holiday prices increasing as flights fill

Kevob

has anyone encountered this before? - Was looking at a holiday with virgin atlantic to barbados - special treat - 11 days ago price was £5200 for 2 people - went to book on monday and price had jumped by £1200 to £6400. Called them and was advised that as people book and the flights fill up the price increases - never heard of this one before - school holidays etc but this was end may and to jump £1200 in literally 11 days seems bit excessive?

bagand96

Flight pricing is dynamic and controlled by revenue management systems. A number of factors control the prices seats are sold for, an airline doesn't sell every seat on a flight at the same price.

Availability, dates, special events, supply, demand, fare sales and many more factors can contribute. If your dates aren't fixed you could try the comparison sites to see if moving dates slightly sill help.  Some suggest clearing cookies/browser history or using Private browsing modes can help. 

jackieblack

There are only ever a certain number of seats in each price bucket

mortgageFTB

Yes. Very standard.

I’d clear any browser cookies as well or try incognito browsing and see if you get different prices as a result too. Sometimes you’ll get inflated prices based upon your previous activity (many many sites do this). 

However, as mentioned, revenue management systems are dynamic.

 All the seats in X class are not the same price and do fluctuate.

jimi_man

Airlines sell seats in ‘fare buckets’ and in very general terms, once the fares in one bucket have been sold then they sell them in the next one, which is more expensive. Etc etc. As an example BA has around 22 different fare buckets, plus a few extra for Avios Redemptions. 

They can go the other way. If they aren’t selling in the more expensive fare bucket then they can release more fares in the cheaper bucket. As said above it’s a dynamic selling environment.

It also depends when you book. You might think that booking 11 months out (for example) would be the cheapest but this isn’t necessarily the case. Airlines recognise that people who book that far out are dependent on a particular day/flight and so can charge accordingly. Similarly last minute bookings are more expensive as these are often taken by people who need to travel - business people for example and so the price can be hiked. The sweet spot is often around six months out. 

It should also be noted, that with BA for example, doing a number of enquiries on the same site from the same internet address/browser will not raise the price - it’s a myth. I’d imagine Virgin is the same. It might be the case with OTAs or comparison sites but I don’t use them a lot. Doesn’t have any effect on Google Flights or ITA Matrix which I do use. 

TELLIT01

Absolutely normal.  When I checked flight prices prior to booking it was about £700 for 2 of us to Greece.  When I booked about a month later (June 23) the price was £800.  When I checked, purely for interest in September, the same flight was £1300.

Leavemealone

Its a nightmare. Being disabled with special needs I always try and book asap so as to have the best chance of my preferred seating. 

It has taken me a week to make my latest reservations and because of special needs I cannot prebook seats which are only allocated 24 hours before departure so always a worry.

 This time I just could not complete my booking online as either their website was faulty or all of my devices so as a result I had to phone. That meant I was unable to use my Club points as apparently this can only be done online and for some reason although my dates were available and still are online I could only book over the phone if I changed each date by one day. 

Mr.Generous

Always browse holiday prices in a private window, once they have cookies on your device and know you are looking at the same deal the price goes up!

martindow

Leavemealone said:

Its a nightmare. Being disabled with special needs I always try and book asap so as to have the best chance of my preferred seating. 

It has taken me a week to make my latest reservations and because of special needs I cannot prebook seats which are only allocated 24 hours before departure so always a worry.

 This time I just could not complete my booking online as either their website was faulty or all of my devices so as a result I had to phone. That meant I was unable to use my Club points as apparently this can only be done online and for some reason although my dates were available and still are online I could only book over the phone if I changed each date by one day. 

On the phone, if you mention your disability, can the airline not make arrangements for you to reserve seats before the official window opens?