Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[cmyden]

1 week All Inclusive, Royal Decameron, $674 after tax

All inclusive deals might be expected in June, as things slow down for most all inclusive destinations, as it warms up here in North America and Europe.

Right now though, this deal stands out from the rest. The Royal Decameron Complex in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico is $674/person after tax for one week, all inclusive. Departure dates are June 5, 12, 19.

The nice thing is, this resort also gets great reviews, and appears to be a true 4 star...

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

You should be able to see it on most Canadian travel sites. If you have trouble finding it, just give me a shout.

cM

[cmyden]

I know a lot of Calgarians deal with Houston a lot (having so many oil & gas companies there as well). You might want to pass this along to anyone you know in Houston, or maybe you'll find yourself there for work....

Houston to Anchorage, Alaska, $214 after tax, roundtrip, direct both ways, on Continental. Pretty much any dates you want from now through April of 2011.

[FurnaceFace]

Looking for flights to Italy the beginning of September. Best I've found so far are ~$1500 which doesn't seem good to us. Doesn't really matter where we fly into in Europe - London, Frankfurt, Paris, etc as the in Europe flights are cheap.

Thoughts on when we might typically see seat sales for that time period?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

Looking for flights to Italy the beginning of September. Best I've found so far are ~$1500 which doesn't seem good to us. Doesn't really matter where we fly into in Europe - London, Frankfurt, Paris, etc as the in Europe flights are cheap.

Thoughts on when we might typically see seat sales for that time period?

Hi Furance,

It's not just you, the flights to Europe this summer and fall are sky high to everyone. Yet, the demand must be there, as the airlines have not relented and dropped their prices as of yet. There are decent prices up until about mid-June.

London Gatwick on Air Transat or Thomas Cook are usually your best bet of getting to Europe cheaply from Calgary.

Sep 2-9 is $1059 after tax on Air Transat. 9-16 is $979. 2-16 is $1009.

Although, by the time you factor in your inter-Europe flight + the nickle and diming those budget airlines will give you + hassle + possibility of having to spend a night or two in London (depending on connections), the $1500 Lufthansa flights to Rome might look more attractive (and easier on your body than the Air Transat sardine cans).

Hopefully we will see some decent fall prices this year, or even summer for that matter. Ideally, you would want to get to London on an Air Transat flight in the $750 or less range. It can be done in the spring, so fall shouldn't be out of the question, although possibly more likely in mid to late September rather than early, but that's just a guess.

It's impossible to say if/when they will occur. Right now the cheaper Transat flights are up to about mid-June, or 6 weeks ahead. 6-8 weeks ahead seems to be a general rule of thumb for when Transat decides to offer cheaper flights, if they do. So, theoretically, you could still give it a few months or so of watching, but there are no guarantees.

cM

[FurnaceFace]

Thanks. We're not at all interested in flying Transat. We're willing to spend a bit more to have space.

Oh, and we're going for 3 weeks ideally the overnight flight on Sept 3rd returning Sept 25th.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

Thanks. We're not at all interested in flying Transat. We're willing to spend a bit more to have space.

Oh, and we're going for 3 weeks ideally the overnight flight on Sept 3rd returning Sept 25th.

Eliminating Air Transat, you'll basically have to just sit back and hope the major carriers start making cuts to their fares for Europe.

If you want you can check out the YYC Deals map from time to time, and just click on September, and it will show you the cheapest fare price to every city in Europe. Can give you some idea if fares are lowering or not.

Although, if you know exactly which flight you want, you could just set up an alert on Orbitz to let you know if the price drops.

http://www.orbitz.com/App/InitDealEdit

It's just my gut feeling that Air Transat might be the only cheap way of getting to Europe this year, but who knows.

[cmyden]

Both WestJet and Air Canada claim to be having a seat sale today for flights between now and the end of June.

It could be worth taking a look, although a lot of times their 'sale' prices aren't really sales.

