Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community
Old 05-12-2009, 10:12 AM   #1
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

I'm a travel junkie who is hooked on deals from YYC. Here are my current favorite ways to search (updated June 2013)....

Google Flights Explorer - Google bought ITA Software (which gave them access to nearly all airfare data) a while back, and is starting to offer some interesting interfaces for browsing it. It's never been so fast or easy to browse airfare data across a large range of dates.

ITA Software

Has kind of been superseded by Google's new interfaces, which is accessing the same data, but some people still prefer it. Unfortunately, the old Matrix interface is no longer available, which had some powerful capabilities for advanced search users.

Kayak

Often after narrowing down my dates, I like to use Kayak, because of the excellent filters you can use (ie: travel time, stopovers, etc). Try a search with 3 days of flexibility on either side of your dates. The Kayak Explore Map is also handy.

SkyScanner

Particularly strong for searching flights on the budget airlines within Europe. You can also search country to country (ie: Italy to France) to discover the cheapest cities to fly in and out of.

Facebook

I've set up a page on Facebook for anyone that's interested in being alerted instantaneously to any deals from Calgary. (I only post the deals that are truly great).

YYC Deals Facebook Page

You can also be alerted by e-mail whenever a truly amazing travel deal from Calgary is found.

YYC Deals Email Alerts

There's also a Facebook group which is a community that revolves around discussion of travel deals specifically from Calgary, or getting unbiased travel advice in general.

YYC Deals Facebook Group

Baggage Fee Chart

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/...ge-fees-chart/

All Inclusive Packages

The Ultimate All Inclusive Deal Finder lets you do some interesting things, like searching as wide a date range as you want to help locate the best deals, and picking precisely which destinations you want to compare against each other.

It also compares the millions of package prices from the Canadian Tour Operators against the millions of TripAdvisor reviews for the resorts and assigns each deal a score, to help determine precisely which deals are currently the best for the money (ie, the price is currently a lot lower than it should be relative to the quality of the resort involved).


Do you have a favorite way you like to search for travel deals? Reply in the thread below!

Last edited by cmyden; 06-03-2013 at 10:01 AM.
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 10:42 AM   #2
Tron_fdc
In Your MCP
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Watching Hot Dog Hans
Exp:
Default

I'm always looking for cheap flights to Vegas.....I found a charter a few weeks back that something like $120 return, with hotel.

If something like that ever pops up let me know!
Tron_fdc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 10:44 AM   #3
mykalberta
Franchise Player
 
mykalberta's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

TravelZoo.com
__________________
MYK - Supports Arizona to democtratically pass laws for the state of Arizona
Rudy was the only hope in 08
2011 Election: Cons 40% - Nanos 38% Ekos 34%
mykalberta is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 10:46 AM   #4
Ozy_Flame

Posted the 6 millionth post!
 
Ozy_Flame's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Exp:
Default

Holy crap that Tokyo deal is great. Where do I sign up?? Northwest's website?
Ozy_Flame is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 10:54 AM   #5
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default

Quote:
I'm always looking for cheap flights to Vegas.....I found a charter a few weeks back that something like $120 return, with hotel.

If something like that ever pops up let me know!
That's likely before taxes and fees I'm guessing? ($400-500 with taxes/fees?)
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 10:58 AM   #6
tvp2003
Franchise Player
 
tvp2003's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Exp:
Default

I was able to book tickets to LA on Westjet last week for $44 each way (the total for two people came to $405 including taxes). Unfortunately, we had to cancel as my wife couldn't get the time off work
tvp2003 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 11:00 AM   #7
Tron_fdc
In Your MCP
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Watching Hot Dog Hans
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by cmyden View Post
That's likely before taxes and fees I'm guessing? ($400-500 with taxes/fees?)
Yeah, with taxes it was around $300 CDN. Unreal how cheap it was.

Priceline.com is another fav of mine, I used it for hotels when I went to Chicago. I stayed at the Drake hotel (4 star) and the Hyatt (4 star as well) for 70 bucks a night. Their normal rate was somewhere around 3-400.

Thanks captain kirk
Tron_fdc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 11:00 AM   #8
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Holy crap that Tokyo deal is great. Where do I sign up?? Northwest's website?
Yep! Or $592 USD with Air Canada (travel time looks to be about 2.5 hours shorter each way)

Air Canada was the first to drop a few weeks ago, and then Northwest posted their deal a few days ago.

7 day trips: departing May 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th
10 day trips: departing May 20th, 21st, 27th, 28th

All are less than $550 USD including taxes/fees.

