Last minute booking
Discussion
The only thing I can say is when it's that close, I had a look as a theoretical exercise and couldn't find anything cheap. Indeed, flights were really expensive. Better to book several weeks ahead. Have a look on Thomson's website as they list their best deals and they have a £30 discount too.
dav123a said:
I ve got next week off and I'm thinking of going away. Is there any websites or company's that I can maybe get a super cheap deal ? Or is there no chance of getting something cheap booking this late ?
How about.... hmmmm... cant think of the name, what would you call a company that deals in lastminute bookings... 
www.lastminute.com perhaps
You could hardly say that Lastminute.com sell cheap last minute holidays, over the years of dipping in for last minute ideas I don't think they ever have really had anything I felt was worth going for, my feeling is they have managed to continue to trade simply on a snappy and memorable URL.
There was quite a long discussion on here last year how the days of turning up in an airport and slapping £200 on a departure desk and asking what's available are largely gone.
A knowledgeable PHer described how holiday companies manage their pricing, and with the advent of fast, online shopping and low-cost models it appears that on average the lowest prices for packages can be obtained a few weeks before the departure date, then start rising again.
This was proved to me when I booked a cheap family holiday via thomson to Pollensa in Sept, we watched the price drop gradually, we booked about 3 weeks before departure and then the price popped back up a week or so before. Cue one smug Mr P!
For flights, it's fairly well known that the cheapest flights can only be found months in advance with prices rising as the cheaper seats are sold. The concept of the "bucket shop" is largely now dead.
That's not to say there aren't bargains out there and someobody on here might be able to say that they regularly do the last minute thing successfully with big discounts.
Do Teletext still do cheap last minute holidays? (I remember getting an all inclusive 2 week stay in Acupulco from them for £500 - but a few years back now)
Absolute Radio keep advertising "LowCostHolidays.com" that might be a good start.
We are always tempted by last minute offers on Olympicholidays.com for Greece which seem pretty good value, if basic.
I've signed up for Voyage Prive which seems to offer good discounts, but seem to feature expensive (read overpriced?) holidays, so I am suspicious about what the real value is like. Hotel rooms - go for laterooms.com, hotwire.com and travelsupermarket.com are also good places to check.
There was quite a long discussion on here last year how the days of turning up in an airport and slapping £200 on a departure desk and asking what's available are largely gone.
A knowledgeable PHer described how holiday companies manage their pricing, and with the advent of fast, online shopping and low-cost models it appears that on average the lowest prices for packages can be obtained a few weeks before the departure date, then start rising again.
This was proved to me when I booked a cheap family holiday via thomson to Pollensa in Sept, we watched the price drop gradually, we booked about 3 weeks before departure and then the price popped back up a week or so before. Cue one smug Mr P!
For flights, it's fairly well known that the cheapest flights can only be found months in advance with prices rising as the cheaper seats are sold. The concept of the "bucket shop" is largely now dead.
That's not to say there aren't bargains out there and someobody on here might be able to say that they regularly do the last minute thing successfully with big discounts.
Do Teletext still do cheap last minute holidays? (I remember getting an all inclusive 2 week stay in Acupulco from them for £500 - but a few years back now)
Absolute Radio keep advertising "LowCostHolidays.com" that might be a good start.
We are always tempted by last minute offers on Olympicholidays.com for Greece which seem pretty good value, if basic.
I've signed up for Voyage Prive which seems to offer good discounts, but seem to feature expensive (read overpriced?) holidays, so I am suspicious about what the real value is like. Hotel rooms - go for laterooms.com, hotwire.com and travelsupermarket.com are also good places to check.
LuS1fer said:
The only thing I can say is when it's that close, I had a look as a theoretical exercise and couldn't find anything cheap. Indeed, flights were really expensive. Better to book several weeks ahead. Have a look on Thomson's website as they list their best deals and they have a £30 discount too.
Ooh, I know this one. When I worked at a large holiday company about 17 years ago I wrote some of the holiday discounting systems. I worked with an analyst who had reams of data about sales and prices over many years, and his point was that people who want to book at the very last minute will often be less flexible and will pay massively over the odds - they MUST go on holiday tomorrow, so they will pay whatever they have to.He defined something called the point of indifference - the point at which demand is at it's most flexible, and we set up pricing rules to make sure that was the point at which the most choice and lowest prices were available. This point was (back then) about 2 - 3 weeks before departure, and your experience reflects this.
