FlyBe Fares

[Charlie Fox]

Can someone explain the following:-
JER-EXT Dep 5thJan 0905 ret EXT-JER 7th Jan 1705 Total fare £132.80 inc Tax

Exactly the same flights booked as single tickets - Total fare £78 inc tax. Similar experience with alternative dates!!!!!!!!

[Fraudsquads]

I'll make enquiries with a mate while we're on the golf course this afternoon. He'll definately have the answer for you.

[Fraudsquads]

Well here's the answer...although I'm surprised its no weekend flights.

There is a number single fares on each flight then the numerous return fares. Promotional, lead in fares etc. There are few of the cheapest seats available when booking a return trip.

It is possible to get it at £78 return I'm assured. There will be fares for the return between £78 and £132 as verious seat prices are available when booking a return when you are able to get a £39 fare one way.

What you need to remember is their seats are sold under the promotion that they are one way fares and the return fares will not necessarily use promotional single seat fares.

Hope this helps.

FS

[World Traveller]

I've had a similar issue with FlyBe, when booking for 2 people the individual fare per person goes up when compared to booking for a single passenger.

easyJet et al work on one-way fares therefore should be no difference between 2 one-way fares and a return fare (except for anomolies outside the airline's control e.g. tax/psc etc).

Suspect FlyBe are desperately trying to make some money by slightly underhand tactics. That or their pricing database (or whatever runs on the on-line booking) is crap.

WT

[Globaliser]

If the price goes up when you book for 2 pax, as opposed to 1, it's probably an availability problem. If the lowest booking class only has one seat in it, then quoting and booking for 1 pax will get you that price. If you book for 2, you'll usually be booked both seats in the lowest booking class that has 2 available seats - so the price per pax is the higher price for both of you. Every booking engine I've used does this, so I think it's something to do with not being allowed to have a mix of booking classes for different pax on a single sector within one booking.

The way round it is to book one seat at the lower price and make a separate booking for the second pax at the higher price. Confuses the hell out of check in staff first thing in the morning, esp if (as on BA website) it results in one e-ticket and one paper ticket.

[JobsaGoodun]

World Traveller

There is a very simple explanation to the query you raise. It is highly likely that when you are quoting the fare for 1 passenger on the flight you are doing so against the last remaining seat in that pricing class.

With all airlines I've come across (not unique only to Flybe) it is not possible to make a single reservation for two one way tickets when using different fare classes. As a result you will find that when you select to quote for 2 passengers that the booking system will divert to the cheapest remaining class with two seats left in it.

There is nothing underhand in this and of course there is also nothing stopping you from making 2 separate reservations, one at the lower rate and one at the higher rate, this way you'll be sure to get the best possible deal.

[rsoman]

As a person who has booked and travelled on FlyBe along with a friend and faced the same problem, I can confirn what Gloabliser and JobsaGoodun has siad. It is indeed the case of limited availabilty. In our case we had the same problem with BHX EDI, but since we were anyway planning on hiring a car from the airport and touring the north of the country, we resolved the problem by checking for BHX GLA which had indeed two seats avaialble at the same lowest price unlike to EDI and hence simply switched the booking to GLA instead as it made no difference for us.

For the flexibility these airlines giveand esp for FlyBe they ave pre assigned seating which means the two of us didnt have to join the scrum to get two seats together, I guess I will not complain too much!