Coach prices during rail strikes

[WelshBluebird]

Just wondering, I can't be the only person who has noticed that National Express's and Megabus's attempt at profiteering during these strikes?
I understand they both use demand based pricing, so I fully expect fares to be higher than normal when people can't travel by train, but it feels way OTT to me.
As an example, Bournemouth to London is £33 per person next Monday, but has most journeys under £10 (and as low as £5) for the Monday following.

Both companies seem to be putting up the prices so much that I wonder if this is actually have the reverse effect than what they want? No firm data on that of course, but I was travelling during the early October strikes from London to Bristol and due to the M4 being awful there were quite a lot of delays, so to clear people out of Victoria station NatEx put two or three coach loads of people on one coach - but surely them being able to do that must mean they hadn't actually sold that many tickets for each coach (which kind of defeats the idea they are selling tickets at a higher price due to demand).

 

[Titfield]

Demand based pricing (as practiced by low cost airlines at least) has at least three elements: (1) proximity to date of departure (2) number of seats sold (3) past performance.

The Revenue Manager usually sets up a number of what are called pricing curves which the system follows automatically.

It is an automated process when set up without intervention unless someone in the Revenue Management Department decides to intervene.

Next Monday could be £33 because (a) it is less than a week prior to departure (b) and / or x number of seats have been sold already (c) The first Monday in November is a good load day so they start the fares off at £10 whereas on other days they may start at £5.

The following Monday could be £10 because (a) it is more than a week prior to departure (b) and / or only z number of seats have been sold already (c) the second Monday in November is not a good load day.

Nexp and all other users of the system now collect big data so they know the booking pattern.

Coincidentally I have been looking at fares ex Bournemouth and i have noticed that at less than a week to go the prices are much higher than further out which suggests to me the curves kick in sharply at a week prior to departure.

The booking data for London Bournemouth may be somewhat different to London Bristol.

One other tip do not do multiple searches for the same day route and keep them on your screen. The system may think that you are contemplating booking so it holds them at that price for the session until the session ends and the seats are released back. Thus you may inadvertently be holding a seat at say £20, the next seat on the curve is £25 so if you come to book a few minutes later it may then only show the £25 seat because the £20 seat hasnt been released back by the system.

 

[busestrains]

National Express have put up all of their fares on the 5th and 7th and 9th it seems. Even the cash fares bought directly from the driver (which normally stay the same except for Christmas Day and Boxing Day services) are all increasing just for these three days. This all seems very dishonest. I understand the demand based online pricing but they have even increased their onboard cash fares which normally remain the same. No bus company is doing this so i am not sure why the coaches are.

If you have a look here you can see on the 5th and 7th and 9th all of the fares are increased compared to the standard fares charged on all other days:

National Express Coaches - Coach Guide Pages

www.nxagents.com

It seems that they are doing the same thing online. So all of the cheaper online fares will be more expensive too. I guess they know people can not use trains so are using it as a way to make extra profit as people will have no choice but to use them. Well i imagine that Flixbus and Megabus and National Express will be making a lot of profit on these days.

 

[Robertj21a]

Surely, this is just a company sensibly using demand pricing. They take ALL factors into account when determining what is the right price for any trip, time or destination.

 

[WelshBluebird]

Demand based pricing (as practiced by low cost airlines at least) has at least three elements: (1) proximity to date of departure (2) number of seats sold (3) past performance.

The Revenue Manager usually sets up a number of what are called pricing curves which the system follows automatically.

It is an automated process when set up without intervention unless someone in the Revenue Management Department decides to intervene.

Next Monday could be £33 because (a) it is less than a week prior to departure (b) and / or x number of seats have been sold already (c) The first Monday in November is a good load day so they start the fares off at £10 whereas on other days they may start at £5.

The following Monday could be £10 because (a) it is more than a week prior to departure (b) and / or only z number of seats have been sold already (c) the second Monday in November is not a good load day.

