Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Boblobla]

Looking at going to Philly from July 7-21. Any smoking deals jump out at you?

[Notorious Honey Badger]

pretty expensive right now to philly. about 530+ (which is high for philly imo). Newark isn't much better.

[cmyden]

I wouldn't say that's high for Philadelphia these days (if that's after taxes). Sounds about right especially considering it's summer travel. Fairly rare to see flights in the $400s or cheaper to Eastern U.S. anymore, even to Newark which is almost always the cheapest.

Occasionally United drops their fares to Philadelphia and Charlotte in an unadvertised hub sale across all dates. Haven't seen one like that for a while though.

[FiftyBelow]

Planning a trip to Paris for October. Is it likely that Air Canada will be having a seat sale for fall later in the summer? I have to book with air canada as I'm using pre-paid credits.

[Norseman]

I'm off to Toronto this November for the Grey Cup and I'm looking at flights. WestJet is priced a whopping $1200 for the Thu/Mon legs, while AirCanada is around $625.

To those who regularly travel to Toronto, what's a decent price point? I'm considering just booking the AirCanada flights now as I'm sure that will be a big weekend for travel - at the very least I doubt that there will be any seat sales Grey Cup weekend.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Norseman

I'm off to Toronto this November for the Grey Cup and I'm looking at flights. WestJet is priced a whopping $1200 for the Thu/Mon legs, while AirCanada is around $625.

To those who regularly travel to Toronto, what's a decent price point? I'm considering just booking the AirCanada flights now as I'm sure that will be a big weekend for travel - at the very least I doubt that there will be any seat sales Grey Cup weekend.

Calgary to Toronto rarely seems to drop too much below $475 roundtrip after taxes these days. Pretty common to see fares in the mid to high $500s. Even Wed to Wed on a non-Grey Cup week in November is at $572.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by FiftyBelow

Planning a trip to Paris for October. Is it likely that Air Canada will be having a seat sale for fall later in the summer? I have to book with air canada as I'm using pre-paid credits.

I can't remember the last time there was a decent discount to Europe on a major carrier. Only Air Transat, Thomas Cook, and Condor ever seem to budge much on their prices.

That being said, I wouldn't be overly afraid to watch up to about 2 months before departure in hopes of a drop, especially for the off season.

[cmyden]

Calgary to Scotland - $563 roundtrip after taxes

Some June flights to Scotland just dropped to $563 roundtrip after taxes.

Dates:

June 6 to June 13, 20, or 27

June 12 to June 20 or 27

Here's how to find them...

1. Go to http://www.canadianaffair.ca

2. Search for a flight from Calgary to Glasgow, using one of the date combos above.

3. After you hit 'Find Flights' you'll see a page that says 'What do I do now?'

On this page, click on the words 'Special Flight Offers' .You'll see the 2 date options. Click on 'Book'.

You'll notice that the price is listed at $548 after tax, but If you click on the price breakdown you'll see that Canadian Affair is charging a booking fee of $15. After checking out Air Transat's site directly, I noticed it was still cheaper to book these flights through Canadian Affair (this is not always the case, I usually check both). Air Transat's site is showing them as $627.

There's also a great price to London on Air Transat at the moment. June 9-16 is down to $599 roundtrip after taxes. You can see that one on AirTransat.ca


All Inclusive Deal - $797 /person after taxes - Akumal, Mexico

There's also an amazing last minute all inclusive deal with a calculated Deal Score of 84 / 100, making it the best deal for the money out of the millions of packages out there...

http://ydeals.com/share/kglsn/

Seattle - $285 roundtrip after taxes

Noticing that Alaska Air and United seem to be having a little price war to Seattle for summer travel. June/July/August flights are all priced at $285 roundtrip after taxes on a large majority of dates.

[cmyden]

Wendover, Nevada has some more of those flight and hotel packages from Calgary for $199/person after taxes & fees. Some of you might remember them from last year.

If your idea of a vacation is flying to the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but gamble and rock out to Bachman Turner (minus Overdrive) and Rick Springfield, this could be the deal for you...

http://www.wendoverfun.com/flights/f...ervations.html

July 19-22.

(Also one in October for $219)

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Wendover, Nevada has some more of those flight and hotel packages from Calgary for $199/person after taxes & fees. Some of you might remember them from last year.

