to think that Xmas break flight costs are just a rip off and should be price capped?

[Stilllookingfor]

Just trying to book to see the family. Flight to Madrid on the twentysomething of December, come back any time after Xmas. around £300 return from Heathrow for a two hour flight..... and fed up with having to navigate the extras for checked baggage, special seats, right to book ANY seat, being able to sit together, etc etc.. The web aggregators are useless now as the airlines are managing to by pass them by not allowing to show flights with checked baggage.... so a lot of work to see what you are paying for. How can you fly on carry ons when you are flying with children? You get better prices for a flight with checked luggage on one of the legs (either out or return) but no availability to book both. Just a minefield. The examples are endless. AIBU to think it there should be a price cap for Xmas flights??

Price caps aren't how the economy works. It's supply and demand unfortunately, it's always going to be expensive at Christmas. Can you drive or go on a ferry instead?

You ought to see how much flights cost back to my country for Christmas - it’s in the thousands.

£300 return for flights at any time is not bad tbh.

I think we have been so spoiled by the lo-costs that we forget what things were like not that long ago.

It used to cost me a month's wages and 24 hrs with 3 flights to get from Italy to the UK at Christmas. Now it costs me, yes, about £300 and one direct flight.

Market forces unfortunately, people are obviously paying that much.

Agree with you about the time and effort involved in trying to find the best price though.

I suppose you could say they can have a minimum price as well of say £200? Ive just booked a return flight to copenhagen in 2 weekz for less than the 1way taxi fare to the airport.

And pre easy get / ryan air a £300 return to europe was CHEAP!

So yabu.

Great idea. I think presents are expensive and should be price capped too. And turkeys. And Christmas Trees, they're really expensive at Christmas and tinsel and fairy lights . . .

FFS no.

Go another time. No one forces you to travel at xmas.

£300 is a totally normal price to pay for a Barcelona flight anyway, if you want to go for a long weekend (you know, when demand is high on a Thur/Fri and return Sun)

Sorry YABU.

An item sold to the market is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If there are people happy to pay £300 for a flight during the christmas period then that is what will be charged.

Supposing you owned a house in a desirable area. You wouldn't be too happy if someone said "sorry you can't sell if for more than X because some people don't' want to pay that much"

Its the same thing with flights in summer and christmas holidays

Totally unreasonable.

Surprise, surprise, Christmas is a peak time for travel! Airlines can't magic up extra planes, extra pilots, extra landing slots. So demand is high, price goes up.

Pay it, or don't fly. But don't start whingeing about price caps. People who know that Christmas is an expensive time to fly will have had their flights booked for months.

Of course there shouldn't.

If the value of flights at christmas was the same as at other times, then the price would be the same. But going over Christmas is vastly more valuable to people (as evidenced by the vastly higher demand) and so the cost is higher. Go another time if you want cheaper flights.

If you want a straightforward booking experience without having to pay extra to book seats, check bags etc, stop looking at budget airlines and book through a 'decent' airline. The budget options don't usually work out cheaper if you aren't looking for a no-frills options.

£300 for a return FLIGHT.

It takes you up in the air, covers all charges, lands and gets you into another country for £150 each way. I can't even get from Birmingham to London that cheaply on a weekday morning and in not much less time.

BookMe has it spot on - that price can hardly be called obscene for the service provided.

Oh and YABU anyway for thinking your desire for a break with your family has anything to do with market prices.

Having grown up in a holiday-dependent area, people have no bloody clue how peak times provide the necessary boost to the economy to cover the troughs in demand. Those cheap flights in other times of the year are subsidised by the expensive ones at other times. It's either pay more at peak times, or don't have the cheap options available ever.

Yabu. It's a popular time to travel. Therefore prices are higher.

Like the property market. An identical house can be different prices, in different areas, depending on how much people want to live in that area.

Christmas is about the most popular time in the year to fly because there are a lot of bank holidays close together and people living away from family want to see them.

If you want cheap flights at Christmas, you need to book by March.

YABU. As others have said, supply and demand. If this were to happen (though thankfully it would never) you'd find the prices of all flights would increase to cover the overall loss of income from the cap, and you'd also find yourself having to pay more for "extras".

Yeah, it's annoying. Christmas is the only time DH and I get off work (we're not allowed to take time off in the summer) and we just can't afford to fly at that time of year so are stuck going to bloody Wales in the cold and dark yet again.

YABU. Flights are always more expensive from Heathrow - around 20% more than say Gatwick. And flights used to cost a lot more. The budget airlines operate at a loss for many flights so use these periods to make enough to keep afloat.

Book early.

I booked flights for 31st December to Rome from Gatwick costing £44 all in for 2 of us to be there over new year. Booked them back in March / May when they were released.

Yes it is shit but thats how it is.
Try and book flights as soon as they are released.
Indirect flights are sometimes MUCH cheaper,yes they are an inconvenience but it may be worth it if it means you can spend Christmas with your family.
Why can't children travel with hand luggage only? I could pack a weeks worth of stuff in a small case for my toddler,assuming the childreb arw all over 2 then they should have the normal hand luggage allowance.

I haven't been "home" for Christmas since 2013 but am going this year (trans atlantic) the indirect flights we booked were £1200 cheaper for the whole family than direct.

Breaking - flights are more expensive during peak travel periods when more people want to travel.
And in other news...

We're going to the south of france at the end of June next year. It's peak time as the schools here will have already broken up. I have the date that easyjet release the flights marked on the calendar so I can log on that day and book them. I am not going to fanny around until April, find the price has gone up and then start a whining thread about price caps.

YABU

Flights are a luxury. Flights at Christmas even more so.

I could understand an argument that essentials like water, electricity, sanitary protection etc be price capped. But not luxuries like plane tickets over Christmas!

Just because you want something does not mean that you have an automatic right to it at the price you want

Same here, @puzzledlady although we did book this month, which is quite late. We have to travel a day earlier so I feel we get an extra day which makes it more vfm 🤔😄

@Airyfairy1 - to make it worse, we played around with the timings for about an hour, only to go back to the initial time we wanted and ended up paying about £800 MORE! All in the space of an hour. We booked this month too. More fool us. We have had to travel 3 days earlier but flights on the the day i was is about 1.5 k more.

Where are you looking for flights?? I've found a return, 21-28 December, including 1x23kg hold luggage for £160...