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What's with the new EasyJet summer prices.

What's with the new EasyJet summer prices.

Old Dec 19th, 2003, 10:47 AM
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What's with the new EasyJet summer prices.

I've been waiting patiently for EasyJet to extend their sales beyond the end of March. Normally they start their fares very low -- often 11.99 pounds for many destinations until X number of seats are sold, then start increasing them. But if you buy them when they first go on sale, they are dirt cheap.

Well, today they started adding those summer schedules. But the prices are way higher. For example, while in March you can still get London Luton to Madrid or Athens for something like 11.99 or 17.99 pounds, for the summer months they seem to be starting at 60 some pounds. What a lot of difference! They didn't do this last year. Are they going out of the "cheapie" airfare business? I'm still waiting for my Stansted to Naples route to be released for May. I was hoping it would be around 12 pounds. Now I'm not so sure.
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Old Dec 19th, 2003, 01:42 PM
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Hi Patrick. I have used them too and usually new routes start out very low.
I don't think I have ever run into them getting less expensive as it gets closer.
I was curious when I received my email from them, also.
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Old Dec 19th, 2003, 01:57 PM
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Patrick, Maybe due to the Olympics?
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Old Dec 19th, 2003, 02:03 PM
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Actually, Grasshopper that reference to Athens was only a random one of many destinations, so I don't think it has anything to do with the Olympics. I did go back and look at a lot more offerings and here and there found some great ones like Bristol to Prague for 11.49 pounds and Newcastle to Barcelona for 16.49 pounds. These are rates for summer by the way. But overall, the introductory prices sure don't seem like usual. On some flights, the lowest introductory price for summer is 80 pounds plus, while they still have tickets at 12 pounds for March for the same route.

And yes, Easy Jet clearly states that their rates start at their lowest rate and as sales happen they only go up, never down. It's part of their guarantee that you couldn't get a cheaper price if you wait. That's a good thing in my opinion -- takes away that gambling.
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Old Dec 19th, 2003, 04:42 PM
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If that's how EasyJet does it, that's quite different from Ryanair, which has fares which bounce around all over the place. With Ryanair, there is the likelihood that fares will be very expensive if you try to book them for the same day or the next day, but anything much beyond that is a calculated gamble (and one I lost earlier this year by booking far in advance).
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Old Dec 20th, 2003, 01:47 AM
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Patrick,

Check out this link:
http://www.easyjet.com/EN/about/aboutourfares.html

There's no guarantee that the fares won't go down in the future...

Hope this helps,
Andre
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Old Dec 20th, 2003, 02:15 AM
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I was patiently waiting for these schedules to be released too only to find all the fares I have looked at to be ridiculously high.

I even did the same searches putting in October travel dates avoiding the peak travel times of July and August and the fares hardly came down then either.

This far out I would be surprised if BA weren't less expensive on some of these routes.
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Old Dec 20th, 2003, 04:10 AM
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I have a question about easy jet. Do they only fly from the UK to various European cities? Can't you fly BETWEEN European cities. I'm looking from ways to get from some northern Italy city (Florence, Venice, Bologna, etc) to Prague but I'm having trouble finding any airline that does that. On the easyjet site listed above they say they fly to those cities but it seems only from the UK. Am I doing something wrong or is that really the case?
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Old Dec 20th, 2003, 05:14 AM
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Andre, yes, I noticed when looking last night that EasyJet has changed their information on their website. They do now say that "normally" fares will increase as sales happen, but that it is possible they could be further reduced. That is different from what they used to say, when they insisted their fares would only increase, never decrease.

And isabel, you are right they don't fly between the cities you mention. You can click onto the heading of their website on "where we fly" and get a map. Then as you pass your mouse over any city, it gives lines showing what cities they fly to from there. Recently they've started adding a few routes between other European cities, particularly a number of flights from Berlin to other places, but not very many that don't originate in the UK.

