Just turning up

chabsey

I remember being told years ago about people who would pack and just head to the airport hoping to bag an ultra last minute deal from some airline or agency. By this I mean, the flight is about to leave so they sell the tickets for a fraction of the price.

Now, given that I can't remember who told me, and I know it was over 10 years ago and before the popularlity of the net changed everything related to airline travel and package holidays. Does anyone know if something similar to this still exists? Or is www.lastminute.ie the best the modern world can offer? I remain unimpressed by that website and use it only to sound out 'offers' that I generally locate cheaper elsewhere.

jonny68

Good question mate, i actually don't think anything like this exists anymore (i stand corrected on that) but i definitely remember years ago it did, where you could even get a holiday in the sun dirt cheap last minute although it was more flights, can someone who definitely knows about this type of thing let us know if anyting like this does exist thesedays, it's worth a go anyway.

jonny68

Oh and that lastminute website is a joke, cheap my arse i can find a lot cheaper than that online.


http://www.travelsupermarket.com/

is the best IMO.

Goodluck2me

jonny68 wrote: »

Good question mate, i actually don't think anything like this exists anymore (i stand corrected on that) but i definitely remember years ago it did, where you could even get a holiday in the sun dirt cheap last minute although it was more flights, can someone who definitely knows about this type of thing let us know if anyting like this does exist thesedays, it's worth a go anyway.

Sister did this a few years ago, went into a travel agent, said I`ll go tomorrow if its decent and you give me a good deal, got a 1200e holiday for 350 and she loved it.
thinking of doing that myself now!

jonny68

goodluck2me wrote: »

Sister did this a few years ago, went into a travel agent, said I`ll go tomorrow if its decent and you give me a good deal, got a 1200e holiday for 350 and she loved it.
thinking of doing that myself now!

done something similar before myself except it was a few days rather than a day before, me and the ex got a week in Crete for Eur 199, should've cost over 400 but your sister got some bargain there, so do you reckon it might be worth going into loads of different travel agents and trying this?

Anyone here work in a travel agents can eloborate?

Sounds great all the same if you get a deal like that.:)

indiana jones

yes you can go to any travel agents and get a last minute deal for 200-300 euro for a package holiday if you dont mind where you go. then again there may not be any left so its a risk. the travel agent books a set number of seats on a plane and hotel rooms in advance for every season so they will try to fill them or they will loose money. you will get either a cancellation or the least popular destination that is slowest selling.
if you turn up at the airport you can buy unsold seats from the travel agent reps on the day for about 100 euro one way to the package holiday destinations.
if you turn up at the airport wanting to go anywhere with a normal airline or scheduled airline you will pay the highest price the later you leave it. the only standby you can get is if a flight is full and you are on standby to see if someone dosnt turn up but then your paying the highest price. eg 260 one way only to london.
the airlines want people to get into the habit of booking earlier to get the cheapest seats for lots of reasons so they stopped selling off cheap seats late. late bookers eg. people going to funerals last minute usually pay through the nose.
i worked in airports for years and there really is no way round it, sorry.