WestJet:

http://www.westjet.com/guest/en/trav...tSale_20100506

Air Canada:

http://www.aircanada.com/en/offers/a...ver_fares.html

cM

[cmyden]

Calgary to London Gatwick (UK) - $568 after tax roundtrip

Yes, it is still possible to get to Europe and back for an excellent price, but only in spring. For summer, all bets are still off. Hopefully we'll see some decent deals as we get into late spring.

Right now, here are the cheap dates to fly:

May 20, 22, 27, 29
June 3, 10, 12, 17, 19

Any combination of those dates should get you a cheap flight to London and back on Air Transat.
http://www.airtransat.ca/

Everything past that is still really expensive. Air Transat is the only cheap way to get to Europe and back right now.

cM

[GKDarts]

Hey CMyden

I Need to be in Vienna anytime on the 25th of July, I will be looking to return to Calgary from Budapest on the 8th of August… my thoughts were to go through London or Paris so I would like at least 1 day at either end in whichever city you chose.


Thanks in advance!

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by GKDarts

Hey CMyden

I Need to be in Vienna anytime on the 25th of July, I will be looking to return to Calgary from Budapest on the 8th of August… my thoughts were to go through London or Paris so I would like at least 1 day at either end in whichever city you chose.


Thanks in advance!

Hi GKDarts,

Everything to Europe past mid-June at the moment is expensive. The cheapest to London and back around that time is July 24 to August 7 for $1291 after tax using Air Transat.

For July 25-Aug 8 the cheapest is American Airlines or Lufthansa for $1700ish.

Add about $200 to the prices above for Paris.

A multi city, into Vienna, out of Budapest, is around $1900 (Air Canada).


For flights between London/Paris and Vienna/Budapest just have a look at SkyScanner.net

London to Vienna is easy enough, easyJet has cheap flights from Gatwick. Looks a bit more expensive from Paris.

Budapest to London is cheapest to Luton, not one of the easier airports to get from. Gatwick is possible too though, just a bit more expensive.

Budapest to Paris looks easy.

Are London or Paris cities you want to check out? Or did you just think that would be cheapest? Because right now, with summer Air Transat flights to London at $1300, you likely wouldn't save a whole lot.

It's when you can get a cheap flight to London (say $700ish or less) that the London + cheap inter-Europe flight becomes a worthwhile possibility.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Calgary to London Gatwick (UK) - $568 after tax roundtrip

Yeah, it was there. I even had FareCompare alert me of $650 for July.. but by the time I got home (60 minutes) to the computer, the deal no longer existed.

I've gotta go at the end of July for a friend's wedding ... I am gonna hold out and hope for a great deal.

[GKDarts]

CMyden,

Thanks for the quick response!

Are London or Paris cities you want to check out? Or did you just think that would be cheapest? Because right now, with summer Air Transat flights to London at $1300, you likely wouldn't save a whole lot.

I could go via any city...not tied to London or Paris if there is a substantial cost saving.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by GKDarts

CMyden,

Thanks for the quick response!

Are London or Paris cities you want to check out? Or did you just think that would be cheapest? Because right now, with summer Air Transat flights to London at $1300, you likely wouldn't save a whole lot.

I could go via any city...not tied to London or Paris if there is a substantial cost saving.

No problem, I was just wondering whether you wanted to go via a different city purely to save $$$ or because you wanted to visit additional cities on your trip.

If it was purely to save $$$, the point I was trying to make was that it might not be worth the hassle. Basically at this point it would be $1900 on Air Canada vs...

Air Transat $1300 to London
+ flight to Vienna ($60-$90ish)
+ flight back from Budapest ($100ish)
+ all the stupid little extra charges the inter-Europe airlines will tack on
+ the fact you would have to fly on different dates for the Air Transat flight than when you wanted to go
+ whatever it costs to get between the airports and the cities
+ the fact you might have to dish out for a hotel in London or Paris so that you can stay there the night before you leave so you don't miss your flight home

But if taking in an extra city on your trip is something you wanted to do anyways, it could be worth the hassle and possibly save some cash.

[cmyden]

Calgary to Las Vegas, $276 after tax roundtrip - Friday to Sunday!

