Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Muta

Long story short - third parties can be cheap, but you better hope absolutely no hiccup occurs at all with your trip. Best way, for piece of mind, is to get your ticket directly though the airlines.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

This is on the return flight, so I have less anxiety about getting back to Calgary as I do getting to Montreal.

The difference is about $400 so the risk is worth it as I'm footing the bill.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Thanks for sharing your experience.

This is on the return flight, so I have less anxiety about getting back to Calgary as I do getting to Montreal.

The difference is about $400 so the risk is worth it as I'm footing the bill.

No worries dude! Not sure when exactly your trip is, but be very careful here about the possible, upcoming WJ strike in May... not sure how third-party bookings will be affected.

I've got a WJ flight to LA at the end of May coming up, and I'm keeping a tab on this strike situation. That said, based on my recent booking experiences, I do have a LOT more faith in dealing with WJ than with trip.com, I'll tell you that straight up. Dealing with two third-party bookings when things went wrong was a bloody nightmare.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Muta

No worries dude! Not sure when exactly your trip is, but be very careful here about the possible, upcoming WJ strike in May... not sure how third-party bookings will be affected.

I'll be there and back before the cooling off period expires.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I'm not entirely sure what options would be available but given the price difference, travel insurance might be a good idea.

Trip.com might offer it. So may your credit card company.

It may be a reasonable piece of mind if things go sideways.

[InglewoodFan]

I need to head south for work in May, and I am booking all Delta metal through MSP instead of WestJet through ATL just do I don't get screwed by this potential strike. Longer travel days and more money, but it should mitigate the risk. I wonder how much this will hit WJ's bookings as more and more people get a bit gun shy about booking with them.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Muta

No worries dude! Not sure when exactly your trip is, but be very careful here about the possible, upcoming WJ strike in May... not sure how third-party bookings will be affected.

I was able to check in, but am stuck in a middle seat. Would have cost like $60 to move, so that's how they get you.

[Bigtime]

Got home Saturday afternoon from our trip to South Korea and Japan. Thanks again to all of you that supplied information and ideas for what to do/see. Two amazing countries, exceeded our expectations and had us pondering how does one live there instead!

Can we at the very least get some high speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton and Vancouver? I'd settle for 200km/h speeds also.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Got home Saturday afternoon from our trip to South Korea and Japan. Thanks again to all of you that supplied information and ideas for what to do/see. Two amazing countries, exceeded our expectations and had us pondering how does one live there instead!

Can we at the very least get some high speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton and Vancouver? I'd settle for 200km/h speeds also.

I have the same feeling when I come back. Sadly it's not feasible to move there. How long were you gone for again? What did you end up seeing?

I too would like some trains, but I would also accept a transit system that can get me across Calgary in less time than it takes to get across Tokyo on theirs....

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

I have the same feeling when I come back. Sadly it's not feasible to move there. How long were you gone for again? What did you end up seeing?

I too would like some trains, but I would also accept a transit system that can get me across Calgary in less time than it takes to get across Tokyo on theirs....

We were gone for 19 days, 3 of which were heavy travel days (getting there, and home again). We flew into Seoul and spent 5 full days there. Did all the Palaces, the 1/2 day trip to the DMZ, and just spent a lot of time walking around exploring the city. Did do the Lotte tower and got that view from 455 meters up, that was awesome to take in.

After that we flew to Osaka, 3 nights there. Did a day trip to Hiroshima, very sobering experience to be there. 3 nights in Kyoto after seeing all that history, special gem there that was so quiet was the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple on the NW outskirts of the city. Then it was off to Tokyo for 5 nights, and we did a day trip down to Kamakura. We hit up a Capybara cafe in Tokyo, checked out the SkyTree (it was Golden week so no point waiting to go up those elevators, crazy busy). Lots of walking around exploring Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku. We also did Teamlab Planets, very cool experience.

I was totally train nerding out on this trip, which as an avgeek is weird for me. Loved the Shinkansen, the streetcars of Hiroshima. All the subway and JR lines. Crazy frequency, crazy sizes of trains, super clean. Was so awesome.

