Air fare is crazy expensive!!!

[loving goldens]

 Hi there is anyone having any luck finding reasonable air fare out of Canada... I know it is supply and demand... the flights are not the best either....I checked on Holland and it is no better..

[shirley valentine]

I will only flight direct , so my options are limited . I use Holland Flight Ease with the help of my PCC . I find they have been the best at sourcing my flights . Everything is up in price post pandemic . The hotel prices in cruise ports are crazy if you don’t book early . And with the Canadian dollar now , Hugh ouch. 

[CaptainBazz]

Where are you flying to and from? And what do you consider reasonable? 

[Magicat]

We are finding booking through United is cheaper than AC.  And usually it is the same flight.  Yes airfare is crazy expensive.  To find reasonable prices I think you need to be a little flexible in your travel plans.  At least that is what we are finding.  Good luck

[Milhouse]

What I've found for booking two trips in late Oct / early Nov to LAS and LAX from YVR was that flight prices were reasonable about 45-60 days out, particularly with a one day seat sale.  But once it got to around the 30 day mark, prices started increasing.  Flair prices are generally pretty cheap but I'm trying to avoid flying LCC's.

+1 to hotel prices being ridiculous though and even more so booking late.

[CDNPolar]

One thing to note is that the "discount sites" for airfare are not always what you think they are.

 

You may already know this, but with Air Canada for instance, they ALWAYS have the cheapest fare available on their site, they give the next fare up to Expedia and other booking sites.  You will always then see the best fare on AC direct.

 

We have tried the United vs. AC booking but generally found the fares to be the same give or take a few bucks.

 

We flew to Spain recently and booked on Delta site, but flew there on KLM, and home on Air France.  We compared booking of KLM and AF before booking with Delta and again, the fares were so close, we booked on Delta where our miles are.

 

We start looking for flights and prices as much as 300 days out and when we get a deal we grab it.  We however do pay higher fares as we want full credit with no change fees and we typically fly Premium or Business as well.

 

Our best guide is Google Flights.  We use that as a guide, but again, you have to be careful as the fare that you see that is a steal is not always the fare that is available when you go to booking, or there are no cancelations, no changes, etc.  This is why we start so far out to book.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Check with google.ca/flights for pricing 

It appears you have to book early to get good pricing ,

Got a good price with Air Transat for our spring TA , YYZ to FLL , BCN to YYZ 

[dolfan1980]

I find the US has really cheap Aeroplan redemptions from Ottawa so have been booking all our travels on those.  I second the google flights recommendation for searching.  Skyscanner can also be good for searching.

[loving goldens]

23 hours ago, shirley valentine said:

I will only flight direct , so my options are limited . I use Holland Flight Ease with the help of my PCC . I find they have been the best at sourcing my flights . Everything is up in price post pandemic . The hotel prices in cruise ports are crazy if you don’t book early . And with the Canadian dollar now , Hugh ouch. 

our flights  are from Halifax to FLL in March... and the cheapest is over 2300.00 with Holland....its crazy...not the best flights either...   😞

[loving goldens]

23 hours ago, CaptainBazz said:

Where are you flying to and from? And what do you consider reasonable? 

Halifax to Fll on a tuesday in March for 2....2300.00  not the best flights either.....  😞

[Travelexpert35]

We travel to Hawaii almost every year except for the last two years. I was checking the price for Feb from YSJ and it was $1500 pp. That is the highest I’ve seen for years. It used to be under $1000 pp. I checked Aeroplan points and that is ridiculous too. It used to be 40,000 points return for Hawaii. Those were the days.

[1kaper]

43 minutes ago, loving goldens said:

our flights  are from Halifax to FLL in March... and the cheapest is over 2300.00 with Holland....its crazy...not the best flights either...   😞

 

March in Halifax is usually March break for schools.  I'm guessing you are likely looking at the same timeframe as March break.  It is always the most expensive time because so much demand.  
If you can be a little flexible, you can get it cheaper if you go a day or two early or leave a day later.  Wed-Wed is the cheapest option I think but that turns a one week cruise into a 2 week vacation. 

