There are many people who have though that getting last
minute cheap flights was easy but this is not the case.
The airlines will always offer the best deals to
passengers who book early, this is their reward for
making the commitment and this assists the airlines to
sell the rest of the seats at the standard price over
the coming months. Scheduled airlines will gladly fly
with a few empty seats because they have made their
profit on the rest of the passengers.
Offering late flight deals is not something the
airlines would like to do because this would cause
problems with their entire booking operation. It would
not take long for the news to hit the industry that a
certain airlines offers lots of last minute deals. The
results of this would be that nobody would book early
and will gladly wait to book last minute cheap flights.
Can you imagine what this would do to the airlines
booking system, their whole business would be in utter
chaos. The airlines are owned by shareholders and they
want to see a profit at the end of each financial year,
what they do not want is a late fire sale on every
flight schedule. They want early bookings and as much
profit as possible.
Now I have been seeing a trend appear during the last
few months which could probaly be connected to the
current fuel price problems in the airline industry. A
normal flight schedule would be on the market 6-months
before departure. This means that the cheapest flight
tickets on each flight would be snapped up first as soon
as they came onto the market. The flight seats with less
of a discount would be next and so on. I always make
sure I am on the email lists of the major airlines on
the routes I generally fly and I have had quite a few
now offering me discounts on routes that have been on
the market for at least 3-months. These last minute
cheap flight seats are discounted to a level that they
was when the flights were first released.
The reasoning for this is because the airlines have
had poor sales on this schedule and are trying to get
more interest in the flight by offering a small number
of cheaper flight tickets. The whole flight will not be
discounted, just a few seats to drum up trade. Now if
you are in a position to book these flights then you are
going to get some great deals on your airfare. So my tip
is this. If you are planning on flying to a destination
within the next 6-months then ensure you are on the
email list of all the airlines that fly this route from
your local airport. I cannot guarantee you will get last
minute cheap flight offers because this would depend on
the route, but if they do become available then you will
get the email instantly. Be prepared to book instantly
though as they will be sold quickly.
