Thanks Capetonian and Paxboy. Some thouroughly interesting information there
I'd like to share some of my own experiences in the context of what is written above if I may. I am a travel obessed university student. I love to travel, but I have to do it on a tight budget! I am constantly looking for good deals to new destinations I've never visited before. As a result I've experienced the contradicary nature of airline pricing policy's first hand many times.
One good trick to get around it is to try and book each segment seperately (I know Lufthansa have a multi segment option, not too sure about KLM, SAS or BA). For example, insted of booking ABZ-AMS-MUN return, try ABZ-AMS then AMS-MUN. It will all on the same ticket and as such part of one single contract. This means that the contract must still be honoured if you have a delay on one of the sectors. I have found that sometimes you can get a ticket considerably cheaper this way, especially if you factor in some longer layovers (although this isn't always necessary). The process can be tedious (you have to manually search every connection) but it can be rewarding. On a few occasions I've used this trick to get a free stopover in Bangkok when flying to Hong Kong. Not only did I save on the £75 charge each way for a stopover, I also paid over £100 less than I would have done if I'd have flown to Bangkok direct!
If you can't find a good fare searching for seperate sectors I'd hold out for a cheaper fare if I were you. Easyjet fly from Edinburgh to Munich direct so I'd keep this in mind as a plan B if things get too expensive. I'd say that the best time to book a LOCO fare is about six weeks before travel so if by mid April, KLM's prices are stupid then go with Easyjet. In the meantime I'd keep checking KLM et all daily (probably using skyscanner.net- a great price comparision website!) and book the flight when/if the price becomes more reasonable (i.e. they decide to change the balance of those 'buckets').
Good luck anyway. Please let me know how you get on.
Anansis