I might also mention that maybe my original comment about how high the fares are compared to the old ones may be a little premature. I was checking random destinations for May 28 a Friday (when I actually want to fly from Stansted to Naples, still not posted), and it seems the fares toward the weekend are considerably higher. But on more and more routes when I checked other days, there really are quite a few of those 11.99 fares available.
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Old Dec 20th, 2003, 08:37 AM
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Been waiting for the summer fares to be released also. I booked Newcastle to Barcelona for the F1 Grand Prix weekend, thought the fares might be higher because of this, got £51 rtn which is great compared to BA from Newcastle. Checked today out of curiosity and it would be £10 dearer but Friday (which we are not travelling) had come down by £10, so you just can't tell
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Old Dec 20th, 2003, 09:24 AM
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Isabel,

Not to worry, you can get to Prague quite inexpensively from northern Italy: Volareweb, an italian low-fare airline, flies to Prague from Venice (3x per week) and Milan Malpensa (daily).

http://buy.volareweb.com/jsp/web/index.jsp?lang=en

Hope this helps,
Andre
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Old Dec 21st, 2003, 04:05 AM
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Thanks Andre. I checked with Volare and it looks like that might work for me. Have you ever flown with them? I'd never heard of them, but of course that doesn't mean anything. Assuming they are a reliable, safe airline they do go where I want for a decent price. Thanks.
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Old Dec 21st, 2003, 06:22 AM
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You're welcome, Isabel!

I flew with them in 2001 from Zurich to Venice and back, when they were a full-service carrier just called Volare. Since then, they rebranded themselves as a low-fare no-frills carrier. No complaints at the time - nice new planes (A320 IIRC) and uneventful flights. I would definitely fly them again if the price were right.

Hope this helps,
Andre
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Old Dec 23rd, 2003, 05:58 AM
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BMI have announced a new route from London Heathrow to Napoli starting at the end of march with fares as low as £22 each way(plus taxes).Their website is WWW.flybmi.com .It saves you money on the train ride to London Stansted.

Buon Natale & Felice l'Ano Nuovo
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Old Dec 23rd, 2003, 07:06 AM
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Wow, you got me all excited, walkamalfi, but when I checked for May 28, I found the two tickets on BMI would be nearly $300 US (total of 158 pounds). In addition that flight only goes in the morning. We're driving from Cardiff, so we'd actually have to arrive the night before to take the morning plane. That's another reason the afternoon EasyJet from Stansted seems so good. I think it will be even easier to drive right to Stansted and turn in the car instead of Heathrow (wow was that an ordeal last time -- turning a car in at Heathrow). I'm still patiently waiting to see when EasyJet adds that Naples flight and how much it will be.

Incidentally I did find one way tickets on British Airways -- they only do one way in Club Class for something like 1200 pounds each. Their round trip is around 1000 pounds in coach -- a cost of about $3500 US to get to Naples from London in COACH!!
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Old Dec 23rd, 2003, 08:44 AM
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The British package holiday operator Thomson has just launched a new budget airline flying form Coventry in the English Midlands to a variety of European destinations (including Venice). You can find their website now at www.thomsonfly.com, but I don't think the flights actually start until the end of March 2004.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2003, 01:38 PM
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Hmmm. Now that is interesting news, JJBhoy. Coventry is a good hour closer to Cardiff than Stansted, and I just found a 22 pound flight to Naples on May 28 with Thompson. Only problem is, it departs at 7 something in the morning, so again I'd have to drive to Coventry the night before. Any motels near the Coventry airport? Hopefully I can turn my rental car in there.

I think I'll still wait to see what Easy Jet offers, but this is sure a good alternative.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2003, 08:58 PM
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Easyjet will give a credit for a future flight if the price of your flight does go down (besides special sales). See the details here: http://www.easyjet.com/EN/book/regul...l#pricepromise

I was able to get a 30gbp credit last year after Easyjet reduced one of my fares.
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Old Dec 24th, 2003, 04:36 AM
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Hello, all! I'm feeling pretty good about my purchase yesterday - 10 Easyjet tickets from Paris to Nice and return for 632.80 euros for June 5 - June 12. That comes to about $80 per person. When I checked back a couple of hours later those flights had gone up to about $92 pp. But I'm even more happy about getting 2 standard size cars (Peugeot 406 or similar) through an Easyjet/Europcar deal for $322 each for a week. That beats Autoeurope by about $150. Still have to get one more smaller car. But if my math is correct, we should come in well under the $200 pp I had budgeted for those two items.

Merry Christmas and Happy Travels to all!
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Old Dec 24th, 2003, 04:52 AM
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Just checked again and those flights are back down, actually a couple of euro less than I paid! Who knows???
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