half term driving vs flying costs

A snowHead

can any one explain to me the business model of Easyjet (and other carriers) please.

when I started planning our DIY half term 2016 ski trip to France earlier in the year (march!!!!) for a family of four 2 adults and a 12 and 9 y/o, I was trying to compare the costs between driving and flying from bath (Bristol airport) to the northern French alps, driving worked out to about £800 including crossing/fuel/tolls/overnight hotel there and back. so I was willing to pay around the same plus another £150 to £200 for car hire.

I looked at the Friday evening out and sunday evening return from Bristol to Geneva as soon as the email notification from easyjet came through to me immediately, the cost then was around £1500 for flights, one bag each and reserving seats, obviously I gave it a wide berth and waited to see if the prices drop, I kept an eye (out of interest)on them periodically and also checked how many seats were reserved, for the first few months prices stayed the same and only 2 seats blocked off, now 6 months later costs have risen to £2000 and only 26 out of the possible 156 seats are reserved. I know that there will be other passengers who cannot be bothered to reserve a seat, but I would presume they would be predominantly single travellers who don't mind where they sit, so assuming at best case one third of the seats are sold this leaves two thirds to be sold at astronomical costs.

therefore would it have not been better to sell them all at reasonable price when first released, as I am sure there would have been more people in a similar situation, seems madness to me, but hey they have been operating for 20 years so what do I know!!!! Puzzled

A snowHead

As i understand it, they do price them lower at first, the more seats are sold the higher the price goes. With easyjet you have to get in early to get the cheap flights.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@terrygasson, Very interesting. I thought very few people bothered to reserve seats since you have to pay more to be on the same flight. The fact that 26 seats were reserved struck me as high, indicating that many of those were travelling with very small children. I cannot think of any other reason to reserve seats other than a desire to be a/ on the very front row for a speedy departure or b/ to grab the emergency exit rows.

Does anyone else here reserve seats on Easyjet?

As to the cost of driving. I know the tunnel costs go up at half term but it usually cost me £400 for the drive. I suppose it is the overnght hotel you costed in that pushed the costs so high.

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Must be the half term effect. I booked return flights at the end of Sept. from BRS>GVA for about £200 (can't remember exactly) for 10-17th Jan.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I try and reserve a seat for the legroom being on the larger side - not a big deal on a short flight but I'm on hols!!

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I would never pay extra to reserve seats on a short hop, it's just another way for them to make a few bob. I bought flights for easter, for family and friends, within a few minutes of their appearance. Next morning the price had tripled.

Waiting for prices to drop for half term is a tad optimistic, @terrygasson.

So you'll drive? What are you doing about accommodation?

Have you considered Italian resorts which might be less busy and possibly cheaper?

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I booked EJ flights Salzburg to Bristol when they were released. Prices then went very high for two months or so but have dropped back by 100 euro from their peak. Also only only a handful of seats booked. So if people don't book then the prices come back down.

After all it is free

Yep, I pay to reserve, but I fly a lot, and have an EasyJet plus card - so the cost per flight is fairly low for me.

The key thing for me is avoiding any type of queuing (I hate queuing - and the Plus card includes fast track security at many airports), and knowing I can get on quickly and stow my cabin bag. Plus the extra cabin bag allowed Smile

Who likes queueing? I generally read my book till the last minute and look in wonder at the people who stand for ages to get on before me when we will all arrive together. Ski lift queues suck; I wouldn't ski in France at half term even though I can do so for nothing.

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@pam w, I couldn't agree more, why on earth stand in a queue waiting for ages, especially as EJ now allocate seats. It must be a lemming instinct.

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Only problem with getting on last minute is if you're hand luggage only. So many do it now there's often little or no room left in overhead lockers.

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@Swissie, and the same travellers then stand up first and push, jostle and fret to get off the plane the other end. Going on holiday can be so stressful! wink

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

As Easyjet flights feature in at least a couple of TO brochures I guess they have reserved blocks of seats and then release them back to Easy Jet to sell if they don't need them....

A snowHead

A snowHead

Back to the initial question; surely the Carriers won't just be looking at how the actual bookings on this flight this year are going but will look at how the last 5/10 years worth of flights sold!

They will be able to tell exactly how quickly the flight was sold and then how many more people were still looking for that flight.

They're in the business of making money after all, so if for the last 5 years the flight has been fully booked at an average price per ticket of say £250 and then they'd had another 10% enquiries why wouldn't they start the price at £300?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Pretty sure Easyjet have a solid pricing strategy- I wouldn't lose sleep over their perceived lack of sales.

It's half term. You can charge what you like and people will pay it.

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Flight in March? I don't think I've booked more than a month ahead in my life. Pay to reserve seats, not a chance. Easyjet will sell those seats.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@terrygasson, I also would never bother to reserve seats, I just take what I'm given - and flying with partner/friends makes no difference to that. I'm usually on the same reservation as my partner so generally we are put together anyway... but if not, so what? It's only a short flight. So I think 26 reserved seats indicates a much higher number sold.

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@terrygasson,
I would like to fly from Bristol as it is so much closer than London and the parking is great, but sadly the prices aren't. I got 4 return flights to Munich for half term, BA from Heathrow for £580. Add on about £100 for an overnight stay in the Crown Plaza including a week's parking. Much better than driving or the Bristol price premium.

