Need Advise! Air Canada Prices

[Brandilovesdisney]

I just got an e-mail notification for a flight out of Montreal on our dates in November/December for $427 (tax and fees included) on Air Canada flying direct. Is this a good price? Should I hold out for something better?
We were going to fly out of the US like last time but with gas, park n' stay etc. the savings wouldn't be good enough to sway me (especially since I have two young kids and half our travel party is from Montreal, not to mention the fact that my son has dust mite allergies so every "allergy clean" hotel we stay in is very expensive). Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

 

[sjsjbrook]

I know my last trip I was happy to grab tickets for just over $500 taxes in direct flight with return. I had been watching the prices for months.

So I think that is a fabulous price. Though I only have flown out of Toronto and not Montreal.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

I just got an e-mail notification for a flight out of Montreal on our dates in November/December for $427 (tax and fees included) on Air Canada flying direct. Is this a good price? Should I hold out for something better?
We were going to fly out of the US like last time but with gas, park n' stay etc. the savings wouldn't be good enough to sway me (especially since I have two young kids and half our travel party is from Montreal, not to mention the fact that my son has dust mite allergies so every "allergy clean" hotel we stay in is very expensive). Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

I think that price is great since it's direct and from your home airport. I'm paying that amount for march 2012 but have to travel 3 hours to the airport and it's not direct

 

[yayasue]

I just got an e-mail notification for a flight out of Montreal on our dates in November/December for $427 (tax and fees included) on Air Canada flying direct. Is this a good price? Should I hold out for something better?
We were going to fly out of the US like last time but with gas, park n' stay etc. the savings wouldn't be good enough to sway me (especially since I have two young kids and half our travel party is from Montreal, not to mention the fact that my son has dust mite allergies so every "allergy clean" hotel we stay in is very expensive). Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

We are from Montreal but flying out of Burlington in September (1h45min drive from my house) 387$ US is what we paid for our direct flights with Jet Blue so 427 is really good considering you won't have to drive far to get to the airport.

 

[ccudmore]

For direct out of Montreal that's a very good price. The only other thing that may be cheaper is to drive an hour to Plattsburgh, NY and take a flight on Allegiant. They don't have prices for your time frame yet but I'm guessing you'd get under $300 all in per person that time of year. However you'd have to rent a car since they fly into Sanford, not MCO.

 

[Brandilovesdisney]

Well it didn't work out. I got the deal through tripadvisor which, as many of you know, compares the prices of all the airlines and consolidators. They base the search criteria on the number of passengers in the party- not adults or children because (as they state on their website) airlines charge per seat most of the time, regardless of age.

The $427 offer was from cheapoair and I clicked on it - well the form comes up for 6 adults...tripadvisor states on their site that if I need to change the passengers from adults to kids or seniors to call the company directly. So I called cheapoair - I explained that the price came up on tripadvisor and the guy told me he could give me the tickets for the $427 price, no problem. He took all my information and then I was put on hold while they processed the tickets - when he came back he told me his manager said these tickets didn't include the taxes. I told him that on my end it said the tickets were $311 plus $116 tax and fees - so the total after taxes was $427. He asked me to send him the link, which I did, and then he put me on hold again - when he came back he told me the price must only be for people booking hotel and airfare. Once again I corrected him and told him my message was for airfare only so he asked me to send him a screen shot which I did. Once he received it and saw that I was correct - that it was $427 taxes and fees included and that the deal was for airfare only - he put me on hold again for 15 minutes!
Finally he came back and told me that these prices were no longer available and tripadvisor must not have updated their site and there was nothing he could do. (The price is still coming up on tripadvisor right now)
So basicaly if my party had contained 6 adults I could have booked the deal this morning but because I have two kids and had to sit on the phone for over an hour and a half, I lost out.

 

[monkey30]

thats not good. We just boooked from Calgary with a stop in Dallas for $405/person taxes included with American Airlines

 

[maggieb9975]

did u try doing it directly from the Air Canada site? Just a thought.....

 

[maggieb9975]

did u try doing it directly from the Air Canada site? Just a thought.....

 

[Brandilovesdisney]

yup - it was a cheapoair exclusive deal

 

[corster]

Just book them as Adults in the future... practically none of the airlines even have child fares anymore. The distinction only matters if the child is flying unaccompanied or if it's a targeted promotion (such as Kids fly Free).

 

[Brandilovesdisney]

I tried that - the cheapoair system wouldn't let me book the tickets because when I entered their birth date it wouldn't accept them as adults. And I'm not about to lie about their age especially since the info wouldn't match their passport/ID.

 

[Sprockie]

I know you said you were leaning toward flying from Canada, but have you looked into Direct Air out of Plattsburg (45 minutes from Montreal)? They are beginning a direct route to Lakeland Florida in November and we booked our flights (family of 4) for $812.00 all inclusive. The flights are on Wednesdays and Saturdays and they leave Plattsburg at 2:30 pm, which means no overnight stay before and parking is very reasonable ($3 or $5 a day).
We loved the idea of flying from a small airport to another small airport. Lakeland is about 40 minutes from WDW.

