best time to purchase ticket to Calgary?
 

Hi,

I am planning a ski vacation in March and need to fly from Newark NJ to Calgary. Right now, the best fare I found was on AC for $517.00 Should I grab it now, or should prices go lower in the fall? I will be going during the Easter Holiday so will that keep prices from going down?
PS I checked Jets Go but the times were just too crazy to fit our itinerary.

I'd wait a little. $517 is a very high price to go to YYC, and prices can only be lower with periodic sales. I don't see how it can go much higher than this.

BTW, Mon-Thusday, you should be able to save about $50 if you book right now. And even on weekends on Air Canada, I'm seeing prices around $500, not $517.

We've done really well with Northwest zone coupons to Calgary on several occasions and I'm guessing you could knock up to a couple of hundred off that fare. I would definitely wait, regardless.

WestJet is starting a NY service in October. It is a Calgary based airline so you may be able to get a pretty good fare. I understood from someone who has booked a ticket that they were able to get a return Calgary > NY fare of $470 Cdn. My suggestion would be to check out their website Westjet.com

Hi Hydra,
Wow! Thanks sooo much for that info. That is definitely worth waiting for! I love these forums!

I would also check out Westjet airlines. I live in Canada and have flown with them many times between Canadian cities. Staff is friendly and fun.

travelocity shows ticket price of $483 on American for next March, and US $460 Westjet fare. The best ticket price using travelocity's Flexible Dates option through next July is $361.

Try checking http://travel.mobissimo.com/.

They claim to check 57 providers including consolidators and discount carriers.

I put in March dates, at random, and itshowed the lowest price was $355

Re: Flyboy/Northwest Zone tickets

How do you get these?

I'm looking at fares between Wash DC area(including Baltimore) and Calgary...mid-June. Keep coming up with minimum fare of about $515 plus or minus depending on the time of day and carrier. Most flights go through HOUSTON(!) or DENVER(!) and take at least 8 hours! Would love something with a NW affiliate because of FF miles. Anybody have a suggestion? A place to look?

It appears that it's too early to do well on the fare. As for routing, I would think your best on Northwest from your origin would be one connection through Minneapolis. I would hold off, because $515 just isn't really a great fare and you have plenty of time.

Zone fare coupons come from various sources. If you subscribe to the e-mail service on NWA.com, you're likely to see several e-versions each year. They come in Val-Paks (a coupon mailing service). I get them occasionally in my billings statements from WP Visa and MCI long distance. You can also sometimes pick them up on Flyertalk.com in the coupon connection and if all else fails, people sell them (illegally) on e-bay.

Keep in mind that sometimes these coupons are scare or non-existent for summer travel and there are restrictions on days of travel, etc. Regardless, I'm thinking that you should be able to do better than $515 on that trip at some point between now and May.