Cheap late package deals - are the flight time ALWAYS ridiculous?

[MackerelOfFact]

I'm trying to book something for the end of August, a week in the sun somewhere not unbearably awful, beach, swimming pool, preferably self-catering but not that fussy. Not bothered about country, star rating, etc.

Despite this, seemingly every decent-looking late deal has awful flight times - arriving at the destination at midnight and flying home at 6am on the final day, so losing 2 days of holiday, not to mention the difficulty getting transfers or actually checking in etc.

I am looking for the cheapest of the cheap, less than £350pp including flights, so I might have unrealistic expectation, but I spent most of yesterday looking and shortlisted 3 or 4, all of which transpired to have crap flights.

Is this just par for the course with these types of deals, and the very reason they are cheap, or is it worth me pursuing them further?

I think the flight times are pretty much standard for these deals.

However I will be watching this with interest as I am trying to get something for the last week in Auguest at next to nothing also!

Call the operator and ask. Either that or book the flights and hotel directly - it sometimes works out cheaper.
We recently went in holiday and got much better flight times than the ones advertised but it cost a bit extra

It usually is the crap flights that are the ones left, for that exact same reason.

Dh is a tightwad careful with money and, up till this year has always booked the crappiest flight times. Last year, we even travelled MILES to another airport because the flights were cheaper from there. Great idea money wise, but honestly, the ins and outs of getting a three year old ready at 10pm then driving over 3 hours to an airport parking place the furthest away from the sodding airport (saved us about £3.50 that one), waiting for the bus, spending 2 hours at airport with a hysterical toddler, boarding a plane where people were trying to sleep as DS was so overtired he was screaming the place down, waiting for baggage t'other end at 7am, then taxi to hotel was NOT my idea of a holiday

This year, I catagorically said I was NOT having ridiculous o'clock flight times, and we fly at 10.30am

It IS worth perservering, you may strike it lucky. Especially as less people are going abroad. Just be prepared that a crap time may be all you'll get though. Good Luck

Hmm, I have tried looking at flights and accommodation separately but the flights alone seem to be working out at little less than the entire packages. Can you negotiate a bargain if you call them or can they just offer what's online? (Depends on the tour operator obviously).

Have you tried looking at Ryan air? Then have a look at the hotel you want online as a direct booking?

Where would you look for a cheap deal online?

Travel republic, expedia, icelolly, onthebeach, teletext

I found a great deal using Trivago this year. Half the price offered via Thomson.

Oh and I booked flights direct with airline - which in this case was Thomson - and got reasonable-ish departure times (7am) and great return time (330pm).

Meant to add that we are going in August and only booked last week so it is possible to find a decent deal with reasonable flights.

I am also looking at last min holiday deals - I've noticed that on the Easyjet website they have a 'late deals' section where you can look for hotels and flights combined. In the search results you can change the flight times (which changes the price of the holiday slightly) and where I want to fly from there are showing a good range of times choose from.

holidays.easyjet.com/late-deals.htm?ph=1&REFID=easyjet&$ja=tsid:28584&utm_source=ej_cms&utm_medium=en_homepage&utm_term=EN_hols&utm_content=Right&utm_campaign=StaticBanner

That's why they are cheaper.
I refuse to fly at ridiculous hours which make you miss half the holiday. If you arrive late at night that's your first day gone. Fly during the night (even cheaper ) and you are wrecked for a couple of days and small children will be tired. At the end of the holiday if you have an early flight then your last night has to be an early one. Fly at night and you are hanging around all day waiting to go home.
If you only go for a week this makes it worse.

That's just me though. I know many people who don't even look at the flight times when booking a holiday.

However good flight times from local airports really bump up the cost of holiday. I always try to price up separately but I've only once found it cheaper than a package, and not by much.

Try travel republic and onthebeach.

OK, so I've finally booked something! I found Icelolly to be the best for cheap deals in the end, with Corfu coming up significantly cheaper than anywhere else for that week, so we're going there in August. :) Their site doesn't give much away about the destination or flights though, so some Googling is required.

And yes, we have stupid flight times.