Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Temporary_User]

I know travel is always more expensive, but I have a 10 day window around christmas time where I'm open to travel almost anywhere in the world.
Any decent deals anywhere? (would like somewhere European if possible).

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Temporary_User

I know travel is always more expensive, but I have a 10 day window around christmas time where I'm open to travel almost anywhere in the world.
Any decent deals anywhere? (would like somewhere European if possible).

Unfortunately your window is the same window as everyone else's, and that Dec 22-Jan 3 window is rarely anything but expensive, to anywhere.

Air Transat to London or Manchester would be the best place to hope for anything close to decent to Europe. The further you can get from that crowded window that everyone else is trying to escape through, the better. Their Jan/Feb flights are actually down to $568 roundtrip after taxes at the moment.

There's a New Year's one for $753 if that's part of your window...

http://www.kayak.com/flights/#YYC-LG...01-04-flexible

Here's a realistic look at what it costs to get through the crowded window to Europe with the others...




So uncrowded window = $568, while crowded window = $852

That's exactly 1.5X more for the crowded window. I find you can use that exact ratio for all travel around the holidays.

Take a good price for any other time of year, and multiply it by 1.5, and that will be a 'good price for the holidays'.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by fotze

Does Calgary have any more direct flights to cool caribbean places yet. Places other than Cuba, Costa Rica, Dominican or Mexico?

There's the occasional direct charter to Jamaica or Panama, believe that's about it. Well, there's Nassau, Bahamas, if that's cool.

[username]

Anyone know when might be a good time to book flights to Auckland New Zealand? I'm going in March and was just wondering what would be a good price for flights there?

[cmyden]

Crazy price drops to Central America!! From $391 roundtrip after taxes

American Airlines has just made an unadvertised cut on their fares to Central America from all across Canada. The prices are ridiculous, and I believe the largest overall price cuts from Calgary to Central America, ever.

Here's what I've discovered so far...

- Prices between February and May look to be affected the most
- Some routes on AA to Central America require an overnight stay in the U.S.

Here are the cities that have dropped , and I'll provide an example search on Kayak in late February for each one.

Try your own dates and see what comes up. Play around on Kayak to find cheap ones with good routings.

Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR) - $391 roundtrip after taxes
http://www.kayak.com/flights/#YYC-LI...-22/2012-03-07

Tegucigalpa, Honduras (TGU) - $399 roundtrip after taxes
http://www.kayak.com/flights/#YYC-TG...03-07-flexible

San Salvador, El Salvador - $403 roundtrip after taxes
http://www.kayak.com/flights/#YYC-SA...03-07-flexible

Belize (BZE) - $448 roundtrip after taxes
http://www.kayak.com/flights/#YYC-BZ...03-10-flexible

You can also play around with a multi-city search, and fly into one of those cities, and out of another, for a cheap price.

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by Hi-Psi

....Taiwan and Taipei were great, had a lot of fun and the food was amazing!!

does not compute ... seriously? having been to many regions of Asia, most of the food is garbage and dog. i dont know how people dont die of serious food borne illness.

[mykalberta]

Great prices to LIR and BZE

[Codes]

Hi Guys!

I forgot my phone at home today, and Twitter doesn't seem to work on my computer here, but I was wondering if someone might be able to tell me what Westjet's Blue Tag deal is today?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Codes

Hi Guys!

I forgot my phone at home today, and Twitter doesn't seem to work on my computer here, but I was wondering if someone might be able to tell me what Westjet's Blue Tag deal is today?

Hasn't happened yet, should be posted in about an hour at 1PM.

[Notorious Honey Badger]

Wow Chris nice find. I think I may go to Belize so long as I can get a friend or two to come along. That's an amazing deal... cheaper to fly to an ocean paradise than Ottawa?? Nice.

[Otsy]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Hasn't happened yet, should be posted in about an hour at 1PM.

No blue tag today because of their existing deals that are going on like 15% all flights to the US and there's a deal on some Canadian destinations too I think.

