The "Oh Bother" Thread

[dooledoo]

There are so many people on here who are spreading the word about their wonderful deals they have got for their flights, which is great news and shows there are great bargains to be had.

However - there are also the other folks out there, like me, who got it wrong. Either through bad timing or bad luck and I just wanted to start a "self help" thread where we can console ourselves and moan together

I'll star the ball rolling - I have been checking flights every day for about 8 weeks but really wanted a direct flight with VA as I wanted to do m+m. I had a real shock on Tuesday when all the m+m vanished so I panicked and booked for returning the previous day. Annoingly the next day, less than 24 hours later, they reappeared and were cheaper by about £400. So I could have saved my miles, earned miles by doing a normal flight and saved money.

Oh well, my choice!

How about everyone else? Anything you want to get off your chest so to speak

 

[Bonnie151]

Last Friday, the flight I want for next September was showing at £469pp from Edinburgh to Orlando (via London), down from the usual £550pp. I emailed DH to see if he thought we should just go ahead & book it now. No response from DH, so I waited until he got home then checked the flight again and it was back to £550pp! No idea if it was a temporary glitch for a couple of hours or what but I should have just booked it! I'm expecting the price to drop to around £500 so it's no big deal, but it would have been better to be sitting on bought tickets right now! No more waiting to get DH's opinion!

 

[wayneg]

I once booked M&M for LA, a few days later a sale with full price lower than I paid M&M, thankfully only £25pp but cost me the miles.
Now I have learned never to panic with booking flights, there will always be another deal, although it helps that we enjoy indirect as much as direct flights.

 

[dooledoo]

Oh Wayne!!

I knew you would see my secret confession lol. I should have waited, like you said and I didn't

Somehow it makes light of it putting it on here and it goes to show we have all had good and bad deals over the years. It's a bit of a ying and yang experience I think.

I don't mean this in a nasty way, but I'm glad to see the ever careful Wayne has been caught out Makes me feel a bit better!

 

[flortlebap]

Absolutely!!

We booked CSR through Virgin. Two weeks later we discovered that had we booked through Kenwood Travel, we could have got AKL with DDP and 300 Disney dollars for only a couple of hundred more. AKL is my dream resort.

I am gutted. I can't get a price match either.

However, were still going to WDW and CSR does look amazing. So staying positive

 

[wayneg]

Oh Wayne!!

I knew you would see my secret confession lol. I should have waited, like you said and I didn't

Somehow it makes light of it putting it on here and it goes to show we have all had good and bad deals over the years. It's a bit of a ying and yang experience I think.

I don't mean this in a nasty way, but I'm glad to see the ever careful Wayne has been caught out Makes me feel a bit better!

Even the most experienced amongst us will never be able to beat the system.

 

[gillybeaaan]

We're only human, we all make the odd mistake/bad choice! When we booked the other day we completely forgot to use quidco so have cheated ourselves out of a few £'s!

 

[Tink2312]

Firstly, Flortlebap - we've stayed at CSR twice and we love it. Definitely request either Cabanas or Casitas, both of which are very pretty. Get ready for some beautiful evenings spent sitting around the lake sipping Margaritas!

In terms of a mistake booking, we should have been going yesterday to SSR with free dining. We jumped and booked it last year but then for various reasons decided to go over Xmas instead. As we couldn't change the booking (booked through online travel agent), we ended up cancelling and losing deposit. It wasn't a lot in the grand scheme but hated losing it on principle.

 

[disneyholic family]

been there, done that...numerous times..

once you've done the deed, best to try to ignore all the great deal posts...

if i added up all the money i've 'lost' by buying a day early, i could probably buy a house in orlando

 

[flortlebap]

I think we will request one of the closer castitas or cabanas as my mum is disabled and we could do with being close to the food court!

I am a sucker for a real good margarita (or strawberry daiquiri)... Nothing in this country has come close!!

 

[Kath2003]

Booked a cheap hotel that we don't really 100% want because we're too cheap to pay for the hotel we really want We keep looking because we can cancel our exisiting hotel. On that note, anyone ever heard of or used www.vivastay.com???

However, this thread inspired me to check the flights and they've gone up by over £500 each so I do feel glad that we took the plunge there.

 

[dooledoo]

We're only human, we all make the odd mistake/bad choice! When we booked the other day we completely forgot to use quidco so have cheated ourselves out of a few £'s!

