How to find a good flight $

Gracomom

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 14, 2012
This is probably something most of you know, but I really haven't a clue. Besides checking the flight prices online myself and keeping an excel document recording the prices for a while before I book, how can I know if I'm getting a good rate? Is there a website somewhere that will rate my flight to tell me if I'm getting a good deal? We're flying from Edmonton to Orlando in September 2016, so I have lots of time, but paying for 6 of us to go there for 2 weeks, 6 flights, house rental (maybe Reunion Resort?), considering a a Disney cruise in there, and it's looking very, very expensive (gulp). The flights I'm finding for this coming September are looking like just under 4K to fly 6 of us there from Edmonton. Does that seem crazy or normal? :scared:
 
Hi, I usually book early rather than later especially for busy times of the year. Booking for Sept you might be able to wait for seat sales with Air Canada and Westjet. I know flying out of Edmonton is expensive, my DD is at U of A and getting her home for Christmas was crazy expensive! I have a WJ MasterCard that gives me WJ $ and a annual 99.00 companion flight that I have used for flights to Orlando so that helps a bit.
 
Due to work commitments... I find myself planning vacations just weeks or days before I go. Sometimes this works out because of sales/over supplies.

One thing I rediscovered are fare calendars. By leaving a few days earlier/later, the flight savings pay for the extra hotel/meals.

Anyone want a trip during the superbowl weekend? I notice the prices are cheaper...
http://www.fly.com/ca/Flywidgets/CalendarSearch.aspx

Travelocity used to have a similar calendar... can't find it any more.
 
This is probably something most of you know, but I really haven't a clue. Besides checking the flight prices online myself and keeping an excel document recording the prices for a while before I book, how can I know if I'm getting a good rate? Is there a website somewhere that will rate my flight to tell me if I'm getting a good deal? We're flying from Edmonton to Orlando in September 2016, so I have lots of time, but paying for 6 of us to go there for 2 weeks, 6 flights, house rental (maybe Reunion Resort?), considering a a Disney cruise in there, and it's looking very, very expensive (gulp). The flights I'm finding for this coming September are looking like just under 4K to fly 6 of us there from Edmonton. Does that seem crazy or normal? :scared:

We fly from YEG, too. After 8 trips now, we've come to the conclusion that our best fares are usually on United, connecting in Denver or Houston, avoiding Chicago like the plague. The same goes for Toronto on Air Canada and Westjet. Currently our strategy is to get out of the snow belt on the first hop but really, weather elsewhere can and will influence your planes and crews anytime. With our dollar where it is, a total fare price under 600 is ok, closer to 500 is pretty good and less than 500 is golden. Right now, for September, flights on United leaving mid-week are 490 per person for a 7 day stay and in the low to mid 500s on weekends. That's probably as good as it'll get. I'd book at those prices. Hope this helps. :)

ETA: The fares are the same for 14 day stays too: www.united.com
 


Hey, Gracomom, any update on your flight search for September? :)

Oops, just looked a bit closer and now see you're going in 2016! No need for the update, then.
 
I've used a few travel sites but now use Flighthub.com to find the cheapest flight (TICO registered for us in Ontario) and do a price watch to be notified when prices do change. If seeing a cheap fare one then can decide if they then want to book directly through the airlines website (for whatever benefit it provides) or price elsewhere to find cheaper (that I have not found). You are a far way out before being able to book for the fall of 2016 but I see a price of $528 through WestJet for 9/14 to 9/21 this year).
 


We've booked 3 flights now from YEG. Last August we flew United and the flights were about 550 a person. We connected through Houston. The flight was okay--seats were really close together (which is fine if you're short, but uncomfortable for anyone over about 5'6"). But the flight in Houston was delayed for hours (we sat in the plane on the Tarmac for about 2 hours and were then told the flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems). We were quite worried that we would have to spend the night there, but luckily we made it to Orlando that night (7 or 8 hours late). I'm sure such problems are more common at bigger airports, but it was not a great experience. This trip we lucked out and found a direct flight (!!) from YEG through westjet. It works out to 650 per person, but it means no concerns about connecting flight problems. I would much rather 'splurge' on the flight and cut corners elsewhere in the trip, but that's just my two cents :)

I've also considered a westjet credit card to get the companion flight perk, but westjet flights to MCO seem to be really unpredictable cost-wise (I've seen between 600 and 1200 pp, with lots of notice).
 
We've booked 3 flights now from YEG. Last August we flew United and the flights were about 550 a person. We connected through Houston. The flight was okay--seats were really close together (which is fine if you're short, but uncomfortable for anyone over about 5'6"). But the flight in Houston was delayed for hours (we sat in the plane on the Tarmac for about 2 hours and were then told the flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems). We were quite worried that we would have to spend the night there, but luckily we made it to Orlando that night (7 or 8 hours late). I'm sure such problems are more common at bigger airports, but it was not a great experience. This trip we lucked out and found a direct flight (!!) from YEG through westjet. It works out to 650 per person, but it means no concerns about connecting flight problems. I would much rather 'splurge' on the flight and cut corners elsewhere in the trip, but that's just my two cents :)

I've also considered a westjet credit card to get the companion flight perk, but westjet flights to MCO seem to be really unpredictable cost-wise (I've seen between 600 and 1200 pp, with lots of notice).