Nexp and all other users of the system now collect big data so they know the booking pattern.

Coincidentally I have been looking at fares ex Bournemouth and i have noticed that at less than a week to go the prices are much higher than further out which suggests to me the curves kick in sharply at a week prior to departure.

The booking data for London Bournemouth may be somewhat different to London Bristol.

One other tip do not do multiple searches for the same day route and keep them on your screen. The system may think that you are contemplating booking so it holds them at that price for the session until the session ends and the seats are released back. Thus you may inadvertently be holding a seat at say £20, the next seat on the curve is £25 so if you come to book a few minutes later it may then only show the £25 seat because the £20 seat hasnt been released back by the system.

I absolutely refuse to believe this is to do with normal pricing. As busestrains has commented it looks like ALL of the services on rail strike days have been increased to the standard non discounted fare that is much much more expensive compared to the usual fares on offer. I somehow doubt all services on just those days happen to be busy. And just done a quick search and it looks like they've done the same for London to Bristol too. It is literally every service on those days. Based on what I can see they are simply profiteering.

Surely, this is just a company sensibly using demand pricing. They take ALL factors into account when determining what is the right price for any trip, time or destination.

But in that case, how come the coaches from London to Bristol on the early October strike day were empty? I'd have thought if it was demand based the price would have been lower given at least the bus i was supposed to be on must have been pretty empty (for them to fit three bus loads onto one coach).

Are you seriously telling me all services between Bournemouth and London and London to Bristol are going to be busy On the strike days? Because that is what NatEx putting the prices to their maximum suggests and that just doesn't tally with what I experienced last time.

 

[43066]

Based on what I can see they are simply profiteering.

As a commercial business that doesn’t receive subsidy, and therefore lacks the “public service” aspect of the railway, surely that’s a perfectly rational response to the situation? They are clearly hoping to snare railway passengers who will be willing and able to pay more than most traditional coach customers. Why would you expect them to do anything else?

Bournemouth to London for £33 is (I assume) still considerably cheaper than the train would be in normal circumstances?

 

[Simon75]

As a commercial business that doesn’t receive subsidy, and therefore lacks the “public service” aspect of the railway, surely that’s a perfectly rational response to the situation? They are clearly hoping to snare railway passengers who will be willing and able to pay more than most traditional coach customers. Why would you expect them to do anything else?

Bournemouth to London for £33 is (I assume) still considerably cheaper than the train would be in normal circumstances?

By train London to Bournemouth is around £65

 

[WelshBluebird]

As a commercial business that doesn’t receive subsidy, and therefore lacks the “public service” aspect of the railway, surely that’s a perfectly rational response to the situation? They are clearly hoping to snare railway passengers who will be willing and able to pay more than most traditional coach customers. Why would you expect them to do anything else?

Bournemouth to London for £33 is (I assume) still considerably cheaper than the train would be in normal circumstances?

I'm not surprised but I do think it's underhand. Somewhat like pubs in Cardiff city centre putting their prices up when there's a Rugby match on. They know they will be busier than usual and thus make more money anyway so no need to profiteer and rip people off.

And yes it may well be cheaper than the train, but it's still vastly more expensive than what the coach fares usually are.

 

[43066]

I'm not surprised but I do think it's underhand. Somewhat like pubs in Cardiff city centre putting their prices up when there's a Rugby match on. They know they will be busier than usual and thus make more money anyway so no need to profiteer and rip people off.

And yes it may well be cheaper than the train, but it's still vastly more expensive than what the coach fares usually are.

I suppose it’s just hard nosed commercial reality. It’s really no different to low cost airlines selling the same seats at massively different prices, or Uber surge pricing for that matter. I’d disagree it’s underhand when the fare is known at the point of payment and nobody is being mislead.

Looking at it another way, if you were a shareholder in megabus (or whoever), wouldn’t you want them to maximise profits at every opportunity?

