Why have air fares gone up so much?

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minkydog

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We went with Aer Lingus to Orlando last October and it cost us €1,560.00 for two adults and two children. We are now looking to return next May and can not get anywhere near the above fare. The lowest we can get it for is €2,300.00. My question is why have air fares gone up so much? I thought there was a recession happening at the moment.
I understand that the airlines might be trying to recoup some losses after the volcano, but to go up by over 50% is a bit rich, can anyone shed some light?
 
Aer Lingus economy fares have gone up by up to 30% in the past few months according to a news report last week...so that's part of it. Another issue is October is off-season, May is the start of a peak season..usually runs Easter to Labour Day (early September).
 
I think all fares/costs/holidays have gone up this year.. never seem to bag or see a bargain!!
 
Thanks for that link Petermack. We are thinking of going next May so the fares now are sky high. When we have booked our previous trips, we booked them many months out from the departure date, and got them relatively cheap, I was just wondering, has the game changed now whereby the cheap fares are now offered closer to your departure date?
 
As someone who watches both Ryanair and Aer Lingus on a daily basis and keeps an eye on their fares I have managed to bag lots of bargains. I have noted an increase in fares to most popular places. You will still get the Tours, Rodez, La Rochelle, Bournemouth at a €5 from time to time but a lot of these destinations are being pulled at the end of the month. I picked up Faro relatively cheap for next March with Aer Lingus and I would expect in the coming months there will be lots of "sales" taking place. I think you will get offers on the less popular destinations but the more popular destinations there will be a price increase. As a previous poster has said it may be worth while looking for a more indirect route.
 
The whole problem here is that you're comparing apples with oranges - fares in October are never going to be the same as fares in May.

As others have said going indirect might be your best option, though if you have kids the extra hassle of switching planes a few times might not be worth it.

Last year a colleague of mine got a great deal on flights to Orlando in June via Manchester with Virgin - I think it was a mis-price but a lot of people availed of it - someone found it and put it on boards bargain alerts section
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=346
it was through www.expedia.ie but was a little odd in that the price that first came up was the normal price it was only when you went to book it that it dropped a grand (for a family of 5).
 
minkydog said:
We went with Aer Lingus to Orlando last October and it cost us €1,560.00 for two adults and two children. We are now looking to return next May and can not get anywhere near the above fare. The lowest we can get it for is €2,300.00. My question is why have air fares gone up so much? I thought there was a recession happening at the moment.
I understand that the airlines might be trying to recoup some losses after the volcano, but to go up by over 50% is a bit rich, can anyone shed some light?
Click to expand...
€1,560 was an incredibly cheap fare to get - less than €400 per person including taxes and charges to Orlando - I think it's more that you were lucky with the fares than they have gone up by 50%. I went in late May/early June this year and it was 650-ish per person. We've been going for a few years now and I have never seen fares less than 450.

Looking at the AL website now, taxes and fees return to Orlando are €210 per person - so that's €840 for 4 before you add any airfare. The lowest AL ever seem to go for Orlando is €154 each way (and there are some of these available for dates in May) - but that's another 1200-ish for 4 (1,100 with 2 child discounts for U12s) - so the absolute lowest you will be able to find is probably about €2,000. British Airways via Gatwick is about €2,100 for 2 adults and 2 children in May.
 
I went to Orlando last year for the last 2 weeks in may.

Flights with delta through atlanta were 2200 which we went with for 2 adults 3 kids

The direct aer lingus flights where 3200 last may.

I checked again for this year and aer lingus are roughly the same price again
 
Those €300pp deals last year were a misprice - fortunately for many happy passengers! According to an insider in one of the two companies concerned, Expedia/Virgin, there was a lot of disagreeing between the two about which company was responsible for the misquote which cost many thousands of euros.

Anyway, barring such lucky errors , low prices as seen in the last two years will not be seen again. Too many airlines have lost money ,and many went bust.
Even Mr Michael O'L says his prices are increasing . Sure, he'll still offer the zero fare lead-in but Ryanair is doing what every airline is doing - raising fares.

P.S. For an informative and analytical narrative on cheap flights I beg all of you to google "FASCINATING AIDA - CHEAP FLIGHTS". It's important to wait till the very end , as sometimes you think the clip has finished but it then continues.
 
dereko1969 said:
The whole problem here is that you're comparing apples with oranges - fares in October are never going to be the same as fares in May.

As others have said going indirect might be your best option, though if you have kids the extra hassle of switching planes a few times might not be worth it.

Last year a colleague of mine got a great deal on flights to Orlando in June via Manchester with Virgin - I think it was a mis-price but a lot of people availed of it - someone found it and put it on boards bargain alerts section
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=346
it was through www.expedia.ie but was a little odd in that the price that first came up was the normal price it was only when you went to book it that it dropped a grand (for a family of 5).
Click to expand...

as I said in my OP we went in October for €1,560.00. But before we went we seen the above deal with Expedia/Virgin for May/June 2010 and snapped it up. Again 2 adults and 2 kids for €1,200.00. We will never see that fare.....ever again. Gift horse and mouth spring to mind, and we did'nt. The fare for €154 with AL is appealing, but when all is said and done is €1,955.00 for the four of us. We will keep a close eye.
 
oldnick said:
P.S. For an informative and analytical narrative on cheap flights I beg all of you to google "FASCINATING AIDA - CHEAP FLIGHTS". It's important to wait till the very end , as sometimes you think the clip has finished but it then continues.
Click to expand...

Bizzarely, Ryanair have this clip linked to on their front page at the moment (news section)
 
If you see a good price now, go for it. Otherwise you could hold out till Jan to see if you get a better fare. For the past 2 years the US based airlines have held sales in Jan. They generally want to get cash in in during Jan-Feb so sometimes offer good fares.

Note that EI are the only airline that fly direct Ireland to Orlando so any other option will involve a connection
 
Petermack said:
.. combination of Aer Lingus to Schipol and then Martinair direct to Orlando for 380 US Dollars per adult and 280 Dollars for children for most of October.
Click to expand...

We're using a tracking service for flights from DUB to MCO (Orlando) for April 2011. The combination above consistently shows as being least cost.

Does anyone here have any experience of flying MartinAir with kids (10 & 8), i.e. quality of in-flight entertainment, distractions ? If we're going to choose more flight time to avoid the higher Aer Lingus costs, then I'd like to know that there's some alternatives for the kids when the ipod/DS batteries run out :eek:.
 
Thanks for that. Yes, I had seen the detail about the 'entertainment' unit that can be rented for economy class. I am interested from hearing from anyone with first-hand experience of their service.

Virgin Atlantic look like another option, provided the transfer from Dublin and back again doesn't make it impractical, e.g. GBP 1400 for 2 adults & 2 children, versus EUR 2200 for MartinAir. Costs of transfer from DUB and whether you need a layover in LDN, or not, have yet to be figured out.

Update
:mad:Virgin Atlantic - how to not build a web interface.
On the first screen, you key in the number of passengers, which brings you to a second screen where the available flights & costs are displayed. However the cost on the second screen is the 'per adult' cost, and not the cost for the number of passengers provided in the previous screen.

So, they're not an option :rolleyes: !
 
maybe im not so good at this ,but prices to australia from dublin are coming up at 1600euros return for december,could this be right.
 
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