Aer Lingus online seat selection

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MelF

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I'm a bit wary about the Aer Lingus online booking system as I've been caught out by them a couple of times on flight amendments etc so I was wondering if anyone had any odd experiences in pre-booking seats or flights well in advance?

I want to book a flight to the US and I can go any day within a particular week but when I look up the seatplan for three completely different days, I seem to be getting the exact same number and configuration for remaining seats. It looks like there are very few seats left on those flights no matter what day it is, even though the flight is a good three months away.

Does anyone know if this is policy for Aer Lingus to show scare availability so that people will be panicked into booking well in advance? And when you do go book and then go in to select your seats are there suddenly loads available?

Hate to sound so cynical but also hate being caught out by these little tricks!
 
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How exactly are you looking at the seat plan prior to booking? I didn't think you could do that. Out of curiosity I just tried but it was looking for credit card details and giving me no opportunity that I could see to select a seat first (didn't quite want to take my experiment that far!).
 
On the flight details page (ie.. When you select the flight price and date and it brings you to next screen with flight times etc...)

Continue on to pricing details - On the Right of your flight selection is View Map or Seat Map. This then will bring up the seating plan. The screen after this then looks for cc details.
 
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Blast it, should have booked this morning, the flights I've been looking at over the last couple of weeks have now all been increased by about 200 euro!

Yes, socrates you just need to select the flight you want and then on the next page there is a link to view the seating plan alongside the flight number and times etc
 
MelF said:
Blast it, should have booked this morning, the flights I've been looking at over the last couple of weeks have now all been increased by about 200 euro!

Yes, socrates you just need to select the flight you want and then on the next page there is a link to view the seating plan alongside the flight number and times etc
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There was a three day sale up to Thursday 15th May. 20% off price before taxes & charges.
You have missed the boat.
 
Megan said:
There was a three day sale up to Thursday 15th May. 20% off price before taxes & charges.
You have missed the boat.
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Well the sale must have been for three weeks then as these flights have been the same price every time I've checked them over the last month! Also the price increase happened between yesterday morning and afternoon.
 
I was looking at flights last week with the 20% off taken off at the payment stage.

The same flights now have the price at 80% (the 20% discount) with no advertising i.e. the 80% is the price and the sale offered nothing else.
 
peno said:
I was looking at flights last week with the 20% off taken off at the payment stage.

The same flights now have the price at 80% (the 20% discount) with no advertising i.e. the 80% is the price and the sale offered nothing else.
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You are right. The flights are something cheaper today then they were last week when there was supposed to be 20% off.
I booked flights last Thursday for 2 to New York at a cost of €1246.46. The very same flights today are €1235.10. Thats €11.36 cheaper then what I paid. How can Aer Lingus get away with this?
 
Megan said:
How can Aer Lingus get away with this?
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They are notorious for this kind of carry-on which is why I was wary about the online seat 'availability'. To be honest, if they weren't the only airline with direct flights to where i need to go I wouldn't go near them as I've been burnt a few times with different things, but needs must unfortunately.
 
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I booked seats to London a few weeks ago. Looking at the seating plan the seats I wanted (row 36) weren't available but when I checked in online, they were. Strange huh?
 
As I suspected. Thanks Colblimp, you told me exactly what I needed to know!
 
MelF said:
Blast it, should have booked this morning, the flights I've been looking at over the last couple of weeks have now all been increased by about 200 euro!

Yes, socrates you just need to select the flight you want and then on the next page there is a link to view the seating plan alongside the flight number and times etc
Click to expand...

Airlines know when you are returning to a flight you looked at recently. They put the price up for you automatically because they now know you are now interested and not just pricing.

I've found a lot of times that the price is higher if you go back a second or third time.

What works for me is clearing my browsers cookies, closing it down and open again. And magically the prices are back to what they were the first time i looked.
 
and I can now double that opinion,

Last week booked the mother-in-law on a trip with us.

Cleaned down the browser history and low and behold its now cheaper by 30 EURO.

I've suspected this so must remember to do this in future...

S.
 
maybe the cheaper availability that you are looking at is being held in case you want to book the flight? It would have to be held for a period of time or else the chances are the flight wouldnt be available at that price when you went to actually purchase it? So everytime you go to look at a flight you are holding the seats for a time until they are released into 'general availability' again. So for this reason, you might be seeing dearer seats when you keep on checking?

Also some seats that arent available to book online are available at the airport cos seats may have to be assigned to physically impaired passengers, parents with infants, families etc.
 
emmt said:
maybe the cheaper availability that you are looking at is being held in case you want to book the flight? It would have to be held for a period of time or else the chances are the flight wouldnt be available at that price when you went to actually purchase it? So everytime you go to look at a flight you are holding the seats for a time until they are released into 'general availability' again. So for this reason, you might be seeing dearer seats when you keep on checking?

Also some seats that arent available to book online are available at the airport cos seats may have to be assigned to physically impaired passengers, parents with infants, families etc.
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Trust me, i know. the amount of times a particular user has looked at a particular flight is counted and acted upon. I've worked on similar booking systems for other companies in the past. Its standard practice.


Yes flights are reserved for a certain time, but that is a different process and completly seperate from the multple views scenario.
 
emmt said:
maybe the cheaper availability that you are looking at is being held in case you want to book the flight? It would have to be held for a period of time or else the chances are the flight wouldnt be available at that price when you went to actually purchase it? So everytime you go to look at a flight you are holding the seats for a time until they are released into 'general availability' again. So for this reason, you might be seeing dearer seats when you keep on checking?

Also some seats that arent available to book online are available at the airport cos seats may have to be assigned to physically impaired passengers, parents with infants, families etc.
Click to expand...

No, you don't actually have the option to 'hold' the seats, just to look at the seating plan and how the availability stands before you book. Even when you book a flight you have to go back in afterwards and pay extra to reserve seats in advance of departure.
 
minion said:
Trust me, i know. the amount of times a particular user has looked at a particular flight is counted and acted upon. I've worked on similar booking systems for other companies in the past. Its standard practice.


Yes flights are reserved for a certain time, but that is a different process and completly seperate from the multple views scenario.
Click to expand...

That is very interesting to know minion!
 
paddywhacker said:
No, you don't actually have the option to 'hold' the seats, just to look at the seating plan and how the availability stands before you book. Even when you book a flight you have to go back in afterwards and pay extra to reserve seats in advance of departure.
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It does actually hold the seat (or more correctly, a place on the plane) you are looking at for about 10 mins alright, to give you time to book it. Its a different stram of logic though than the one that figures out how interested you are in the flight.
 
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