 

[Smethwickian]

I suppose it’s just hard nosed commercial reality. It’s really no different to low cost airlines selling the same seats at massively different prices, or Uber surge pricing for that matter. I’d disagree it’s underhand when the fare is known at the point of payment and nobody is being mislead.

Looking at it another way, if you were a shareholder in megabus (or whoever), wouldn’t you want them to maximise profits at every opportunity?

Agreed.
If people don't want to purchase the ticket at the price they are quoted for their chosen journey, they are welcome to travel another day or by some other method of transport.
National Express is not a charity. It is under no obligation to lose money to mop up the mess created by the rail industry and rail unions. Even in the unlikely event it wanted to, it does not have the drivers to generously lay on hundreds of extra cheap coaches on rail strike days.

 

[Starmill]

This all seems very dishonest.

Is it really dishonest? They're apparently running extra capacity on some routes, which means that they will incur higher costs from the running of additional vehicles. If they didn't charge more the simple result would be that more people would be told the service is full.

Their network is still much more heavily stripped back than was before the pandemic compared to the railway.

They know they will be busier than usual and thus make more money anyway so no need to profiteer and rip people off.

Putting the prices up means that they'll sell less beer than if they keep them the same. Rugby days in Cardiff could result in some beer running out completely if it weren't more expensive.

 

[43066]

Agreed.
If people don't want to purchase the ticket at the price they are quoted for their chosen journey, they are welcome to travel another day or by some other method of transport.
National Express is not a charity. It is under no obligation to lose money to mop up the mess created by the rail industry and rail unions the government. Even in the unlikely event it wanted to, it does not have the drivers to generously lay on hundreds of extra cheap coaches on rail strike days.

Minor correction above, otherwise full marks .

 

[Robertj21a]

I'm not surprised but I do think it's underhand. Somewhat like pubs in Cardiff city centre putting their prices up when there's a Rugby match on. They know they will be busier than usual and thus make more money anyway so no need to profiteer and rip people off.

And yes it may well be cheaper than the train, but it's still vastly more expensive than what the coach fares usually are.

It's a business, not a charity. Nobody is being forced to pay if they don't want to.

 

[tbtc]

Whilst the taxpayer spaffed huge sums on keeping trains running during the pandemic, National Express had to make some huge cuts to long established routes, meaning a number of places lost their only public transport link to places like London (The kind of thing that would have had thousands of negative comments on this Forum if a train company did it, but coach passengers aren’t so well “protected”, I don’t recall many MPs standing up to defend coach passengers when compared to how sensitive your average representative can be about railways

Presumably NatEx will need additional coaches to help with demand during the rail strikes, in which case it’s a but like the Uber “surge pricing”, the more they are charging customers the more “carrot” to entice other coach providers to do NatEx work on those days

Ultimately, as long as firms charge no more than the everyday “standard” fare, i don’t have a problem with this, if £33 is the Bournemouth fare under normal circumstances then NatEx are under no obligation to offer heavily discounted tickets - I WOULD have a problem if they started charging £50 for that journey (which would be more than any passengers would have to pay on Other days), but it’s a bit like the complaints we see in the Rail section where someone is unhappy that a TOC aren’t currently offering cheapo fares on a future service (which, someone will inevitably explain, is probably going to fill up with people buying “anytime” tickets etc, once you realise where the big sporting fixtures are that weekend)

Maybe the problem is that people are so used to bargain ticket prices that they baulk at ever actually paying the “regular” price - we feel entitled to getting some discount on every occasion

it’s fine if a sofa manufacturer want to Permanently sites to have a “sale” on (so that everyone knows to ignore the four figure price tag because nobody ever pays that), but public transport is expensive to provide year round, it should be seen to have a good quality

flooding the market with special offers can devalue that and give the impression that Rail/ coach/ bus companies are in some race to the bottom, rather than having proper prices in the first place

 

[43066]

I WOULD have a problem if they started charging £50 for that journey (which would be more than any passengers would have to pay on Other days)

Why would you have a problem, out of interest? Surely it’s their business to run as they wish, and entirely their decision what they should charge.

