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Buying flights really early

Discussion in 'General Chit Chat' started by oss, Jan 22, 2019.

  1. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I really don't like booking through an agency, I use services like SkyScanner to get a rough idea of the price for a route on a particular carrier then I go see what the carrier is charging directly, I also prefer a single carrier to multiple carriers due to baggage concerns, it's been 15 years since I booked through an agency.

    It's only this last few years that I have tended to be cash strapped at the start of the year and it would still have been a problem paying it up over a couple of months, I wouldn't book a flight if there was any type of credit involved.

    This year at least my cash flow is good enough to pay for a flight to get over to see the kids and deal with their school re-enrolment payment early this year and leave me in a position to hopefully get a good deal on a Christmas flight as well.

    The problem with Christmas is that you rarely get a good price for departures after the 14th of Dec or returns earlier than the second week of January, and playing around with the dates means I have to have enough leave to cover almost a month so I don't have a lot of room for manoeuvre.

    One approach is to return on the 31st of December as that is usually cheaper but then you miss New Year and I enjoy the New Year over there, the other is to leave departure until the 24th but then you miss Christmas and my kids have not seen me at Christmas time for a long time, and they won't be kids anymore in a few years so I feel I am letting them down badly.
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  2. Heathen
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    Heathen Active Member

    I use whatever is cheapest at the time be it an agency or an airline, i check one against the other, but the deposit scheme with final payment 10 weeks before the flight could be helpful to some people, Iv only ever used a single carrier when iv gone to Phills be it agency or direct Airline, dont close your mind to using agencies there are some good ones out there..
  3. Dave_E
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    Dave_E Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    Just paid £74.10 (total cost including CC processing fee) for TWO seats with Air Asia, one way from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Denpasar (Bali) in May.

    A three hour flight, including 2 x 20Kg baggage allowances, allocated seats on row six, and two meals, I chose chicken biryani and a coffee for myself.

    Original plan was KUL to SUB with Air Asia then SUB to DPS with Garuda, but I was tempted by the low Air Asia sale prices on the KUL to DPS route..

    :D

    (Total trip MNL - KUL - DPS - DMK - MNL)
  4. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I do understand and agree that an agency can be the right option for a lot of people but for me I've read IATA 302 (most significant carrier) rules and as I am usually carrying 4 to 6 thousand pounds worth of camera and computer equipment as hand baggage and some bits of that as checked baggage I really need to feel confident that I won't be forced to check in some of my hand baggage or have different checked or hand allowance at each check-in or at the gate.

    I am meticulous about meeting the weight and size regulations for the carrier that I use and KLM is just about the best for me for hand baggage, I just feel better knowing that my bags are checked all the way through to my destination.

    I know many airlines have interline agreements but it is still your responsibility to check the conditions for all legs of your ticket.
  5. Jim
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    Jim Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    I never know what day it is over here, never mind the time in the UK lol:)
    • Funny Funny x 1
  6. Stupot10
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    Stupot10 Active Member

    Has anyone flown with China Eastern to or from the Philippines?
    Checking flights for later this year and they come up with very cheap flights.
  7. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I think a couple of folk might have flown with China Southern don't know about Eastern.

    SKYTRAX is a bit mixed if you read the actual reviews rather the headline average rating https://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/china-eastern-airlines/
  8. Stupot10
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    Stupot10 Active Member

    I have read reviews on trip advisor and in the main they don’t seem to bad.
    For the dates we are thinking to fly they are quoting less than £330 round trip which seems to good to be true.
  9. Anon04576
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    Anon04576 Well-Known Member

    I’m sure someone complained on here about China Southern.
  10. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I think I found one review where a couple had their passports taken for inspection while transiting in China and it took so long to get cleared that with a the short connection times they were running for the gate and missed their connection, the carrier said tough and didn't take responsibility they were forced to buy new tickets.

    It might not have been the airline's direct fault but if they are selling very short connection times you would think they would realise that some foreigners were going to miss their flights due to the transit process at their hub airports, reviews like that worry me.
  11. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Again this is not China Eastern but here's some talk about China Southern on here interestingly this post backs up what I read elsewhere about the transits and short connection times at their hubs.

