Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Amethyst]

United will take me through Houston, with decent flight times but charges a lot.
Air Canada charges less but wants me to fly via Toronto and Bogota.
American will take me through Dallas, for less money than United, but has a crappy connection on the way back (really long lay-over in Dallas).

[billybob123]

Originally Posted by Amethyst

American will take me through Dallas, for less money than United, but has a crappy connection on the way back (really long lay-over in Dallas).

FYI the Hyatt at DFW has a pretty good dayrate ($100 USD or so). You can use the room to snooze and clean up, and use the fitness room and pool if desired on long layover. Hotel is actually at the terminal.

[tvp2003]

And just like that, New Leaf cancels its Calgary to Mesa/Phoenix route, saying they were squeezed out by Westjet: https://www.google.ca/amp/globalnews...?client=safari

Flights will be refunded, but you're on the hook for other expenses that may have been incurred...

[cmyden]

Calgary to Lima, Peru - $512 CAD roundtrip including taxes

Aeromexico starts flying out of YYC again in June.

They've just dropped the price of their June, early July, late August, and September flights from Calgary to Lima, Peru down to $517 CAD roundtrip including taxes.

An amazing price, but unfortunately, as is often the case with their flights from Canada, the flights have a long layover on the way down (11 to 17 hours).

You can also find cheap prices to Ecuador and Colombia on similar dates, for $30 more. They also have long layovers.

blog post with list of dates: http://yycdeals.com/calgary-to-lima-...ncluding-taxes

[Calgary14]

Does New Leaf even fly out of Calgary anymore?

[rain_e]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Does New Leaf even fly out of Calgary anymore?

As of right now they don't.

[calf]

Not sure if this is the right thread...but, I'm booking a direct flight from London, Ontario back to Calgary, and it has a 45 minute stop-over in Winnipeg. Would I be allowed off the plane to stretch my legs? Or is it simply let some people on/off and everyone needs to stay in place?

Flight is with Westjet if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by calf

Not sure if this is the right thread...but, I'm booking a direct flight from London, Ontario back to Calgary, and it has a 45 minute stop-over in Winnipeg. Would I be allowed off the plane to stretch my legs? Or is it simply let some people on/off and everyone needs to stay in place?

Flight is with Westjet if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

I could be wrong but if you are not changing planes you can't get off as far as I know.

[GP_Matt]

I used to fly GP to Calgary all the time with stops in Edmonton. They would let you off but then you have to board again. I can't imagine why you would want to. Better to wait for everyone to deplane and then stand up and stretch in the aisle.

[Wormius]

What are the chances of finding something under $900 into Europe during summer months? I don't think it matters where I end up around France/Belgium/Germany/England? Planning on touring for a couple of weeks, so will make the best of whatever the initial point of entry is.

Also, with respect to a different trip, still kind of wondering if 1.5 hours at Narita is enough time between international connections. I assume Air Canada wouldn't schedule it if it wasn't, but... it seems tight.

[Wormius]

Ooh. My Europe prayers answered!

Looks like London this summer.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Ooh. My Europe prayers answered!

Looks like London this summer.

If you haven't been (or even if you have) it's incredible. I loved London and could easily live there.

I think Chris should be posting the deals here on CP before he posts to Facebook...we supported you through your development years and we should get first dibs :P
Unfortunately the cheap flight to London doesn't help knock down the price to Africa that I may need in August.

[Hockey Fan #751]

Originally Posted by calf

Not sure if this is the right thread...but, I'm booking a direct flight from London, Ontario back to Calgary, and it has a 45 minute stop-over in Winnipeg. Would I be allowed off the plane to stretch my legs? Or is it simply let some people on/off and everyone needs to stay in place?

Flight is with Westjet if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

I've had a flight to Montreal which stops in Winnipeg for about the same amount of time and they did let me off.

[cmyden]

Calgary to Paris, France has also dropped to $745 CAD roundtrip including taxes for summer travel (late July, August) with KLM and Air France.

Other dates throughout 2017 are also available, but the July/August dates are the most notable. The airlines generally don't like to drop their July/August prices to Europe too much below $1100.

http://yycdeals.com/calgary-to-paris...ncluding-taxes

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Calgary to Paris, France has also dropped to $745 CAD roundtrip including taxes for summer travel (late July, August) with KLM and Air France.

