Flight prices going up ?

[Mr Mac]

All
I have to get some clients down to Cape Town in late Feb and was quite surprised to be told by my PA that this little jaunt Business Class with EK was going to cost us £6500. Our company is based in Munich and we have been flying down there regularly for the last 2 years, and have not paid anything like that, is it a UK thing ?. Somebody else in another forum commented on the rise in price to the US from UK. We will obviously pay, but I would be interested in your comments and or observation's about if there is indeed a price escalation going on in Long haul flights ex UK.

Cheer's
Mr Mac

[Cymmon]

Search other airlines, sometimes with a regular use some airlines will up the price.
nothing to do with UK or Brexit, just sometimes regular users need to switch airlines to get a better deal.

[Harry Wayfarers]

Originally Posted by Mr Mac

All
I have to get some clients down to Cape Town in late Feb and was quite surprised to be told by my PA that this little jaunt Business Class with EK was going to cost us £6500. Our company is based in Munich and we have been flying down there regularly for the last 2 years, and have not paid anything like that, is it a UK thing ?. Somebody else in another forum commented on the rise in price to the US from UK. We will obviously pay, but I would be interested in your comments and or observation's about if there is indeed a price escalation going on in Long haul flights ex UK.

Cheer's
Mr Mac

Well I just had a quick play on Skyscanner entering dates 20-27 February business class return and MUC/CPT/MUC with Emirates came up as circa £2,400 with the cheapest being Turkish at a shade above £2,000 or LON/CPT/LON prices started at less than £2,000 with Ethiopian via ADD (and Ethiopian are good) with Emirates at circa £2,400 again.

[Mr Mac]

Harry
I just noticed I did not say the two clients will be coming from Manchester not Muc ,sorry.. The fares you quote are a little higher than we pay from Muc but closer than that quoted from Man, hence my post in the first place.
Kind regards
Mr Mac

[Dannyboy39]

I've been down to JNB (obviously not CPT) a few times - I've always found the LON-JNB route as one of the most expensive routes globally although admittedly haven't done detailed research into it. I'd guess CPT isn't too much different especially during the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Booked just a few days before going indirect via DXB, which is 16 hours in the air, I've spent over £5k in business return, although shopping around is important.

[Mr Mac]

Dannyboy39
We generally pay about £2300 pound equivalent for the same route ex Muc. An extra £1200 for the distance Man - Muc just seemed high. Take your point about SA being very attractive for Brits, especially given exchange rate issues. We have contracts completing in SA and Argentina and given the state of both economies it is quite interesting to see what a hard currency will get you in both places once you are there.


Cheers
Mr Mac

[Harry Wayfarers]

Originally Posted by Mr Mac

Dannyboy39
We generally pay about £2300 pound equivalent for the same route ex Muc. An extra £1200 for the distance Man - Muc just seemed high. Take your point about SA being very attractive for Brits, especially given exchange rate issues. We have contracts completing in SA and Argentina and given the state of both economies it is quite interesting to see what a hard currency will get you in both places once you are there.


Cheers
Mr Mac

It's not about distance, it's about competition on the route, check on a travel agent site, a search engine such as skyscammer, for the options and fares available from the likes of MUC and LON and then compare those against the limited options available from MAN and the more 'regional airport' one goes those options shall become more and more limited.

[Blackfriar]

Also be wary of the airline knowing who you are. I know of hotels that are priced much higher for regular customers and where they have an internet profile that says you are “wealthier” based on previous browsing history. Try checking from a different IP address ( work machine or home machine) or via your phone internet connection. This is the way the internet is working against us.
I’ve tried to book a hire car using my gold membership card and been given a price twice that compared to just visiting the site as an anonymous “stranger”.

[PAXboy]

South Africa is the route I have travelled the most in my life - starting just on 54 years ago! We have recently got back from LHR-JNB on VS in upper. I have used all the direct and most of indirects over the years.

For the connection from MAN, there is a 3x weekly seasonal with BA from LGW and that could fit. I also suggest checking with KLM as they service both airports. Other carriers into CPT not yet mentioned are: Air France; Austrian (seasonal); Ethiopian (Biz reported very good by close personal friends although ADD airport not much fun); Qatar, Etihad and Turkish. My own experience of Turkish was very good Biz service on board but, on the ground at IST (old airport) was terrible and the new airport will be staffed by the same people ... I have used LH from both FRA + MUC and they are always good.

Overall, the JNB + CPT routes are heavilly used and prices remain high. They are extremely popular with Europeans and even the dog-leg routes via the gulf are expensive. Also, you get most North Americans changing in Europe as there are only a couple of direct routes from JNB to USA and none to Canada. Or they have to change in South America to get across. So they do two sectors, changing at any of the main European hubs, helping to keep the loads high. Over the years, several carriers have dropped out, TAP and Alitalia (doing JNB only now, as does Swiss) and SAS no longer serve the country and so those pax are also going through AMS, CDG, FRA, LHR, MUC. The holiday market is served by Condor and Edelweiss and others but they only have a Premium Economy equivalent but might be worth checking the specification if money is an issue for some pax. (if not for the O/P)

Both CPT + JNB routes are 'cash cows' and I do not see prices coming down anytime soon. Based on the fact that have not come down much in the past 25 years!

[Harry Wayfarers]

Originally Posted by Blackfriar

Also be wary of the airline knowing who you are. I know of hotels that are priced much higher for regular customers and where they have an internet profile that says you are “wealthier” based on previous browsing history. Try checking from a different IP address ( work machine or home machine) or via your phone internet connection. This is the way the internet is working against us.
I’ve tried to book a hire car using my gold membership card and been given a price twice that compared to just visiting the site as an anonymous “stranger”.

Some airlines and perhaps travel sites also have a sensor that if interest is shown in a particular flight and/or itinery then the fare goes up, down my way it is apparent that Philippine Airlines have such a sensor and a couple of times already I've needed to walk away to return the next morning to find that the fare has gone down in price again.

[Harry Wayfarers]

Originally Posted by Blackfriar

Also be wary of the airline knowing who you are. I know of hotels that are priced much higher for regular customers and where they have an internet profile that says you are “wealthier” based on previous browsing history. Try checking from a different IP address ( work machine or home machine) or via your phone internet connection. This is the way the internet is working against us.
I’ve tried to book a hire car using my gold membership card and been given a price twice that compared to just visiting the site as an anonymous “stranger”.

But you don't need to neccesarily book direct with the airline, only yesterday I was chatting with an American friend of mine, maybe 5 times a year he flies with PAL LAX/MNL/LAX and has been paying circa $800, I demonstrated to him that booking thru a travel agent, sourced via skyscanner, the same flights are only $700.

And it's not as if I shall use the same agent all the time, I shall do my searching, decide upon what I would like to buy, then I shall clear my cookies and pretty much do all of my shopping thru my topcashback account, not only is one agent up to 10% cheaper than booking flights directly with PAL but they give me a further 1.5% cashback, some recent hotel bookings Agoda regularly give me 6%, Expedia gave me 12% whilst ebookers gave me 13%, there can be no way that I am a regular cistomer of one particular airline or travel agent.

[Asturias56]

yes - always clear all airline cookies before starting a search for new flights - you can get some spectacular differences by doing so