OT Air fares

[JoeJoe]

...or better still, choose "Incognito" browsing before you start (in Chrome, or similar for other browsers).

[Theo]

There is logic, but as you say it's complicated. While nobody can specify the exact reasons for the prices, it's enough to follow some rules of thumb based on known pricing trends (Saturday nights away, going indirect is cheaper than direct, go on a Tuesday, don't go in peak holiday times, book in advance but not too far in advance, don't go when there's a big sporting event/convention on, travel when nobody else wants to, etc etc etc).

While air travel might be like taking the bus nowadays, it is not priced like taking the bus. It pays real cash if you can afford to keep track of the details.

Theo

[Capitol]

The family used Norwegian last year. The timing is very bad for interconnections and the final costs were not a lot lower as the internal US flights were very expensive. It is not only Houston. All transatlantic flights by major airlines are too high a price.

[Tim Lamb]

Simple rule no.2. Don't book return flights for multiples of 7 days. (consider using a different carrier for the return).

[tim...]

compared to what?

Compared with taking the train to Manchester, they are positively cheap, even at $2000 return

tim

[Capitol]

I don't know anyone who can afford a train. They can't face sorting how many tickets they need to go to Manchester. i believe someone bought 22 tickets for one journey.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Andy Burns escribió:

I think they've recently changed hands, BCBW. It was an article I just glanced at.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Theo escribió:

I find about 7 weeks in advance is the sweet spot (from personal experience).

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Tim Lamb escribió:

There's where Skyscanner comes in handy.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Tim Lamb escribió:

+1

Or clear cookies, but that's not infallible.

[Andy Burns]

I wasn't sure so did I check their website, quite probably they're now owned by a non-UK entity, most of the directors seem to have been replaced by Chinese people recently, but I would think the fact they

*are* a UK company would determine the laws and regulations they operate under ...

[michael adams]

Over and above the rules of thumb enumerated by Theo further down the thread it can be commercially advantageous for airlines to introduce a deliberate random element so as to make it impossible for smartarses to game the system (over and above the aforementioned rules of thumb)and hoover up all the cheap tickets. As this would be to the disadvantage of ordinary customers who you want to attract and who might otherwise go elsewhere. Similarly with rankings on price comparison sites. If smartarses are hoovering up all your cheap tickets then you'll rank lower than sites which the smartarses find it impossible to crack.

michael adams

...

[nospam]

or clear the cookies before going back to book

[Huge]

That isn't good enough these days;

[JoeJoe]

Compared to what they were when oil price was nearly 3 times what it is now?

[JoeJoe]

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , JoeJoe escribió:

That's the one. Thanks.