Ryanair up and down prices!

Ryanair up and down prices!

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Discussion

p1tse

Original Poster:

1,375 posts

192 months

Wednesday 2nd April 2014
quotequote all
I've been looking to book specific dates and travel destination for a couple of months now.

it's been hovering for basic ticket prices for a family of 4 at c.£1k, +/- £300
Bit annoyed i didn't book it when they were closer to £700 as they are £1k+ without baggage and reservations which adds another £300ish.

anyone got any good insight or tips on when it would have been the best time to book, apart from the only one day I've seen them at the lowest

Cupramax

10,478 posts

252 months

Wednesday 2nd April 2014
quotequote all
Prices will go up and down the closer and more booked up it gets, on any airline, not just Ryanair. There is no game to play, if you see a price that you like, book it, dont go back looking every 2 minutes because you can almost guarantee it will go down (or up).

Mr Pointy

11,209 posts

159 months

Wednesday 2nd April 2014
quotequote all
Make sure you clear any cookies associated with the site you are using as well. They can change pricing if they see you have visited recently.

p1tse

Original Poster:

1,375 posts

192 months

Wednesday 2nd April 2014
quotequote all
thanks, will do

p1tse

Original Poster:

1,375 posts

192 months

Wednesday 2nd April 2014
quotequote all
Cupramax said:
Prices will go up and down the closer and more booked up it gets, on any airline, not just Ryanair. There is no game to play, if you see a price that you like, book it, dont go back looking every 2 minutes because you can almost guarantee it will go down (or up).
yes should have booked it when i saw it at it's lowest point to date

Shaoxter

4,069 posts

124 months

Wednesday 2nd April 2014
quotequote all
Delete your cookies and browsing history and don't do loads of searches in a short period because some sites will "hold" the tickets you searched for so your next search might be in a higher price band.

Generally you should use incognito mode when looking for flights. That's the only time I use incognito mode really whistle

FlashmanChop

1,300 posts

206 months

Wednesday 2nd April 2014
quotequote all
Use skyscanner.net, but set up price alerts – you get an e-mail everytime they change. From watching them across a period of time you can see the patterns in price fluctuations.

p1tse

Original Poster:

1,375 posts

192 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
quotequote all
FlashmanChop said:
Use skyscanner.net, but set up price alerts – you get an e-mail everytime they change. From watching them across a period of time you can see the patterns in price fluctuations.
thanks

darn the prices have gone up on outbound and inbound and they've not moved in last couple of days

maybe cut my losses and book up at 50% more frown

p1tse

Original Poster:

1,375 posts

192 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
quotequote all
Shaoxter said:
Delete your cookies and browsing history and don't do loads of searches in a short period because some sites will "hold" the tickets you searched for so your next search might be in a higher price band.

Generally you should use incognito mode when looking for flights. That's the only time I use incognito mode really whistle
incognito?

pincher

8,540 posts

217 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
quotequote all
p1tse said:
incognito?
Private browsing.

For cases like this. Or possibly when you are looking at things you would rather others didn't see in your browsing history wink

Amateurish

7,736 posts

222 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
quotequote all
Sometimes prices can go down nearer to the date, but they are more likely to go up.

If you have specific dates and a destination in mind, then booking early is always the best way.

Hackney

6,828 posts

208 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
quotequote all
I read some research yesterday - sorry, don't have the source - but 10 days pre flight is the optimum time to book.

Bradgate

2,821 posts

147 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
quotequote all
Fares on scheduled airlines usually start low when the flight goes on sale 11 months before departure, and then progressively increase over time as the flight fills, with the highest fares being on sale in the last few weeks before departure. This typically works in 2 ways :

Firstly, X number of seats on each flight are allocated for sale at price A (the cheapest). These are sold on a first come, first served basis. When they are gone, the next batch of seats are then sold at higher price B. And so on through fare levels C, D, E etc, until the flight is full. This is how most low-cost airlines do it.

Secondly, the airline might decide to increase fares a set number of days or weeks before departure, because late booking passengers are more likely to be flying on business or for some other urgent reason, so are likely to be less price sensitive.

In general, if you want to fly to a popular destination at a busy time of year (eg Alicante in August) the earlier you book, the less you will pay. Fares can sometimes drop if flights are selling slowly (Ryanair do this) but this is obviously more likely to happen on off-peak flights. January is often a good time to look for good deals on flights for the summer holiday period, as that is when most airlines run their annual seat sales.

Hope this helps!

cold thursday

341 posts

128 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
quotequote all
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2598168/Ex...

"The best way to outsmart Ryanair's pricing policy is to book ten days before your flight departs, it was claimed today.

Economics professor Claudio Piga said he has researched the low-cost airline’s flight costs - and found passengers booking their trip at least seven weeks in advance pay more.

But the Keele University expert also found that fares are raised by between 50 and 75 per cent in the last few days before departure, meaning last-minute bargain hunting is not the best method."



p1tse

Original Poster:

1,375 posts

192 months

Wednesday 9th April 2014
quotequote all
Interesting read

Skyscanner is good though
I've seen flights to destination I want to go to is cheaper from Stansted vs. Bristol. About £110 cheaper x 4 = £440 which can't be sniffed at but need to weigh up as Bristol is local to me, with two young ones, and extra cost of fuel and travel times

p1tse

Original Poster:

1,375 posts

192 months

Monday 14th April 2014
quotequote all
skyscanner is quite cool

i like how it comes up with cheapest options but non direct flights

i.e. bristol- gran canaria £189
but can be cheaper if i went bristol to dublin £25 and then dublin to gran canaria £92 = total of £117


ironic

1 posts

110 months

Tuesday 10th February 2015
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Usually several months in advance the price is higher, because Ryanair simply hunt for nervous early bookers. My research showed that you can safely wait up to 70 days before departure and then look regularly for up to 47 days before departure. I use http://www.skyscanner.net and http://www.airhint.com as the tools if I know exactly when and where I fly.

Cupramax

10,478 posts

252 months

Tuesday 10th February 2015
quotequote all
My research shows you're nearly a year late for this thread hehe

BrabusMog

20,142 posts

186 months

Tuesday 10th February 2015
quotequote all
hehe

It's also a total lottery. I fly to Sweden a lot and don't usually book until a few days prior to departure, the last time I went I paid £42 return with Ryanair, the time before it was £58 with Norwegian Airlines as Ryanair wanted £124.