I hate e-mail newsletters. I never sign up for them because I find they’re contain too much marketing and not enough deals. But when I told my friend Claudine that I was planning to take a trip to Vancouver, she suggested I sign up for Air Canada and West Jet’s newsletters. This way, you won’t miss a seat sale, she said.
Claudine is a smart frugal lady so I listened to her advice. She was right. For the past couple of months, I’ve been able to track the rise and fall of airline tickets. If I had purchased my ticket two months ago, my round-trip would have cost me $800. As time passed, both airlines began offering seat sales for trips in June, then July, then August and now September. Now Air Canada has the dates I want for just over $700.
Lesson learned: This year, domestic flights are becoming cheaper, not more expensive, as travel dates near.
My mother, who happens to work in the travel industry says $700 is still too high. She’s also a frugal mother who doesn’t think I should be spending a penny on a vacation until I’m debt free, so I take her professional advice with a grain of salt.
So dear travler friends, unspenders and strangers in the blogosphere, tell me: Do you think flights will continute to go down for early September travel? Should I book now or wait a little longer?
12 comments
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June 16, 2008 at 9:23 pm
CanadianSaver
I hate guessing about this. I’ve been watching airfare to get from Montreal-Paris or Toronto-Paris and was kicking myself for not booking right before the fuel surcharge almost doubled. Turns out we didn’t really spend more when we booked last week because of the seat sale.
(we are going late October so decided to book now instead of waiting a little later… I’m too scared fuel surcharges are going to go up even higher!!)
Good luck deciding what to do 🙂
June 17, 2008 at 12:17 am
Genevieve
SunWing usually has the cheapest flights to Vancouver as long as your dates are flexible: http://www.sunwing.ca/
$700 is definitely not a deal for Vancouver flights, I’d wait!
June 17, 2008 at 10:47 am
Sandy E.
I live in CA, and I booked 3 flights to Hawaii yesterday, for September, Christmas, and a March trip to go visit my daughter. My gut feeling is that ticket prices will go up, not down, due to the fuel price increases. My emergency fund is overfunded, and so that’s where I took out the money to pay for the tickets. Each month I will be putting sizable payments back into it so that long before the March trip, the emergency fund will be back up to where it was. Time will tell if this was a wise move on my part or not, but if they go down, at least I got really good times and seats. Again, my gut reaction though is that fares will go up, so much so that I worried I wouldn’t be able to afford the tickets then, but can now. Time will tell whether this was a good move or not.
June 17, 2008 at 8:58 pm
andreachiu
Thanks for all the comments!
Genevieve, if you don’t mind me asking, how much do you think is a good price for a round-trip flight to Vancouver?
June 20, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Genevieve
I don’t usually like to pay more than $400. I’m pretty sure I paid about that much when I went to Vancouver last October. So even with today’s fuel surcharges, $500 seems more reasonable.
I just checked the SunWing site and they’ve got really good deals that end today for flights until the Fall.
June 22, 2008 at 11:12 pm
DAvid
We, too, learned that waiting brought lower fares, by about $300 for a cross Canada trip. Got in just ahead of the fuel surcharges, too!
Sometimes you just have to book and pay the price, other times you can wilt & play the airline roulette. Hops between major centres are much easier than more remote destinations. If you have the time, you could also look at the train!
DAvid
June 23, 2008 at 5:21 pm
andreachiu
Thanks Genevieve. I tried SunWing but unfortunately, my dates aren’t very flexible and I couldn’t find a good flight. I will check it out next time though.
David, I wish I had the time to take the train. I’ve heard it’s a lovely route, especially around the Rockies. It’s something on my list of things to do. Thanks!
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