DUS/LCY, Friday 4th October
 

Hello All,

I appreciate this will probably fall into the category of stupid question but here goes:

The 4 flights for the above route, in ET, are all showing a cheapest fare of €284 o/w, while the two morning DUS/LHR flights are considerably less expensive, as well as flights into LHR later that day. Is there a very unlikely possibility that the LCY flights could come down in cost within the next month or does it appear to be a case of everyone wants to fly into LCY from DUS that day and I'm clutching at straws? I've flown the route every two weeks for the past couple of months and haven't come across this scenario but I appreciate this could simply be 'one of those things'.

Thanks in advance.

edit: the above scenario is the same for the previous day in terms of all four LCY flights priced at €284 and LHR flights less expensive.

FWIW, it looks like what BA has done at a technical level is that on 2 October, 3 October and 4 October, the LCY-DUS and DUS-LCY have all been restricted to J9 C9 Y9 B9 H9, with all other booking classes zeroed. It's only these three days that week, and it doesn't happen the week before (even with the potential strike) or the week after.

My impression is therefore that this is a deliberate revenue management decision for these three days for reasons that I can't even guess at. The fact that all these flights are univerally 9 in these five booking classes, but only these five, makes me think that this is not a reflection of existing bookings but an indicator of predicted demand.

OP, you could book a Plus fare and hope you can change for free on the day - but I would only recommend this if you don't mind leaving in the morning!!

Thank you all for your advice and explanations. With Heinz sight (thank you post #4 ) I think the Plus fare option is the way to go.

Or fly with Flybe, whom I've found a bit more reliable and much cheaper for this route.

Is that applicable for Cityflier?

Thursday 3rd October is a public holiday in DUS. Those German public holidays on a Thursday seem to catch people out every time and there is usually a lot of last minute demand for flights as people take a bridge day and use the opportunity to go away for a long weekend.

Yes it is.

Exactly the same pricing when I need to be near DUS 26-29 November

BA £305 return compared to Flybe £82 return, flights 15 minutes apart.

BA's Heathrow flights are £80-90 on the same day

If you haven't yet booked an alternative, BA have released seats on DUS/LCY flights for my date at sensible prices and looking at 26/11 LCY/DUS, they appear to have done the same.

They have, and booked :)

And in fact the FlyBe fares are now bonkers compared to BA's!

Thanks for the explanation of why hotel prices are also through the roof on those dates.

Today booking for 28th Nov, DUS/LCY was showing an R fare in Club Europe cheaper than the basic HBO L fare I had to book due to our dumb company policy...