How to hunt for a cheap ticket in peak season?

[H C Chai 4]

Hi all,

 

Just trying find out what is the best way to get a good deal for travelling in peak season, e.g. in Christmas period between UK and Malaysia?

 

I was looking for flights ex- London around 22-Dec (give or take 2 - 3 days), returning just after New Year. Both SQ and MH are around £950 including taxes! Non-direct flights (EK,QF) are about £100-200 cheaper, but still far cry from the £400 incl taxes during low season.

 

Any advice will be greatly appreciated

[Chan CS 0]

Herm... I think another way is to book it far more earlier than now...

[Isaac 0]

Get helps from travel agent.

[Keno Omar 0]

While searching for cheap flights for my trip to Dublin (leaving tomorrow ), here is the list, in order of increasing fare to LHR/LGW, with GF being the cheapest:

 

1. GF

2. EK

3. QR

4. KL

5. MH

6. SQ

[Keith T 2]

Why do airlines hike up fares during peak season? Because they can.

 

Demand>Supply

 

A lot of discount SQ/MH seats late Dec-early Jan on the Roo route would've been gone by now.

 

As you've learnt, cheaper deals would be the more indirect options - look at the European airlines that do not hub at LON like KL, LH, AF etc. By the same token you can also try flying BA departing from another city - try pricing ex-ARN and you'd get a pleasant surprise.

 

Putting in some random dates for LON-KUL (22/12 - 10/01), here are some of the fares I;m getting but whether there are seats available is a different story (fare basis in brackets):

 

Cheapest discount buckets, seats would've gone by now but you never know:

IY (LEEL1M) - GBP300

EY (MRTGB7) - GBP528

LH (WHNRAGB) - GBP530

BA/QF (RHNCGB) - GBP547

KL (THXSGB) - GBP570

GF (QHUK) - GBP590

AY (QHECO) - GBP590

 

You might have a go at these but expect to be flexible with dates or go on HL1:

 

GF (LHUK) - GBP650

KL (LHSXGB) - GBP680

EY (KRTGB7) - GBP671

BA/QF (MHNCGB) - GBP674

AY (LHECO) - GBP695

 

What you'd have a reasonable chance of getting:

 

KL (HHPXGB) - GBP720

QR (B2RT) - GBP750

MH (MHIP6M) - GBP766

SQ (YHSX2M) - GBP775

VN (LHEE3M) - GBP800

BA/QF (KHNCGB) - GBP800

 

And higher - the list goes on to what you're probably pricing out in ur OP.

 

That's just a small representative sample of what you should be expecting. Agree with suggestions to contact a TA.

 

Alternatively try contacting a BA office ex-EU (especially MXP, ARN and ATH) or QF in FRA and purchase a ticket directly from those offices. You need to get ur own ticket over to commence the journey - U2 or FR would do the trick for that short journey over. But on the return make sure you factor in a long transit or stopover if possible in LHR so you have a reason to prevent the check in agents from tagging ur bags all the way to ur ticketed destination - so you can terminate ur journey at LHR (just say you're spending the night in London or something along those lines) and throw the last segment away. But you have to travel the first coupon (EU-LON) - otherwise the whole thing would be canceled and you won't be able to check in at LON either.

 

And BTW - the cheaper business class fares (booked in D) come in not much more than the higher Y buckets on SQ/MH exLON - QR's D fare is GBP1265.

Edited May 30, 2007 by Keith T

[H C Chai 4]

Wow thanks for the tips everyone!

 

Keith, you really do look like a professional fare hunter

 

Unfortunately the fare you listed in the cheapest discount bucket are all gone.

 

I tried the Iberia website, roundtrip Madrid - Singapore via London both ways works out £515 all in. What a surprise. MAD-LHR, LHR-SIN on BA and SIN-LHR on QF. Good since I am not an Iberia fan. The only problem is the connecting time in London is quite short (2-4hrs), and I dont think I can convince the check in agent at SIN to tag my luggage to LHR instead of MAD. I tried multiple stop option but the fare went up to something ridiculous.

[Keith T 2]

I tried the Iberia website, roundtrip Madrid - Singapore via London both ways works out £515 all in. What a surprise. MAD-LHR, LHR-SIN on BA and SIN-LHR on QF. Good since I am not an Iberia fan. The only problem is the connecting time in London is quite short (2-4hrs), and I dont think I can convince the check in agent at SIN to tag my luggage to LHR instead of MAD. I tried multiple stop option but the fare went up to something ridiculous.