Other dates throughout 2017 are also available, but the July/August dates are the most notable. The airlines generally don't like to drop their July/August prices to Europe too much below $1100.

http://yycdeals.com/calgary-to-paris...ncluding-taxes

The Paris flights were too hard to pass up, so we are officially headed to Paris in August. The flights from YYC to CDG were a lot better than the YYC to LON. Only about 11 hours each way with a short layover in Amsterdam.

So, we need to make it up to Luxembourg, and we are considering an itinerary of going counter-clockwise into Germany, up to Luxembourg, then Belgium, over/under to London, and then back to Paris for the return flight.

This is an expensive travel year - 3 weeks in China and then 2 in Europe. At least in China we don't have to pay for accommodations or food. Europe, we will have to think of some frugal family accommodations. I would prefer to keep the accommodation costs down, and not skimp on food.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Slava

If you haven't been (or even if you have) it's incredible. I loved London and could easily live there.

I have not been to Europe, but I have looked into some of the activites around London, and hopefully we can spend a few days there. Any tips on what the good touristy things are vs. the ones to not bother with? I have to say, we are all Harry Potter buffs, so we probably need to indulge some of the Potter sites.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I have not been to Europe, but I have looked into some of the activites around London, and hopefully we can spend a few days there. Any tips on what the good touristy things are vs. the ones to not bother with? I have to say, we are all Harry Potter buffs, so we probably need to indulge some of the Potter sites.

If you like Harry Potter you definitely, definitely have to do the WB Studio Tour. https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk

[JonDuke]

Originally Posted by calf

Not sure if this is the right thread...but, I'm booking a direct flight from London, Ontario back to Calgary, and it has a 45 minute stop-over in Winnipeg. Would I be allowed off the plane to stretch my legs? Or is it simply let some people on/off and everyone needs to stay in place?

Flight is with Westjet if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

Yes, you may absolutely step off. You can leave all your stuff on the plane if you want. Leave the safety features card on your seat (that's the universal sign for "I'll be back") and bring your boarding pass and picture ID with you. Once everyone gets off the plane, the crew cleans it. Then the gate agent in the airport will start pre boarding and then general boarding. I definitely would not go outside of the secured area (in the Winnipeg, that means don't go down the escalator). Stay near your gate so you can hear the announcement and get back on the plane with general boarding. You *should* have a good ten minutes or so to get off, use a real washroom, and stretch.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I have not been to Europe, but I have looked into some of the activites around London, and hopefully we can spend a few days there. Any tips on what the good touristy things are vs. the ones to not bother with? I have to say, we are all Harry Potter buffs, so we probably need to indulge some of the Potter sites.

Well I'm not into Harry Potter so I really couldn't help you there. I stayed close to the city centre, which in my opinion is worth the price increase as compared to staying further away. You can walk to a lot of the major attractions. I really enjoyed St. Pauls Cathedral for example (and despite not being catholic) and it was a huge highlight for me. Westminster Abbey was impressive as well. I guess the Tower of London was alright. I just don't have much interest in the crown jewels which are there, and it was kind of overrated. If you are going to do that, definitely get a tour from a Yeoman Warder though. They're great.

The museums in London are really amazing though. They're free (presumably because they stole everything from everywhere else!), but the British National museum for example has all kinds of Egyptian and Greek artifacts and its just amazing if you like that sort of thing. I also thought that the Tate Modern Museum of Art was hilarious, albeit in the wrong context. It was more in that "that's art?!" kind of line of thinking. The National Gallery right off Trafalgar square is where you can find all of the traditional artists (Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Da Vinci etc.) and its really great...again if you like that sort of thing.

I spent many hours walking along the Thames and should've done a cruise down, but never did. I didn't go in the London Eye, but it looks pretty cool. I maybe can't recommend the Borough Market enough; its just great and there are lots of places to get some great food on the go. I think we went there basically daily on our way to other places.

And to wrap this up, do yourself a favour and get tickets to a Premier League game (or maybe Championship) if you can be there during that time! Buy some tickets, plan to buy a jersey or scarf (if you're not a fan already), but most importantly do a little research and learn the songs/chants ahead of time and just soak it all in. For a sports fan I would say that is a must though as the atmosphere is incredible (and for that reason I would skip West Ham...)

Hopefully this helps somewhat.