New ? AC/WJ

[Debbie]

I'm thinking about the Christmas break leading into the first week of January for flights here in Canada. Traditionally, do AC and WJ ever run seat sales for that time period? Do the prices go down, or up as the summer/fall approaches? Right now, a suitable WJ flight has "5 seats at this price" (and only one flight per day). I'd like to think that I don't have to book the one leg just yet, but . . . .

 

[A&Bmama]

You don't say where you are booking from/to and the price that you are seeing but I would guess that you can probably do better. It is still very early and I would think that most of airlines flight plans and times have not been finalized yet. If you are traveling from a major Canadian city and are seeing only one flight it is pretty much a certainty that there will be more.

As for timing to book at the lowest possible fare I am not an expert but after speding quite a bit of time checking west jet's fares I seem to notice that everytime they announce a new seat sale they seem to release a new block of seats. So for example on a monday you could check and see that you they are have 5 seats left at the lowest price of $189.00, on wednesday they announce a new sale and now the same flight has a new lowest price of $129 and they have 15 seats remaining at that price. I would advise you to subscribe to get Jetmail from west jet and also to get air canada's e-mail fare alerts. That way you should be notified each time they announce a new sale.

In my experience there seems to be a bit of a "sweet spot" about 2-3 months in advance of your travel when the fares seem to be the lowest HOWEVER I never travel over xmas so I couldn't really tell you if this holds true over this time period.

Another tip, try westjetvactions.com. You will have to book a car or hotel or both along with your airfare but when I checked for my trip to orlando they consitantly offered a car rental and flights for less money than they charged for just the (same) flight on westjet.com

 

[Debbie]

Thanks. Actually the trip will be from Hamilton (WJ) or London (AC) to Halifax for school. No WJ London flights in the winter. and, to be honest, AC has my vote despite it meaning that DD would have to change planes in TO since my time-and gas!- is worth the $10 more for the flight. At least she'd be in the same terminal, so time shouldn't be too much of a factor. I wouldn't be able to book the flight home (to London) until the fall when the exam schedule comes out, so I'd rather wait. Hopefully, the 'sweet spot' that you mention is there for the Christmas holidays, too.

 

[Debbie]

Any other Christmas AC flyers? When do you usually book your fare?