Definitely the deal of the year so far (at least from Calgary).
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 11:03 AM   #9
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default

Quote:
I was able to book tickets to LA on Westjet last week for $44 each way (the total for two people came to $405 including taxes). Unfortunately, we had to cancel as my wife couldn't get the time off work
That's not a bad price, but it's certainly not unusual. Flights to San Diego were going for $277 USD (~$320 CDN) this week, after taxes. Of course, it depends on which days you can fly, midweek is almost always cheaper.
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 11:21 AM   #10
mykalberta
Franchise Player
 
mykalberta's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

That NWA deal is crazy considering you arent even flying on NWA metal to SEA.
__________________
MYK - Supports Arizona to democtratically pass laws for the state of Arizona
Rudy was the only hope in 08
2011 Election: Cons 40% - Nanos 38% Ekos 34%
mykalberta is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 11:30 AM   #11
KTrain
ALL ABOARD!
 
KTrain's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Exp:
Default

Any recommendations on a site for looking up the prices of flights without having to enter in a departure or return date?

It would be nice to be able to look for the cheap flights and book my vacations around those times.
KTrain is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 11:33 AM   #12
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default

Quote:
That NWA deal is crazy considering you arent even flying on NWA metal to SEA.
For anyone that is truly interested in this flight, it looks like the shortest $590 USD flight on Air Canada takes 28 hours round trip (14 each way, including stopovers)

The shortest $545 USD Northwest flight takes 35 hours (19 there, 16 back).
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 11:35 AM   #13
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Any recommendations on a site for looking up the prices of flights without having to enter in a departure or return date?

It would be nice to be able to look for the cheap flights and book my vacations around those times.
KTrain,

Check out the ITASoftware.com site I mentioned in the first post. You can do a '30 day search' and it will tell you what the cheapest price is on each day.

You can also use Fare Compare, which can show you the prices for the entire year. Sometimes though, their data is incorrect. I usually use it as a general starting point, and then use ITASoftware or Kayak to get the accurate prices.
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to cmyden For This Useful Post:
Old 05-12-2009, 11:50 AM   #14
Mean Mr. Mustard
Franchise Player
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Exp:
Default

Where does one go to book those flights because I looked at the Newark flights on the NWA website and the cheapest price was around $600.
Mean Mr. Mustard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 11:51 AM   #15
mykalberta
Franchise Player
 
mykalberta's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

Probably WestJet, Air Canada, or Continental as those are the only airlines that offer direct airlines YYC-EWR in the summer.

NWA is for the NRT fligths.
__________________
MYK - Supports Arizona to democtratically pass laws for the state of Arizona
Rudy was the only hope in 08
2011 Election: Cons 40% - Nanos 38% Ekos 34%
mykalberta is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 12:03 PM   #16
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Where does one go to book those flights because I looked at the Newark flights on the NWA website and the cheapest price was around $600.
My fault, I should have mentioned where to find the YYC -> Newark flights! They actually were on Northwest as well I believe.

They were coming up yesterday, but today they appear to be gone. You need to be really quick when it comes to these kinds of deals, often they're gone the next day. Now that we have a thread on here, hopefully we can all take advantage.

I will let you know if I see the Newark one pop up again.
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2009, 08:10 PM   #17
rockstar
Franchise Player
 
rockstar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: in transit
Exp:
Default

Thank you for this, cmyden. I have a feeling it'll really come in handy!
__________________

rockstar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2009, 10:41 AM   #18
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default

CALGARY TO PHOENIX - $245 CDN (incl taxes/fees)

May 30 - June 6
WestJet
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2009, 10:46 AM   #19
cmyden
Powerplay Quarterback
 
cmyden's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Exp:
Default

CALGARY TO LAS VEGAS - $360 CDN (incl taxes/fees)

June 2 - June 6
WestJet


CALGARY TO AMSTERDAM - $679 with taxes

June 5 - 13
non-stop, direct on Air Transat

Last edited by cmyden; 05-13-2009 at 10:49 AM.
cmyden is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2009, 11:14 AM   #20
Eagle Eye
Powerplay Quarterback
 
Eagle Eye's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Work
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by cmyden View Post
CALGARY TO PHOENIX - $245 CDN (incl taxes/fees)

May 30 - June 6
WestJet
I booked that flight last week, came out to 986 for a family of four.
Really good deal
Eagle Eye is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:03 PM.

Calgary Flames
2023-24




Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright Calgarypuck 2021