Am I stupid? (prices, availability)

[Oellph]

I'm looking to take our family and my mum on holiday end of May half term and I think I am very out of touch with prices and demand. Flights seem to be around £350 pp, so we're looking at around £1800 before we factor in luggage, car parking and potential car hire on the other side. Villas aren't too bad. I can find one for a week for around £680, which seems to be a bargain for sleeping 6 people. I looked back over my old receipts and we paid £850 for return flights for 5 of us in October 2015.

Generally a week's package holiday seems to average between £2800 to £3500.

To secure better pricing did I need to book far earlier? Are there some tricks that I'm missing? I'm sad that our options are limited.

It does seem a bit pricey for the flights but there are a few factors which will be pushing the price up. Yes you've left it late. We flew Easyjet to teh south of France last summer, I booked the flights on the day they were released the previous September and they were around £100 return per person. Also the collapse of thomas cook has reduced the number of flights/holidays so there is more demand for what is available. It's going to take a while for the other companies to get more planes, contract more hotels and increase capacity again. And finally, you're looking at peak holiday time.

That it is the half term will be having a big effect on the price.

Where are you looking at?

If you're looking to go during half term, the prices will be higher than during term time.

If you've been pricing up flights on the likes of Easyjet, you have to get those as soon as they become available as the price increases the closer to departure you get.

If you let the MN hive know where you want to go it might be able to help.

Aware that it's half term. Not keen on taking kids out of school. Crazy that the prices almost treble :( I hadn't thought about the collapse of Thomas Cook hitting availability. It seemed strange that so many flights were not direct or had bad arrive/depart times. Maybe that's why.

We're open to going anywhere as long as we can get some warmth and sun (not looking for it to be really hot). I had looked at Costa Brava. We've been there many times before, rented a villa.

Try putting your dates in skyscanner and tick 'I'll go anywhere' and see if there are any bargain flights that you've missed. Be aware that it sometimes misses out Ryanair, which is usually the cheapest provider, so if there's no Ryanair flights showing, have a look at their price finder on the website - I think they have a search function where you can find cheap flights without specifying a destination. Also look at onthebeach - they have a good search function that can sniff out good deals. You can save a few quid by being careful about the luggage you book. Five of you should be fine with the hand luggage allowance and two hold cases between all of you for example.

But yes, it's supply and demand unfortunately - they could fill the planes several times over during that week, so can charge pretty much what they like. Whereas flights aren't even full during quieter weeks - we went to Lanzarote in December and the plane was about half full each way and they were selling tickets for about £80 return right up to the day of departure.

Also the airlines track your flight options and increase the flights. You need to clear the cookies in your device. Or use another one.

May half term is very pricey. Have you looked at Sunday flights instead of Saturday? Another option is Fri to Fri or Mon to Mon and missing one school day.

You don't mention exactly where you're looking, are you set on a particular location?

We booked somewhere last minute last year and the difference in flights between flying into different airports was huge even when the final destinations weren't hugely different, e.g. we were looking at going to the Pyrenees and flying to Barcelona would have been £250 pp, flying into Perpignan was £50 pp (we stayed somewhere about halfway between the two)

Very easy going on destination, flights or ferry (we're in Plymouth the latter can be easy, but then you're chancing good weather unless you drive longer on the other side).

Good advice re. browser cache and trying search for any destination. I'll give that a go. Thank you.

If you've been pricing up flights on the likes of Easyjet, you have to get those as soon as they become available as the price increases the closer to departure you get.

Not necessarily - flight pricing is done on algorithms. I’ve priced flights 5 weeks before date of travel and then 2 weeks before and found prices have halved. It’s a bit of a lottery though, especially taking into account school holidays periods that should be popular.

If you’re not set on a particular location then I’d try all kinds of departure and arrival options to find something in budget. Sky scanner is good for throwing up ideas.

Will always be a massive difference between May half term holiday prices and October ones though. People are less inclined to go away ( in what is classed as) out of season.

Definitely check prices in different devices. My DH were looking at the same Easyjet flights on the same sofa, him on his phone, mine on the iPad....£5 difference. £20 for two return flights!

Also do the opposite to everyone else. Short city breaks in the long holidays, beach holidays not in July or August ( autumn is good as the med is slow to cool down).May is a good time to do Eastern Europe as neither the Christmas market crowd or summer visitors are there.

And lots of stuff is “on “ in May football finals, bank holiday stuff, May Day, festivals etc etc. It’s not a cheap half term to do anything.