Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Bean]

Unsure if this is the correct thread however I've just received an email warning that American Airlines may cancel flights in the upcoming weeks due to too many pilots calling in sick.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_1...ilot-sickouts/

[cmyden]

Kids can fly to Vancouver for Thanksgiving for $181 roundtrip after taxes



It's not often you see great prices to Vancouver anymore. The Air Canada / Westjet duopoly tends to bottom out at around $300ish roundtrip after taxes even on non-peak travel dates.

But charter airline Enerjet is offering a special flight from Calgary to Vancouver over Thanksgiving weekend (Oct 5 to Oct 8).

Promo details for what they're calling 'Gobbler Flights' can be found at http://www.JumpOnEnerjet.ca/

The *sale* price (not the regular price) for adults works out to $308 roundtrip after taxes, which is about 30% cheaper than the current fare on those dates offered by Westjet ($429), and 35% cheaper than Air Canada (currently $468).

And they've recently added a new promo, where children between the ages of 2-17 can fly for $181 roundtrip after taxes, which is a pretty great price (anyone 2 and up usually pays whatever an adult pays on flights within Canada). Children must be accompanied by an adult paying *regular* fare ($385 roundtrip).

I'm assuming that each child must have a paying adult to qualify for the discount. It's not 100% clear on their promo page whether one adult can bring two children and have each of them receive the discounted price. But I'm guessing for each child discount, there must be an adult paying regular price.

The promo on their page claims that the child price is $104 roundtrip after taxes, but there's a bit of marketing spin going on there. Since the child must be accompanied by an adult paying regular fare ($385) it's a bit disingenuous to claim that the price is $104 roundtrip for the child, when an adult flying by themselves could fly for the sale price of $308. So in reality, you need to take the difference between the regular adult fare and the sale adult fare ($77) and add it to the cost of the child discount fare, which works out to $181.

At the end of the day, if you're looking to go to Vancouver for Thanksgiving, and have an even number of adults & children in your family, it's a great price. And even for adults traveling without children, it's a nice discount over the other two airlines than can get you there.

[undercoverbrother]

On average what price range are flight to Belize? Have you heard any reviews or comments on safety?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

On average what price range are flight to Belize? Have you heard any reviews or comments on safety?

They used to hover in the range of $900-$1000ish roundtrip after taxes. And then last year the U.S. based airlines seemed to start having fare wars to Central America, and prices dropped as low as the high $300s. And now they seemed to have settled in the high $500s to $700s, somewhere in there I would say is the average.

Went there this February, loved it. Lack of great beaches will likely surprise some (they're usually treed mangroves as opposed to sandy) but the diving and snorkeling are world class. Great Mayan sites. The islands off the coast are nice.

The people are great, English is the official language, and the country is tiny so you can see a lot of it in a short amount of time. I'd spend as little time as possible in Belize City though, it's about the only sketchy area. No real reason to be around there other than to fly in/out.

Google Map of things we checked out: http://tinyurl.com/7yjl3ys

[rubecube]

Yeah, Belize is great but stay away from Belize City. What a ####hole. Also didn't care too much for San Pedro. We spent 8 nights in Caye Caulker and 4 in San Pedro, and wished we'd just stayed in Caulker and taken a daytrip to Pedro. Wished we'd had time to hit Placencia.

[Ace]

I put this in the 'I just have a quick question...' thread, but it's probably more appropriate here.

I'm looking to set up a price alert (similar to kayak's flight price alerts), for rental cars, anything out there that can do this?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Ace

I put this in the 'I just have a quick question...' thread, but it's probably more appropriate here.

I'm looking to set up a price alert (similar to kayak's flight price alerts), for rental cars, anything out there that can do this?

http://www.quora.com/Websites-like-K...ert-on-the-web

^^ AutoSlash.com comes up as a suggestion.

People's experience with AutoSlash....

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/newgir...entals/page/4/

Seems to be that AutoSlash isn't the greatest for performing your original search for a car rental (limited agencies), but can be useful for letting you know about price drops on rentals that are similar to what you've found.

[Ace]

^Yes, I tried Autoslash but all it kept saying for me is "cars are not available'??

There has got to be something better...

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Ace

^Yes, I tried Autoslash but all it kept saying for me is "cars are not available'??

There has got to be something better...

Let us know if you find anything! Can't say I've ever seen anything else. The vast number of different car rental promo codes and coupons out there probably makes it difficult to build something useful. You'd think it would be possible to track drops in the base rate though, but perhaps the car rental companies don't allow their price data to be used in that way since people can rebook without charge. I don't *think* Yapta monitors price drops on car rentals, but I've never tried it.

