PhilW1981
19th Dec 2012, 19:04
As discussed on another thread I've recently started travelling regular business class from UK to India and on my first two trips have used Emirates. I have come to book for Jan today and have noticed all business class fares have been hiked massively. I used to comfortably be able to get a return for between £1650 and £1900. The minimum price now throughout all of Jan and Feb is £2100. For those more experienced users of Emirates than I, is this usual, will they drop back again as Etihad and Qatar still have several fares well under 2K.
It's very difficult to determine their pricing strategy here. Perhaps they are experiencing strong demand on UK-DXB sectors, and want to cool off UK-India demand, often priced lower than DXB. Perhaps their demand for UK-India is strong and they feel they can live with a premium over other gulf airlines. Perhaps DXB India is exceeding forecasts and they want to have enough seats for the local market. Lastly, they might be trying to lead the market higher and the other guys are either resisting or haven't noticed, yet.
If lower prices are available, and you don't mind flying with another airline, I would lock in the price now. EK might come down but no guarantees, because you don't know what's driving them. A more likely scenario is the other guys put up their prices.