    Best airlines to the Philippines
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  12. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Tonight I found a KLM deal for £747, yes the same number as the Boeing plane :)

    I experimented back and forth and finally proceeded to book whereupon the price became £54 greater.

    Bastards :(

    What do you have to do :(
  13. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I will leave it to tomorrow when I wake up, I think the system sees me as a real reservation so anyone else going for these dates is for them a real booking.

    Nothing is actually booked on these flights, nothing, every seat is currently available but the price can change within an hour :(

    £747 vs £810 a few minutes later.

    I should really wait for the Emirates prices in early Feb.
  14. Dave_E
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    Dave_E Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    No idea whether you are using the PC browser interface, or an Android App, the PC interface makes it easier to understand.

    The KLM website has a feature that adjusts the cost of outbound flights to reflect the cost of any already selected return flight.

    Hence:
    1). Select an outbound flight for £747.
    2). Browse the return flights and select a return flight costing (+£54).
    3). Return to select outbound flight and the price now shows as £801 (£747+£54).

    Why?
    Because the return flight selected is in a higher fare sub class.

    I guess that because of the complicated pricing rules and fare sub classes (G/L/V/Q... etc) the (+£54) return surcharge does not apply equally, if at all, to all the outbound flights. With the ability to have the return flight date of (+£54) already selected you can get an accurate representation of the total fare cost when selecting the outbound flight.

    Here is a quick summary of the KLM fare classes that I threw together last April, no claims of accuracy or completeness, X is another economy special Intercontinental fare class. Each of these has it's own fare and flexibility rules for change and cancellation.

    [​IMG]

    If you want to see the initial starting prices, return to the KLM home page and start your selection again.
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2019
    • Informative Informative x 1
  15. Mattecube
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    Mattecube face the sunshine so shadows fall behind you Trusted Member

    I've flown China Southern twice and had real good trips, and could'nt fault them at all, and the price was good.
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  16. Stupot10
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    Stupot10 Active Member

    Thanks Matt.
  17. Mattecube
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    Mattecube face the sunshine so shadows fall behind you Trusted Member

    When are you going and from where?
  18. Stupot10
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    Stupot10 Active Member

    Thinking to go Oct and back Nov from Heathrow. No concrete plans yet as someone’s mind changes often :D
    • Funny Funny x 1
  19. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    As a Windows programmer my preference is always to use a PC :)

    Yeah I know about the UI and how it works, it was more a cry of frustration on my part :) the UI had a single flight showing at 747 outbound and + 0 for the inbound and if I had completed the booking quickly enough I suspect I would have got that price however I was trying out the extras for various different seats looking to get my ideal price and comfort, I had eventually decided against economy comfort but was going to choose a seat just behind at which point I remembered that the first seat behind economy comfort is not a good one because of the guy in fronts extra recline :)

    I hummed and hawed for so long that their systems must have changed the price in the background. I swear there was not one single seat showing as occupied on the seat selector, I'm probably the only person looking at these flights this far in advance so it's not that they had sold out a particular class.

    I know that one problem can be availability on the hop from MAN->AMS connection as those flights will be carrying passengers with many different connecting flights, I've been unable to get a flight in the past because there were no seats available on that leg even while the AMS->MNL leg had lots of capacity.

    I think I will renew my Expert Flyer subscription for one month at the start of February it will show prices for all of those class codes.

    Emirates release pricing 328 days in advance so the earliest return date I am interested in will become available on 10th of Feb but that date is usually an expensive one for all the carriers so maybe I should really wait till mid February.
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2019
  20. Dave_E
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    Dave_E Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    KLM used to have the occasional sale for flights to MNL, what they currently call "Dream Deals". I can't remember seeing them for a few years.

    Perhaps the AMS to TPE sector is the KLM priority. When I last flew back from Manila I was surprised that there was nobody else on row one eco between MNL and TPE, the three or four rows behind me were completely empty. After TPE the plane was full.

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