Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Just to note, from what I've been reading, WestJet still plans to offer seat sales...

So far the reaction seems to be "Why are you taking away sales? I like sales!" and "Price for the fare I'm looking at hasn't dropped 25% !" (even though the release states that the *average* is 25%, some more, some less)

I can see the frustration. Last week I booked a flight to Vancouver at a one-way fare of $115 (which isn't really a great price overall). That fare is now $129.

[FurnaceFace]

We booked flights to Italy for September and other than the Air Transat cattle class with no space, the best we found was KLM. They still aren't anywhere near what we've paid to go to Europe in the past, but it's better than most of the real airlines.

[Tyler]

Chris - what's the best, and I guess, cheapest way to get from Calgary to Seoul?

[Hi-Psi]

Hey Chris, looking for a good price to Australia or New Zealand for Late August/Early September. Know of any specials at the moment? Might just be booking one way for now, not sure.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Chris - what's the best, and I guess, cheapest way to get from Calgary to Seoul?

Hi Tyler,

Well, it appears that the cheapest flight for the upcoming year is currently in November at around $1130 roundtrip after tax using United. That involves 34 hours of total travel time with stopovers.

Overall though, Air Canada is fastest at 27 hours of travel time, and only $50 more, so well worth it.

So in general, I'd say Air Canada is your best bet with around $1180ish being a decent price at the moment. I've definitely seen Seoul cheaper than that though, but it usually hovers around $1000-$1100.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by Hi-Psi

Hey Chris, looking for a good price to Australia or New Zealand for Late August/Early September. Know of any specials at the moment? Might just be booking one way for now, not sure.

Check Air New Zealand, they have a seat sale on right now. I think it's around $1200ish.

United had a sale going as well for approx $1000, but I believe it's done.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Hi-Psi

Hey Chris, looking for a good price to Australia or New Zealand for Late August/Early September. Know of any specials at the moment? Might just be booking one way for now, not sure.

Hi Psi,

As Tron mentioned, United did have some really good prices to Australia in August, around $1000ish roundtrip after tax. At the moment though, Delta seems to be cheapest and they have flights for $1030. The United flights seem to be around $1150.

Tron: When you say Air New Zealand has flights for $1200, are you referring to before tax? Is it this one:

http://www.airnewzealand.ca/discount...ying-fun-again

It looks like it's $1198 + $230 from Calgary + ...

*Above fares do not include fuel surcharge, government fees, taxes or any other incidental charges. Estimated tax of $333 includes a fuel surcharge fee of $114.00 one way and $228.00 return

It looks to me like the cheapest are around $1700 roundtrip after tax on Air New Zealand to Auckland, which does appear to be the cheapest airline going there at the moment.

You could always grab the $1030 flight to Sydney, and then it's only about $250 roundtrip from Sydney to Auckland after tax on Aerolineas Argentinas at the moment. $330 on LAN.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Cheap + Europe + summer hasn't really happened this year so far.

The cheapest are around $1090 roundtrip after tax using Air Transat if you can go Aug 5 to 26. Hopefully Air Transat will feel compelled at some point to offer cuts on July/August fares.

cM

I'm still waiting for a good sale priced fare to London this summer. I must leave here on July 28, but the return date is flexible. Somewhere between 7 and 21 days. I've probably only got one more week to wait for a sale before I face rising pricing due to an imminent departure date.

Air Transat is the cheapest right now, by quite a bit, at around $1050.

How is the flight experience on Airtransat? Is it horrible? I heard someone refer to them as cattle liners. Should I pay more for a different airline?

It will be me, my wife and our two children aged 4 and 2 going so comfort is an issue to a degree.

Thanks for any I sight!!!

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Draug

I'm still waiting for a good sale priced fare to London this summer. I must leave here on July 28, but the return date is flexible. Somewhere between 7 and 21 days. I've probably only got one more week to wait for a sale before I face rising pricing due to an imminent departure date.

Air Transat is the cheapest right now, by quite a bit, at around $1050.

How is the flight experience on Airtransat? Is it horrible? I heard someone refer to them as cattle liners. Should I pay more for a different airline?

It will be me, my wife and our two children aged 4 and 2 going so comfort is an issue to a degree.

Thanks for any I sight!!!

Hi Draug,

Well, horrible can be pretty relative. I mean, people aren't screaming out in pain during the flight or anything like that from what I've seen. Basically you'll just have very little leg or shoulder room.

How much discomfort that causes might be influenced by your size. I'm 6'2 around 200ish and I've lived through the Air Transat experience a few times. Yes it's a little more uncomfortable than other airlines but I certainly wouldn't call it unbearable or anything.

Your next best option looks to be around $700 more per passenger on Air Canada or Lufthansa, not chump change especially for a family of 4.

So I guess you have to weigh your relative comfort vs 2 grand or so. Think of it as your family getting paid $117/hour to endure the pain.

cM

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

Looks like Westjet is doing away with seat sales.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/WestJet...614/story.html

Going to drop prices by 25% instead.