[cmyden]

I'm liking the idea of into Belize, out of San Salvador - $392 roundtrip after taxes.

Short stopover each way. Look for Friday flights to Belize, Tue/Wed flights from San Salvador to find the best connections each way.

[cmyden]

Madness to Central America continues. Continental and Delta are now price matching AA. Probably the most interesting ones are Delta's flights to Costa Rica, with reasonable flight lengths each way, at $381 roundtrip after taxes! Crazy.

[malcolmk14]

How easy is it to get to/from Mexico from Belize transportation-wise?

Have a wedding to go to in May in the Mayan Riviera and if we could fly into and out of Belize for half the price, that'd be pretty sweet. Just wouldn't want to run into any trouble at the border or anything.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

How easy is it to get to/from Mexico from Belize transportation-wise?

Have a wedding to go to in May in the Mayan Riviera and if we could fly into and out of Belize for half the price, that'd be pretty sweet. Just wouldn't want to run into any trouble at the border or anything.

A lot of people fly into Cancun and bus it down to Belize, but I think it's around 12 hours each way. I think you need to transfer in Chetumal.

Very rare for someone to have the incentive to do that in reverse because Cancun is typically a *lot* cheaper to get to than Belize, at least, it was up until this year.

Fairly common to see flights for around $500ish or less (roundtrip after taxes) to CUN, but before this year it was rare to see flights to Belize for too much under $1000. There's a lot more competition to CUN than to Belize, thanks to Westjet, and all the charter flights.

So I really don't know if it would be worth it for you to fly into Belize and bus it back and forth unless your potential savings are nominal. There's also the fact that flights to Belize are typically a *lot* longer than to Cancun, which would make it even less worth it.

This is the first time in history that flights to Belize have been cheaper than to Mexico.

[malcolmk14]

Yeah, we want to travel from May 2 to 9 and the CUN flights are not cheap for those dates right now. We're willing to wait and see because I don't think the prices can go up any higher than they are now.

[Captain_Obvious]

Looking for more advice on Cuba...

Looking to go for 7 or 8 days anywhere from mid January to late February.

Thinking Varadero but open.

Late Jan / Early Feb right now seems a bit pricy around $900 and up for all inclusive packages... I know quite a few people who go regularly for less than that. Not concerned about 5 stars at all, I'm an easy traveler.

Anyone think that will go down a bit?

Best sites to watch on?

And is there a site to view how many cigars / how much rum I can bring back?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Captain_Obvious

Looking for more advice on Cuba...

Looking to go for 7 or 8 days anywhere from mid January to late February.

Thinking Varadero but open.

Late Jan / Early Feb right now seems a bit pricy around $900 and up for all inclusive packages... I know quite a few people who go regularly for less than that. Not concerned about 5 stars at all, I'm an easy traveler.

Anyone think that will go down a bit?

Best sites to watch on?

And is there a site to view how many cigars / how much rum I can bring back?

Typically the Canadian tour operators offer the most overall price movement on their all inclusive packages about 6-8 weeks before departure. (Best overall prices on the majority of packages)

Then with week or two to go, there can be some *crazy* discounts on *certain* packages but you have to be completely flexible on both destination and date.

All of the sites you've ever heard of that offer all inclusive packages from the Canadian tour operators offer them at the same price. Comparing prices between RedTag, FlightCentre, and SellOffVacations for example, is a waste of time.

Soon there will be a tool to make finding the best deal on an all inclusive package a lot easier though

[Hi-Psi]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

does not compute ... seriously? having been to many regions of Asia, most of the food is garbage and dog. i dont know how people dont die of serious food borne illness.

I have been through 45+ countries in my travels so far and I found Asia has THE BEST food out of all the places I have been thus far. Yes there have been very questionable food preparation practices when eating in Asia but I have yet to ever get sick and minus a few local dishes here and there, the food has been amazing.

To be honest, the really shady food stands and "streat meet" vendors have usually offered the best tasting food around...

[Kybosh]

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