Originally Posted by
ash666
I have never understood that pricing structure. Do people actually buy those £400 tickets?
I would have thought selling off any remaining seats as cheaply as possible would be better. Better to get something than nothing.
Airlines have various “booking classes” and as more seats sell and the lower fare classes sell out, prices increase. This is all part of their business model and it does work. If the flight is half full, they might release lower fares in lower booking classes to attract further bookings. But if the flight is almost full, with 6 seats for example, then why would they do this? If they had 6 seats left at £400 a pop they’d only have to sell 1 to make as much money as 4 seats at £100. And it’s highly likely, someone will need a seat at short notice especially on routes like BA where business travellers are frequently using the route.
The above model isn’t a one size fits all as low cost carriers and leisure carriers don’t always adopt the same approach. Use Jet2 for example in peak periods, such as the school holidays, and their prices will usually start pretty high and then 6 weeks before they’ll progressively lower the fares for any seats available. In leisure and low cost carriers markets, you’re far more likely to book in advance and the need for a last minute trip is less likely meaning the fares would probably go unsold so better to attract a small
minority into a late deal.
Sorry anyways, I didn’t intend for it to be or sound like a lecture! But the top and bottom of it is that different strategies both work and it’s dependent on the market and type of carriers.