Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

Those were some killer deals to Central America. I wish I had some free time to capitalize on that.

Unfortunately the fare war to Central America seems to be over.

Costa Rica was down to $370 roundtrip after taxes on Delta at one point. Pretty crazy, considering before this year fares rarely dropped much below $750-$800ish.

Belize was probably the biggest surprise though.

[cmyden]

Just an FYI that today's Westjet Blue Tag deal is to Vegas. Works out to $322 roundtrip after taxes for direct flights, as cheap as it seems to get these days.

Look for January dates on Westjet's site. Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu/Sat flights are the cheap ones. Deal will be around until 4PM.

[cmyden]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12...mas-next-year/

Finally! This is welcome news to those like me that hate pre-tax airfare prices.

The Conservative government announced Friday that Canadian airlines will be required to advertise the full price of airfares by Christmas 2012, including any airport taxes and other hidden fees.

The announcement comes 1,639 days after a law received royal assent requiring airlines to include all the extra fees, surcharges and taxes in airfare ads, so consumers aren’t shocked when they see a total tally for their travel plans that exceeds the advertised airfare price.

[Ozy_Flame]

Good! I hate those $99 to England prices, but then after taxes it's $700.

Airline and cell phone companies have got to be the worst perpetrators for hiding additional fees. And they probably wouldn't willingly change if they weren't forced to either.

[rubecube]

Hey Chris,

Whatever happened to YYJ Deals? I know there was talk about it but it never seemed to come to fruition. Are there just not a lot of deals from the island?

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by GriffonB00t

That's pretty awesome. Man, I've never even been on a plane before o.o

Sucks to be you!

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Hey Chris,

Whatever happened to YYJ Deals? I know there was talk about it but it never seemed to come to fruition. Are there just not a lot of deals from the island?

It's somewhat rare for anything interesting out of YYJ, and not really enough to warrant it's own site. Occasionally though, when there's something interesting for Vancouver, it will also be available out of Victoria.

When that happens, I always try to let the people in the Victoria FB group know about it...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=240950073624

The recent Central America deals for example, were available out of both YVR and YYJ.

[cmyden]

Some WJ and AC codes out today...

link: http://www.westjet.com/guest/en/deal...pc-ge-20111221

Save an extra 15% off* all destinations on new online bookings.

To redeem this offer, bookings must be made on westjet.com. Both the promo code PCR41 and coupon code MOXJ1QT are required at the time of booking on the first page of the booking process. Bookings must be made by December 23, 2011 (9:59 p.m. MT) and travel must occur before May 16, 2012.

link: http://www.aircanada.com/en/offers/a.../discount.html

15% off anywhere we fly! Book by Dec 23.

To get your exclusive discount, simply enter this promotion code when booking right here at aircanada.com:
Promotion code
NOEL15

Valid on Tango fares.
Offer is valid for travel until May 16, 2012.
Book by December 23, 2011 midnight, from your city of departure.

The AC one says 'anywhere we fly' but then the disclaimer below that says only valid within Canada and to Asia.

[topfiverecords]

NOELPLUS15

Flights from Canada to the U.S., Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, South America and Australia

[tvp2003]

Has anyone ever flown with Allegiant Air and/or out of Great Falls? Just looking for feedback and/or tips as we have a trip from GF to Phoenix in January.

P.S. Prices are pretty cheap right now, including Feb 6 to 10 which would include Flames at Coyotes on Feb 9).

[Notorious Honey Badger]

Is it just me or is the deals map broken?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Notorious Honey Badger

Is it just me or is the deals map broken?

Not just you, it's definitely broken at the moment. The data format changed and I need to update the script.

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Has anyone ever flown with Allegiant Air and/or out of Great Falls? Just looking for feedback and/or tips as we have a trip from GF to Phoenix in January.

P.S. Prices are pretty cheap right now, including Feb 6 to 10 which would include Flames at Coyotes on Feb 9).

How is that worth it? Flights from yyc-phx on WestJet for Feb 6-10 are $139 each way....

NM at a $158 each I suppose you end up saving about $400. gas/food/parking/time, how much do you end up saving? I am curious.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

How is that worth it? Flights from yyc-phx on WestJet for Feb 6-10 are $139 each way....

NM at a $158 each I suppose you end up saving about $400. gas/food/parking/time, how much do you end up saving? I am curious.

Depends on the situation. We were planning a weekend trip to GF to do some shopping anyways so we decided to make it a week and head over to Phoenix. If you're only interested in going to Phoenix it might not be worth it to drive and fly (i.e. drive time, gas, parking) but here are the numbers:

WJ: $391.13 CDN taxes in (before coupon code though)
AA: $155.38 US taxes in (it was slightly cheaper when I looked last night)

Depending on how many people you have, it could be a decent savings. For us, the 5 hours driving was already built into our trip so it ended up being only $300 to extend our trip for four nights and go somewhere sunny

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

How is that worth it? Flights from yyc-phx on WestJet for Feb 6-10 are $139 each way....

