 Poster: A snowHead
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As the title says really. Looking at going to Canada again next winter and it seems for what we are looking at DIY would be a lot cheaper than a tour op.
When I do a skyscanner search for flight it brings up lots of various options booking through various third party agents. Many of these don't appear to be household names!
My gut instinct is to just book online directly with Air Canada/BA/whoever even though it seems a bit more. Am I being daft? Are the cheapest rates found through these agents? Or will I find that by the time I actually book all the extras will add up to the same?
And is there an optimum time to book for long haul - is earliest best? I am aware that for most routes there is only one flight a day from the UK so don't want to risk leaving it too last minute like I might with Europe
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Look at westjet flights from Gatwick
I've just booked Gatwick to kelowna on 2/1/16 for £550 , it's cheaper later in the month.
It was cheaper via Skyscanner but some of the intermediaries have poor reviews.
I'm just working out how to get to Gatwick for an 11:35 flight 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Some of the agents sell flights at a small loss, and aim to make the money on other fees - insurance,card fees, change fees etc. Thus in theory you can save a bit with them if you skip the extras. However, if something goes wrong you're dealing with a middleman not the supplier. I book 95%+ of my travel direct with the supplier, just occasionally using booking.com for hotels.
The cheapest way is to start in Dublin or another European country - google flights will allow multiple start and end points, so you can do Dublin/Amsterdam/stavanger to Vancouver/Toronto/Calgary and see which flight pair is cheapest. You can sometimes get club for the price of economy if you're flexible on routing. However these tend not to be direct flights, and you have to get to the start point first.
BA have as sale on at present, which other airlines tend to copy, so now might be a reasonable time to book.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I tried to see if there were any direct flights from Manchester, Glasgow etc but they all went via LHR or another European hub.
There are some trains that go direct from Kings Cross to Gatwick otherwise its get the tube to Victoria with ski luggage PIA!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Have a look at air transat, some really low prices. Around £350 return to Vancouver.
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One thing to consider is that from Dec 1st to end of April Air Canada doesn't charge for ski and boot bags, saving you at least £120. Currently West jet has some great deals from London
Book sooner then later.
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With a son in Canada I am getting a bit of practice at this. (Scottish bias, I fly from Glasgow or Edinburgh, but I think the same is true for Birmingham/ Manchester.)
1. Airtransat (also trade as Canadian Affair) have limited flights per week but go direct from several regional airports in UK. They are on the Easyjet model so book as early as possible for best prices. I don't think they appear on comparison sites. Apart from serving the worst coffee in the northern hemisphere they have been fine so far.
2. I have found the best prices for major airlines direct at their own websites rather than comparisons. Icelandair via Reykyavik can be cheap and quite convenient times and connections to quite a few airports
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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+1 for Air Transat - bruv lives in Calgary and flew from Manchester direct.
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Just got back from Canada flying with Airtransat Glasgow to Toronto Pearson, flight out was on an older plane seats were comfortable but not much room, flight back was on Friday night was much busier and in a bigger more modern plane with more room, had upgraded to Option+ which gave a few extras including priority at check-in and loading with clubclass ahead of everyone else, when we arrived at check-in in Glasgow we were offerred to upgrade to Clubclass for £139 each which we might have taken if we hadn't already paid for Option+, would definitely use them again.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| tangowaggon wrote: |
| I'm just working out how to get to Gatwick for an 11:35 flight |
I stayed in Yotel in LGW when I had a very early flight to catch (there was no way I'd have got there otherwise) - cost about £60 IIRC, bit of an odd 'pod' like arrangement, but comfy and clean, own shower/loo, and just below the check in desk area. Maybe take a look?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Obviously if you're going the "charter" route then it's going to be cheaper: that's Canadian Affair etc, I believe. I would imagine that these you would need to book well in advance.
For scheduled airlines... personally I take the cheapest fare and pay by credit card in the UK and have had no trouble. I don't like BA, so it's mostly Air Canada and sometimes it's cheapest from them, other times it's cheaper from whichever no-name agent. There's no issue in carrying snowboards/ skis within the standard baggage rules. I would not personally take an indirect flight as it's a lot more hassle and the risks to your hold-baggage snowboards is significantly greater. Note also that you have ESTA *and* eTA to deal with should you go to Canada via the US.
Optimum time: good question. Maybe "flyer talk" would know; I don't. I tend to book late and I never had a problem - Canada's big and there are lots of ways to get there, should you need to. That said they do things with the flights so they are often full, and it's common to be bribed to skip a flight back, for example. I think those services like Kayak show charts of price versus time.
