Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Deelow]

a friend and I booked that PV trip in June for $675. Still not sold on summer in MExico but for the price it was worth a gamble. Hopefully the resort isn't a ghost town. Anyone else experience Mexico in June?

[Wookie]

Looking for Hawaii November 10th 2010 for 10 - 14 days. Any suggestions on when I should start looking again? Going to Oahu, already have a place to stay.

Tried looking at airmiles/points. Was 80,000 so my point giver declined the previous offer DOH!!

Thanks

[no_joke]

Chris, I got an update 2 days ago from FareCompare with <$600 flights to Bogota and Caracas; and an $830 flight to Buenos Aires but found nothing close to those prices on kayak. I'll check it out again in a few days but any good leads on deals to South America in Sept or Oct of this year? Argentina would be my preference but I'm a sucker for deals!

[FiftyBelow]

Hi Chris,

I know that you tend to specialize in flights in and out of yyc... but considering your vast knowledge I thought I'd ask a somewhat relevant question. I'm heading to Sydney Australia for six months from July to Jan. I was wondering if you know some cheap airlines that I can use to fly from Sydney to various destination in south east asia (such as Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Singapore etc).
Thanks in advance.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Wookie

Looking for Hawaii November 10th 2010 for 10 - 14 days. Any suggestions on when I should start looking again? Going to Oahu, already have a place to stay.

Tried looking at airmiles/points. Was 80,000 so my point giver declined the previous offer DOH!!

Thanks

It's impossible to say for sure, but usually a 'season ahead' is a good time to start looking. Around September might be a good time to start seriously looking. If an airline is going to make a big fare cut for November, you would think summer would be too early, but you never know.

Delta is currently cheapest around that time ($730ish after tax), Air Canada and WestJet are $800ish. $500 to $550ish seems to be a 'good' price for HNL return these days.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by no_joke

Chris, I got an update 2 days ago from FareCompare with <$600 flights to Bogota and Caracas; and an $830 flight to Buenos Aires but found nothing close to those prices on kayak. I'll check it out again in a few days but any good leads on deals to South America in Sept or Oct of this year? Argentina would be my preference but I'm a sucker for deals!

Yes, the great thing about FareCompare is the 'wide net' that it casts, constantly monitoring a large number of fares. The problem though, is the accuracy. Often times, the alerts are false alarms. And the prices it finds are usually before taxes/fees for Canadian flights.

Although, according to my deals map, Mexicana Airlines was offering flights to Bogota for around $700ish after tax return in September. And Caracas was about $715, also on Mexicana.

Although at the moment I don't really see any fares around that price. The cheapest seem to be around $950ish. I do see cheaper flights to Bogota from time to time though, around $750sh after tax.

A lot of times those cheap fares on Mexicana will also involve some crazy stopover in Mexico City for 12 hours or more.

At the moment, Buenos Aires seems to be around $1100ish after tax for the cheapest flights.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by FiftyBelow

Hi Chris,

I know that you tend to specialize in flights in and out of yyc... but considering your vast knowledge I thought I'd ask a somewhat relevant question. I'm heading to Sydney Australia for six months from July to Jan. I was wondering if you know some cheap airlines that I can use to fly from Sydney to various destination in south east asia (such as Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Singapore etc).
Thanks in advance.

From Sydney to ...

Jakarta - Malaysia Airlines appears cheapest at the moment, with $730ish after tax return being a decent price.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Airlines, $630ish

Bali (DPS) - Malaysia Airlines or JetStar - $720ish

Singapore - Malaysia Airlines, $640ish

It seems that Malaysia Airlines or JetStar appear to usually be the cheapest from SYD to SE Asia. I know that JetStar or Virgin usually are the cheapest within Australia as well.

[cmyden]

Mexicana Is Celebrating Their 2 Year Anniversary With Calgary

Mexicana Airlines has been flying from Calgary for two years, and they're offering some decent prices to places in Mexico that normally cost a fair bit to get to.

Acapulco, Huatulco, and Zihuatanejo are $349 CAD + tax roundtrip.

Guadalajara, Merida, Mexico City, Monterrey and more from $399 CAD + tax roundtrip.

This sale goes live on June 1 and is bookable until June 8, 2010. The sale prices are good for travel until Dec 10, 2010.

Can book online at www.Mexicana.com

cM

[Scoopdogg]

Hi Chris,

Quick question about your deals map on the yycdeals.com website.

It shows the cheapest flight to PHX is $277 from June 2 - June 9th, but I can't find it on any site. Does this deal still exist and if so where can I find it.

Thanks

[Wookie]

Originally Posted by cmyden

It's impossible to say for sure, but usually a 'season ahead' is a good time to start looking. Around September might be a good time to start seriously looking. If an airline is going to make a big fare cut for November, you would think summer would be too early, but you never know.

Delta is currently cheapest around that time ($730ish after tax), Air Canada and WestJet are $800ish. $500 to $550ish seems to be a 'good' price for HNL return these days.

Makes sense! Thanks for the reply.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Scoopdogg

Hi Chris,

Quick question about your deals map on the yycdeals.com website.

It shows the cheapest flight to PHX is $277 from June 2 - June 9th, but I can't find it on any site. Does this deal still exist and if so where can I find it.

Thanks

Hi Scoopdogg,

Just taking a look, it seems like the cheapest price around that time is currently $350ish after tax (US Airways).

The data on the deals map uses data that is up to 7 days prior, so with fares fluctuating all the time, there definitely are cases where the displayed price is not currently available. It's kind of a balancing act, between how much data I want to use and how real time I want it to be. I'm still kind of experimenting with it to get the best balance.

