Last minute trips to Thailand? Forget it!'
Last-minute trips for a bargain price to Thailand, for example, which leave within a few days, hardly exist anymore. Research by the Consumer Association's Travel Guide shows that the term 'last minute' is used inappropriately and inappropriately.
Departure dates are sometimes more than a month after the booking date and the trips offered are often no cheaper than regular offers.
The term 'last minute' yields more than a billion results in a search engine, ranging from departure on the same day to departure in a month and a half. Some offers also turn out to be incorrect: the trip is no longer available or the plane has already left. The researchers even found trips online from the bankrupt Oad.
“Last minute has become a hollow marketing term”
Bart Combée, director of the Consumer Association: “Lastminute has become a hollow marketing term and consumers can no longer see the wood for the trees. Comparing prices remains rewarding, but it is a good idea to also look at other offers, such as early bird discounts. Those offers are often just as attractive, and a lot more flexible in terms of departure dates.”
Good luck makes little sense
Even offline, 'last minute' is no longer what it used to be. Taking a suitcase to the airport at random is of little use. So-called last-minute trips are offered at Schiphol, but the departure is often only a few weeks away and the price hardly differs from online offers.
The term last minute originated when the travel industry was still working with guaranteed seats on charter flights. Travel organization bought a number of seats and took the risk of whether or not seats were sold, then the hoteliers and other accommodation providers were put under pressure and had to dump them and the travel organization lost its business. Nowadays, the number of charter companies has been reduced, now only Corendon and Arke Fly, and more and more flights are based on scheduled flights, whereby the travel organization only buys the flight linked to a so-called ITE basis when there is demand, which significantly reduces its risk. Over the years, consumers have started to link last minute to cheap travel and have retained that experience. Given the demand for travel to Thailand and the link to packages, there is no party that benefits from offering a cheaper trip. A gap in the market………probably but the limited slots (arrival and departure options) at the international airport of bangkok do not allow this. Pattaya airport is used by russian airlines who offer these trips for an apple and an egg and a sip of vodka and see Pattaya flooded with Russians they would rather not have.
And that's how it works Peter. These are fully arranged trips.
Regular airlines never offer last minute tickets. In fact, if you pay attention you will see that when you book early the prices are almost always much lower than, for example, a month before departure.
If you want to leave this month from A'dam to Bangkok and are willing to fly back to Düsseldorf, you can join Ethihad for € 466,=. You may not call that a Last Minute trip, but I think it is a Last Minute price. If you leave from the following month, you already have a ticket for € 419,= incl. taxes.
The only “last minutes” that I can sometimes find, for a scheduled service to Bangkok is Ltur, the offer is very variable, often there is nothing interesting in between, sometimes a nice offer, only for departure dates within 3 months, often from German airport . I booked 1* departing from Frankfurt direct with Thai Airways, was a competitive price then but etihad is cheaper these days (with stopover). Incidentally, I only fly with Emirates in recent years, not for an “offer” but in my opinion, if I include a domestic flight to CNX, great price and perfect times.
Airlines compete fiercely with each other and, to win over the consumer's favour, they occasionally offer flights at rock-bottom prices. service etc remains the same. the question is whether you will be happy leaving from amsterdam and returning to dusseldorf.
It would be more convenient, as fervent Thailand visitors, to enforce rates based on a few fixed departure days from our (STILL DUTCH AIRLINE) klm instead of frequent flyer points and more of that nonsense. If they do not want to talk about that, they will switch en masse to the next airline such as Emirates or Garuda, which will operate five flights a week to Jakarta from this summer. Let garuda use that hub to fly to bangkok with, for example, Air Asia or Thai Airways.
I vote for.
If you doubt whether people will be happy from Amsterdam with a return flight to Düsseldorf, you could also ask yourself whether they will be happy from flying to Jakarta – a lot further than Bangkok – and then flying back to Bangkok for 3.5 hours ………..
@Leo Th. Do not forget to include the travel costs from Düsseldorf to the Netherlands. Very handy.
Hey, I'm not a travel agent. Do I sometimes also have to state the price of a drink at the airport during a stopover? I think everyone can google for themselves. Incidentally, I know that a ticket for an ICE train (intern. train) from Düsseldorf to the Netherlands costs € 19.= when booked in advance and that the travel time to Utrecht is just under 11/2 hours. You can find out for yourself what a train ticket from Schiphol to various destinations costs.
Now that I have read this message, I am curious what options you have if you are suddenly forced to leave as soon as possible, for example in the event of a death.
What is the best way to act then?
After the death of my father-in-law, my wife, of course, wanted to go to Thailand as soon as possible, since he was a Muslim, the funeral had to take place within 24 hours of the death, I called KLM at 11.00:XNUMX am that my wife would be at any cost had to go to Thailand as soon as possible, the KLM lady, very nice and understanding, went to work.
End of the story my wife was on the 3st plane 1 hours later had to transfer 2 times and was just in time with her father, Amsterdam to Koh Lanta in 17 hours, it cost me a lot of money, but it is possible.
KLM only had evening flights that day and they were already full and with China and Eva it didn't work either, so in this case Tribute to the service of KLM, also with the guidance and care of my wife.
So it is possible, but you have to accept (and pay of course) what they have to offer you.
Yours faithfully,
Lex K
Airlines have one or more seats available on almost every flight for deaths and other urgent events.
Since these seats are freed up outside the CRS systems, they can charge any fare knowing that people who are really up are willing to pay any price to travel.
And see the result; lex k is very grateful to KLM and will convey this to anyone who wants to hear it, you cannot offer a better advertising carrier.
A creative travel agent could have rendered him the same service at a presumably lower rate.
if necessary by starting the journey on paper in another country with a transfer to, for example, Amsterdam, then you submit the coupon for the non-flown part of the foreign country via Amsterdam on the same day of the reservation to the airline for a refund, so that the passenger is not treated as a no show is seen on that part of the flight and can check in in amsterdam.
Some airlines, including KLM, have this fake flying reasonably under control and refuse to let passengers depart from Amsterdam if they cannot provide proof of having actually traveled between the departure airport and Amsterdam.
An example of this is the train ticket that you must present with a stamp from the conductor in order to benefit from the often cheaper klm flights departing from Antwerp (airport code ZWE).
And there are countless examples of cheaper departure airports. However, travel agents are afraid of the fine that the airline can impose if they find these types of creative travel solutions.
And Lex K. the most important thing about your story is that the funeral could be attended.
PS I have 30 years of experience in the travel business and am sharing this based on my personal experiences.