 

[Starmill]

Ultimately, as long as firms charge no more than the everyday “standard” fare, i don’t have a problem with this, if £33 is the Bournemouth fare under normal circumstances then NatEx are under no obligation to offer heavily discounted tickets - I WOULD have a problem if they started charging £50 for that journey (which would be more than any passengers would have to pay on Other days)

This actually is what's happening because the walk-up fares are rising too. However it simply is what it is.

 

[WelshBluebird]

Im not under any illusions that they are a private company and so can basically do what they want within the law. But I do think it's still pretty anti consumer. And it has made me question how they do manage their pricing - I had always assumed a higher price means the bus would be fuller and that they had simply sold the number of cheap seats they had allocated, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Ultimately, as long as firms charge no more than the everyday “standard” fare, i don’t have a problem with this

I get what you are saying and I somewhat agree, this certainly is where my comment about pub prices on event days breaks down a bit. I guess my view on this is that this isnt really the "everyday standard fare" as for every other day cheaper fares are available. It feels a little dishonest to claim that the fares offered every other day aren't the regular standard fare.

Maybe the problem is that people are so used to bargain ticket prices that they baulk at ever actually paying the “regular” price - we feel entitled to getting some discount on every occasion

Without derailing the topic onto rail fares, I guess this does raise the issue of some TOCs putting up their regular prices with the promise or cheaper advances they are under no obligation to continue offering once people forget.

 

[43066]

But I do think it's still pretty anti consumer.

This is the point I can’t really understand. They’re a private coach operator pitching their product into the market at a price they presumably feel best extracts profit, taking into account factors such as rail strikes. I don’t see how this is “anti consumer” when they’re under no obligation to serve the market at all, and consumers are under no obligation to buy their product.

Ultimately price is just one way of managing demand. Offering cheap (or very cheap) seats would mean demand far outstripped supply, and seats would still have to be allocated somehow; perhaps randomly, or on a first come first served basis. Would this really be more pro consumer?

I had always assumed a higher price means the bus would be fuller and that they had simply sold the number of cheap seats they had allocated, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

If it’s driving customers away to the point where they’re running empty buses then it’ll be bad business practice, and will be extremely short lived as a strategy if they want to continue trading!

 

[markymark2000]

Isn't price gouging illegal in the UK or was it only made illegal during COVID because of hand sanitiser and whatever?

 

[43066]

Isn't price gouging illegal in the UK or was it only made illegal during COVID because of hand sanitiser and whatever?

Charging excessive prices is illegal in certain circumstances under competition law - largely where a dominant market position is being abused.

I don’t believe it was ever made expressly illegal in relation to Covid, albeit it was talked about early on.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Demand based pricing (as practiced by low cost airlines at least) has at least three elements: (1) proximity to date of departure (2) number of seats sold (3) past performance.

The Revenue Manager usually sets up a number of what are called pricing curves which the system follows automatically.

It is an automated process when set up without intervention unless someone in the Revenue Management Department decides to intervene.

Next Monday could be £33 because (a) it is less than a week prior to departure (b) and / or x number of seats have been sold already (c) The first Monday in November is a good load day so they start the fares off at £10 whereas on other days they may start at £5.

The following Monday could be £10 because (a) it is more than a week prior to departure (b) and / or only z number of seats have been sold already (c) the second Monday in November is not a good load day.

Nexp and all other users of the system now collect big data so they know the booking pattern.

Coincidentally I have been looking at fares ex Bournemouth and i have noticed that at less than a week to go the prices are much higher than further out which suggests to me the curves kick in sharply at a week prior to departure.

The booking data for London Bournemouth may be somewhat different to London Bristol.