[loving goldens]

Just now, 1kaper said:

 

March in Halifax is usually March break for schools.  I'm guessing you are likely looking at the same timeframe as March break.  It is always the most expensive time because so much demand.  
If you can be a little flexible, you can get it cheaper if you go a day or two early or leave a day later.  Wed-Wed is the cheapest option I think but that turns a one week cruise into a 2 week vacation. 

we were planning to fly on Monday week before our March Break our cruise leaves on Wednesday... we were off the cruise on a Saturday... that is the most expensive....

[1kaper]

2 minutes ago, loving goldens said:

we were planning to fly on Monday week before our March Break our cruise leaves on Wednesday... we were off the cruise on a Saturday... that is the most expensive....

 

Yeah.  we get off Sunday and the was pretty expensive.  We are flying out Monday. 

[dolfan1980]

10 minutes ago, loving goldens said:

we were planning to fly on Monday week before our March Break our cruise leaves on Wednesday... we were off the cruise on a Saturday... that is the most expensive....

Try google flights, I see one ways to YHZ from FLL for $250pp on March 25th, but guessing you must want to get back the 18th which is more.  If willing to drive there's $300 pp to Fredericton on the 18th.  Good luck.

[Senga]

Just booked Toronto-Athens, Rome-Toronto for September 2023 on A/C.  The price to Athens was very reasonable (Wednesday) but the price from Rome (Saturday) was quite expensive.  The last time we flew Rome return it was what we are now paying for the one way.  Oh well, at least we got the flight times and seats we wanted.  That is........if they don't change/cancel the flights!!!!!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

15 minutes ago, Senga said:

Just booked Toronto-Athens, Rome-Toronto for September 2023 on A/C.  The price to Athens was very reasonable (Wednesday) but the price from Rome (Saturday) was quite expensive.  The last time we flew Rome return it was what we are now paying for the one way.  Oh well, at least we got the flight times and seats we wanted.  That is........if they don't change/cancel the flights!!!!!

Which Airline ? 
looking for a flight to Rome in November 2023 

[Fouremco]

55 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Which Airline ? 
looking for a flight to Rome in November 2023 

Air Canada.

[Fred&Lily]

Totally agree. Cost of flights are way up.  Yesterday booked YYZ to Barbados and return at lowest cost econo which was way over $1,000 p/p return. Ironically the airline kept popping up notices to act quickly because there were only two seats left at this price. I sign in and get two seats and find during the seat selection process that every seat from row 12 right to the back of the plane is available.

[Magicat]

We have a TA in Oct 2023 and we found flying into Vienna is reasonable.  With the train to Rome makes it cheaper than flying directly to Rome on AC.

[rodndonna]

11 hours ago, Fred&Lily said:

Totally agree. Cost of flights are way up.  Yesterday booked YYZ to Barbados and return at lowest cost econo which was way over $1,000 p/p return. Ironically the airline kept popping up notices to act quickly because there were only two seats left at this price. I sign in and get two seats and find during the seat selection process that every seat from row 12 right to the back of the plane is available.

 

After you booked, did you try a mock booking to see if you could still get seats at that price? It may be that it was only allowing a certain number of seats to be sold at that price, and then the price would increase.  Giving them the benefit of the doubt though....I don't expect that is the case.

 

Like booking hotel rooms, "only 1 room left at this price" ... seems to always be a ruse...

[Ex-Airbalancer]

9 hours ago, Magicat said:

We have a TA in Oct 2023 and we found flying into Vienna is reasonable.  With the train to Rome makes it cheaper than flying directly to Rome on AC.

I didn’t think flights for Oct 2023 are out yet 

[d9704011]

3 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I didn’t think flights for Oct 2023 are out yet 

Air Canada is open for flights departing 25 October.  The option of flying to VIE and taking a train to Rome sounds strange... flights to FCO seem to be about the same price as those to VIE.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

10 hours ago, Magicat said:

We have a TA in Oct 2023 and we found flying into Vienna is reasonable.  With the train to Rome makes it cheaper than flying directly to Rome on AC.

We a credit with AC for a cancel flight to Rome in Oct 2021 , the credit was for $380 , the same flight now is $890 

I think flights have gone up a bit 🙄

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

We a credit with AC for a cancel flight to Rome in Oct 2021 , the credit was for $380 , the same flight now is $890 

I think flights have gone up a bit 🙄

Prices are definitely up.  What I don't see is any savings (price or travel time) on a YYZ-VIE-Train trip vs a YYZ-FCO trip.