If your idea of a vacation is flying to the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but gamble and rock out to Bachman Turner (minus Overdrive) and Rick Springfield, this could be the deal for you...

http://www.wendoverfun.com/flights/f...ervations.html

July 19-22.

(Also one in October for $219)

Considering there's no airport in Wendover, where do you fly into for this? If it's Salt Lake City, can you just stay there for the week?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Considering there's no airport in Wendover, where do you fly into for this? If it's Salt Lake City, can you just stay there for the week?

Unfortunately, you do actually fly into Wendover.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendover_Airport

Currently, there is no scheduled airline service to Wendover. However, Sun Country Airlines and Allegiant Air offer charter flights to various cities across the United States from Wendover using Boeing 737-800 and McDonnell Douglas MD-87, respectively, aircraft as part of a package deal to bring tourists to local casinos. On average, the airport will sees one charter flight per day.[2]

I remember looking into it last year, to see if it could be used as a cheap way to get to that area and explore from there. Someone did end up finding a rental car company but it was really expensive, and Wendover is a ways from anything interesting.

[fundmark19]

Did anyone do this flight last year? Seems like it could be a fun guys gambling trip

[cmyden]

Some June flights from Calgary to Anaheim have dropped to $289 roundtrip after taxes.

Try June 16-23 on Delta.com for example.

[cmyden]

KLM asking people to vote on which city they should put on sale from Calgary for $749 roundtrip after taxes

KLM is doing something pretty interesting (for an airline), and asking Canadians to vote on which city they would like to see go on sale for 48 hours.

Whichever city gets the most votes will be put on sale for $749 roundtrip after taxes from Calgary. To some of these cities this would be an excellent price, a price that Calgary has never seen.

The cities you can choose from are:

Amsterdam, Netherlands
Barcelona, Spain
Bucharest, Romania
Dublin, Ireland
Istanbul, Turkey

Now I don't want to influence the voting (Ok, maybe I do) but I *really* think you should vote for somewhere other than Amsterdam.

Western Canada sees the occasional great price to Amsterdam on Air Transat from time to time, and has even seen prices in the $500s (roundtrip after taxes).

Cities like Istanbul, Turkey on the other hand, will *never* see a great price like this, so it's a very rare opportunity to get there cheaply.

Ok, full disclosure, I've always wanted to go to Turkey, so if you can't make a decision about which city you'd like to vote for, or as a personal favor to me, please vote Istanbul.

To vote, go to http://www.facebook.com/KLMCanada - you will need to Like their Facebook page to vote.

[Table 5]

I'd definitely do Istanbul for that price.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Table 5

I'd definitely do Istanbul for that price.

It's already caught up to Amsterdam which had a pretty big lead

[kipperfan]

Istanbul is a great city, but I've been, so I wanted to vote for Bucharest! But then I looked at the vote totals and realized it has no chance so I hopped on the Istanbul bandwagon as well. Though I have already been, at price I'd strongly consider going again and perhaps working in Bucharest/Black Sea as a side trip.

[no_joke]

CP jihad for Istanbul? Chris, what does your crystal ball say about a guess for a sale fare price for RT to Istanbul? Before this, my plan was to jump on an Air Transat sale to England then discount airline to Turkey. Doable but much more room for error! (?)

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by no_joke

CP jihad for Istanbul? Chris, what does your crystal ball say about a guess for a sale fare price for RT to Istanbul? Before this, my plan was to jump on an Air Transat sale to England then discount airline to Turkey. Doable but much more room for error! (?)

If Istanbul wins the vote, KLM says it will be $749 roundtrip after taxes from Calgary.

That would be a pretty amazing price on KLM (or any major airline). September flights from YYC to Istanbul are $1400ish at the moment.

I've also considered an Air Transat flight to London + flight to Istanbul. Best case scenario would probably be $550ish roundtrip to London + $250ish to Istanbul and back.

This would be a lot less complicated though, and a much more enjoyable flight, without the logistical headaches.

Istanbul is doing pretty well in the voting now

[no_joke]

Voted. The crystal ball is quite clear today! Humblest apologies for asking a dumb question... I was over-excited about the prospect of a deal to Istanbul and some neurons must have shut down.