 

Try AA.com, select 'oneworld carriers.'

And remember to change ur address option to 'UK' or the system won't allow you to purchase the fare online.

You'd also notice much lower taxes............

 

[Izanee 0]

google 'emerald travel' and give them a ring. otherwise try rexair.co.uk.

 

other websites include lastminute.com, opodo.co.uk, cheapflights.co.uk, expedia.co.uk

[Keith T 2]

I was trying to edit my post last night but the MW website died on me:

 

You can also price out ex-EU fares on ba.com - and if miles funded upgrades on BA is what you want to do you have to buy the ticket directly from BA. Also, only BA.com will be able to price out Premium economy fares for you if that's something you're considering. I'm also not sure if you can price out a fare to KUL on BA.com - might have to give the BA office a call.

 

But for all other fares - go for AA.com. They do autoprice fares to KUL as well. Compare the taxes with other sites and you'll see what I mean when I say I prefer aa.com.

 

I believe both AA.com and BA.com will allow you to do multiple city searches without pushing up the fares too much so long as you are within the HIP limitation.

 

Also, ex-ARN seems to be the flavour of the month.

Edited May 31, 2007 by Keith T

[H C Chai 4]

as you are within the HIP limitation.

 

Also, ex-ARN seems to be the flavour of the month.

 

Hmm... what does HIP limitation mean?

 

I tried flights out of ARN on BA/AA website, they don't seem to be any cheaper...

 

Anyway thanks for the help, if you happen to come across some cheap deals ex-LON, please give me a shout ok...

[Keith T 2]

Hmm... what does HIP limitation mean?

 

HIP = higher intermediate point, ie the point at which the fare from that city to ur destination would be higher than the city where you bought ur fare/commenced ur journey. Meaning if you stopover at the HIP - you will be asked to pay the fare difference.

 

HIP limitations are very common when a fare is exceedingly cheap - either government subsidised to enable citizens of that country to travel, or for competitive reasons. Examples of fares where HIP is enforced stringently are ex-CMB and ex-TIP. HIP is designed to stop opportunists from overseas like myself from exploiting those cheap fares. Even so you can sometimes get away with stopovers if the autopricing engine ignores it.

 

Actually come to think of it - they might have abolished HIP limitations for ex-EU fares. A mate just bought an ex-MXP I class on BA to BKK with an 11 month stopover in LON. Varies with the fare I guess.

 

Hmm - maybe ARN is cheap in I but not economy buckets. It is also the cheapest starting point in Europe for a oneworld explorer fare in business or first btw.

Edited June 4, 2007 by Keith T

[Pieter C. 5]

Have you tried BI (Royal Brunei), as their fares on offer to KUL (via BWN) in the Netherlands are some of the cheapest around (apart from GF)...

[Keith T 2]

Have you tried BI (Royal Brunei), as their fares on offer to KUL (via BWN) in the Netherlands are some of the cheapest around (apart from GF)...

 

The Middle Eastern airlines would be priced rather competitively - Qatar, Etihad, Emirates etc.

And you only need to make 1 stop.

With BI i think there's an extra fuel stop along the way and you need to backtrack to KUL from BWN.

Edited June 4, 2007 by Keith T

[Pieter C. 5]

You get what you paid for.....

[Keith T 2]

You get what you paid for.....

 

Indeed - which is why the BA ex-EU flights are so cheap because they require people to backtrack to *shudders* Heathrow.

[H C Chai 4]

Hmm.... BI fare ex-LHR isn't cheap at all... they seldom have promotion recently even during off peak season such as May-June. I just visited the BI website and did a search on LHR-BKI in Dec, it works out £998 incl taxes! That's almost the same price as SQ MH

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

Is there any way, from travel agents maybe, to get cheaper fare for MH domestic flights?

 

KUL-PEN for Oct. 12 is RM 135 (cheapest fare) on MH website.

[Seth K 3]

I'll just go to expedia...hehe

[Alex 0]

Over the peak season?

 

HARD to book cheap fares. But I did manage to find a fare fo about 500 GBP for my sis in law's boyfriend.

 

Flights are one stop to KL and yeah, he took it with open arms, since we managed to find him a return all inclusive fare from LHR to KL for less than $4000 MYR. Flights were with Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi.

 

You really have to look for the cheapest deal. Qatar was next cheapest and Gulf was the next one up. CX was the dearest in the grand scheme of things.

 

Alex.

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

What is "sis in law's boyfriend"? I can't seem to figure out...

[Seth K 3]

Alex, your brother divorcing?