Package holiday pricing extreme variations

NoodleDoodleMan

I've just booked a 10 night stay very early May at an Adults Only hotel in Spain with TUI.

If we'd made the same reservation for the following day the deal would have been an extra £545 each, even more so two days later at £606 each.

I suspect the long established traditional May Day holiday in mainland Europe has an effect - but that is one helluva difference.

TELLIT01

Tour operators can set prices in any way they want.  It's normal for prices to increase dramatically when Bank Holidays or similar are within the holiday dates.  We went on holiday in the UK a couple of years ago in the period after the Whit Bank Holiday and the schools half term holiday.  If we had stayed at the same place during either of those holidays the price nearly doubled.  It's simply supply and demand.  Nothing illegal.

strawb_shortcake

We went to Tenerife earlier this year, crossing  part of a school holiday. 

10 days online price was initially £3500, the travel agent said if we move the trip a few days earlier we'd save almost £1k, going through to booking we saved even more and ended up paying £2k for 4 people! 

NoodleDoodleMan

TELLIT01 said:

Tour operators can set prices in any way they want.  It's normal for prices to increase dramatically when Bank Holidays or similar are within the holiday dates.  We went on holiday in the UK a couple of years ago in the period after the Whit Bank Holiday and the schools half term holiday.  If we had stayed at the same place during either of those holidays the price nearly doubled.  It's simply supply and demand.  Nothing illegal.

Well aware of both the highlighted comments above.

I'm curious as to why the date window when we regularly book then is so much cheaper than a day or two later - that 50% + price rise is really remarkable.

Not complaining, we couldn't  travel in May until we retired - now benefitting accordingly.

 

zagfles

Flight costs often vary massively one day to the next, especially if say one or the other was at the start/end of the BH weekend. 

NoodleDoodleMan

zagfles said:

Flight costs often vary massively one day to the next, especially if say one or the other was at the start/end of the BH weekend. 

That could well explain - TUI don't fly from GLA to AGP on those days, they use Easyjet scheduled flights and these can vary significantly in price across the monthly calendar I believe.

BA were also used on Sundays, sub contracted to TUI I suspect - however they now appear to have been replaced by one of TUI's own aircraft for the late spring and summer season 2025.  

We refuse to go with Easyjet, so the TUI cycle can now be 7 or 10 nights, which suits us.

jimi_man

A lot of airlines use the Monday to Wednesday rule and the Saturday night rule. The first one being that it’s cheaper on those days to book flights and in the case of the Saturday night rule (designed to distinguish between business (who won’t stay a Saturday and this who will be charged more) from leisure (who will and can be charged less). 

And as stated there are loads of other variables which can change daily right up to the day of travel. 

NoodleDoodleMan

Would that be applicable to TUI which are for holiday and cruise customers ?

Our outward flight is a Thursday 6am, return Sunday 11:30am, so the Monday/Wednesday/Saturday night rule does not appear to apply.