All told we put in almost 340,000 steps covering 248km of walking around and exploring and eating!

[BlackArcher101]

That sounds like an awesome trip, and quite the fast pace in Japan. Hit up any onsens?
I hear ya on nerding out on the trains. My next one I wanted to do a rail focused tour, but with the JR Pass price increase, that isn't sounding doable anymore :/ In the meantime, the JR station jingles as ringtones will suffice ha.

Did you get to the museum in Hiroshima and manage to make it through to the end without shedding a tear? I don't know of anyone who has been able to.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

That sounds like an awesome trip, and quite the fast pace in Japan. Hit up any onsens?
I hear ya on nerding out on the trains. My next one I wanted to do a rail focused tour, but with the JR Pass price increase, that isn't sounding doable anymore :/ In the meantime, the JR station jingles as ringtones will suffice ha.

Did you get to the museum in Hiroshima and manage to make it through to the end without shedding a tear? I don't know of anyone who has been able to.

No onsens unfortunately. We did do the museum in Hiroshima, it sure pulled no punches. Our 10yo was pretty upset by the end, and had lots of questions as to why they used atomic bombs in the war. The photos were one thing, but my wife was really affected by the drawings survivors did that were on display. And things like the school uniforms...it was rough.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Got home Saturday afternoon from our trip to South Korea and Japan. Thanks again to all of you that supplied information and ideas for what to do/see. Two amazing countries, exceeded our expectations and had us pondering how does one live there instead!

Can we at the very least get some high speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton and Vancouver? I'd settle for 200km/h speeds also.

Sounds like an awesome trip Bigtime.

I do have to respectfully disagree on the second point however. I think we'd get better bang for our buck spending the money on transit and regional transit in the three major metropolitan areas. I don't think we have the population density, the demand, or really the need to high speed rail city to city.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Got home Saturday afternoon from our trip to South Korea and Japan. Thanks again to all of you that supplied information and ideas for what to do/see. Two amazing countries, exceeded our expectations and had us pondering how does one live there instead!

Can we at the very least get some high speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton and Vancouver? I'd settle for 200km/h speeds also.

Would love to see pictures of the trip if you get around to it

[Lubicon]

Question for the CP braintrust. Looking to book airfare to Europe in late summer. Every airline website seems to be the same in that they don't offer a way to choose different flight if I don't like the connection time on what is offered. Is it possible to do that? ie force an earlier flight to increase the layover time? It seems like I am stuck with what is offered and most of those layovers are uncomfortably short even if they do meet the minimum as stated by each airline.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Question for the CP braintrust. Looking to book airfare to Europe in late summer. Every airline website seems to be the same in that they don't offer a way to choose different flight if I don't like the connection time on what is offered. Is it possible to do that? ie force an earlier flight to increase the layover time? It seems like I am stuck with what is offered and most of those layovers are uncomfortably short even if they do meet the minimum as stated by each airline.

https://airwander.com/ Not sure if this really works but I came across this site a couple years ago when trying to do what you are to Europe.

Put in your destination and dates and choose "hack your trip". Then add your stops and then filter by stop duration.

Edit: Giving it a try again, looks like you need a premium account now to do more than one stop. Also, prices are in USD.

[Fuzz]

Try finding it on Google Flights, then use the link they provide to book directly with the airline that way. If you find earlier flights that work for you, maybe try calling the airline and booking that way.

[Wormius]

Why not just filter or sort on “duration” in Google Flights?

Edit: Or rather ITA Matrix, it looks like Google doesn’t allow reverse sorting to look for longer layovers.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Why not just filter or sort on “duration” in Google Flights?

Edit: Or rather ITA Matrix, it looks like Google doesn’t allow reverse sorting to look for longer layovers.

Ya, on Google you can't force long duration. You can on Kayak though.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Would love to see pictures of the trip if you get around to it

A few quick ones from Seoul.

Viewing deck from the Lotte World Tower, 455 meters up:





Gyeongbokgung Palace:



Oh hi North Korea:

[Bigtime]

Osaka Castle:



Dontonbori in Osaka:



Hiroshima, Atomic Bomb Dome:



Kyoto, Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple: