Families booking holidays a year in advance: travel agent
Families are having to book holidays a year in advance to get an affordable escape according to a travel agent.
Airlines and accommodation providers have become wise to people sneaking off a day or so before official school holidays, making early start bargains harder to come by.
Managing Director of World Travellers Motueka, Silvana Gottini said some school holiday destinations were booking up over a year in advance.
"If people aren't really on the ball and they're thinking now, for example, to book for the September school holidays, it's going to be significantly pricier than it would be if they'd booked a long time ago, and that's if they can even get accommodation."
"I have a few families that booked in April, May for the July holiday next year so that they can get the accommodation that they want. The exactly the types of rooms that they want. And get the airfares at the best prices."
Air New Zealand expected more than 745,000 to take to the skies over the July break; 465,000 domestic and 280,000 international travellers.
Gottini said since the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for popular destinations, particularly the Pacific Islands and Rarotonga, had only gone up.
"Not only do the prices go up in the school holidays, and that's just purely due to demand, but also there's not gonna be as much selection for you to choose from in accommodation because many of the places that you may be thinking of could be booked up well in advance."
She said that she had seen many families looking to start their holidays early, but this tactic was rarely effective.
"Accommodation and airlines are onto that as well in a sense. And that, you know, there might be what we call blackout dates for deals a week before and a week after the school holidays as well. They've accounted for that, that a lot of people are going to be doing that."
She said the main reason for a higher price was due to a lack of availability.
"The price increase is more to do with the fact that. The accommodation and the airlines are full, so therefore you can no longer get the cheapest airfare because on any given flight there could be 20 or more different airfare levels within the economy class,"
"The cheapest gets booked up first and then so on and so forth as you work your way through the availability of the flight when there's only a few seats left, then those are significantly more expensive because only the expensive airfares are left... you might be getting exactly the same as what the person next to is getting, who may have booked you know, 8 or 10 months in advance and they might be paying a third less than you."
Checkpoint looked at some Air New Zealand flights for a week long break in Rarotonga for a family of four.
Return flights leaving on the last day of term came in at $6260, almost $1000 less than leaving during the school holidays, when the same journey comes to $7240.
Two weeks after the end of the school holidays the same flights come in at just over $3500.
Associate Minister for Education, David Seymour, has previously warned parent condoned truancy, like taking days off to bag cheap flights, could result in prosecution.
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Families looking to go overseas during school holidays are having to plan well in advance to get an affordable price. (File photo) Photo: 123RF Families are having to book holidays a year in advance to get an affordable escape according to a travel agent. Airlines and accommodation providers have become wise to people sneaking off a day or so before official school holidays, making early start bargains harder to come by. Managing Director of World Travellers Motueka, Silvana Gottini told Checkpoint some school holiday destinations were booking up over a year in advance. "If people aren't really on the ball and they're thinking now, for example, to book for the September school holidays, it's going to be significantly pricier than it would be if they'd booked a long time ago, and that's if they can even get accommodation." "I have a few families that booked in April, May for the July holiday next year so that they can get the accommodation that they want. The exactly the types of rooms that they want. And get the airfares at the best prices." Air New Zealand expected more than 745,000 to take to the skies over the July break; 465,000 domestic and 280,000 international travellers. Gottini said since the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for popular destinations, particularly the Pacific Islands and Rarotonga, had only gone up. "Not only do the prices go up in the school holidays, and that's just purely due to demand, but also there's not gonna be as much selection for you to choose from in accommodation because many of the places that you may be thinking of could be booked up well in advance." She said that she had seen many families looking to start their holidays early, but this tactic was rarely effective. "Accommodation and airlines are onto that as well in a sense. And that, you know, there might be what we call blackout dates for deals a week before and a week after the school holidays as well. They've accounted for that, that a lot of people are going to be doing that." She said the main reason for a higher price was due to a lack of availability. "The price increase is more to do with the fact that. The accommodation and the airlines are full, so therefore you can no longer get the cheapest airfare because on any given flight there could be 20 or more different airfare levels within the economy class," "The cheapest gets booked up first and then so on and so forth as you work your way through the availability of the flight when there's only a few seats left, then those are significantly more expensive because only the expensive airfares are left... you might be getting exactly the same as what the person next to is getting, who may have booked you know, 8 or 10 months in advance and they might be paying a third less than you." Checkpoint looked at some Air New Zealand flights for a week long break in Rarotonga for a family of four. Return flights leaving on the last day of term came in at $6260, almost $1000 less than leaving during the school holidays, when the same journey comes to $7240. Two weeks after the end of the school holidays the same flights come in at just over $3500. Associate Minister for Education, David Seymour, has previously warned parent condoned truancy, like taking days off to bag cheap flights , could result in prosecution. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
