Now Many Tickets Available On Thai From Europe

[Pomrakuhn]

Every day for about a 6 week period during October/ November I tried to book with my favourite Airline (Gold Card for 5 years) I travel over 4/5 times a year but in the past always booked my New Year ticket (28th Dec to 14th Jan) in late July. Well this year I left it too late and during that 6 week period, afore mentioned, I kept coming up with 3500/4000 Euros. Finally about 3 weeks ago I grabbed at an offer on Opodo for Swiss for 1272 Euros (860 pounds).

This morning out of curiosity I ran a check on Opodo for my dates and the CHEAPEST flights of all it came up with were with THAI AIRWAYS for 1144 Euros (772 pounds)

I checked on THAI website and its true they have economy seats available on most flights now. Thai price was 1272 Euros but you always pay a bit more booking direct.

To say the least I am very dissapointed but one saving grace is that Swiss are part of Star Alliance.

[Florin]

I've also had quite a few bad experiences with their website, but their CallCenter has always been great for bookings...plus they sometimes even have even better fares than on the website (I guess it sometimes doesn't list the low-fare buckets). It's a shame that THAI's IT part is not as good as their stellar customer service.

[cclub75]

It's not entirely absurd.

Airlines try to maximise their occupancy rate AND average price per seat.

So actually, the chart of pricing can have a bowl-like shape on a time axis : first they sell cheap classes/fares long time before, then full price in the "middle", and then cheap prices again (to fill the plane if not).

Plus, don't forget that some people can cancel their booking a few weeks before the flight (freeing some seats).

Every day for about a 6 week period during October/ November I tried to book with my favourite Airline (Gold Card for 5 years) I travel over 4/5 times a year but in the past always booked my New Year ticket (28th Dec to 14th Jan) in late July. Well this year I left it too late and during that 6 week period, afore mentioned, I kept coming up with 3500/4000 Euros. Finally about 3 weeks ago I grabbed at an offer on Opodo for Swiss for 1272 Euros (860 pounds).

This morning out of curiosity I ran a check on Opodo for my dates and the CHEAPEST flights of all it came up with were with THAI AIRWAYS for 1144 Euros (772 pounds)

I checked on THAI website and its true they have economy seats available on most flights now. Thai price was 1272 Euros but you always pay a bit more booking direct.

To say the least I am very dissapointed but one saving grace is that Swiss are part of Star Alliance.

[Cheeky Farang]

Aslo, many tour operators book a block of seats, in the contract with the airlines if they have not sold them all buy a given date they are relaesed back to the airline. Sometimes and very often if you wait 10 - 3 days before you fly you can get a real bargain.

But of course you do have to take a chance and be fexible with your dates.

CF

[britmaveric]

Aslo, many tour operators book a block of seats, in the contract with the airlines if they have not sold them all buy a given date they are relaesed back to the airline. Sometimes and very often if you wait 10 - 3 days before you fly you can get a real bargain.

But of course you do have to take a chance and be fexible with your dates.

CF

Spot on!!! Consolidators unable to fill their alotted seats.

[flightcrew1]

Working for the airlines I hear this all the time. People who booked in advance and paid extremely high fares versus the guy who booked 1 week before and got exactly what he wanted. Several factors here. Yield management...the airlines are trying to sell the seats at the highest possible fare and then releasing the seats at the discounted price as the flight day gets nearer. Remember once the flight leaves no revenue is earned at all. Also of course are the consolidators and travel agencies who are blocking seats and when they don't sell just release them back into the system. On Thai you don't have to purchase cheap economy class tickets till 2 weeks before you fly. Some people have multiple bookings weeks/months in advance and simply don't buy the tickets. The day of the deadline the seats are released back. Two options that generally work are to book the tickets directly with the airline (TG in this case) as they can convert the higher price seat in economy to the lower price seat within 24hours and in some cases right away. An other is to wait 2 weeks before your flight time and see what is released back into the system.

But of course I understand you are trying to make plans far in advance and these options may not work for you but many take advantage of this.

[Pomrakuhn]

Working for the airlines I hear this all the time. People who booked in advance and paid extremely high fares versus the guy who booked 1 week before and got exactly what he wanted. Several factors here. Yield management...the airlines are trying to sell the seats at the highest possible fare and then releasing the seats at the discounted price as the flight day gets nearer. Remember once the flight leaves no revenue is earned at all. Also of course are the consolidators and travel agencies who are blocking seats and when they don't sell just release them back into the system. On Thai you don't have to purchase cheap economy class tickets till 2 weeks before you fly. Some people have multiple bookings weeks/months in advance and simply don't buy the tickets. The day of the deadline the seats are released back. Two options that generally work are to book the tickets directly with the airline (TG in this case) as they can convert the higher price seat in economy to the lower price seat within 24hours and in some cases right away. An other is to wait 2 weeks before your flight time and see what is released back into the system.

But of course I understand you are trying to make plans far in advance and these options may not work for you but many take advantage of this.

Thanks Flightcrew1 that is useful advice. Unfortunately I just panicked in case I could not get a flight. I guess it is an emotive thing for me to travel with Thai. I have made so many trips, going back 28 years and in the last 20 years (probably about 65/70 trips) always with Thai.