Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles - Example of Price Change

Back in April 2012, I booked TK HKG/IST/FCO/IST/HKG premium economy Comfort class, outbound on 25 Aug, return 07 Sept, from Expedia, fare was $818 plus taxes $440, total $1258.

Yesterday, 06 Aug, looked on Expedia for same routing/dates/class for a friend who wished to travel with me, fare is now $1400 plus taxes $388, total $1788.

Just a couple of days ago, I called TK HKG office for seat selection, and it seemed plenty of seats still available (maybe tickets booked but seats not yet selected, but didn't seem so), so not sure why the big increase in fare price.

Just go to show, when you find an acceptable fare price, better book it right away and not wait, hoping that price will drop in future.

This could be due to the airlines' many fare rules - what comes to mind is that getting close to the travel date (less than 3 weeks), the fare you got in April required at least 30 days advance purchase. That would explain the difference in price you're getting now.

The number of seats occupied on the seat map is not a good indicator of passenger load. Many passengers may not have yet selected their seats.

And fares increase based on time till departure date. You should realise that late-August is still high season (where Europeans may be returning home on TK from Asia), hence the lack of any low booking classes in Comfort anymore.

This could be due to the airlines' many fare rules - what comes to mind is that getting close to the travel date (less than 3 weeks), the fare you got in April required at least 30 days advance purchase. That would explain the difference in price you're getting now.

You're absolutely right. I checked the price for same routing/class for travel in Feb 2013, and price came back from Expedia of US$1,230.

This is called pricing 101 for airlines. Fares change all the time, irrespective of perceived loads on a given flight. Fares change daily (sometimes multiple times), and you often hit fare fences with regards to advance purchase requirements, length of stay, days of week etc.

FYI, fares for Comfort have increased dramatically since April 1st, 2012.

Just to give you a quick example, in late March 2012, a RT JFK-IST-HKG in A class was $1600. Starting April, the same fare class has gone up to $2150. An increase of one third, let's not even get into the O and U fare territories, which you might be better off just flying into Europe in economy and spend a few days around CDG, AMS, or LHR and hop on C or J with carriers like MS, RJ, WY, or UL.

FYI, fares for Comfort have increased dramatically since April 1st, 2012.

Just to give you a quick example, in late March 2012, a RT JFK-IST-HKG in A class was $1600. Starting April, the same fare class has gone up to $2150. An increase of one third, let's not even get into the O and U fare territories, which you might be better off just flying into Europe in economy and spend a few days around CDG, AMS, or LHR and hop on C or J with carriers like MS, RJ, WY, or UL.

RT HKG/IST/JFK for Comfort Class for July 2013 is now priced at US$2,550 or thereabouts. Eva Airlines on their Prem Econ class HKG/TPE/JFK RT for July 2013 is about US$3,200. Every other airline with PE for same itinerary is beyond $3,600.

Try separating it into 2 seperate RT's HKG-IST-HKG and IST-JFK-IST. I have had some success with this in the past...

Try separating it into 2 seperate RT's HKG-IST-HKG and IST-JFK-IST. I have had some success with this in the past...

I did try that, but 2 separate routings came out more expensive: HKG/IST RT $1,400 and IST/JFK RT $1,500 vs HKG/JFK RT $2,500 (all prices in Comfort PE class).

I also tried a multi-city HKG/IST/JFK/IST/HKG and even selecting TK, neither Expedia nor Kayak able to come out with a routing or quote.

About 2 weeks ago, I did see on bt-store a Prem Econ fare with BA for HKG/BOS Rt via LHR of $2,800 (BOS is where I really needed to end up), but didn't book it then and a day later when I looked again, that fare was no longer visible or accessible and price had gone up to $3,600.

And then I was away when I happened upon the few hours window of RGN/YYZ RT of $400 in C/J class, but decided to wait until the morning when I could work out the dates/timing a bit better, and by the morning the fare had been pulled by the various Expedia sites (UK, de, fr, etc). Frustrating, but will keep looking and hoping for another "jumbo" fare.