Ryanair pricing rises

sillygoose

I am trying to understand Ryanair pricing system.

I ran the price for a group of 4 and got 1 set of prices.

I ran it again everything the same but for a party of 8 and it showed a higher price per person.

So I ran it again for a party of 4 and it showed the first lower price so I booked it.

Then tried to do another booking for the other party of 4 and it only shows a fair bit higher price now! (as for the party of 8)

Flight is next summer and very few seat are reserved on it yet.

Do they usually ramp up prices as the seats sell so early on? I presume the first booking hit some tipping point in their system that caused a price ramp?

Very weird!

phatbear

Their pricing structure goes along the lines of this.

They have, for example, 5 seats at £10, 10 seats at £20, 50 seats at £30.

So if you block buy 6 seats the system can not accomdate the 5 @ £10 so it defaults to 10 @ £20.

If you apply common sense to the above you would assume it would give you 5 @ £10 and 1 @ £20, thus totalling £70 instead of their default which will cost £120.

Its a well known work around to block buy within their pricing structure but this, of course, takes time and effort

leylandsunaddict

Ryanair pricing system is the same as all airlines.

They have fare buckets. They put a set amount of seats in each bucket. There can be lot's of buckets. When the cheapest bucket is empty the prices move on to the next bucket. If you want more seats than is available in the lower bucket then they all come out of the next priced bucket. That doesn't mean that they won't choose to put some more seats in to lower priced buckets at some point in the future though.

You should always search for the number of seats you want, not a lower number.

The number of seats showing as booked on the seating plan is not indicative of load on the flight. It only shows how many people have paid to prebook seats.

sillygoose

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

Ryanair pricing system is the same as all airlines.

They have fare buckets. They put a set amount of seats in each bucket. There can be lot's of buckets. When the cheapest bucket is empty the prices move on to the next bucket. If you want more seats than is available in the lower bucket then they all come out of the next priced bucket. That doesn't mean that they won't choose to put some more seats in to lower priced buckets at some point in the future though.

You should always search for the number of seats you want, not a lower number.

The number of seats showing as booked on the seating plan is not indicative of load on the flight. It only shows how many people have paid to prebook seats.

Its one of those times when you kick yourself for not sorting it out a bit earlier I guess.

We did wonder if they were just 'detecting interest' as we were all hammering away checking prices on the same flight and if we all left it alone a while if it would drop down again later, but it seems best to book ASAP before it hikes again. As you say its invisible how many others are booking too.

bigadaj

I thought the budget airlines pricing system was more subtle than that if the traditional airlines.

So it's also tied up to how far ahead you book, rate of sales and varying demand.

leylandsunaddict

bigadaj wrote: »

I thought the budget airlines pricing system was more subtle than that if the traditional airlines.

So it's also tied up to how far ahead you book, rate of sales and varying demand.

It is, the same as with every airline.

bigadaj

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

It is, the same as with every airline.

No, what I mean is that rather than fixed buckets the actual prices can vary, both up and down.

We've seen prices drop on easyjet for example, to the extent that people have cancelled and rebooked.

I can't recall ever seeing that happen with the traditional airlines.

sillygoose

bigadaj wrote: »

No, what I mean is that rather than fixed buckets the actual prices can vary, both up and down.

We've seen prices drop on easyjet for example, to the extent that people have cancelled and rebooked.

I can't recall ever seeing that happen with the traditional airlines.

Don't they just! no wonder they have abandoned their price drop guarantee..

They had to give me back over £500 last time under the guarantee as the price dropped so much not long before travelling.

I need to book my Ryanair flight now because of booking many other things around it I need to be as certain (as possible) that I am going when I need to go. But is it likely before then the flights will sometimes be cheaper?.. if so I am not going to look again!

jpsartre

bigadaj wrote: »

No, what I mean is that rather than fixed buckets the actual prices can vary, both up and down.

It's not one or the other. Most airlines adjust prices by introducing/eliminating fare buckets available for sale.

bigadaj wrote: »

We've seen prices drop on easyjet for example, to the extent that people have cancelled and rebooked.

How does that work? EasyJet's tickets are non-refundable after 24 hours of booking.

sillygoose

jpsartre wrote: »

It's not one or the other. Most airlines adjust prices by introducing/eliminating fare buckets available for sale.



How does that work? EasyJet's tickets are non-refundable after 24 hours of booking.

I wondered that, I see people selling them on Ebay but that would be a lot of hassle.

dondo

I also found with booking Ryanair flights last year that if I clear cookies on my computer before returning to the Ryaniar website that the price went down (not by loads but a saving none the less)