 

[gem21]

Honestly, I don't think that's a great price. I would wait... I flew AC direct Montreal to Orlando in January and we paid about 265$ a person (return, tax in). We booked in November I believe, and they I remember in the fall waiting for the sales to include January because most of them only went as far as November. I remember the sales were 99$, 89$ and then 75$. Now that was last year and with the cost of fuel going up it probbaly won't go as low, but I would wait a bit longer to book.

 

[webworm]

I just got an e-mail notification for a flight out of Montreal on our dates in November/December for $427 (tax and fees included) on Air Canada flying direct. Is this a good price? Should I hold out for something better?
We were going to fly out of the US like last time but with gas, park n' stay etc. the savings wouldn't be good enough to sway me (especially since I have two young kids and half our travel party is from Montreal, not to mention the fact that my son has dust mite allergies so every "allergy clean" hotel we stay in is very expensive). Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

Fly out of Plattsburgh with DirectAir. They have a 50% off sale on now until May 17th. Total return including taxes leaving Nov 26th and returning Dec 3rd as an example is $153.60

PLATTSBURGH,NY ORLANDO / WEST LAKELAND D1 - 4401 Nov262011 02:30 PM Nov262011 06:15 PM

ORLANDO / WEST LAKELAND PLATTSBURGH,NY D1 - 4400 Dec032011 10:30 AM Dec032011 01:42 PM
Passengers Fare Per Passenger Services Taxes Subtotal
1 Adult 92.08 USD 0.00 USD 61.52 USD 153.60 USD

You Saved: 92.09 USD
Total Price: 153.60 USD
http://www.visitdirectair.com/

 

[MtlFire]

I just got an e-mail notification for a flight out of Montreal on our dates in November/December for $427 (tax and fees included) on Air Canada flying direct. Is this a good price? Should I hold out for something better?
We were going to fly out of the US like last time but with gas, park n' stay etc. the savings wouldn't be good enough to sway me (especially since I have two young kids and half our travel party is from Montreal, not to mention the fact that my son has dust mite allergies so every "allergy clean" hotel we stay in is very expensive). Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

I fly out of Montreal all the time via Air Canada. Their prices will fluctuate a lot but should get down between 90-109$ a person one way plus taxes and fees. I did round trip two weeks ago from Montreal-Orlando on Air Canada for $380 per person taxes included round trip.

I've been paying more or less this rate for about 2 years now.

The fares don't stay that low before popping back up to about $139 plus taxes each way. I tend to check once a day and always find it at about that rate. Never book less the two weeks out, and never book this early for November. I'm going back to Florida in Novemeber and won't start looking for those tickets until around September... unless I see something pop up in the above rate range. Sometimes I buy down and back on different days depending on the price. Remember that flights from YUL-MCO will always be the cheapest on Tuesday and Wednesdays.

I just looked up Nov-Dec ... at $229-$249 plus taxes... I think that's on the upper limit and they will easily drop to at least $149-$169 plus taxes as you get within the 1-2 months range.

I don't know how at ease you are with technical searches as this isn't exactly a frequent flyer forum, but you might want to try using this search engine:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm

It will give you a good idea of the going price on most airlines (and has tons of options but you don't really need them for what you are looking for). Its total price includes all taxes and fee's.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

http://matrix.itasoftware.com is my first stop for airfares ... just be aware that Aircanada has promo codes that itasoftware cannot pick up. For example Take a search Halifax to Ottawa, Jul 12-19, 2011.

Itasoftware shows AC as $492 (and westjet at $450) ... But jump to aircanada's website and use promo code NX69Z9K1 and its $327.18.

Try it ... you will see what I mean

 

[Ted in Halifax]

Good example of a promo code is CN7JV791 . This applies to AirCanada and gives a 15% on anywhere they fly. You must book your flight before May 18, 2011 and travel before November 30, 2011.

 

[Brandilovesdisney]

Thanks so much for the link to the website - I will definitely be using it from now on.
The links, promo codes - just a few of the many reasons I love this board.

Looks like I will be joining the Maritime Board next year - hubby is posted to Gagetown, NB in the summer of 2012.

 

[-Soleil-]

I don't know how at ease you are with technical searches as this isn't exactly a frequent flyer forum, but you might want to try using this search engine:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm

http://matrix.itasoftware.com is my first stop for airfares ... just be aware that Aircanada has promo codes that itasoftware cannot pick up.

I went to check how much my flight would cost with the help of Matrix. Now how can I get the price I see? The website say: Tickets cannot be purchased directly from ITA Software. Where can I buy them? For my trip the price is 300$ less than on the Air Canada website. Do I need to contact a travel agent to get the price from Matrix?

Thanks for your help! Only 7 rows of 3 passengers sitting together are available for the flight I want. I'm nervous that I won't be able to sit with my kids on the plane.