One other tip do not do multiple searches for the same day route and keep them on your screen. The system may think that you are contemplating booking so it holds them at that price for the session until the session ends and the seats are released back. Thus you may inadvertently be holding a seat at say £20, the next seat on the curve is £25 so if you come to book a few minutes later it may then only show the £25 seat because the £20 seat hasnt been released back by the system.

I have been there. If you start the booking process then lose your connection then the next time in the price and seat availability is poorer until their system has decided to time out your original selection.

I have noticed my £12 fare going up to £33 - £40 for London/Cardiff on strike days. I knew it would.

I also try to book as early as possible to get the cheapest fare. The other half is really bed at making up her mind early so I often watch the cheap fare pass me by. My life would be more pleasant if I did not plan ahead and/or notice !.

I suppose it’s just hard nosed commercial reality. It’s really no different to low cost airlines selling the same seats at massively different prices, or Uber surge pricing for that matter. I’d disagree it’s underhand when the fare is known at the point of payment and nobody is being mislead.

Looking at it another way, if you were a shareholder in megabus (or whoever), wouldn’t you want them to maximise profits at every opportunity?

Furthermore, as a regular passenger, perhaps the higher price on high demand days off sets the cheapness of my usual ticket.

 

[Starmill]

Isn't price gouging illegal in the UK or was it only made illegal during COVID because of hand sanitiser and whatever?

It was certainly discussed that the Competition & Markets Authority could have a specific duty to regulate price rises in a crisis. However, it doesn't have such a duty currently, and it just warns businesses against doing it.

Competition law as it stands is very unlikely to make large rises unlawful, as noted, unless there's an abuse of dominance.

 

[markymark2000]

unless there's an abuse of dominance

Could it be argued in some way that with the main intercity competitor gone (rail), NatEx and other coach operators are abusing the fact that coaches are the only meaningful way to travel intercity and so using the industries dominance as a whole to increase fares?

 

[Bikeman78]

Just wondering, I can't be the only person who has noticed that National Express's and Megabus's attempt at profiteering during these strikes?
I understand they both use demand based pricing, so I fully expect fares to be higher than normal when people can't travel by train, but it feels way OTT to me.
As an example, Bournemouth to London is £33 per person next Monday, but has most journeys under £10 (and as low as £5) for the Monday following.

I checked coach prices for London to Cardiff on September 17th. National Express was about 30 quid for evening departures but Megabus was only a tenner. I was surprised it was that cheap as I didn't book until several days after the strike was announced. In the event, the strike was postponed so I didn't use the coach.

 

[tbtc]

Why would you have a problem, out of interest? Surely it’s their business to run as they wish, and entirely their decision what they should charge.

True, legally they have freedom to do what they want as a commercial organisation (up to certain limits in theory, depending on abuse of market position but that’d only be a retrospective thing)

What I meant to say was that, as a consumer, I can’t complain if the only price available is the “standard” price, i have no automatic right to a discount, however I would take issue with a firm setting all tickets at more than that price to take advantage of the strikes

not being able to get a discounted ticket will obviously be frustrating to a lot of people but there’s no right to a discount, just as there’s that if I go to the supermarket in the early evening then there’s a chance that I might pick up a basket full of bread/ buns/ sausage rolls/ doughnuts for about a quid given how shops try to get rid of food very close to the expiry date; I’d look silly if I wrote to Morrisons to complain that I had to pay full price for a loaf of whole meal (because I couldn’t find anything with a yellow sticker)

however if the Tesco next door closes down and Morrisons put bread up to a fiver a loaf then I think I would complain about them abusing their market power

I get what you are saying and I somewhat agree, this certainly is where my comment about pub prices on event days breaks down a bit. I guess my view on this is that this isnt really the "everyday standard fare" as for every other day cheaper fares are available. It feels a little dishonest to claim that the fares offered every other day aren't the regular standard fare

Discounted fares are generally available in advance, but limited in number and with little guarantee of how cheap that’ll be (i think, in the case of the “£1 plus booking fee” adverts on the back of Megabus that, as long as they had one seat at that price they could charge though the nose for any other seats?)

