The highs and lows of booking flights

I have spent the last few weeks glued to the Easyjet app, waiting patiently for their next batch of flights to be released. Upon returning from Majorca back in April, I was looking at flights for April 2016. I was in shock that the flights were only £300 for all of us to fly with Monarch. The only sticking point was, we would fly back on the day the kids returned back to school. After umming and ahhing I went back on to view the flights and nearly fainted when the price was over £900. I could have cried sat at the laptop that day. You see that’s my downfall. I see something that’s really good value, and by the time I have ‘faffed’ around the good deal has gone.

plane

Fast forward a few months and a stunning new hotel kept appearing on my social media. A group of bloggers had been very lucky to go on a press trip, to visit the Ikos Olivia hotel in Greece before it opened. I am a sucker for luxury hotels, and this stunning new place looked out of this world. It went to the top of my holiday wish list, and I started my research into flights. The nearest airport is Thessaloniki, which unfortunately Monarch do not fly too. But Easyjet did, and their website told me that April flights would be out early September.

So after being glued to the app since the end of August, and by glued I mean checking about a billion times a day, the flights were out. This was on Thursday, which was the 10th September. Is that really classed as early September ? Anyway, the laptop was flung open, dates were input and the flights were booked. There was NO faffing around by me. I knew there would be no time to call the husband and discuss prices, so we had set a budget a few weeks before (£600 for us all if you are interested).

I know that airlines have batches of seats of varying prices, and my friend had told me you had to snap the Easyjet flights up as soon as they are released. So what did we pay ?

£325 for the 4 of us return for next April, which is during the Easter holidays.

That evening the flights were already at £400. I have looked this afternoon, and they have gone up again to £466. A huge jump of £141. So my ‘no faffing’ approach worked. I was certainly not going to make the same mistake as I did with the Monarch flights. All I need to do now is stop faffing around, and decide which accommodation we are going to stay in at the Ikos Olivia.

 

14 thoughts on “The highs and lows of booking flights”

  1. Interesting to read your experience. I read about booking Easyjet tickets on specific dates last week on the Money Saving Expert website. They also mentioned that you can book tickets just outside of school holidays and then change the booking by a day or two so that you do fly in the holidays – evidently a great way to save money.

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  2. Well done!! It does pay to be swift and decisive and not faff! We are usually pretty good and have got some excellent deals in the past. We just missed out on a good batch of tickets to America in April though but will keep checking back!! #mondayescapes

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    • Boo on missing out on the tickets to America. Thought I sometimes think that happened for a reason and something better (and cheaper) will come along. Keeping my fingers crossed for you x

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  3. I utterly admire your determination sitting online to get the best prices – I’ve been the victim of faff sooo many times!!! it sounds like you’ve grabbed yourselves a real bargain there, well done on your perseverance hope you have a fab trip in April #MondayEscapes

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  4. I’ve had similar experiences when we’ve been looking at flights. It’s the cookies on your website that remember which flights you are looking at. The best thing I’ve found is to leave it a month or so and the price often reverts back to the cheaper original price. Well it has for me! Well done though on your tickets! It pays to keep trying! Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes

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    • Yes I have cleared the cookies in the past when we have been searching for USA flights. Thankfully it all came right in the end and we are looking forward to visiting mainland Greece x

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    • I was gutted when I missed out on the Majorca flights but to be honest it was fate in the end. Ending up with great flights to Greece and heading to a hotel that only opened this May. So excited x

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