[SebC]

How much am I getting ripped off if I go to Vegas for Remembrance day weekend (i.e. vs. if my dates were flexible)? It looks like it woud be $800 for direct flights (Nov 9 to Nov 12). I can't seem to find the FareCompare charts anymore.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by SebC

How much am I getting ripped off if I go to Vegas for Remembrance day weekend (i.e. vs. if my dates were flexible)?

You're traveling to Vegas on Remembrance Day, the place that you likely won't remember anything from?

SebC, you just balanced the universe today.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by SebC

How much am I getting ripped off if I go to Vegas for Remembrance day weekend (i.e. vs. if my dates were flexible)? It looks like it woud be $800 for direct flights (Nov 9 to Nov 12). I can't seem to find the FareCompare charts anymore.

$800 is a lot for a flight to Vegas. I generally refuse to pay anything over $400.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Muta

You're traveling to Vegas on Remembrance Day, the place that you likely won't remember anything from?

SebC, you just balanced the universe today.

Well, some of my friends are... I'm not decided on if I'll join 'em. This thread has kind of made me averse to travelling on prime dates.

[cmyden]

The duopoly both just released promo codes for 15% off travel within Canada for Jan/Feb 2013 travel dates.

http://www.westjet.com/guest/en/deal...ic-ge-20121010

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

[Hans Landa]

Need to go to a wedding in Riviera Maya Mexico in May.

The engaged couple sent me the pricing they received from the travel agent they are using (based in Ontario) for their destination wedding and from Calgary, it's $1600/person. All inclusive, 5 nights at Gran Bahia Akumal.

I dunno... it's Mexico. That's outrageously expensive, no? I've done my own searching hoping to find something cheaper, even at a different resort on the same beach, but I'm having no luck.

I've never been anywhere outside of Canada/US (with exception of Japan and New Zealand), so the whole Mexico/Caribbean/Cuba vacation nonsense is new to me.

Suggestions?? Can I just fly there, build a sand castle on the beach and live in that for a few nights?

Price out the Bahia Coba. Same complex, just farther away from the beach. Are the dates for a holiday weekend? Seems high. I went a few years back and got 7 days for $700 before tax.

[Table 5]

I need to get to Guayaquil, Ecuador in early February. Any place/site I should be keeping an eye out for deals? I have to be there within a fairly small window, so I'm not sure I have a lot of flexibility time wise.

Any particular airlines to use?

[Northendzone]

We went to the above resort in 2009 and paid about $2,000 each from calgary. Trip left on a Sunday and returned on a Sunday.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Hans Landa

Need to go to a wedding in Riviera Maya Mexico in May.

The engaged couple sent me the pricing they received from the travel agent they are using (based in Ontario) for their destination wedding and from Calgary, it's $1600/person. All inclusive, 5 nights at Gran Bahia Akumal.

I dunno... it's Mexico. That's outrageously expensive, no? I've done my own searching hoping to find something cheaper, even at a different resort on the same beach, but I'm having no luck.

I've never been anywhere outside of Canada/US (with exception of Japan and New Zealand), so the whole Mexico/Caribbean/Cuba vacation nonsense is new to me.

Suggestions?? Can I just fly there, build a sand castle on the beach and live in that for a few nights?

There's a few factors at play here...

1. The Canadian tour operators haven't even begun to think about May price cuts on their all-inclusive packages yet. They usually start thinking about cutting package prices about 3 months before departure.

2. By *far* the most common package length offered by the Canadian tour operators is 7 nights, so packages that are shorter (3-5 nights) can actually be more expensive than a 7 night package. If it were me, I'd focus on the 7 night packages from the various Canadian tour operators.

3. The Gran Bahia properties go on sale very frequently. As Puxlut mentioned, the Gran Bahia Akumal is part of what is now a quartet of Gran Bahia properties all in the same location (Akumal, Tulum, Coba, and the Sian Ka'an). When you stay at one, you can access the others.

I'd probably keep an eye on 7 night packages from the Canadian tour operators for all 4 of the Gran Bahia resorts starting around March/April when they'll likely start slashing the price. It's not uncommon for the Gran Bahia packages to go sub-$1000/person after taxes for flight + 7 nights (that's based on 2 people in the room).

All of the travel agents in Canada access the same package prices from the same database. The same database used by all the major Canadian-based travel sites.

[Hans Landa]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

We went to the above resort in 2009 and paid about $2,000 each from calgary. Trip left on a Sunday and returned on a Sunday.

Was it worth it at that price?