When to buy airfare for end of December?

[BLBCB]

We are planning to fly down Dec 27. When is the best time to buy our tickets?

 

[cabmom]

(IMO)If I were you I would buy now with WestJet. The last time I looked they had seats for that date and they were $117 each plus taxes per person!

 

[Daisy Duck 5]

We are flying on CanJet on Dec 26th to Jan 2nd. It is a direct flight from Halifax which is new for them this year. I booked 2 weeks ago through a travel agent who thought it would be sold out by the middle of August. The flight times are great for Halifax -we leave at 8:30 am and arrive in Orlando at 11:15am.

 

[BLBCB]

We are flying out of Winnipeg, and I seem to be having trouble finding flights. Canjet doesn't fly out of Winnipeg. Westjet is still $750 a person (x 5 of us), and it reroutes us west all the way to Calgary, then down to Orlando. Jetsgo doesn't let me connect from Winnipeg down to Orlando, and I'm having trouble with flights to Toronto, if I was going to try to book them seperately.

Has anyone from Winnipeg ever driven across the border and flew out of North Dakota or something? Does it save you much money? Is it worth the hassel? I'm having trouble finding what airlines fly from which airports. We are already driving about 13 hours south just to get to Winnipeg, so what's a few more hours after that, especially if it will save us some money!!

The airline tickets are the only thing of the whole planning process that has me worried. Everything else depends on us being down there on certain days. And you can't cancel once you've booked them!

 

[alohamom]

Don't panic, you'll get seats if you just keep looking. Are you using travelocity.com to try to see who has seats out of the american airports. That is where I would start as far as researching US cities for flights. I think you will probably be o.k.

 

[DonDuck Fan]

Originally posted by BLBCB
We are flying out of Winnipeg, and I seem to be having trouble finding flights. Canjet doesn't fly out of Winnipeg. Westjet is still $750 a person (x 5 of us), and it reroutes us west all the way to Calgary, then down to Orlando. Jetsgo doesn't let me connect from Winnipeg down to Orlando, and I'm having trouble with flights to Toronto, if I was going to try to book them seperately.

Has anyone from Winnipeg ever driven across the border and flew out of North Dakota or something? Does it save you much money? Is it worth the hassel? I'm having trouble finding what airlines fly from which airports. We are already driving about 13 hours south just to get to Winnipeg, so what's a few more hours after that, especially if it will save us some money!!

The airline tickets are the only thing of the whole planning process that has me worried. Everything else depends on us being down there on certain days. And you can't cancel once you've booked them!

We have flown North West From Winnipeg, We are planning a trip early in Dec and the current price for that time is still 630 per person. Still a lot f $$$


I looked at West Jests prices and it would cost us 1700 pre person!

DDF

 

[mbb]

www.sidestep.com I find it to be a really good search engine

And Amberle3 would be able to help out too....she's excellent!!

HTH!!

 

[BLBCB]

DonDuck Fan

Have you ever flown out of the states? Anyone you know ever done it? I'm just wondering if it is at all worth the effort.

 

[BLBCB]

mbb

Who is Amberle3?

 

[mbb]

and a frequent Diser...

We booked our tickets through her, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind you sending her a pm...

Just a note to the Mods...(and Amberle3) hope this information is ok to post...if not, please let me know

 

[murray karen family]

i think you should book in the USA go to the nearrest big city and i,m sure you will get a much better deal.Ijust booked flights for 4 out of seattle washington $323 per person seattle to orlando dec 30 to jan 14 it may save you a bunch of money i think just bring good I.D like passport i live on vancouver island and i feel i saved a lot going to seattle rather than vancouver airport.This price was including taxes. ..........murray..............good luck

 

[murray karen family]

Forgot to say it was through Expedia.ca they were the cheapest.Also check destina.ca and a few these sights sometimes vary a bit ..

 

[b-1]

Last year I booked our flights on NWA on August 24th with a departure date of Dec.10th. The tickets were $478 each. I am watching for Feb 1st now.

The flights out of Grand Forks are the same price as from Winnipeg, at least they have been every time I checked. You are also very right in saying the WESTjet is not a bargain for us in Winnipeg because if I read it right, not only do you have to go to Calgary first but you also have to stay over night!

Minneapolis might be a good option, my parents used to do that when we were young and going to Florida. I guess you would have to factor in the cost of parking your car. But the savings might be there especially if you can save $300 per ticket.

Good Luck and keep checking those flights.

 

[disneyvacationmom]

We are flying with West Jet on Dec 26 and got a great rate-it was cheaper than flying from Buffalo which is what we normally do. It looks like I'll be at Pop Century at the same time as Daisy Duck5. Wear your lime green ribbon. Would love to meet you.

 

[BLBCB]

When flying from Winnipeg to Orlando, your choices are limited. Westjet takes us west all the way to Calgary first, and we have to overnight it in Calgary. Most other "low fare" airlines travel out of Toronto. Flights to Toronto can be very expensive too.

As far as I can see, we basically at this point need to stick to Air Canada or NWA. The flights out of North Dakota aren't any cheaper, maybe about $20 ea. We've only gone twice, so I'm hoping that someone out there who has travelled more times than us, will have some tips.

In a general sense though, when do cheap fares usually come out for end of December?

 

[Amberle3]

Unfortunately with airfare there is no "in general". It depends on so many factors that it's incredibly difficult to predict.

On the one hand, you're looking at a very busy time period which makes seat sales less likely.

On the other hand, with Westjet starting service to Orlando it might motivate AC to reduce their pricing or have a sale.

It all depends on how well the seats are filling up. If AC (or NW) have strong sales, they're not going to lower the price for those seats. After all, if they're likely to sell out then why would they lower the price? If sales aren't going as well as they'd like though, then they might put them on sale for a while.

The only thing sure with airfare is that you never know what's going to happen!