Same with your local TOC - they can offer cheap advances, they can choose not to, they can limit them to off peak on quieter days of the week; just because they sold me a bargain ticket last week doesn’t compel them to make similar available this week

 

[Joshua_Harman]

A Trip I make regularly with national express is normally £3 When purchased a few days out with a discount card.

I booked a month and a half in advance thinking seats might fill for this exact reason and the cost was £7.90 ( normally the day before or an on the day cost) and the fare has risen even further now!!

 

[philthetube]

I somehow doubt all services on just those days happen to be busy

They will just happen to be busy, there are no trains.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Amongst the uproar is that this is, as @Titfield has explained, part and parcel of their usual approach in using pricing to shape demand.

Also, a couple of other things to remember when trying to cope with increased demand like this. You will have inflated costs in order to obtain additional coaches - the usual subcontractors (better rates) will have their options exhausted and so planners will head to the next and next sets of operators and that means higher costs. There's also the fact that NX service car diagrams are very carefully put together to maximise utilisation (realistically) - you don't get that with dupes.

@WelshBluebird concedes he has "no firm data". If there's one thing that NX, Megabus and Flixbus have, it's a lot of data and experience of how this works.

 

[Titfield]

Also, a couple of other things to remember when trying to cope with increased demand like this. You will have inflated costs in order to obtain additional coaches - the usual subcontractors (better rates) will have their options exhausted and so planners will head to the next and next sets of operators and that means higher costs. There's also the fact that NX service car diagrams are very carefully put together to maximise utilisation (realistically) - you don't get that with dupes.

Unfortunately it is often the case that very high demand is directional e.g. Bournemouth to London in the morning and London to Bournemouth in the afternoon early evening.

It may seem a very obvious comment but a full coach going up and an empty coach coming back is only an overall load factor of 50%. That may or may not be acceptable to the operator but I am sure they would much rather try and keep the number of dupes as low as possible to avoid carrying large amounts of air at very expensive cost.

As the @TheGrandWazoo has noted the operators now have a lot of data and they interpret it very carefully indeed.

There is a revenue management concept called booking build up where you plot on a graph how the bookings are coming in. For example 5% of seats are sold at 42 days prior to travel, up to 15% at 30 days prior to travel etc etc on a specific departure. Matching how bookings are coming in versus the previous data enables better prediction of what the final number may be. This will help flag up earlier when they need to arrange duplicates etc etc.

Revenue Management has become a science and the airlines now invest very considerable sums of money in both the software and the staff who manage it. I dont doubt that Nexp also now invest similarly.

Discounted fares are generally available in advance, but limited in number and with little guarantee of how cheap that’ll be (i think, in the case of the “£1 plus booking fee” adverts on the back of Megabus that, as long as they had one seat at that price they could charge though the nose for any other seats?)

Low cost airlines are required to have IIRC something like 5% of the seats at the cheapest fare they advertise. They also have to be reasonably available across the departure dates and times however they do have quite a lot of latitude in this. Trading Standards or equivalent do take a look at this from time to time but rarely have had to take action because the number of seats and spread of dates has been judged to be reasonable.

One thing I would also say about air fares is that in real terms (ie allowing for inflation and disposable income) they are amazingly cheap compared to air fares way back when. The problem that mayn airlines face is that consumers have been "spoilt" (I use that word advisedly) and now consider anything but a very cheap fare as too expensive.

It was certainly discussed that the Competition & Markets Authority could have a specific duty to regulate price rises in a crisis. However, it doesn't have such a duty currently, and it just warns businesses against doing it.

Competition law as it stands is very unlikely to make large rises unlawful, as noted, unless there's an abuse of dominance.

Competition Law gives a lot of very expensive work to lawyers.