Delta has a flight from September 2nd or 3rd to 5th for $276 after tax roundtrip. Yes, that's a Thursday or Friday to Sunday.

The reason this price is notable is because sub-$300 flights to Vegas are usually only found Wednesday to Saturday. And everyone wants Friday-Sunday, which is why they're always around $500ish.

But maybe the fact that it's a long weekend makes this one cheaper to come back on a Sunday.

It does have a 1 hour stop each way in Salt Lake, but other than that, it's a great flight, leaving at 4:50PM on the Friday, coming back at 4:30PM on the Sunday. (The other usual annoyance with cheap Vegas flights is coming back early in the morning).

You can see it at Delta.com For how long? Who knows. It's just an unadvertised freak fare.

[cmyden]

Calgary to Auckland, New Zealand - $763 after tax return

Yes, it can be done, at least theoretically. Air New Zealand has an amazing deal to Auckland going on right now out of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Return flights are less than $500 after tax for the end of May, beginning of June.

At the same time, Air Canada has flights from Calgary to Los Angeles and back for $267, return, after tax. There are also flights to San Francisco and back for $256.

Put the two together, and you have one heckuva deal to New Zealand. An example trip could be this:

Flight 1: Air Canada, Calgary to Los Angeles, May 24 to June 5 - $267 after tax

Flight 2: Air New Zealand, Los Angeles to Auckland, May 25 to June 4 - $507 after tax

So your trip would look like this....

May 24: Calgary to Los Angeles, direct, arriving at 9:47 PM. The Air New Zealand flight leaves at 9 PM the next day, so you could spend some time in Los Angeles.

May 25: Air New Zealand, direct to Auckland, arriving early morning 27th (big time change!)

June 4: Air New Zealand, direct back to Los Angeles, arriving at 2:30 PM

June 5: early morning flight back to Calgary, 54 minute stopover in Denver.

Of course, there are other ways you could work this, with more or less time in L.A (or in San Francisco). Los Angeles seems to have more of the cheap flights to Auckland than San Francisco.

The Air New Zealand flights can be found at http://www.AirNewZealand.com You may have to click on 'Worldwide Sites' at the top and change the country to United States. Otherwise, it might try to redirect you to the Canadian site, which won't have Los Angeles as a departing airport.

cM

[FlamesGirl]

Any good deals for going to Sweden around mid-July? Cheapest I've been able to find is $1500ish...

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by FlamesGirl

Any good deals for going to Sweden around mid-July? Cheapest I've been able to find is $1500ish...

It can be done for around $1240 after tax using a combo of Alaska Airlines and Iceland Air via Seattle. July 14-21 for example. Or 14-28.

It's a little bit longer, 32 hours of total travel time including stopovers. For comparison the fastest from Calgary to ARN and back is about 24 hours of total travel time (using Lufthansa, about $1950). So it adds about 4 hours each way to your trip.

[cmyden]

LAST MINUTE: Santa Maria, Cuba - All inclusive - $612 after taxes

The Sol Cayo Santa Maria in Cuba has dropped to $612/person after tax, leaving on May 15th (Saturday).

A true last minute deal for sure. You can see it here: http://tinyurl.com/33pvcu8

cM

[cmyden]

Calgary to San Francisco - $250 return after tax

Pretty much any dates you want from now through the end of October appear to work out to $250 after tax, return, on Air Canada.



Whether it's a weekend getaway (Friday to Sunday) or a whole week. And most of the flights are direct too. The May long weekend appears to be an exception. Other long weekends are available.




Nice!

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Calgary to San Francisco - $250 return after tax

Pretty much any dates you want from now through the end of October appear to work out to $250 after tax, return, on Air Canada.



Whether it's a weekend getaway (Friday to Sunday) or a whole week. And most of the flights are direct too. The May long weekend appears to be an exception. Other long weekends are available.




Nice!

Waiting for the WJ price match Plus, the AC flights are a US codeshare, meaning you'll be dinged for bag fees as well.