[cmyden]

Air Canada U.S. West Coast sale

Air Canada just put out a sale to west coast cities in the U.S for flights in June.

There are some decent deals, such as Burbank and Ontario (ONT) which work to around $285 after tax return. And some pretty good prices to cities that normally cost a fair bit more to get to, such as Reno.

The sale runs until June 12th. Can see full details and prices here:

http://www.aircanada.com/en/offers/a...le.html#YYC-US

cM

[3thirty]

Any flight/Hotel deals July 8-11 leaving after 6:00 PM ?! open to ideas from vegas to L.A. to Seattle, looking at under $650 PP if possible and staying at a decent hotel with pool please. Could do Aug 12-15 as well.

Thanks in Advance...

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by 3thirty

Any flight/Hotel deals July 8-11 leaving after 6:00 PM ?! open to ideas from vegas to L.A. to Seattle, looking at under $650 PP if possible and staying at a decent hotel with pool please. Could do Aug 12-15 as well.

Thanks in Advance...

Vegas

If you could make it by 4:50 PM Delta has flights to Vegas for $420 return after tax. Golden Nugget is around $90/night and has a pretty amazing $30 million dollar pool.

Air Canada is next cheapest at $490 leaving at 6PM, but both of those come back really early. Or can use Delta down and Air Canada back up for $470 and come back at a more reasonable 4:50PM.



San Fran

Alaska Airlines is $490ish leaving at 6PM but comes back at 7 AM.

The Air Canada flights for $577 are the next best and come home at 5PM.


LAX

Continental has flights for $480, leaving at 7:35pm, coming home at 3pm. $410 using Air Canada if you could get there by 5:15PM.


Seattle

$450 on Alaska is cheapest, leaving at 6PM coming home at 9:20.


So they're all pretty close in terms of price. Vegas is probably your best chance of a decent cheaper hotel with a nice pool.

[Gundo]

Hi Chris,

My wife and I are thinking of going to Budapest via Germany or Amsterdam and driving the rest of the way. We were looking at going sometime in October and were wondering if you had any advice on where to look. From what we have found so far the price from Calgary to Frankfurt/Munich or to Amsterdam is pretty much the same. Any tips on a rental car would be great as well, we have found compact rentals to be around $500/wk.

I'm tired and don't really want to look into this farther but:

Selloffvacations.com has a package to Puerto Vallarta on June 12 for 7 days to an all inclusive ( Canto del Sol http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...fic_Coast.html )
for $523 taxes included ($239 +284 tax)

or if you don't need an all inclusive there's the Hacienda (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...fic_Coast.html )
for $ 456 all in ($172 + $284 taxes)
Chris can double check it

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Puxlut

I'm tired and don't really want to look into this farther but:

Selloffvacations.com has a package to Puerto Vallarta on June 12 for 7 days to an all inclusive ( Canto del Sol http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...fic_Coast.html )
for $523 taxes included ($239 +284 tax)

or if you don't need an all inclusive there's the Hacienda (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...fic_Coast.html )
for $ 456 all in ($172 + $284 taxes)
Chris can double check it

^^ That is AWESOME!! I just need to find someone to come with me, my husband has used up all his vacation days!!

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Gundo

Hi Chris,

My wife and I are thinking of going to Budapest via Germany or Amsterdam and driving the rest of the way. We were looking at going sometime in October and were wondering if you had any advice on where to look. From what we have found so far the price from Calgary to Frankfurt/Munich or to Amsterdam is pretty much the same. Any tips on a rental car would be great as well, we have found compact rentals to be around $500/wk.

I'm not sure if you've seen the Air Transat flights or not, but there is one to Frankfurt and back for $770 roundtrip after tax. It's from Oct 5-13 so I'm not sure if that's enough time for you. Oct 2 to 13 is $919. Outside of Air Transat to Frankfurt, most flights seem to be around $1200ish to Frankfurt and Munich.

Amsterdam using KLM seems to be cheapest at around $1000 after tax in October at the moment.

Most times that I've visited Europe I've either taken the train or flown, but the one time I rented a car I used AutoEurope which seemed to be the cheapest. They seem to be some sort of major consolidator or something. Never had any problems and I know others have often recommended them.

cM

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Puxlut

I'm tired and don't really want to look into this farther but:

Selloffvacations.com has a package to Puerto Vallarta on June 12 for 7 days to an all inclusive ( Canto del Sol http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...fic_Coast.html )
for $523 taxes included ($239 +284 tax)

or if you don't need an all inclusive there's the Hacienda (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...fic_Coast.html )
for $ 456 all in ($172 + $284 taxes)
Chris can double check it

Yep pretty decent! You can find those on any Canadian travel site, they all just grab their prices from the same place. I was pretty close to posting it, but it almost just feels too nice out to care about getting away to somewhere warm. But if you guys are interested I can.

I see today that the Royal Decameron, also in Puerto Vallarta, is down to $577, also leaving on June 12th. Seems to get really good reviews:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...fic_Coast.html

Probably would classify as a true 4 star. The Canto del Sol seems more like 3.5ish just from reading the reviews, still decent though.

cM

Originally Posted by Peanut

^^ That is AWESOME!! I just need to find someone to come with me, my husband has used up all his vacation days!!

HAHA! That's why it took me so long to post it... I was trying to get someone to go with me and Ryley!
You want to have a "CP new mama's getaway to Mexico"?