So I wonder what the normal prices are, I always seem to see seat sales on their website

Any feedback on WJ's "new" pricing? The only thing I can see is that their usual prices are pretty much the same and are a far cry from the cheap flights that used to show up every now and then, and even their "50% off" sales...

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Any feedback on WJ's "new" pricing? The only thing I can see is that their usual prices are pretty much the same and are a far cry from the cheap flights that used to show up every now and then, and even their "50% off" sales...

At the moment there's nothing too special from either WestJet or AC. Being summer time, prices are at their peak (which makes me wonder why WestJet would choose now to come out with their new pricing strategy).

Here's a YouTube video that WestJet released, explaining their new strategy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-N2BakKUg0

I think maybe it only helps those who are booking far in advance, and can't be bothered to check/wait for a great price, so will take the mediocre price (but better than exorbitant price) far in advance.

[red sky]

Hi Chris,

I have a friend in Ottawa who plans to fly into Calgary on Thursday July 8 and leave after the weekend (i.e. on or after July 12th). He is somewhat flexible on the dates. Any idea on the cheapest pricing out there?

Thanks in advance!

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by red sky

Hi Chris,

I have a friend in Ottawa who plans to fly into Calgary on Thursday July 8 and leave after the weekend (i.e. on or after July 12th). He is somewhat flexible on the dates. Any idea on the cheapest pricing out there?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Red,

There's nothing great right now, the cheapest is Air Canada at around $670ish, but WestJet is about the same.

Basically, as it gets this close to departure date, fares are only likely to go up *unless* your friend gets lucky and Air Canada or WestJet decide to have a sale. But of course the odds of that happening between now and then become less and less.

If your friend can somehow get to Montreal cheaply, the prices look a little better at around $540 or so on WestJet.

[kobasew19]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Hi Red,

There's nothing great right now, the cheapest is Air Canada at around $670ish, but WestJet is about the same.

Basically, as it gets this close to departure date, fares are only likely to go up *unless* your friend gets lucky and Air Canada or WestJet decide to have a sale. But of course the odds of that happening between now and then become less and less.

If your friend can somehow get to Montreal cheaply, the prices look a little better at around $540 or so on WestJet.

hey Cmyden,

How bout end of July from Ottawa/mtl to Calgary roundtrip?

Thanks

[Lemieux]

Hey Chris,

any deals on Calgary to Texas in mid July round trip?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by kobasew19

hey Cmyden,

How bout end of July from Ottawa/mtl to Calgary roundtrip?

Thanks

Hi Kobasew,

Montreal looks a bit cheaper by maybe $50 or so. The cheapest being July 28 to Aug 4 using WestJet. Should be around $540 roundtrip after tax or so.

Basically, without a real summer sale from WestJet or AC, there's not bound to be any significant change to the price.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Lemieux

Hey Chris,

any deals on Calgary to Texas in mid July round trip?

Hi Lemieux,

Dallas looks to be cheapest at around $640 roundtrip after tax using US Airways. July 14-21 being cheapest.

July 21-28 is a little cheaper at $618, US Airways to Dallas.

cM

[Draug]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Hi Draug,

Well, horrible can be pretty relative. I mean, people aren't screaming out in pain during the flight or anything like that from what I've seen. Basically you'll just have very little leg or shoulder room.

How much discomfort that causes might be influenced by your size. I'm 6'2 around 200ish and I've lived through the Air Transat experience a few times. Yes it's a little more uncomfortable than other airlines but I certainly wouldn't call it unbearable or anything.

Your next best option looks to be around $700 more per passenger on Air Canada or Lufthansa, not chump change especially for a family of 4.

So I guess you have to weigh your relative comfort vs 2 grand or so. Think of it as your family getting paid $117/hour to endure the pain.

cM

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion ... Air Transat it is. This flight is operated by Thomas Cook, incidentally. Still, it is on what looks to be a crappy Airbus 300-200

With only 4 weeks to go, prices arent going to get lower are they?

The price this week remains just under $1100. I am guessing that with only 4 weeks to go, I likely wont see a better price, especially considering the other airlines are all $600-$700 more. And, interestingly, Air Transat is no longer coming back in an Expedia search, but the price of $1100ish is still available on their website. I need to do the seat selection too, because splitting up the family could prove disasterous.

I was just about to book the 4 tickets right now, but their online booking system has a bug! My son's second birthday falls between now and when we leave, so when I enter his birthday, the ticket system is counting him as under 2, but is expecting him to be 2 and over based on the ticket quote I selected. It wont let me advance ... too funny! I'll have to call them tomorrow.

[Jiggy]

Hey Chris,

Looking for a flight to Australia end of Aug. Cheapest I could find was around $1600, isn't that a lot for this time of year?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

Hey Chris,

Looking for a flight to Australia end of Aug. Cheapest I could find was around $1600, isn't that a lot for this time of year?

Definitely. United has flights to Sydney and back for around $1135 roundtrip after tax. Aug 29 to Sep 9 for example.

Delta has flights for roughly the same price. Might want to look at Delta, I've heard some people say the flights to Australia on United aren't great.

cM