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@dogwatch, for the Saturday easter holiday dates in March flights I booked for about £120 return were more than twice the price an hour later and hugely more by the morning.

After all it is free

I'd pay for priority check in, but return flight only.

"@dogwatch, for the Saturday easter holiday dates in March flights I booked for about £120 return were more than twice the price an hour later and hugely more by the morning."

I wouldn't be so sure. Allegedly some systems are programmed to show increasing prices to the same IP address as a disincentive to deferred booking.

My experience is that prices start sliding up 2-3 weeks before departure but not hugely. The business market, who pay through the nose, mostly book just a few days ahead.

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@FastCarver74, I was at the booking process within minutes of the seats being released, and they were up for £1500 for 3adults (albeit one adult being 12 years old) and 1 child, good luck to them if as other posters have said they will all sell just wont be getting my business around half term

@Gämsbock, if I was going to fly with my family, I am not as I am going to drive there for a third of the all in cost, I would reserve the seats as I would not be leaving it to chance where my 12 and 9 year old end up sitting, am not bothered about getting on or off first as we all end up at the same carousel as not many people head of to a ski trip with hand luggage only!!!!

@pam w, accommodation was booked long before looking into the flights, as I already had a rough idea of the cost of driving, but as I said originally if costs were similar we would have flown as it would have been an added adventure for my girls, we have done long drives into France several times so they are used to that.

@johnE, fair play if you can get there and back for £400 our costs are Eurotunnel £280 return on its own (flexi outbound) then factoring in tolls/hotels and fuel as I have a bit of a gas guzzler pick up truck, but the benefit of that is we can take a lot of luggage/equipment and supplies then stock up at Sallanches on the Saturday morning on the way up to the resort

I was just a bit bored this morning on a day off and thought I would see how the prices were going and started this forum

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For a couple of years we were tied to half term, and we found on flights we looked at (East mids, Luton or Heathrow) with 4 adults, 2 adults broke even on the drive, 3 and 4 made driving substantially cheaper. Not tied to the hols anymore, and are going early march (week after the hols) and 3 adults its cheaper to fly but with 4 driving is still cheaper. We like the drive as part of the holiday though so will probably do it anyway. Tunnel is free with Tesco vouchers, we never bother with the flexi.

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We are flying from Bristol on the half term Saturday- We are 5 people but never pay to reserve seats. I can cope with being apart from my family for 2 hours! We have flown at half term for 3 years running now and the flight is always full.

I always reserve seats to make sure I am nowhere near my children.

You know it makes sense.

@Filthyphil30k, Very Happy

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Filthyphil30k, +1 Smile

A snowHead

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Mine wouldn't, though, I'd just have to pay for it myself!

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@lampygirl, @pam w, unfortunately there is not a Tesco close enough to us to be able to accrue enough Tesco vouchers, used to get lots of free trips with vouchers when we lived close to a Tesco, Sainsbury has the monopoly on where we live apart from the odd Tesco express.
we have only booked the flexi on the outbound as the great unknown is getting to the Eurotunnel in time due to m4/m25 traffic, we are staying by cite de Europe on the way back with an afternoon crossing the following day so only booked standard, gives the family plenty of time to wander round cite de Europe, the girls shopping for stationary and nivea (very strange IMO) whilst I peruse the vin et Fromage!!!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@ansta1, @pam w, like most blokes i looked at the gizmos that came with the vehicle and believed the mpg stats without properly looking into them when i bought the truck, though did not regret it when we had the big snow dump a few xmas ago whilst i was getting around everywhere whilst others around me were stuck

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@terrygasson, I have no problem getting my Zafira round in the snow with good snow tyres and chains in the boot if necessary. I am completely uninterested in cars so I just got one which has good fuel consumption, an occasional 7 seater and a huge load carrier with the back seats all folded up! And the capacity to carry a full size spare wheel - my number one criterion!

I know some people get a lot of pleasure out of their expensive vehicles but it's not my priority.

I actually do very little shopping in Tesco itself but I have a Tesco credit card and try to put absolutely EVERYTHING through that card which is paid off by direct debit every month. You notch up points at a much slower rate than shopping in store - but I do also do a big online Tesco order about once a month, which helps. I normally get 3 or 4 free return trips a year!

I'm fortunate not to have to travel at peak times - the price of the flexi ticket is mind boggling!

I hope you have a great trip. Where are you going to stay?

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@pam w, that's a great idea about the credit card, will look into it ourselves.

we are staying at le floralp, Combloux. you had actually gave us some advice and tips about the area from the start of the planning process, all is arranged now including lessons and ski hire for the kids, and lift passes that arrived in the post this week, i am like a kid waiting for xmas only about 90 sleeps to go!!!!!!

After all it is free

@terrygasson, oh yes, that's right, of course! Combloux is an easy drive.

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I very rarely book seats on Easy jet and judging by the frequency with which I get really quite decently positioned seats I suspect most people do not either. I suspect the number of seats available has little to do with the number booked. I have just booked seats on flights to bring my mother up for Christmas. The vast majority of seats were available but I suspect the flight will still be fairly full.

Help!!

half term driving vs flying costs

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