Upgrades: with scheduled airlines the up-front prices can be large, but you can usually buy an upgrade later (at check in for example) at a much lower rate.
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Transat is scheduled, but low cost, Think Easyjet.
They do do holidays but most people on flights I have been on are flight only so they are not really charter. WestJet are similar but seem to be dearer.
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You know it makes sense.
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@TommyJ, The agents you are talking about just take the "click-through" fee that airlines pay advertisers; and they give part of that back to you to reduce the flight price. They also make money though booking fees etc.
Most experienced travellers on the web will always tell you to book direct with the airlines, and there are endless complaints about these "agents". The price difference if often very little, and the price will often change big time once you get to the check-out of the "agents". Sometimes they even accept bookings at a low price, and then email you later to say the booking did not go though, and then it's almost impossible to get a refund.
The big problems with the agents are that you are not booking direct with the airlines; so if any issues arise the airline will just refer you back to the agent, who you will then find has zero customer service.
The agents will mainly just sell you a basic flight, often with ZERO hold baggage — although they won't tell you that. Then they instruct you to visit the airlines website to find the "luggage rules" etc. You also then need to visit the airline to select your seat, add luggage, select your meal type etc etc. And when you try and ADD these later, rather than booking them with your flight, you will find it MORE expensive than if you had just gone to the airlines website in the first place!
And god forbid you need to move your flight or cancel it — you will get nowhere.
Stick with booking through the airlines direct — there are good reasons most folks do that.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Transat: noted.
| PeDaSp wrote: |
| And god forbid you need to move your flight or cancel it — you will get nowhere. ... |
People have used travel agents for years - some agents even used to have high street shops. Expedia is a fairly popular agent.
I guess I've been lucky, but I've never had any problems.
Have you really had a flight on a scheduled airline with no hold baggage allowance? And you didn't know about it? I guess you may be thinking about "hidden city" flights, but I don't believe anyone could be sold one of those without knowing about it (the reason you can't take bags is that they'd need to offload them at the stop for you).
UK and EU consumer law is on the consumer's side, and from the airline's perspective there's no difference in the ticket: you still check in / upgrade / change flights etc) through the airline. There *are some very restricted tickets but they're not sold this way.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I've used dialaflight and in my companies experience they are great. Only much
Kid up once but all was sort by me but I know they have helped colleagues a lot.
Direct with the airline is best IMHO but an agent is great if you are doing flight, car hire and hotel.
I tend to mix and match myself and after a small learning curve I typically beat an agent by 15-20% on price. But I do like farting about on the Internet.
Any flight at about 500 is one to buy and forget. You will spend ages and ages and end up perhaps getting £50 cheaper but hardly worth it.
On a flig of £1000 then there are tricks that can save £300.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@philwig
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People have used travel agents for years - some agents even used to have high street shops. Expedia is a fairly popular agent.
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Alas the "agents" I mentioned are not travel agents in the generally accepted meaning of the word. Rather they are just some blokes in a room in Romania say, who will take the click-though fee the airline pay, and use most of that to give you a "discounted" fare. The internet is full of complaints about them, and an "agent" can be here one day and gone the next.
Expedia are a little bit more substantial, but even then, it's kinda the same idea, and sometimes Expedia can be even more expensive then booking with an airline direct; unless they have put some sort of package deal together.
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Have you really had a flight on a scheduled airline with no hold baggage allowance? And you didn't know about it?
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No, because I alway book direct with airlines!  But take Norwegian airlines [www.norwegian.com] for example. If you book direct on their website [London to Oakland CA for example], they will offer you an option of no hold baggage at a low price. But if you go to www.netflights.com, they will sell you that flight a few pounds cheaper, but claim you will have 2 hold bags. Then, in the small print, they tell you this means nothing, and you have to check the airlines website LOL  You can try it yourself! And try emailing them questioning the 2 hold bags and expecting a reply — I tried that, but no luck.
Plus, Netflights can only offer you that basic option, because their software is designed to scrape the lowest price only from the airlines website, as they know that's all the punters on www.skyscanner.net really care about.
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...and from the airline's perspective there's no difference in the ticket
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From the airline's perspective there is often a "big" difference. They will claim if there are any issue that it's not their responsibly, and you have to go back to the "agent". Again, GIYF — Google is Your Friend.
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FAQ