I was then responsible for writing the "Fluid Pricing" software, which allowed them to apply discounts at the start of the sale period rather than the late discounts which were more common, and that has changed the shape of the demand curves to some extent.
[crawls back into shell]
Check round the budget airlines too. I've had 3 holidays this year and on ecah occasion a different airline had the cheapest deal - Thomas Cook for the Canaries, BMIBaby for Mallorca and Thomson for Spain.
Aclivity's analysis is obviously right but flawed logic because having seen the same flights cheaper at an earlier point, I then resent paying the higher price. similarly, for example, BMIBbay wanted £142 for each of 5 remaining seats but as we had 6 going, it used the next flight and it went up to £172 per seat at which point you go elsewhere.
I chose not to go at all in July and booked a villa In October for a third the price it is in July.
I think the only answer is hammering round the internet for several hours before giving up!
Aclivity's analysis is obviously right but flawed logic because having seen the same flights cheaper at an earlier point, I then resent paying the higher price. similarly, for example, BMIBbay wanted £142 for each of 5 remaining seats but as we had 6 going, it used the next flight and it went up to £172 per seat at which point you go elsewhere.
I chose not to go at all in July and booked a villa In October for a third the price it is in July.
I think the only answer is hammering round the internet for several hours before giving up!
I think it was Aclivity's comments last year that guided me throughthe Thomson nargain chase (if so, thanks! 
)
Lucifer - I'm really suspicious now of searching for flights having read about the sites that send you over a cookie, then put the prices up on your return, as you are supposed to think that more tickets have been sold and then buy to prevent further increases!
It's a minefiel;d out there, I agree, hammering round the internet is often the best (and fruitful) way of finding a bargain nowadays.
)Lucifer - I'm really suspicious now of searching for flights having read about the sites that send you over a cookie, then put the prices up on your return, as you are supposed to think that more tickets have been sold and then buy to prevent further increases!
It's a minefiel;d out there, I agree, hammering round the internet is often the best (and fruitful) way of finding a bargain nowadays.
I have used Thomas Cook, Thomson and BMIBaby and have never ever experienced increased flights and I don't delete cookies. The only changes to flight prices that I have seen revolve around flights filling up but BMIBaby in particular say "only 5 seats left" and putting in excess of that figure will allocate you to a different flight though you can still book the 5 seats at the lower price on the other flight if you wish.
The other thing is if I go to a website several weeks later, I would be mad to expect it to be the same in all cases for that very reason.
About the only thing I've found is that cheap airlines like Easy Jet and Ryan Air aren't cheap, just disguised.
The other thing is to note the other costs. BMIBaby will fleece you 2.5% of the total on the credit card fee (but most airlines will)and BMIBaby charge £32 for a 22kg case and allow 10kg of cabin luggage whereas Thomson offer 20kg for £25 and 5kg cabin (same as Thomas Cook I believe) and then you have the check-in at airport cost and so on.
Sites like BMIBaby are not very user-friendly for "scouting round the destinations" and it's often best to check all destinations as they seem to offer cheap flights to different places at different times. A few weeks back Faro was the cheapest but for the week I booked, Alicante was.
Bear in mind that some flights are cheap because they take-off and land at stupid o'clock which is fine if you're old or childless but not for kids so those flights are not only cheaper but less likely to have crying children on them.
The reason I don't "buy" this cookie rumour is that with budget airlines, they are so competitive that an increase will simply send you to their rivals.
The other thing is if I go to a website several weeks later, I would be mad to expect it to be the same in all cases for that very reason.
About the only thing I've found is that cheap airlines like Easy Jet and Ryan Air aren't cheap, just disguised.
The other thing is to note the other costs. BMIBaby will fleece you 2.5% of the total on the credit card fee (but most airlines will)and BMIBaby charge £32 for a 22kg case and allow 10kg of cabin luggage whereas Thomson offer 20kg for £25 and 5kg cabin (same as Thomas Cook I believe) and then you have the check-in at airport cost and so on.
Sites like BMIBaby are not very user-friendly for "scouting round the destinations" and it's often best to check all destinations as they seem to offer cheap flights to different places at different times. A few weeks back Faro was the cheapest but for the week I booked, Alicante was.
Bear in mind that some flights are cheap because they take-off and land at stupid o'clock which is fine if you're old or childless but not for kids so those flights are not only cheaper but less likely to have crying children on them.
The reason I don't "buy" this cookie rumour is that with budget airlines, they are so competitive that an increase will simply send you to their rivals.
Edited by LuS1fer on Wednesday 17th August 20:36
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