Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Weitz]

It doesn’t appear I can fly direct to Scotland anymore. That’s too bad. Was planning a trip for 2 weeks in May.

Any suggestions on flights? I’d prefer not to fly through Toronto but will if I have to.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by Weitz

It doesn’t appear I can fly direct to Scotland anymore. That’s too bad. Was planning a trip for 2 weeks in May.

Any suggestions on flights? I’d prefer not to fly through Toronto but will if I have to.

WestJet flies direct to Edinburgh from Calgary 3x weekly starting May 15, 2024.

Does the date not work?

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

WestJet flies direct to Edinburgh from Calgary 3x weekly starting May 15, 2024.

Does the date not work?

I did not notice that. They weren’t popping up last couple weeks I was looking. I can see them now on their website.

[Bigtime]

WestJet is launching YYC-KEF starting in May, 4x weekly service.

[Table 5]

Hopefully they will fly outside of the high season as well, but that's awesome.

[flamesfan1297]

I had a flight out of Seattle on American airlines that I had to cancel, so now my buddy and I have a credit on American airlines that's good for a year. Is there a way to look at all the places AA flies to out of YYC or YEG?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by flamesfan1297

I had a flight out of Seattle on American airlines that I had to cancel, so now my buddy and I have a credit on American airlines that's good for a year. Is there a way to look at all the places AA flies to out of YYC or YEG?

In terms of nonstop flights, it is a pretty short list...

From YYC: Dallas (year round) and Chicago (seasonal, starts June 5th)

From YEG: No flights with AA

So you might want to look at the flights that are nonstop from DFW, for an idea of the 1 stop flights that are available from Calgary.

But then you have to factor in the fact that many of AA's 1 stop flights from Calgary are brutally long due to poor connections. For example, you can fly to the Caribbean with a 1 stop flight on AA, but it often takes 25 hours due to a 16 hour layover in Dallas.

There's U.S. destinations of course, but then you might be looking at an 8 hour flight to Los Angeles or a 12 hour flight to Vegas. It rarely makes sense to fly all the way down to Dallas and then backtrack to somewhere in the U.S.

Realistically, AA's flights to Central and South America offer the best chance of finding a flight with a decent travel duration relative to what it would normally be.

Places like:

San Jose, Costa Rica

Bogota, Colombia

Santiago, Chile

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sao Paulo, Brazil

You can also reach Tokyo, Japan with 1 stop through DFW, but it has the opposite problem. A connection time of 40 minutes.

There's also destinations in Mexico, the ones where it makes a little more sense to take an 8-10 hour 1-stop flight, because there are not any nonstop options ...

Mexico City, Oaxaca, Merida, Guadalajara, San Luis Potosi, Leon, Chihuahua



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[flamesfan1297]

^Thanks! That's great information, we'll likely end up doing Phoenix or Los Angeles in the February/March

[agulati]

Going down to Puerto Vallarta for a few days in January. Have whittled the choices for the all inclusive down to Barcelo, Hyatt Ziva, and Hilton Vallarta Riviera. Does anyone have any recommendations between the two? Hilton is slightly more expensive than Barcelo

[FFR]

Originally Posted by agulati

Going down to Puerto Vallarta for a few days in January. Have whittled the choices for the all inclusive down to Barcelo, Hyatt Ziva, and Hilton Vallarta Riviera. Does anyone have any recommendations between the two? Hilton is slightly more expensive than Barcelo

100% recommend the Hyatt Ziva. It is a great resort - one of the best in PV in my opinion.

[surferguy]

Ok how does this work.

I’d like to get to Dallas for the eclipse in April. I can fly to Dallas - $880 direct.

I can fly to Houston - $512 but it connects in Dallas.

Same flight number from YYC —-> DFW.

How does that work?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by surferguy

Ok how does this work.

I’d like to get to Dallas for the eclipse in April. I can fly to Dallas - $880 direct.

I can fly to Houston - $512 but it connects in Dallas.

Same flight number from YYC —-> DFW.

How does that work?

The airlines know that people will pay more for a nonstop ("direct") flight than for a flight with a stop.

This is why they usually automatically cancel the remainder of a ticket once one leg is intentionally skipped. (To prevent people from booking cheaper roundtrip flights that have a stop and turning them into "direct" flights). (Google 'Skiplagging' for more info).

You could look into booking it as two separate one way flights and just leave the airport once you get to Dallas on the way down.

[surferguy]

So look into booking yyc/houston (with stopover). And then dfw/yyc?


I’ll look into it

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by surferguy

So look into booking yyc/houston (with stopover). And then dfw/yyc?


I’ll look into it

If you do that you can't check luggage because they won't give it back to you in Dallas.

So you want to make sure you get an early boarding group so they let you bring your carryon on board the plane.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by surferguy

So look into booking yyc/houston (with stopover). And then dfw/yyc?


I’ll look into it

Book one ways in seperate transactions and don’t use any frequent flyer accounts.

[nomad]

Originally Posted by FFR

100% recommend the Hyatt Ziva. It is a great resort - one of the best in PV in my opinion.

This.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by surferguy

So look into booking yyc/houston (with stopover). And then dfw/yyc?


I’ll look into it

We've done this before to get to Denver for a Flames game. Direct round-trip was ridiculously expensive but we found a cheap flight that connected in Denver so we booked that one way. We packed only carry-on bags and do not catch that connecting flight. Had a separate return from Denver to Calgary.

From what I have read on Flyertalk if you abuse this an airline can blacklist you or can strip you of your rewards points/status (if that is important to you). For an infrequent flier I don't believe there is much to worry about.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

We've done this before to get to Denver for a Flames game. Direct round-trip was ridiculously expensive but we found a cheap flight that connected in Denver so we booked that one way. We packed only carry-on bags and do not catch that connecting flight. Had a separate return from Denver to Calgary.

From what I have read on Flyertalk if you abuse this an airline can blacklist you or can strip you of your rewards points/status (if that is important to you). For an infrequent flier I don't believe there is much to worry about.

Yeah, this is called hidden city ticketing and it is against the conditions of carriage. You can just leave at DFW if you want; no one will stop you. Do not check any bags and do not use a frequent flier account.

If anything goes wrong, they can re-route you through somewhere else since their obligation is to take you from YYC to IAH.

[flamesfan1297]

Originally Posted by agulati

Going down to Puerto Vallarta for a few days in January. Have whittled the choices for the all inclusive down to Barcelo, Hyatt Ziva, and Hilton Vallarta Riviera. Does anyone have any recommendations between the two? Hilton is slightly more expensive than Barcelo

I just booked Barcelo for 5 nights in March. I know a few others that have stayed there and all had positive things to say. The price was one of the biggest positives in my decision, seems like you get good value there

[8 Ball]

I have a West Jet credit that I need to use before mid April. Does anyone have a suggestion for a week long trip that is different?