Air Canada / Air fare experience and advices?

[Veronique]

I've been watching air fare for 3 weeks now, I'm hoping to get a quote under 1200$ for 3 (+ 1 baby on lap) for Montreal (YUL) to MCO.

The app Hopper says to wait and price might go as low as 360$/person... but my trip is septembre 28-october 9! I'm starting to be nervous.

Should I wait another week and bite the bullet? Should I wait even longer? Should I stop everything and buy now?

Only Air Canada seem to offer this leg with no stop for those dates...

Any experience with Air Canada and when they drop prices if plane is not full?

Thank you

 

[Donald - my hero]

The way i look at airfare and when to book it is to set a price in my mind that i would be happy paying. Once i've established that i start glancing at the prices on numerous sites -- the airline direct, expedia and cheapoair.ca I will look at all those sites numerous times a day and as soon as a quote pops up that i can swallow i jump on it. My son & his wife are flying Air Canada out of Pearson at the end of January and i found an unadvertised sale one morning that worked out to $600.00 RT for both of them. Same flights today --- $789

I do HAVE experience with waiting till closer to flight time with Air Canada and their fares seemed to climb alarmingly fast with no regard to how full the flight is. What will happen is they will stop selling the "Tango" rate and continue offering the SAME seats at the "Flex" rate which can be as much as $200.00 for the same seat. Only difference is the a little more flexibility in changing flights and seat selection. I just plugged your dates into the AC site and for those flights i'm getting a quote of $1331.70. Comparison shows the flights towards the end of this month closer to $2,000.00 . I'm afraid you've missed the chance for any kind of seat sale but if you want to gamble you could wait a bit. You can get the fare down a bit by returning on a Wednesday but the cost in extra accommodations and food won't make up the difference. Good luck and Bonne Vacances!!!

 

[Veronique]

Thanks! That is so helpful

I'll wait till wednesday afternoon since apparently monday-wednesday are when sales "might" happen and I'll book the flight after that, no matter what!

Thanks again!

 

[ottawamom]

Veronique, here is another thing to consider. There are only 4 seats left at the Tango price (for the flight to Orlando) when I had a look at the flights a few moments ago. Those seats may not be available if you wait until Wednesday. Once they are gone, they are gone.

You are flying from Montreal which is pretty close to Ottawa as far as pricing goes. We flew (and paid for flights) two years ago in December. Our flights were in the $950 range for two of us. I've seen prices from Ottawa fluctuate from low $400's to mid $500's in recent months.

 

[Veronique]

Yeah! I've waited one last day and suprise! I booked 2 adults - 1 child - 1 baby on lap for 1030$ dollar! We'll have to leave Disney at 4-5 am for our 8h30 am flight, but that's a great price at 335$ CAN per person! I'm super happy I can justify our 4 out of pocket TS reservation now lol

 

[Donald - my hero]

That's a great deal you managed to snag Veronique .. have a great trip!!

 

[samsteele]

We'll have to leave Disney at 4-5 am for our 8h30 am flight, but that's a great price at 335$ CAN per person!

I have the same time flight this Fall on AC. It really isn't that bad as long as you can get to bed early on that last night. I've never had a problem w Magical Express being late. Definitely book a back-up wake up call with the resort. You will need to bring your bags directly to the bus stop and the driver will load them in the bus basement for you. I've always been able to go to the resort Front Desk/concierge the night before and they have assisted me with online check-in and printing out my boarding pass so I have it before arriving at the airport. Safe travels!

 

[Rory CB]

It won't help you at this point, but have a look at the app Hopper for future trips. it keeps track of historical flight prices over time as well as the currect prices of flights. It'll tell you when it thinks your flight is the cheapest it is going to be - it'll also tell you when it historically starts to increase as well. I used it to get a pretty good price on my Jan 2017 flights

*edit: typo

 

[Veronique]

It won't help you at this point, but have a look at the app Hopper for future trips. it keeps track of historical flight prices over time as well as the currect prices of flights. It'll tell you when it thinks your flight is the cheapest it is going to be - it'll also tell you when it historically starts to increase as well. I used it to get a pretty good price on my Jan 2017 flights

*edit: typo

I did, it's the second sentence subject in the first post lololol Morning are hard

But yes Hopper is now a must for my future tip, it said Under 360$ was a good price, so as soon has I saw the price under 360$ I bought it, because thanks to this app I knew it was a good price.

 

[Rory CB]

haha. no more posting mid-tea!

I've booked 4 flights so far with it and it's always been on point. One of them was even *below* the predict value by $50 or so, and in the time it took me to tell someone else it sold out at that price (I got mine at the cheaper price )

 

[Donald - my hero]

haha. no more posting mid-tea!

I've booked 4 flights so far with it and it's always been on point. One of them was even *below* the predict value by $50 or so, and in the time it took me to tell someone else it sold out at that price (I got mine at the cheaper price )

I just noticed your post count .... Welcome to the boards!

​

 

[Rory CB]

I just noticed your post count .... Welcome to the boards!

​

Thanks Terrible first post, I win today! Been a some time lurker figured I should start to contribute/talk since I am planning another trip.

 

[AngelDisney]

It won't help you at this point, but have a look at the app Hopper for future trips. it keeps track of historical flight prices over time as well as the currect prices of flights. It'll tell you when it thinks your flight is the cheapest it is going to be - it'll also tell you when it historically starts to increase as well. I used it to get a pretty good price on my Jan 2017 flights

*edit: typo

Thanks for sharing the Hopper app! I have been wondering whether open day prices are the cheapest for the YYZ/MCO direct flights and not sure if I should book now for August 2017. Hopper prediction eases my anxiety and I can wait a bit and maybe able to save enough airmiles for one leg of the flight.

 

[Terapin]

Don't forget to look at other travel websites for codeshare flights. For instance, a Luftansa flight on Air Canada was 300 cheaper than the Air Canada branded flight to Paris recently. It will say "Luftansa Flight 662 operated by Air Canada", meaning it's on an Air Canada plane. Check baggage allowances and such as they can differ. But you can sometimes score good deals this way!