Last Minute Holidays for 1

DE_612183

Years ago I used to rock up at my local airport suitcase and passport at the ready and say "What's the cheapest return flight to a destination you can do me today?"
The at the other end I'd do something similar with a few hotels to get a deal.
This was all pre-internet!

So the question is - is it cheaper to do similar ( my presumption is that if there is one seat left on a plane it should be cheap! ) - book a flight then look for hotels or airbnb - or are packages generally cheaper at the last minute ( and of course less hassle ).

Will be off in a few weeks time but starting the planning now!

tightauldgit

Best way to find cheap flights nowadays is to use flights.google.com I find. 

Put your local airport(s) in the From box and leave the To box blank and then play with the dates you want.

I doubt you'd get any kind of better deal turning up at the airport. Quite often proper last minute flights are more expensive as I presume they think anyone booking that late probably has no choice but to fly then and now. I just keep my eyes open for good deals and the days when airlines offer special offers or whatever. 

Also depends where you are travelling from and when of course but if you are near Stansted or Luton you can generally get a return flight to somewhere nice for £50 or less provided it's not the school holidays.

DE_612183

tightauldgit said:

Best way to find cheap flights nowadays is to use flights.google.com I find. 

Put your local airport(s) in the From box and leave the To box blank and then play with the dates you want.

I doubt you'd get any kind of better deal turning up at the airport. Quite often proper last minute flights are more expensive as I presume they think anyone booking that late probably has no choice but to fly then and now. I just keep my eyes open for good deals and the days when airlines offer special offers or whatever. 

Also depends where you are travelling from and when of course but if you are near Stansted or Luton you can generally get a return flight to somewhere nice for £50 or less provided it's not the school holidays.

Thanks TAG - I'm in South Wales - so limited to Cardiff & Bristol - although these days a megabus is not that much to other airports

zagfles

It's changed. Airlines used to have "standby" fares, cheap fares for those who just turn up at the airport with a suitcase. After all, if they have empty seats why not let people buy them cheap, as charging a little money for them is better than nothing. Right?

Wrong. People knew that offpeak, there were almost certain to be seats available and so people simply didn't book in advance. They just turned up and flew standby. Airlines also realised that there were a lot of travellers who flew last minute for an emergency, whether personal or business, and such people would be willing to pay whatever it takes. So why sell them cheap tickets? They found they made more by not selling last minute seats cheap, even if this means flying with empty seats. So they'd now rather fly with empty seats than sell them cheap on the day.

However - booking a week or two before flying you can get cheap flights and packages. Generally flights to leisure destinations are at their cheapest about a week or two before, then they get more expensive. Similar for packages, if you go off peak. Some people seem convinced that flights are always cheapest as soon as they are released, not true in general.