NM at a $158 each I suppose you end up saving about $400. gas/food/parking/time, how much do you end up saving? I am curious.

In general I find if the U.S. airport is a 2-3 hours drive (each way), some Canadians are willing to drive if they save $200-$300 per person, or $400-$600 for a couple. For a group of 4 or a family it can be significant.

ie: Vancouver to Seattle, Toronto to Buffalo.

For us here in Calgary, a 5 hour drive to Montana is a pretty big time commitment, and I imagine the savings would have to be closer to $500/person before most would think of it as being worthwhile. $1000 for a couple, a couple grand for a family.

For those that live in Lethbridge, flying out of Great Falls (3 hour drive) becomes pretty attractive, as it's only 30 min further than driving to Calgary.

But as tvp points out, it depends on the situation. Personally I have yet to ever see a price out of Montana that has tempted me to drive down. There are the occasional freak price drops on international flights, but those tend to drop here at the same time, and international flights out of Montana can be very complicated/lengthy. Without a large U.S. city they don't tend to get overly amazing inter-U.S. flight prices on the major airlines either.

Allegiants flights to Phoenix/Vegas/Los Angeles would be about the only ones ever worth considering, but with those destinations having a bottom price from Calgary of around $400ish roundtrip after taxes, it's not likely to be worth it for most that weren't planning to go to Montana for additional reasons.

Could also require an overnight stay in Montana on the way there, or back, or both.

Weather is another factor to consider. Becomes a lot less attractive to drive in the winter, unless you're hitting up Whitefish.

Vehicle depreciation is another factor, but some don't like to consider it. To me though, if you're making a trip with your car that you wouldn't otherwise be making, it's a factor.

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Depends on the situation. We were planning a weekend trip to GF to do some shopping anyways so we decided to make it a week and head over to Phoenix. If you're only interested in going to Phoenix it might not be worth it to drive and fly (i.e. drive time, gas, parking) but here are the numbers:

WJ: $391.13 CDN taxes in (before coupon code though)
AA: $155.38 US taxes in (it was slightly cheaper when I looked last night)

Depending on how many people you have, it could be a decent savings. For us, the 5 hours driving was already built into our trip so it ended up being only $300 to extend our trip for four nights and go somewhere sunny

OK, thanks. That's awesome then! Ya If you were planning on being down there to shop, then I guess that is a nice cheap flight. Well planned.

Funny to think that you rarely every see cheaper then $139 seat sale in Canada, and it is still a $400 return flight! LOL, damn this blasted country and our expensive flights!

[drewboy12]

Hey cmyden,

Since your online. Can you tell me the cheapest way to get To SE Asia from North America? Options are open, any where in SE Asia from ANYWHERE in North America. Ive been looking around an dthe cheapest I can find is LAX-BKK for about $500. I just need a one way ticket.


errr at the end of March

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Vehicle depreciation is another factor, but some don't like to consider it. To me though, if you're making a trip with your car that you wouldn't otherwise be making, it's a factor.

Anyone driving an extra 1000 kms, you should consider that your car is now worth a bit less, you've used up ~1/5th of an oil change, and a piece of your warranty (newer car). Maybe even allowable kms for someone on a lease. It definitely costs more than just gas.

For me, it usually would cost me at least an extra day of vacation time, which has some pretty significant value too.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

Hey cmyden,

Since your online. Can you tell me the cheapest way to get To SE Asia from North America? Options are open, any where in SE Asia from ANYWHERE in North America. Ive been looking around an dthe cheapest I can find is LAX-BKK for about $500. I just need a one way ticket.


errr at the end of March

Is that after tax? If so, I would say you've hit bottom.

To S.E. Asia, flights departing from LAX, SFO, SEA, YVR are likely to be the cheapest the majority of the time.

http://www.kayak.com/flights/#LAX-BK...03-28-flexible

http://www.kayak.com/flights/#SFO-BK...03-28-flexible

http://www.kayak.com/flights/#SEA-BK...03-28-flexible

http://www.kayak.com/flights/#YVR-BK...03-28-flexible

Could also try replacing BKK with SGN, TPE, or MNL. That will cover all the usual suspects for SE Asia.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by cmyden

For us here in Calgary, a 5 hour drive to Montana is a pretty big time commitment, and I imagine the savings would have to be closer to $500/person before most would think of it as being worthwhile. $1000 for a couple, a couple grand for a family.

This is a good point -- it is 5 hours each way to GF from Calgary (assuming no lineups at the border), so definitely not for everyone.

We were going to wait until after our daughter turned two (as she would need her own fare and would no longer be a considered a lap infant) to try doing a drive and fly, but we were going down there anyways so I decided to pull the trigger.

For Montana shopping, I normally prefer Kalispell over Great Falls, but we decided to go with the two-lane divided highway/interstate to GF -- it's a nice and relaxing, flat, easy drive.