easyjet flexi fare
 

Hi,
Anyone with experience of easyjet's flexi tickets able to help me out?

I need to take a Friday evening easyjet flight, in a few weeks time, which is already quite pricey. The flexi ticket for the following Tuesday is selling at a lower price (and then it includes speedy boarding, a check-in bag and no admin fee).

Reading the T&Cs for the flexi ticket it looks as though I can move the flexi ticket onto a flight up to 1 week earlier than the booked travel date. So appears that I can book it, and then move it to the Friday night flight...?

What am I missing? :confused: Do they charge for a fare differential if the flight you want to move to is more expensive? I can't see it in the T&Cs but can't believe that this loophole exists.

Or does it comes down to "subject to seat availability"?
http://www.easyjet.com/en/book/conditions.html#a9

Thanks for any advice!

Your link pretty much answers the question in the first section:

No, it doesn't, that applies to the normal fare (all easyJet tickets are changeable, they do not sell non-changeable tickets).

The flexi fares are changeable *at no fee at all* within the bounds given. (Notably if you miss the flight you lose your ticket).

Obviously it is subject to availability of seats - if it's full you won't get on (they don't do standby as such).

So it sounds to me like your trick might work. Though at your own risk, of course.

Neil

I think section 9.1 is for regular flights and 9.2 for Flexi flights, so it would seem that this would work. It would be nice to have someone who has tried it confirm...

Can't say I've ever used one, as the normal change fee (£35) is not prohibitive, and the Flexi Fares are usually quite high, as well as you being able to "standby" an earlier flight on any fare type.

Don't really see why they bothered, apart from to cream off revenue from people who buy fully flexible tickets by default. Actually, that's probably exactly why they bothered.

Neil

It works! I took a risk and tried it just now. Saved me $70 U.S.! I did exactly as described -- bought a flexi-fare ticket for a Tuesday, then immediately switched to the flight I really wanted on the previous Friday. (Paid $150 for the fare, vs $221 for a standard fare + bag and admin fee.)

How immediately did you change it - literally straight away, or did you wait a short while?

It does seem like there's something of an opportunity here, at least if the circumstances (or should I say the prices) are right. Instinctively it feels a bit risky - but logically I'm not too sure it really is, as one can (or should be able to) tell if there's a seat (or seats) available on a particular flight simply because they should show up as being available for purchase when one does a regular flight search on the easyJet site.

(This isn't a legacy airline, it's an LCC, so there shouldn't be all the Byzantine complications of reserved allocations and seats only available to some and not others and the such like - rather, it should all be pretty straightforward, at least in terms of seat availability. Or am I overlooking something?)

p.s. Good work stageright on taking a punt on it!

I suspect it's the case that this will happen from time to time, but most people wouldn't understand it nor be willing to take the risk, so losses would be minimal.

A bit like ticketing tricks that can be played on the UK railway system to get around things like peak restrictions by "splitting tickets". It does cause losses, but they aren't large enough to be bothered doing anything about it other than trying to ensure as few people as possible know about it.

The first time EZY did flexible tickets they did it at "maximum fare" for the route (usually GBP299 single plus fees for the short-haul ones). But nobody bought them, so they now set it at a "calculated risk" type level, higher than the base fare but lower than GBP299.

Not aware of there being anything other than "seats" on easyJet, all available via all sales channels until they've gone. They don't even overbook in normal circumstances (no need, as all tickets, even flexible ones, lose their validity when the flight they are booked on closes), people only get bumped when there's a broken seat or when there is an aircraft swap from the larger A320 to the smaller A319 in the event of technical problems.

Neil

It definitely works. I have booked return ticket and when payment done I've moved immediately return ticket forward. One could speculate even with first leg flight and move it back. But don't reverse first and second leg at timeline ;) and don't violate [-1, 3] weeks condition which is related to original cheapest date. Flexi is even often cheaper than non-cheap-day normal tickets.

A more recent anecdote confirming this is still true, just did it myself for a flight LGW-VCE - booked a flexi a week further ahead (at half the price), then moved it back to the date I actually wanted. No charges.

For what days was the ticket booked and moved to?
If you booked a Friday for example, could you move the ticket to the previous Friday? (So the same day in the week)

Yes. Booked for a Monday in mid-April, then changed back to the previous Monday.

Fare paid pp was GBP95ish, Flexi fare on the Tuesday I wanted was GBP 180ish, non-flexi fare was GBP125ish (after adding baggage + seats).

Did anyone else try that recently? I didn't try it yet, it could save me $100. Any events that there are no availabilities? (trip is in 3 months...)

There is a new clause:

Always find them very accommodating in changing tickets with sensible fees. I missed a connecting flight a few weeks ago, went to the Easyjet desk and changed my ticket for 24 hrs later all for 45 euro.

I don't think that the desired flight would have a chance of being sold out, they rarely do months in advance. And if you read the terms and conditions ok there should not be a problem!