Ryanair prices - "? seats remaining at this price" - truth or marketing ploy?

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

I have been keeping an eye on some Ryanair flights for a trip in August. Upon checking this morning, both flights are saying "5 seats remaining at this price", and I'm not sure whether to go ahead and pull the trigger or wait and hope that they might get lower in the future.

I wondered whether anyone with more experience in flying can share their experiences with this scenario? When a flight says this, does it usually prove true? Does the price usually go up after those last seats are sold and remain higher from thereon? Or is it a marketing ploy along the lines of the "closing down sale", "final reductions", etc. that some shops seem to have eternally?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Max

jpsartre

Very easy to check for yourself, just do a dummy booking for 6 seats and look at the price (I'll bet it goes up). Prices can always go down at a later stage, the "x seats left at this price" refers to the current price only.

Mr_Wangers_Wang

100% genuine.

From experience. And a shed load of it.

Tunstallstoven

Quick update - I've continuously checked since making this post. There are actually 6 flights I have been keeping an eye on.

I can confirm that the flights fluctuate in both directions and tend to go down as much as up. And the "? seats remaining at this price" doesn't seem to have any significance; at least not for the flights I've been looking at.

Cheers

leylandsunaddict

The x seats remaining at just means that there are only that many seats left in that fare bucket. Flight prices fluctuate all the time, in both directions. That next fluctuation could see prices drop, or equally they could rise. It also doesn't mean that a seat won't drop back into that fare bucket if someone is 'holding' them while they're just looking, or that they won't put more seats in at a later date. It refers to the current situation only.

I've just been looking at some flights for tomorrow and it says only 2 seats left at that price. If I change my search to 3 the price increases by £22 per ticket. Monday flight says only 5 left. When I change search to 6 the price increases by £46 per ticket.

duchy

Ryanair are so cheap for the sake of saving a few quid don't get so fixated that you wait until prices rise -and stay risen.