UKtravelbear

what hate?

I just expressed a widly held view that companion fares in sales are unfair to solo travellers and even couples don't always travel together so they can't benefit either.

Not sure what your second point is about shortcuts and business travellers.

NWIFlyer

That view rather assumes that any sale benefits the customer rather than the airline.

What happens in reality is that - over the Christmas period - business travel dries up almost completely and therefore airlines are reliant on leisure travellers to fill cabins, particularly J. It's very likely most leisure travellers are couples, hence that's where the offers are targeted for maximum benefit to the airline. It isn't just BA that do this - QR very regularly feature companion fares when they need to fill inventory, although their drivers may be different (e.g. they lose out through not offering as many direct flights, sometimes necessitating long layovers in DOH, which leisure travellers are more likely to accept than business ones).

It might be this year BA has good loads over the Christmas period anyway, and hence has no need to offer cheap fares to anyone. If rev man has got it wrong and expected sales don't materialise they still have plenty of time to drop a flash sale given many people will have booked the Christmas/New Year period off work anyway and so will have more flexible travel arrangements than usual.

Looking at the targeted areas, it would suggest that WTP to NYC needs a boost early next year because there's lots of dates when the £660ish fares are available.

Fatdickie

Exactly

Solo traveller.
All for pleasure, no business flights
All self funded.
28 flights in the last 12 months.

I hate 2 for 1 offers, holidays for 2 offers etc

TTmex

I noticed the WTP fares I have been tracking this week that were around 1200 usd are now selling at 1800 usd (MEX - Europe). Might be completely unconnected, but sure there is an element of hiking prices and trying to convince people they're getting a deal.

I'll hold til next week and hope they come down again. I'll keep monitoring.

ahmetdouas

I think this is the general trend of Black Friday is a bit of a joke for impatient shoppers that cannot wait until after Christmas.

I just checked for the flights I want to book for next summer, forget it, I will wait until the proper BA sale after 25 December!

As a comparison I am seeing 20-30% off for Black Friday retailers, but after Christmas that becomes 50% off, so I will hold fire until then.

etiene

It has a specific use for airlines though, as NWI above has highlighted: filling the front cabins during a lull in business travel. That's why the dates are so restricted - and like last year the NA stuff doesn't go past mid-January. I need some flights for the Summer too - I was never expecting them on Black Friday though [unless the intern had showed up!]. Obviously for Christmas they can't wait until their January sale...

I am a little surprised this isn't more agressive though as the route I wanted [ATL] is all nines in J for the dates that would have matched last year's offer. Of course, you'd need access to the fleetwide data to know just how well the loads are doing at this stage compared with expected and thus whether an advertised sale was worth it. While these prices aren't bad in general, they don't seem like they're low enough to induce lots of people to drop £1,600 they weren't going to otherwise [plus accommodation etc] over Christmas [you have to leave on 23rd-25th in practice].

As far as companion fares go: that's just how things go - some sales you can use, some you can't. It's not like there's an option to use the Amex 2-4-1 for a half-price trip by oneself, for instance.

ttama

Hate? I didn't see any hate anywhere. I think it's perfectly fair to say that companion fares discriminate against solo travellers. I haven't always had a partner to travel with, but that hasn't stopped me heading off into the unknown for a fabulous adventure.

It's almost impossible to find decent holidays at a reasonable price if you're single, so I used to build my own package. It seemed very unfair when I saw cheap deals for couples.

Anush3019

I am looking for 9 tickets to Vegas in Sept 2020 in premium. Is it worth booking now before they sell out or would their be a discount in the Xmas sale?

UKtravelbear

9 people in a premium cabin would qualify for the group rate so might be worth getting BA to quote for that because it has other advantages such as being able to pay a deposit and the balance later and eing able to change passenger names

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...n/group-travel

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum Anush3019. The question you ask is difficult to answer, not least because BA won't have a clue either at this stage. A lot depends on demand and assumptions on forecasting. As a very, very general rule, you are more likely to get a better fare at 6 weeks rather than 6 months, and the same logic would also apply for 10 weeks versus 10 months.

SCSA

Leave it to BA to advertise prices you could get any day on the year on an advance purchase and call it "Black Friday"

Rubbish.

rockflyertalk

Yes it hard to say this is at all good. It goes to show the marketing ploy that BF has become. It’s a shame that the pricing machines are quite as effective as the marketing machines. There is literally no good deal in this that I can see versus historical prices. Possibly NYC in WTP for £662 is the only real deal on offer here. The CE promo seems a bit of farce! CE fares have been at these low prices for a while this year.

As a few often preach on here don’t always wait for a nice marketing banner to show you a nice price, fares can be lower outside of these windows. Lesson learnt with this sale.

sunshinebob

True.. The WTP to Abu Dhabi fare is the only thing I have seen that would get my credit card out. Its a short flight out and great for kipping most of the way home so works well for winter sun.

rockflyertalk

ah yes. I missed that one. At £489 that’s pretty good for some winter warmth and 180 TPs.

TTmex

Another BA 'sale' will be along in a few weeks. Nothing to worry about. Can't blame them for not offering much. Some people go nuts in these days and so probably buy those high fares convinced they're getting a bargain.

Just keep monitoring the fares you want and sure something better will come up.