Christmas flight prices from YEG might sabotage our cruise

[Kamloops50]

Do you mean Vancouver to Seattle? Not Vancouver to Vancouver. I’ve flown out of Seattle Christmas Day. No extra time. There was no traffic. I do agree the highway between Calgary and Edmonton can be bad but take your time and drive down the night before or take the bus.

Meant Kamloops to Vancouver.

[h-sar]

Is there a reliable bus service? It sucks that you’re finding air so high.

 

I would totally take the Greyhound to Calgary after the last day of work on Dec 21 for a Dec 22 flight (cruise leaves Dec 23) and many cousins there who could put us up and drive up us to the airport. However, when I looked into air from Calgary (after an earlier poster suggested it), it was only a little bit cheaper than from Edm. Not enough to warrant bussing us all down.

 

In 12 years of Christmas break cruising, have never seen such hikes in air fare, especially on day 1 of availability. :(

[Cruise Junky]

I would totally take the Greyhound to Calgary after the last day of work on Dec 21 for a Dec 22 flight (cruise leaves Dec 23) and many cousins there who could put us up and drive up us to the airport. However, when I looked into air from Calgary (after an earlier poster suggested it), it was only a little bit cheaper than from Edm. Not enough to warrant bussing us all down.

 

In 12 years of Christmas break cruising, have never seen such hikes in air fare, especially on day 1 of availability. :(

 

Keep an eye out and you’ll increase your chances if you look out of Calgary and Edmonton. You can set up price alerts on Kayak.

[h-sar]

Have you checked flights from Calgary? Also, check on itmatrix but look at one way trips on different airlines. Cherry pick. A few years ago we booked a last minute AI. We live in Calgary. The same resort was $400 plus less from Edmonton than it was from Calgary, for each of us. So we drove to Edmonton and flew from there.

 

When we are going to FLL we price flights, both one way and return, to FLL, MIA, and PBI (palm beach). More than once we have done two one ways flying to/from different airports in Florida.

 

We also try to avoid changing planes in Canada, Salt Lake, Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis in wintertime because of the potential for delay.

 

Good luck. Actually I think that it is a bit early to score a reasonable deal. I have no doubt that fares will improve as some time passes.

 

From your mouth to God’s ears :).

[LHT28]

I agree maybe try the multi city where you fly into FLL & out of MIA or PBI just play with the options

I would not pick any of the other Florida airports as it may cost you renting a car & driving to the port

but that is just me

I would just keep checking until you are getting close to FP on the cruise

Have a target price in mind for the air & if it gets close buy then

[h-sar]

Hi, everybody. Thought I’d provide an update.

 

So, just to re-cap first...

1. The kids’ university and my own school’s Christmas break (Dec 22-Jan 6) only allows us to travel in that very tight time frame. We are all in school until the end of the day on Dec 22 and have to go back on Jan 7.
   
2. Edmonton winters are looong (this year we broke a local record of over a 167 days in a row of below 0 C temperatures); in fact, there’s still a bit of snow on the ground. The holiday cruises and, on occcasion, some time in Fort L before or after save my sanity and break up the winter months.
   
3. We prefer cruising out of Fort L as we can assured of pretty great weather from the moment we land at FLL.
   
4. I’ve been resigned, since we started cruising in 2006, to paying the highest peak season rates for cruise and air due to my profession.
   
5. Driving to another airport (next closest one is 3 hrs away) in the winter is not something I’d consider (I think only those who live in this type of climate can truly understand that decision).
   
6. Bussing to Calgary’s airport would be a consideration, but rates are not significantly different than Edmonton’s for this Christmas.
   
7. Travel time from Edm to FLL is typically about 12 hours, with 1-2 connections.
   
8. We love the Princess product, so have the Regal booked for a 14 day cruise, Dec 23-Jan 6. We’ve never had an issue not getting a flight out the same afternoon as the cruise ends and making it back to Edm around midnight.
   
9. Air has been around $800 CDN return per person the past few years. I buy as soon as flights come out as they will quickly rise to 1200 Cdn or more and will not come down.
   
10. This year, flights started at close to 1200 and have fluctuated from 12-1400 per person CDN. Can’t justify paying that much. From past history (12 yrs), I don’tsee them coming down too much.
    
11. Princess EZAir is quite high right now. Sometimes I’ll see a decent rate and when I go to book it, I’ll get a message that it’s doubled in price.
    

I asked for advice on CC on this original post and received some excellent suggestions. I did think outside the box as some of you suggested and stumbled on something, which I booked today.

Most airlines these days are really not giving a better deal for booking a return flight. In fact, most price the going out and the return as two separate fares and simply add them up. I was able to find a decent price for the return (still working on the flight to FLL from Edm).

 

This is what I booked...

 

JetBlue from FLL to Atlanta at $215 CDN per person, this includes a checked bag each, leaving FLL around noon.

 

WestJet from ATL to Edm early evening, with a decent layover in Toronto, arriving in Edm at 12:30 AM - $240 Cdn per person, bags for all included as I used my WestJet MasterCard.

 

I’m pretty happy with the times and prices. Now, I have to search for a decent flight heading to FLL from Edm. I could do the reverse of the above for about the same fare. Westjet leaves Edm Fri after work, around 6 pm, but there’s a 5 hr layover in Toronto starting around midnight, and the only JetBlue flight decently priced out of ATL to FLL would require another 6 hr wait in ATL after I get off WestJet.

 

I can handle one long layover, not sure about two. We would get into FLL around 5 pm and have that night in a hotel to recuperate. However, I’m wondering if I should book the Edm to Atl flight right now and leave the Atl- FLL leg until more flights become available. For example, Southwest won’t have flights open for that week until end of May. This of you with prior experience, any advice?

Or could we make use of the 6 hr layover in ATL to hit an outlet mall or see a major site in an Uber? Never been outside the airport.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post and appreciate any advice.

[KimA75]

Southwest should have flights show up between there for decent rates. Too bad it's such a long layover. You can actually drive it in 9 1/2.

 

If you do the layover you could do the aquarium, world of Coke, Fernbank science center, Zoo Atlanta. I actually live in the area, I can try to think of more options if you decide to do this.

[LHT28]

or fly Southwest from FLL to MSP or one of the northern airports then look for a flight to YEG

[h-sar]

Oops. The original post should have said after work on December 21.

 

PS: who knew a one-way leg from Edmonton to Atlanta was so cheap?! If I look at the same date from Edmonton to Dallas or Houston or Minneapolis it’s about three times the price.

 

 

Makes no sense as Atlanta puts us so close to Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale etc. But not going to complain, just going to take advantage of the price!

[h-sar]

or fly Southwest from FLL to MSP or one of the northern airports then look for a flight to YEG

 

Hi, LHT28. I do have the leg from Fort Lauderdale to Edmonton booked. It’s going down to Florida that I still need. Just incredibly happy to have the return flight all taken care of :).

[h-sar]

Southwest should have flights show up between there for decent rates. Too bad it's such a long layover. You can actually drive it in 9 1/2.

 

If you do the layover you could do the aquarium, world of Coke, Fernbank science center, Zoo Atlanta. I actually live in the area, I can try to think of more options if you decide to do this.

 

Great info. Thank you!

Just realized we will have all of our bags with us as the two flights are separate tickets. If we head out of the airport, will have to find some sort of storage for bags inside the airport.

 

For those of you in the know about the Atlanta airport, will having to grab our bags, find a place for them, and then coming back and doing security all over again after retrieving our luggage really leave us much time to do anything outside of the airport? We have a full 6 hrs from landing to take off.

We do all have nexus.

Edited April 21, 2018 by h-sar