Woohoo! Good experience with Airmiles tonight.

[coastgirl]

So dh has checked the dates at work, I've been watching the airfares from the US, and we were ready to take the plunge. We've collected AM for a few years now, tried to book once and couldn't get anything close to what we wanted 6-8 mos out, THEN they increased the miles you needed, so we basically gave up on AM flights... Figured before we got serious about lookign at routes from ME or NH, we'd just check AM. I'm quite pleased with the result.

We got the days we wanted, Friday through the next Saturday in Sept. We leave after work and school Friday, with a late arrival at MCO (nearly midnight), and come home on an afternoon routing the following Saturday. We paid $735 in taxes and fees for 4 of us. Not exactly a free ticket, but quite a bargain from Halifax, with no extra days driving, no overnight in New Hampshire or Maine. No viciously early check ins, and with the PD day built in there, the kids are only missing 4 days of school. I only have 7 nights booked at Disney, we need our last night still and are having trouble getting it, but I'll keep trying at the 45 day mark. And I'm not thrilled to be getting in at midnight and planning on a full day at Epcot the next day, but I'm hoping adrenaline will get us there.

Got the flights...so we must be going back!!

 

[tgropp]

Congratulations. I know how hard it is to get the dates that you want. We used airmiles for a Christmas flight in 2005 and I am planning to book 4 flights from Toronto for Christmas 2010 for my children and their spouses. We can get 25% off with the Mosiak CC which is changing to BOM soon. My wife and myself will probally fly out of Detroit and save the airmiles for something else since we will be flying out sooner than our kids

 

[coastgirl]

Yes, we got the BoM points discount also, which allowed us to access Air Canada flts for the reduced amount...happy to fly Westjet but it was AC that came up. Being able to book 4 seats anywhere 3 months out, I was very pleased.

 

[SplashMom]

Great job! I love using Airmiles and we are usually able to get 4 tickets without a problem. It is still a great deal from Halifax for that price. We usually fly from Halifax but the last time we flew from Sydney for the same number of airmiles, which is great when you are from here...no five hour drive to and from Halifax. Gotta love Airmiles...

 

[Donald - my hero]

Glad to hear someone else is in love with their Airmiles flights! I was just so excited when i call ed and was able to get us ours for early December. We leave fairly early on Friday morning and leave the following Saturday at 10 PM!!

I can hardly wait for my trip. OH i also snagged a terrific rental rate from National so i got a gift card with airmiles as well so the car rental will be free too

 

[brooker]

I booked flights for October last month for 3 and didn't have any problems. It cost us $570 in taxes using AC but considering the cost of the flights even to this day I think we got a great deal If I booked today it would cost just over $3000 from Deer Lake Newfoundland to Orlando. We have 800 airmiles again in 2 months towards our next flight in 2010 or 2011. We got great flight times too, we leave at 6:00 am arrive at 12:44pm on a Friday and arrive home at around 8:00pm the following Saturday after leaving Orlando at 8:00am.

 

[coastgirl]

I can imagine flying out of Deer Lake would be pricey, Halifax is all bad enough. (I'm from Corner Brook, all of my early flights involved Deer Lake!) Yeah, we've always tried to use the points for things that would be not necessarily further, but smaller markets/fewer sales.

 

[SplashMom]

You gave me an incentive and I called Airmiles yesterday and got my tickets for March break!! I am so excited. We fly out on Friday March 12 and return on Monday March 22. It is perfect for us and you can't beat the cost - $350 with my airmiles. The cash cost per ticket is approx $1100 so we are very happy! Only 251 days to go!!

 

[Lizziejane]

don't you love it when things work out?! I just booked two tickets through Aeroplan for next January - leave at 9:45 am (yipee - no 6 am flights!), arrive at 5:00, and taxes for both of us were $188! Not sure why that's so low - perhaps because we fly through Chicago with United? Last time the taxes were $150 each going through Toronto.

 

[coastgirl]

Glad it worked out. The agent I was talking to said the fees and taxes would be less if you booked an American carrier. Unfortunately all we could get was AC. But still, I know we got a great deal.

 

[pl'smama]

Glad to hear someone else is in love with their Airmiles flights! I was just so excited when i call ed and was able to get us ours for early December. We leave fairly early on Friday morning and leave the following Saturday at 10 PM!!

I can hardly wait for my trip. OH i also snagged a terrific rental rate from National so i got a gift card with airmiles as well so the car rental will be free too

Hi Donald, i was wondering if you mind sharing some things about your trip. If not, I understand.

I am thinking of booking a trip for early December for my DD and I. The thought of using AM to save some money is great! Can you tell me what airline you are flying with? Was there any black out times or dates? Can you choose to stay any length of time and still use the AM or does it have to be a certain number of days?


Thanks, Suz

 

[coastgirl]

I think airmiles claims no blackouts, but the amount of miles needed for a destination changes depending on date/season, and there are limited amounts of seats available for anything. We are going AC, but West Jet takes a lot of AM redemptions, and the person we spoke with said they also book Delta, US Air, Continental... We flew for 2000 miles per person but if we had flown a couple of weeks sooner I think it would've been 2600 or 2800 miles. You can also get better deals by using a BMO credit card, which we have. Not sure if there are duration limits, but I'm sure you could get a couple of weeks no problem. Hope that helps.