Consider a number of (fictitious examples):

1. Hand Sanitizer is normally £1 a bottle. Due to an outbreak of flu demand increases 4 fold. The retailer doubles the price because the manufacturer doubles the buying in price. What action should the CMA take?

2. National Express has a range of fares from Bournemouth to London from £5 one way up to £35 one way. The price you pay depends upon how far in advance you book the number of seats already sold and the predicted demand. Due to a train strike demand goes up 4 fold. National Express offers all the remaining seats at £35 one way. What action should the CMA take? Has National Express actually put the price up bearing in mind that it will now sell a seat for the same price as it would have done if there was no strike?

3. The price of a packet of Christmas Cards on the 1st of December is £2. On the 27th of December the retailer reduces them to 50p. Has the retailer acted unfairly prior to Christmas by charging more than post Christmas. Bear in mind that a Christmas Card is not a perishable commodity in the normal sense of the word.

It is far from straight forward.

 

[Peter Sarf]

They will just happen to be busy, there are no trains.

I felt the demand for coach seats had spread to days either side of the strikes as well. That is how heavy the demand must be.

Unfortunately it is often the case that very high demand is directional e.g. Bournemouth to London in the morning and London to Bournemouth in the afternoon early evening.

It may seem a very obvious comment but a full coach going up and an empty coach coming back is only an overall load factor of 50%. That may or may not be acceptable to the operator but I am sure they would much rather try and keep the number of dupes as low as possible to avoid carrying large amounts of air at very expensive cost.

As the @TheGrandWazoo has noted the operators now have a lot of data and they interpret it very carefully indeed.

There is a revenue management concept called booking build up where you plot on a graph how the bookings are coming in. For example 5% of seats are sold at 42 days prior to travel, up to 15% at 30 days prior to travel etc etc on a specific departure. Matching how bookings are coming in versus the previous data enables better prediction of what the final number may be. This will help flag up earlier when they need to arrange duplicates etc etc.

Revenue Management has become a science and the airlines now invest very considerable sums of money in both the software and the staff who manage it. I dont doubt that Nexp also now invest similarly.



Low cost airlines are required to have IIRC something like 5% of the seats at the cheapest fare they advertise. They also have to be reasonably available across the departure dates and times however they do have quite a lot of latitude in this. Trading Standards or equivalent do take a look at this from time to time but rarely have had to take action because the number of seats and spread of dates has been judged to be reasonable.

One thing I would also say about air fares is that in real terms (ie allowing for inflation and disposable income) they are amazingly cheap compared to air fares way back when. The problem that mayn airlines face is that consumers have been "spoilt" (I use that word advisedly) and now consider anything but a very cheap fare as too expensive.



Competition Law gives a lot of very expensive work to lawyers.

Consider a number of (fictitious examples):

1. Hand Sanitizer is normally £1 a bottle. Due to an outbreak of flu demand increases 4 fold. The retailer doubles the price because the manufacturer doubles the buying in price. What action should the CMA take?

2. National Express has a range of fares from Bournemouth to London from £5 one way up to £35 one way. The price you pay depends upon how far in advance you book the number of seats already sold and the predicted demand. Due to a train strike demand goes up 4 fold. National Express offers all the remaining seats at £35 one way. What action should the CMA take? Has National Express actually put the price up bearing in mind that it will now sell a seat for the same price as it would have done if there was no strike?

3. The price of a packet of Christmas Cards on the 1st of December is £2. On the 27th of December the retailer reduces them to 50p. Has the retailer acted unfairly prior to Christmas by charging more than post Christmas. Bear in mind that a Christmas Card is not a perishable commodity in the normal sense of the word.

It is far from straight forward.

True. I try to get in early with bookings and when the missus is dawdling in her decisions I often watch the cheap seats come and then go over a few weeks or more.

I buy my Christmas cards in early January. They are heavily discounted then. Pity stamps don't go cheap then !.