Word of warning if booking through Travelbag.co.uk

Miss Fluff

This is so ridiculous I had to share it with my fellow Boardsies. My folks are off to Australia and New Zealand in March so when my dear Dad saw an ad just yesterday from www.travelbag.co.uk advertising fabulous deals to that part of the world he logged on. The results of his search were UNBELIEVABLE.

Carrier for both examples is Cathay Pacific.

London-Sydney return (via Hong Kong) for 2 people business class comes to total of stg£7137 (inc taxes etc)

Whereapon he searched for the same return flights but to include Dublin-London-Sydney (via Honk Kong) on the same dates for 2 people business class, the total comes to stg£12,083 (inc taxes)

Bear in mind these flights have the exact same flight numbers on the same dates of travel, the only variant is the inclusion of the Dublin-London return leg.

Effectively the London-Dublin return leg (with British Midland) costs £4,946

THAT IS £4,946 POUNDS STERLING FOR TWO RETURN FLIGHTS DUBLIN-LONDON. Wtf??:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

All I can say is shop around when booking. Flipping scandalous imo.:eek:

BuffyBot

They may have the same flight numbers, but that means nothing. You're assuming that all business class tickets cost the same, which is not the case. Are the flights in the same booking class? Same conditions attached? If not, then that may account for a large variation in price.

You may not be comparing like with like at all.

Absolut

This is the same for most online booking sites that aren't based in Ireland.

Just last week I was looking at the Lufthansa site, trying to book a return flight london-frankfurt-bangkok. When you change it to dublin-london-frankfurt-bangkok the price increases by €1,000, again with the same flight numbers and everything.

Edit:
These were economy class tickets, with the same booking class and restrictions.

Miss Fluff

BuffyBot wrote:

They may have the same flight numbers, but that means nothing. You're assuming that all business class tickets cost the same, which is not the case. Are the flights in the same booking class? Same conditions attached? If not, then that may account for a large variation in price.

You may not be comparing like with like at all.

Same day flights, same flight numbers, same booking class and same conditions attached which to me does not account for such a large variation in price at all.

BuffyBot

As far as I can see, travelbag doesn't give full details of the fare class, or conditions attached to the fare class, the likes of which travel agents etc can see. Flight numbers etc dont mean a thing. Each class has different sub-classes of fares which come into play in different circumstances and the rules can be quite complex

As I can't check the same dates, I did a similar search and found different conditions for the flight originating out of Heathrow and the one out of Dublin.

Again, I don't think you are comparing like with like, and accepting what it looks like on the surface. Have you asked travelbag about the difference? It's a bit unfair to just come on here and just throw out your conclusions without asking them, no?

Miss Fluff

You don't by any chance work in the travel industry do you BB?

BuffyBot

I have done, yes.

Miss Fluff

Thought so, know very few civilians who could defend paying two return flights Dublin-London business class to cost in excess of €8,000:rolleyes:

BuffyBot

Is there any point in re-emphasising that it probably isn't those flights alone accounting for the increase in prices, or are you just going to blatantly ignore what I said...

danash

To paraphrase what buffybot was actually saying was that travel agents are so familiar with the many complex rules associated with long haul travel that they could possibly have come up with a combination of fares/classes/airlines that would have removed this obvious anomaly. What the Travelbag site probably did was ask a simple question electronically of a central reservation system and got a simple electronic answer. Without human intervention the website merely displays what the CRS system responds with. We are so used to simplicity in point to point fares such as Ryanair and Aer Lingus that we forget that legacy airlines still use very (very) complex rules to set fares - for example the DUB - LHR leg could have pushed the mileage limit above a certain threshold - the use of two carriers also means there are now two yield managers looking for their margins. There are many many more rules such as class combinations etc.

On the face of it I can see how you have come to your conclusion but the reality is that the web hasn't yet come up with an integrated way of handling long haul flights. Travel Agents have been doing this for years and this is now their niche.

Yes I do work in the industry..........