Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Mad Mel]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

Went last year, litterly had liek 3 hours of sun, cloudy rainy every other day... Go somewhere like the Dominican instead.

Or if the budget allows, someplace in the southern hemisphere. With the seasons being reversed, your winter is our summer. Christmas break is usually the hottest time of year here, it's pretty weird.

[cmyden]

For any CPers on the west coast, there's an amazing deal from Bellingham to Honolulu, Hawaii for $235 roundtrip *after* tax. Try Jan 10-17 on Orbitz. Or Jan 11-18.

[Captain_Obvious]

A little off topic but what time is 01:00 GMT local Calgary time?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Captain_Obvious

A little off topic but what time is 01:00 GMT local Calgary time?

Mountain Time is GMT-7, so it should be 6:00pm.

I think there's an hour shift when we're on daylight savings, so it's only GMT-6 from the middle of March through the beginning of November, and 1:00GMT would be 7:00pm in Calgary.

[sa226]

Originally Posted by getbak

Mountain Time is GMT-7, so it should be 6:00pm.

I think there's an hour shift when we're on daylight savings, so it's only GMT-6 from the middle of March through the beginning of November, and 1:00GMT would be 7:00pm in Calgary.

I was going to correct you but when I read your second statement you are correct. Just a little backwards.

Right now GMT 0100 is 7:00 pm in Calgary, when we change the clocks again it will be 6:00 pm.

[getbak]

Yeah, that's what I said. When we're on DST it's GMT-6, when we're on Standard Time it's GMT-7.

In the straight definition, it's always GMT-7 with an hour adjustment for DST because GMT never changes. It's strange though because we're actually on DST for most of the year and only on Standard time about 4 and half months over the winter now.

[username]

Does anyone/Chris know when flights to London England would go on sale for a trip some time in late May? Is that even a time when flights go down in price? Right now everything I've seen is around 1500 which is pretty steep.

Thanks.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by username

Does anyone/Chris know when flights to London England would go on sale for a trip some time in late May? Is that even a time when flights go down in price? Right now everything I've seen is around 1500 which is pretty steep.

Thanks.

Hi username,

The only cheap way of getting to London in the past year or so has been with Air Transat or Thomas Cook, and they generally don't drop the price of their flights until about a month ahead of departure or so.

Late May is usually a pretty good time to get a good deal to Europe, it's not quite into peak season yet, but still usually warm enough for Europe. It's once you get into the third week of June that the good prices start to die off. This year there were some good last minute deals for August. July had nothing.

I would definitely watch for a long while yet if you can.

[iggyntangs]

Trying to find a good deal for travelling to Vancouver from Calgary Jan 4-6 (or 7).

Haven't found any decent deals yet...any help/ideas?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by iggyntangs

Trying to find a good deal for travelling to Vancouver from Calgary Jan 4-6 (or 7).

Haven't found any decent deals yet...any help/ideas?

Vancouver hasn't had anything too great in a while. You basically just have to hope WestJet or AC decides to have a decent sale. I wouldn't hold my breath though, anything around the holiday period (Dec 20 to Jan 5) isn't overly likely to go on sale. Coming back on the 7th is probably your best chance.

Maybe keep an eye on flights out of Abbotsford/Victoria if you're flexible.

[cmyden]

Calgary to Panama (the country) in January - $629 roundtrip after tax

Panama (the country) because sometimes people confuse it with Panama City, Florida.

Air Transat just dropped the price of their January 18-25 flight down to $629 roundtrip after tax.

Screenshot from AirTransat.ca



Since Mexicana went bankrupt, there hasn't been any great prices to Panama. This one from Air Transat is the cheapest there's been in a while.

cM

[cmyden]

Calgary to Huatulco, Mexico - $365 roundtrip after tax

Sunwing's November 2-9 flight to Huatulco, Mexico has dropped to $365 roundtrip after tax.

Kind of an interesting one, you don't hear as much about Huatulco as other touristy destinations in Mexico.

Screenshot from Sunwing.ca



cM

[Scoopdogg]

Hey Chris/everyone,

I'm just inquiring about flights to Barcelona for next year. The dates I'm looking at are:

leaving June 9, 2011
returning June 26, 2011

Is there anything out there right now that is a good deal? When is the best time to look for flights to Barcelona?

