andymcdonnell

Given the drop off in demand to the Far East from both Europe & USA, airlines on both sides of the pond have increased capacity on transatlantic routes, but there has been no marked reduction in prices. Indeed, business class prices ex Europe (from most of the big hubs LON, PAR, FRA, AMS, MAD, DUB) are currently higher than last year for early Summer. Is this due to heavier bookings from people trying to avoid Asia or are airlines still hedging their bets with a “wait & see” approach?

dibbs98

I also have some bookings planned (albeit to africa, not US) and am waiting to see if we get another ‘sale’ to try and stimulate demand

corporate-wage-slave

There is a UK sale on at the moment (27 February to 17 March). Headliners include BOS and NYC at £1172 in CW, JNB at £2583 CW, return fares. In CE HEL is £202 for those all important 160 Tier Points...

dcmike

While I have seen hotel prices drop for several bookings I was looking at in the spring, the air prices seem just as high (or, as noted above, higher for TATL business).

LCY8737

I received sales emails from BA, LH, LX, AF & TP yesterday, although some of them from strange starting points (e.g. a LX First partner special starting in ZRH, which struck me as a bit odd).

I guess we're still pre-peak panic, so we're also still pre-bottom prices. If you take stock markets as an indicator of how things are likely going to turn out, then I guess this week's market movements indicate a lot of headache (and low air fares) for the coming months.

Krisz

I don’t think we can expect prices goes down just because less people travel over this virus issue. Airlines would only drop prices if they know that lowering the price will attract significant more people to choose them. At the moment the demand is weakened but not because people has less money but because of fear. So it doesn’t matter if the price is low or high if people fear of going abroad they won’t. So keeping or increasing the prices makes more sense as those who will or who need to travel they will pay that price.
The other important factor is no one really knows which is the next country. After China who though in end of Jan the Italy will be the next major target? So there are lots of unknown factors which airlines has no idea how to deal with it at the moment.
If this virus thing goes away let say around March or April then probably we are going to see some great deals. However if this become a much wider and longer issue then no one really knows what is going to happen. Also the virus doesn’t really hit North America at the moment (hopefully won’t) and that is a big factor. If it become a big issue in the US then it will be a global recession so that will have huge effect on airlines too. I think it’s too early to understand the full picture. We just know it’s a not to nice picture at the moment.

mmxbreaks

I also noticed a big opening of Avios availability on the day I'm flying LHR-JFK, as one example, when previously there was little/none, there are now several flights with WTP and CW wide open.

Steve_ZA

I have two trips to the west coast coming up during March and April, although the client is currently wavering so I'm holding off. The prices have been steadily rising in all cabins and just today the E class availability went to zero on one of them.

USA_flyer

The airlines will wait to see how things develop before adjusting their fares. If governments ban big gatherings, then business travel to conferences or trade shows or sports events demand will fall off a cliff. If tourist destinations become virus hot spots the same thing will happen. If governments get this under control quickly then I doubt we will see any change in airline business activity outside of the far east.

It's too early to tell. But the signs do not look good.

LCY8737

The wait is over.... HfP this morning included a number of sales fares for BA. A lot of US destinations for £1172 in CW.

DYKWIA

Maybe because of the 100,000 extra award seats that were recently made available?

https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/0...eats-released/

corporate-wage-slave

And mentioned in this forum the previous day, see post 3 above and here.

When is the next BA sale?

Confus

There’s a lot of ‘ifs’!
If business travel continues to fall across the world, and flights still run, there will be offers to stimulate leisure demand, plus some higher fares retained for those who ‘have’ to travel at short notice.
However, major airlines are lobbying IATA to allow slot credits for flights cancelled because of the ‘crisis’ (which includes reduced commercial demand even in regions with no restrictions on travel) - if this is granted, fares will hold because flights no longer have to run to keep slots open, and capacity will effectively tumble.

World Traveller Fuss

I suspect some combination sales offers, Avios availability & lower fares may come in to stimulate bookings — even with recovering demand later, there’s still the cash flow issue now. This might hit other airlines to varying degrees, but if one carrier dumps fares in some markets then maybe BA/Oneworld carriers wind up following suit.

USA_flyer

Did this happen during the 2008 credit crunch crisis? I can't remember.

If it didnt happen then, it probably won't happen now.