be 99p, then next 10 will be 2.99 etc.

Ryanair is slightly more sophisticated than that - on the more popular routes the fares can start quite high and only drop if there isn't enough demand before rising again a few weeks before departure.

richardw

alanrowell wrote:

Ryanair is slightly more sophisticated than that - on the more popular routes the fares can start quite high and only drop if there isn't enough demand before rising again a few weeks before departure.

Like a yo-yo, happens on many airlines now, inc BA and easyJet