does the last minute concept have validity?

kinksfan

hi guys just retired and am happy to go on a last minute basis ..... ie bag packed and could travel to any uk airport within 24 hours - would expect significant discounts given empty seats / rooms etc....but when I respond to ads on internet for last minute stuff they tend to be weeks in advance and with not much discount - lastminute.com seems a waste of time.....do real bargains exist for the individual traveller who can travel within 24 hours? love to hear your views 

Caz3121

this maybe happened in the past with unsold packages - charter flights and hotel bookings already purchased in a bulk block by the tour company but many holidays now use scheduled flights and the closer to departure the higher the prices. You may expect significant discounts for empty plane seats however the airlines expect those that need to travel urgently at short notice will pay a premium.

Westin

Not really these days.

Years ago when tour operators chartered flights there might be very active discounting up to departure time.  There was even an outlet at Gatwick within the adjacent station who sold one the day of the flight at heavily discounted prices (Holidayfax I think they were called).

The charter based model was predominately tied to a packaged holiday sale with often fixed initial pricing (you may remember price panels in brochures!).  Higher initial price with prices lowered nearer to departure.  With fewer chartered flights and more taxes and fees on flight seats, the model no longer worked. It can now be cheaper for the last seats to be left empty than sold at peanut prices.

Schedule and low-cost airlines have a different pricing model. Fares are categories in ‘buckets’ and in the opposite way to the old charter model can often appear to increase closer to departure as fares in lower fare buckets sell out. 

Yield modelling for some low-costs might tinker with pricing in the days/weeks before departure but not to the degree you might expect. Certainly no fire sale on the day of departure.

Finally - I would suggest you avoid LastMinute com.

kinksfan

yes LastMinute.com has rarely got decent offers in my experience

zagfles

Very last minute flights are usually expensive. In the old days airlines offered "standby" fares where you could just turn up at the airport 3 hours before a flight and get a cheap flight, but they realised this wasn't a good business model, people who needed to fly urgently like important business travellers or people who had a personal emergency were the sort who'd be prepared to pay whatever it takes so why give them cheap flights, plus many just didn't bother booking in advance and got last minute flights. So now they'd prefer to fly with empty seats rather than sell them cheap at the last minute.

The general rule these days is travel to typical tourist destinations the flight get cheaper the later you book, and for business destination it's the opposite, cheaper the earlier you book, but very last minute is expensive for both.

Skyscanner have a tool you can use for specific destinations:

https://www.skyscanner.net/bttb/best-time-to-book-uk

So eg look at London to Frankfurt (typical business destination), and flights get more expensive the later you book.

Then look at London to Faro (typical tourist destination). Flights are far more expensive booked early, flights are much cheaper booking late (cheapest 5 week before), but very last minute (less than a week) flights are expensive. But booking 1 week in advance is still a lot cheaper than booking 3 months or more in advance.

heatherw_01

Requested this moving to the main board.