Three types of airline

Once it was easy. Scheduled airlines like Air France and British Airways had different classes, but even economy was better than charter, which had no legroom and no free drinks. then came the low-cost airlines, which didn't even have food service, but no-one cared because they offered the cheapest tickets.

But this year I have flown to Palma, Mallorca, with Iberia, the Spanish national airline, for less than any of the low-cost carriers were quoting. And to the caribbean with First Choice, a charter airline that offers a minimum of 33" seat pitch. That's two inches more than BA or Virgin, and four inches more than a typical charter. On a nine-hour flight, that's a lot of inches.

The moral of the story is to look at what you're getting rather than the packaging it comes in.

The crazy world of air fare pricing, and how to get to Madeira cheaply

"Why can't I get a cheap fare to Madeira?" was this morning's question.

To answer this I have to explain that there are three types of airline - scheduled e.g. BA, low-cost e.g. Ryanair, and charter e.g. Monarch. Getting cheap fares depends on knowing what kind of airline you are dealing with. Low-cost is the easiest, as usually the earlier you book the better prices are available. Scheduled airlines are all connected to GDS's, which means you can check them out via sites like Expedia. (I'll do a note on how to get the best prices out of Expedia some other time). Charter airlines typically run weekly turn-rounds, and start with the price they hope to get. The time to get discounts on charters is close to departure, when they realise it's not going to fill, and they start cutting the price.

So coming back to Madeira, low cost airlines don't go there. It's too far and they make their money by turning planes round very quickly. Most scheduled carriers don't go there, only TAP (Air Portugal) which means no price competition. And the charters which fly holiday traffic to the island try not to discount until very close to departure.

All of which is interesting, but my questioner wants to go to Madeira for as little money as possible. To which the answer is "reader offers". Charter airlines fly the same no. of seats each week, and they know there are times when they struggle to fill them. rather than reduce the price to the public, they wholesale them cheaply to reader offer companies who take big ads in newspapers saying things like "Madeira from only £199, including 7 nights in a 3* hotel. " If you are reading this because you want to go to Madeira then to save you looking at lots of newspapers, you can call the company that puts the offers together and ask them what they currently have. Atlantic Holidays, 01452 381888. Happy Holidays!