I'm always sorry to hear about people's bad experiences with delays/cancellations but that is just the way it is. I know I sure don't want to be on an aircraft trying to fly with a "no go" issue that is known. I've had long delays on United too, and WJ (2 hours to fix a burnt out bulb in Kelowna), and Air Canada (endlessly flying up and down the west coast waiting for fog to lift at YVR), and...well you get the idea. It happens to them all.

Our solution to the "crowdy" economy seats on United is to book as cheaply as we can and then upgrade to Economy Plus for at least the long legs (over 2.5 h) of our trips. We were placed in E+ seating after missing a connection in DEN years ago and have been booking E+ ever since that experience. Younger/shorter folks may not feel it's worth it.

The WJ nonstop. Nice if you can get it but at one flight a week I'm at the point where I don't usually check and the seating isn't much different than anyone else's economy seating, either. But that's just my opinion.

In 2013, after a week of spring blizzards and being stuck in drifts 3 times, all our schools were closed (we're pretty rural) because of the road conditions for the two days before spring break. On the Friday before the break began I texted DW and asked "Feel like going to Florida yet?" She replied "Make me an offer!" So within an hour and a half I had Disney booked (no discounts with that short of notice) but the flights were crazy expensive for our next day departure, or in the case of WJ there was nothing available going down at all. Desperate, I started looking around at one-way flights and lo and behold, I found cheap one way fares there on United and the cheapest flight back was surprisingly WJ's non-stop. Go figure.

I guess the moral of the story is "Don't be afraid to be creative and book one way fares on different carriers if you can save some money by doing so."
 
I guess the moral of the story is "Don't be afraid to be creative and book one way fares on different carriers if you can save some money by doing so."

I completely agree, dis_guy. I've had some bad/long delays with lots of different carriers--what I meant is that when you're travelking to disney those delays feel so much worse. They're eating into valuable park time! I feel less concerned with connecting flights on the way home.

I do wish westjet (or any other airline, frankly) would offer more regular direct flights from YEG. but you're definitely right--taking the time to check for one way flights is a great way to save some cash.
 
bumping - any BCer with good prices out of Vancouver, Bellingham or Seattle? Anyone tried flights from Portland?
 
bumping - any BCer with good prices out of Vancouver, Bellingham or Seattle? Anyone tried flights from Portland?
When looking at Bellingham, Seattle, and/or Portland lower prices.... also consider...
  • travel time... compared to direct YVR departures.
    • YVR allows for noon departures post cruise.... Seattle will 2 or more hours... likely an evening flight.
    • Also consider border crossing time if you plan to drive yourself. Long weekends are painful, which can be a few hours during peak periods.
  • cost to travel
    • the train requires additional taxi's to/from the train stations
    • car rental parking
    • car rental drop fees
    • bus/train individual prices
  • frequency... how many daily flights from Bellingham? How many flights per week?
    • is the train schedule compatible with your travel plans
  • luggage charges... Allegiant has great fares... until you include luggage charges, especially undeclared luggage after you purchased airfare.
Suddenly those savings are no so great.

I think Portland is too far...
 
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I'm flying down to Orlando from Vancouver at the end of August. Best price I got was from United, with a stopover in San Fran on the way down, and a stopover in Denver I think on the way back. Leave Vancouver at 6.45am to land in Orlando about 6pm EST, and got the latest flight possible coming home, about 4pm EST to land around midnight PST :)
 
We are flying Winnipeg to MCO on United manager to get 387 per person for September
 
We booked for $460 from Vancouver (Yvr) to Orlando (Mco). We stop in LA then redeye it arriving around 6:00am EST.
 
I've found the best comparison site that I've used is http://www.cheapflights.ca/ Plug in your criteria and it combs a ton of sites for the lowest prices. Got my flights from YYZ to MCO for about $50 cheaper per person that Air Canada was advertising or that I could see through google flights.

Also I've found that the "sweet spot" for lowest prices seems to be about 60-45 days prior to the trip. From ~45 days onwards it seems to steadily climb back up
 
I fly out of YEG too and usually get fares for about $550. The most I've paid is $625. We usually go on United through Houston or Chicago and have done WJ through Toronto. I hate Toronto's airport so I try to avoid that at all costs. However, with our crappy dollar I will go where ever there is a cheap flight.
 
I love Flight Hub and google flights. We're currently looking for flights from Vancouver to Maui for May 2016 and then we'll need flights from Vancouver to Galveston (flying into Houston) for our January 2017 cruise.
 

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