hi, we have been visiting goa for 10 years we have allways got a better deal booking early rather than hanging on for a late bargain.

For flight only try http://www.charterflight.co.uk they have flights in November for less than £350. You should have no problem getting a room in November for less than 1000 rupees a night in Candolim. Failing that wait till the very last minute, something usually turns up. It does seem that the days of really cheap deals have gone forever though.

Thanks all,

I suppose we've come this far, so may as well wait a little longer. Visas are sorted (well in the post!!) so a couple of weeks more won't hurt. We're off to Goa for a month n January and I've already started eyeing up flights

Hi lovemypiglet,

Have you tried doing ba.com to Mumbai then spicejet to goa it works out alot cheaper

Arl

Thanks for the tip Arl,

I'm looking at that for our month in January - thogh I'm a little nervous of Mumbai airport!! I'm hanging out for something a little cheaper than the £450-£500 (hopefully!!) prices showing at the moment.

Piglet

£450-£500? got ours for £320 each leaving xmas day returning 14th Jan

hhhhhhmmmmm, maybe I'm looking in the wrong place!! We need 28 nights departing mid Jan. I'll have another browse

Has anyone seen any flights for under 400pds flying from birmingham end of feb 1st week in march 2007.
Thanks sleep.

Cheapest I can see is £399 but add on your security and fuel supplements and it is way over. Will cheap flights ever come back? Only if they get rid of the navy from Dabolim I think.

girlfriend and i have got return flights to mumbai for £309, leaving end of november, returning end of april, which we are delighted with
we all like to feel we're getting a bargain, trying to save £50 here or there. i'd say just book it, who cares if you can save £50 if you hold on a bit longer, you'll have peace of mind you're going! if you do pay a bit more for a flight, you're still not going to find too many places in the world where you can live so comfortably for so little
misterc.

ba.com had a sale on till 26th november aberdeen/heathrow/mumbai for £390 still had to get to goa from mumbai but that wouldnt cost much

We paid 222pounds each for our flights to Mumbai, then with Spice jet to Goa, for 45 pounds each, we land in Mumbai at 02.00 and fly out to Goa at 06.30, so there is not to much hanging around.

Got mine for £146 return , Manchester, Heathrow, Mumbai, British Airways, this was the cost for taxes, fuel surcharge, security, the flight was with airmiles, probably cost me £million in Shell petrol and Tesco shopping but who gives a **** Ha! Plus free accommodation when I get there!

On the subject of package holidays, I have been hanging around lookinf for something cheap, one travel agent told me that there have been a lot less holidays bought by the companies this year due to getting their fingers burned last year - selling holidays at a loss - also apparently there are a few more fuel charges and taxes etc - to the sum of £89 each i'm told. I don't know if this was their sales pitch or not but I have booked up for 2 weeks on the 9th Nov staying 2* Calangute for £410 each all in, plus £189 each for flight upgrade on mytravel - i'm happy with that and can't wait. Ps i've booked with Direct Travel

Travel agent is talking rubbish, late deals are often sold at a loss, any money is better than none after all.

Hold off til the last minute!!

The travel companies use pricing software based on algorimic supply and demand so the best deals come when the software identifies an excess supply based on time decay ( ie how long is left to departure date).

The greater the time decay ie the further away from departure the higher the price generaly is due to a low risk curve based on supply sold verses time decay.

However as time decays... the greater the risk curve becomes and the algorimic models will reduce prices in line with the risk curve by a set percentage dependent on the excess supply .

The key is to identify when there is excess supply ie aviablity relative to time decay to get the best deals.Most people will think thats as late as possable to departure. Its often not the case !

The most noticable time frame for large reductions is in the sub 28 day till departure time decay period verses excess supply. However as the supply reduces ( less avaiablity ) the computer price models will re-adjust the risk profie and often the price will start to increase realtive to risk.

Some travel firms it seems have better price models than others, Tui and First Choice come to mind. Mytravel seem to have a less sophisticated price model that does keep reducing based on time decay risk rather than factor supply.

If you get the basic idea of the this long winded post, on how the firms uses computers to set their prices, you can get a very good idea on when the prices will start to come down and conversly go back up. )

work in IT by any chance caz? Thanks it's nice to know how it works.

Thanks arltogoa glad you found it useful

There's also a good discussion here on factoring discounts.

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=83768

Thanks very much Zozie and Caz - we're now holding off to see what deal we can get. I check online everyday and at the moment, they all seem stable. If I understand Caz xcorrectly the next couple of weeks should see a change................

Piglet