We are flexible in regards to flying into somewhere else in Europe to take advantage of any good flight deals.

Thanks Chris

[Eagle Eye]

Anyone been to Antigua? Looking at going there for our 10 year anniversary (potentially staying at the Sandals down there).

Flights are my first question, I am looking to book a 10 day trip so would most likely be booking the flight and hotel seperatly instead of a package deal. Is it best to fly to TO first, or is there a better way to get there?

[fundmark19]

I stopped in antigua as part of a cruise and it was beautiful. Thats all I know how ever.

and from what I heard TO seems to have the best deals for mexico so I assume they would as well for other sun destinations

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Scoopdogg

Hey Chris/everyone,

I'm just inquiring about flights to Barcelona for next year. The dates I'm looking at are:

leaving June 9, 2011
returning June 26, 2011

Is there anything out there right now that is a good deal? When is the best time to look for flights to Barcelona?

We are flexible in regards to flying into somewhere else in Europe to take advantage of any good flight deals.

Thanks Chris

Hi Scoop,

At the moment, the cheapest flights around that time are $1400 roundtrip after tax (US Airways). June 9-28 is $1378 on KLM and better flights. But either way, in that range.

The only cheap way of getting to Europe this past year or so has been with Air Transat or Thomas Cook to London (or Manchester). A great price is usually $700ish roundtrip after tax or less (sometimes dips as low as $520).

If you can score something like that, London to Barcelona is only around $167 roundtrip after tax! (ie: on Iberia). Calgary to London on the major carriers won't help, because it's about as expensive as Barcelona.

The problem is of course, the Air Transat flights usually aren't cheap until a month or two beforehand, and on select dates.

cM

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

Anyone been to Antigua? Looking at going there for our 10 year anniversary (potentially staying at the Sandals down there).

Flights are my first question, I am looking to book a 10 day trip so would most likely be booking the flight and hotel seperatly instead of a package deal. Is it best to fly to TO first, or is there a better way to get there?

Calgary to Antigua can definitely be pricey, it looks like the cheapest flights are around $1068 roundtrip after tax at the moment, with long stopovers. Air Canada is fastest, but around $1400.

Toronto and Montreal definitely get much better prices, mostly thanks to competition from charter companies like CanJet. But then in that case, you could also be limited to 'one week' flights instead of 10 days.

Their cheapest charter flights look to be around $640 roundtrip after tax at the moment, but I've certainly seen cheaper, dipping down to $500ish or less, but that's in the off-season. And again, that's for 1 week, not 10 days.

Their flights on major carriers are cheaper than ours, but still look to be around $770 at the moment for the cheapest roundtrip and still long flights. Air Canada has direct flights from Toronto but look to be $1100ish. American Airlines has some in January from Toronto for $597, but with terrible layovers.

Bottom line, it might only be worth it if you could get a great deal on a charter flight (direct) from Toronto/Montreal.

You could also consider flying from Miami instead. Nov 25 to Dec 3 for example is $389 roundtrip on American Airlines, direct each way. Calgary to Miami around the same time is about $500.

Unfortunately that flight is a bit of a fluke, most of them are around $500 from Miami and more for non-stop.

cM

[Eagle Eye]

Thanks CM.

Looking to go in August, aircanada vacations actually allows me to select 10 day packages it looks like, although I cant go that far out yet.

[Ethaniel]

Looking at getting a new credit card and was Eye-Balling the Platinum Amex.

Is this one of the best cards to help assist in traveling? The Airmiles seem great and approximately 13 months for a 2 person round trip to Seattle for example, but I was wondering if the Travel Guru's may have a better option or opinion on this.

Thanks,

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Calgary to Panama (the country) in January - $629 roundtrip after tax

Panama (the country) because sometimes people confuse it with Panama City, Florida.

Air Transat just dropped the price of their January 18-25 flight down to $629 roundtrip after tax.

Screenshot from AirTransat.ca



Since Mexicana went bankrupt, there hasn't been any great prices to Panama. This one from Air Transat is the cheapest there's been in a while.

cM

Thanks, thats a great price for me to get to Costa Rica