Aer Lingus- Tricksters.

Bronte said:
You cannot compare the price you paid in January with the price of flights now in March.
Click to expand...

But you can compare the price on the 2nd March, the day before the sale, with the price on the 3rd March, the day of the sale and see that the prices had not been reduced by 25%.
 
IsleOfMan said:
But you can compare the price on the 2nd March, the day before the sale, with the price on the 3rd March, the day of the sale and see that the prices had not been reduced by 25%.
Click to expand...

Is there not a law against hiking prices for a short period and then offering an apparent sale? I think I remember reading that the higher price should have been in place for at least 28days. Perhaps that states that it is 28 days in the previous X no. of days?
 
Aer Lingus had their €9.99 prices to many destinations for several weeks. They then kept the same prices but put a banner across their page with the words "Spring in to summer" suggesting that there were some special offers available under the "spring in to summer" campaign. There weren't. Now they have their 25% off summer sale and actually they have increased their prices as the sale commenced.
Slim. I think they get around the rules by suggesting that their new "summer sale" commenced immediately after their "spring in to summer" promotion. Even though their earlier "spring in to summer " promotion was not a sale at all just the same priced flights with a banner saying "spring in to summer".
 

The way you put it, it seems like an even clearer case of false advertising!
 

You're not even comparing apples and pears...you're comparing apples and sunglasses.

The comment you're referring to relates to Ryanair staff trying to trick passengers into believing that their hand luggage doesn't meet the relevant size rules.


Thank you for educating us on how to secure a bargain flight. Just so we're clear, when you see a medium haul flight with (say) Aer Lingus or Ryanair for €9.99, the smart play is to hold off for a sale that may or may not happen in the hope that you might save €2.50? My God...and there's silly me with my decadent ways thinking that it'd be way smarter to lock in the flight for the price of four trips through the Westlink.


There are some incredible posts in this thread. Fares generally increase as it gets closer to the flight. If you see a flight to France for €9.99 (plus taxes and charges), you take it...simple as that. Not doing so is ridiculous. What was the potential upside? €2.50? €3.50? €5? What was the potential downside? Hundreds of Euro.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with a Celtic Tiger mentality...it's common sense.
 
How many of the people complaining about the sale have access to premium tools like seatcounter where you pay for a service that indicates how many seats are available at each ticket bracket/fare class?

Because otherwise you have no way of knowing how many €9.99 seats were left (if any) at the time the sale was launched. Aer Lingus like all airlines sells tickets at a number of prices, a plane of 100 seats for example could be priced 10 @ 10, 20 @ 15, 10 @ 20 and so on. If the cheaper seats sell out then you would be offered the next lowest price. It's not necessarily trickery.

On the comments about my choice of airline, I assure you I am very savvy about the flights I book and the fares I pay, it's also not the only way to earn airmiles. I travel smart. I did however have a flight from hell with AL about ten years ago and swore they would never get a cent of my business ever again. Nor have they.
 
Having spent a lifetime in the travel business I am convinced that of all the services and goods that one can buy in this world there is one that makes people behave in the oddest manner -and that's flight tickets.

Although I don't often share Gekko's opinions on everything I absolutely agree with his comments about people who actually hold off paying a tenner for a flight to the Med -in case the price goes even lower!
 
Gekko said:
You're not even comparing apples and pears...you're comparing apples and sunglasses.

The comment you're referring to relates to Ryanair staff trying to trick passengers into believing that their hand luggage doesn't meet the relevant size rules.
Click to expand...

And the OP is referring to Aer Lingus trying to trick passengers into believing that their Sale price is genuine.
 

The OP was referring to the €9.99 flights. Probably the midweek flights. For those people who may have been flying on the weekend the price saved or lost might have been considerably more. Not just €5 that Gekko seems to be fixated on.
The point that the OP was making and which some of us picked up was that Aer Lingus were charging more for their flights on the day of their sale than they were the day before. Is that not trickery?
 

So how do you define a "Sale" then if there is no benchmark?
 
Gekko said:
Thank you for educating us on how to secure a bargain flight. My God...and there's silly me with my decadent ways thinking that it'd be way smarter to lock in the flight for the price of four trips through the Westlink.
Click to expand...

I am happy to travel the pre M50 route to save on the toll.
 
SlurrySlump said:
So how do you define a "Sale" then if there is no benchmark?
Click to expand...

It would be up to AL to prove this if challenged to prove that they haven't done that.

There are actually flight nerds who watch for sales to be uploaded and pounce on bargain flights, they use fare tracking software and have extensive knowledge of the booking engines. I can't guarantee that this is what happened in this case but it's not as unlikely as you'd think. Fora like flyertalk.com are full of people who take flight sales very seriously.

There are also ordinary travellers who log on as if they are booking concert tickets...the minute they go on sale they snap up the bargains.

Maybe Oldnick can clarify but I don't know of any scheduled airline that charges the same price for every seat in the cabin. I know some of the short lived all business class airlines used to but I don't think any of the regular ones do. Hence when you book you often get a "only X seats remaining at this price" warning on some of the fares.
 
Daisy2012 said:
It is actually quite disgraceful. I booked for my niece, her OH and their two kids from Dublin to Nice at the end of June at the beginning of January. Not cheap, but at least got the flights we wanted.
Click to expand...

Is that flights for 4 or 5 people?
 
That's flights for 2 x adults, 1 x 5 year old and 1 x 2 year old. The adults and the children pay the same amount. There are two suitcases included also.

A sale is meant to be a sale. You are meant to be getting a bargain. If certain flights/routes/dates seats are not included in a sale, then the website should say so, and not claim to be giving you a bargain when clearly you are not getting a bargain.

I don't think anyone who is getting excited about this is upset about the 5 or 10 quid involved, more about the sense of being conned.

@ Bronte - the French may be a thrifty nation, but not when it comes to national pride.
 
Daisy2012 said:
If certain flights/routes/dates seats are not included in a sale, then the website should say so, and not claim to be giving you a bargain when clearly you are not getting a bargain.
Click to expand...

Seats that are already sold can hardly be included in a sale?
 
IsleOfMan said:
But you can compare the price on the 2nd March, the day before the sale, with the price on the 3rd March, the day of the sale and see that the prices had not been reduced by 25%.
Click to expand...

No you absolutely can not, you cannot compare prices 2 minutes ago with right not.
 
Daisy2012 said:
A sale is meant to be a sale. You are meant to be getting a bargain. .
Click to expand...


Not always true. In relation to flights, June would be just before peak season for flying to the South of France and Airlines price flights accordingly. I think June is also school holiday in Ireland for some schools.
 
Well their summer sale is over. The long standing €9.99 seat prices that were increased to €13.99 on the morning of their sale and then reduced by 25% are now firmly at €13.99 (mid week flights). If Aer Lingus follow their usual sale pattern there will be another sale offering within two weeks. It will be interesting to see what happens next time around.
 
Bronte said:
No you absolutely can not, you cannot compare prices 2 minutes ago with right not.
Click to expand...

You would have a point if the prices were directly increased in direct proportion to the nearness of the dates. My understanding is that didn't happen. They were only increased with the start of the sale.

In my opinion the word "sale" has been grossly miss-used, corrupted to the extent it has lost all meaning in Irish retail sector. I don't know if that true in other markets. But in Ireland when I see the word sale, I expect it to be a trick that will cost me more. Same with family packs, 2 or 3 for 1 prices. if its not more expensive then it will either be past the sell by date, or very close to it.

There really should be stronger consumer protection against these kind of "sales tactics".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register