djohannw

OK, slowly I get worried.

I am booked on an award out of AMS to BOS on March 17th (a sunday), which I considered dead off-season. I need to arrive in BOS that day because I have an early morning departure on UA out of BOS the next day, so no chance to get there one day later without setting off a major rebooking-nightmare.

Well, in the recent days I was nicely amused to see the availability of my flight shrinking (hey, looked like a good bumping-oportunity with reaccomodation later the same day), but in the recent days every single flight out of AMS to the USA on NW/KL that day seems sold over the top.

KL/NW's DTW flights are all sold even in C, the JFK and SEA flights that day are full in Y, few open seats in C, EWR looks a little more promising, and MIA looks best of the bunch (but no connection to BOS possible).

Also every other flight that day to the US (be it DL, UA, CO or SQ) seem to be packed as well, some even sold out completely. Also anything connecting through LHR (BA, UA, AA) shows no (UA, BA) or only very limited availability (AA). Same with FRA on LH, only availble seats are in F.

So what the heck is going on that day? I also did compare that to next sunday, and that day looks much more open than March 10th, but still fuller than I honestly expected...

Greetings - Dirk

parallelrechner

Hi,
March 16-24 corresponds to the time frame, where most US universities are off for Spring Break. Many students are heading for Cancun, Hawaii, Florida, etc etc etc, and this might have a large impact on flight availability, probably.

I believe that this is one of the reasons why UA, for instance, block those dates for award flights.

Regards
Chris

noah

I don't think it's just US Spring Break. I tried to find seats for a friend on flights from US to Europe for next weekend with a return on March 17 and many flights are showing extremely low availability at least as far as discount seats go. If flying the following weekend, fares can be up to $1500 different and it's not just advance purchase restrictions.

Strange. Perhaps it's just that we're coming to the end of the must travel by March 31 cheap fares and people purchased all the seats.

rcs85551

It's St. Patrick's day weekend - Sunday 03/17 is a holiday in the U.S.

djohannw

Thanks for all the info...but nothing's really convincing to me, to be honest.

If it was related to spring break that started a day earlier, only the mileage-runners among the students would be returning that sunday, and the "travel completed by March 31st" rule would not seem to have such an impact two weeks prior the dealine to me.

St. Patrick's day may be an alternative, but that should affect flights to and from Ireland more than the rest of Europe.

So anyone has more ideas...;-)?

Greetings - Dirk

LH738

I'd suppose a bigger fair!?

noah

I think I know what it is. CeBIT -- the world's largest tech show -- is in Hannover this week and thus many of these people will be flying back to North America on Sunday. While I don't think this accounts for all the seats, I think the massive size of the show alone demands significant attention from the airlines. It would also make sense that these reservations were primarily booked in the past 2+ weeks -- once companies knew they were going to the show for sure, tickets were purchased to take advantage of advance purchase requirements without having to fork over $2500 at the last minute.

Anyone have a better idea?

djohannw

Good suggestion, noah. I never thought of this, but it relly makes sense to me.

btw: Spoke to a NW agent this sunday about my flight for next sunday, and he told me that they have sold 309 tickets on that DC-10 seating 273 people. With anticipated similar (over-)load for all other flights that day I think this will be a major nightmare for AMS-departures that day...so anyone else traveling that day: Be there EARLY!

Greetings - Dirk