Oh, now that is annoying! I use Topcashback and luckily just remembered in time - phew.

 

[flortlebap]

Oh, now that is annoying! I use Topcashback and luckily just remembered in time - phew.

That reminds me of another "oh bother" - for some reason, my cashback didn't go through!! I've emailed them and they're chasing it.

The cashback amounts to £250 so if I lose that it would be a bit of a disaster

 

[2Tiggies]

Oh Wayne!!

I knew you would see my secret confession lol. I should have waited, like you said and I didn't

I am going to throw a different slant on this (as usual ) I can completely justify refusing to wait. I know that I will worry about losing the entire trip if we don't get another bargain. Bargain flights appear all the time but to appear for your dates and from a practical airport to get to does narrow it down. Possibly more so for us being in Scotland. I could have waited and probably would have got a similar deal - but may not have. However I was happy with the prices I saw and knew that I could stop looking. To me, the worry of wondering if and when there will be another suitable flight sale/pricing glitch which could be months away is not worth the stress. If I find cheaper flights 6 months from now, I would have spent half a year with that hanging over me.

Just a comment on being "caught out" I don't see it that way at all. You make the best decision based on the information available to you at the time. There will almost always be better deals after you book and even more people who will pay more than you did.

once you've done the deed, best to try to ignore all the great deal posts...

I am the same. I did check yesterday and my flights have gone up since I booked. But I agree, once you have paid, it's done. Best to leave it be

 

[DisFanJen]

I follow the sayings of Walt on this topic. 'Keep moving forward'. Once I'm committed I never look back and check prices again.

Hey, why give yourself the stress when you can't do anything about it, and more importantly who cares! I'm going to Disneyworld!

 

[dooledoo]

I am going to throw a different slant on this (as usual ) I can completely justify refusing to wait. I know that I will worry about losing the entire trip if we don't get another bargain. Bargain flights appear all the time but to appear for your dates and from a practical airport to get to does narrow it down. Possibly more so for us being in Scotland. I could have waited and probably would have got a similar deal - but may not have. However I was happy with the prices I saw and knew that I could stop looking. To me, the worry of wondering if and when there will be another suitable flight sale/pricing glitch which could be months away is not worth the stress. If I find cheaper flights 6 months from now, I would have spent half a year with that hanging over me.

Just a comment on being "caught out" I don't see it that way at all. You make the best decision based on the information available to you at the time. There will almost always be better deals after you book and even more people who will pay more than you did.

Those are very sensible and wise words! Like you, I did want a particular airline and particular dates and I also fret over not being able to get the arrangements I have decided on in my mind so, you are right, the worry about not getting your flights could ruin it all!!

It is reassuring to see that it has happened to nearly all of us in some form or another -and it's not just me

 

[floridaforever]

For us a cheap deal on flights is a must....its the difference between going or not. There are 5 of us (which was obviously my choice) but that means 5 x everything cost-wise. In reality this means that I do spend months checking flight prices and we also realise that this means if we don't find the right price - we won't be going that year.

That said I have used this strategy since 2006 and we have been during August school holidays every year since. The latest I have booked flights was in May for that August. So it must go to show that deals are almost always available but we are willing to fly indirect if necessary. We have flown with Virgin, Aer Lingus, United, Continental, Delta and next year with American Airlines - every year a different deal - every year a different airline. It helps that my husband is self-employed and not tied to set holiday dates and that we live an hours drive from either Heathrow or Gatwick. I know that most people would hate that uncertainty but it works for us.

 

[Kath2003]

For us a cheap deal on flights is a must....its the difference between going or not. There are 5 of us (which was obviously my choice) but that means 5 x everything cost-wise. In reality this means that I do spend months checking flight prices and we also realise that this means if we don't find the right price - we won't be going that year.

This is us to a T. People on here have told me I'll never get flights in the school holiday for the price I want - but if I don't get the price I want, we don't go. That's why we didn't go last year - but we DID find great flight prices to NYC in May half term instead. We are also fortunate in that we couldn't care less about which airline or airport we use, what the food is like, flight times, if there's any in-flight entertainment, connecting, baggage allowances, checking in somewhere random etc. - we just want to get there!

But this year...£420 each in the school holidays with 1 stop? Yes please