BootsnAll Travel Community

The flight I want went up by $125 dollars overnight. What about the rest of you. Anyone else notice a big jump in your prices?

The actual ticket price didn't go up, but the fuel surcharge on a return flight to europe is now over $400 with Air Canada.

Anyone?

Blame Ike.

(Give us your airports and dates and let the collective wisdom of BootsnAll come up with a better price.)

With the help of a travel agent friend, we found me something comparable. I'll just lose a few days on the front of my trip.

I'm a bit persnickity about flying (terrified of it) so I will only fly with certain carriers but I got Halifax to London and then Berlin to Halifax for $1115, all taxes in. The ticket itself was only $670, the rest is the damn fuel surcharge.

I find that I continue to be less offended by prices going up - I mean, the airline has to make a profit, and it's not like they're the ones increasing the cost of fuel - than by the fact that it's a "surcharge" rather than part of the fare. If it's going to the airline, it's part of the fare.

Yes, I assume this may be Ike related, as while oil prices are dropping, refined products are getting pricier due to refinery shutdowns around the gulf. Doesn't help that PetroCan also had a major refinery down for almost a month.

Lastly, I've just been feeling like saying that I'm actually pleased with Air Canada today. Surprisingly enough, I got good customer service. We called them this morning because I'd gotten an updated flight schedule (my flight from Bogota to Toronto got pushed back 15 minutes, causing me to get bumped to the next flight home from Toronto), but Kathy, who's booked a separate ticket on the same flight (mine was booked on points, hers wasn't) didn't...so now she had a very tight connection in Toronto and was going to get home two hours before me.

Anyway, the call centre lady was able not only to reschedule her onto the same flight as me, but also linked our tickets so we're sitting next to each other and will be moved together in the event of any future changes. At no extra charge. So I just thought I'd put out the kudos, and recognize that even companies known for horrible service occasionally can be great to deal with.

I ended up booking a ticket after all. I needed it done and by cutting the trip short by 3 days I was able to find a flight that wasn't that bad. It actually is better for me given my money situation. I'll be able to get a nicer place to stay in Amsterdam.

MsLibrarian, Great! Now, if you are planning to stay in a nice-ish hotel in AMS, use Priceline! (bid) I've got the Marriott in Leidsplein(great area) twice for <$60. per night for a $200+ room. I've also spent $40. for an 8 sq. meter room with no bath on the 5th floor with no lift, so $60. is cheap.

I'm in Canada, so I've never been able to get Priceline to work for me

I am getting the urge to go somewhere again, so I checked prices for flights from Phx to Ams in December just to start off with, and was surprised to see the cheapest I could find was around $900. Last December, prices were around $600 give or take $50 or so. I don't really keep up on prices when I'm not traveling, but I am aware of all the oil costs and general problems with airlines these days. However, I wasn't expecting THAT much of a difference. Is anyone else noticing the same thing?

quote:

Is anyone else noticing the same thing?

I rarely fly to Europe so I don't pay attention to those fares. Fares to Asia from the west coast are up 10-15% average over 1 year ago. That seems more than fair considering the fuel price increases. I can still fly to Singapore for less than $1K.

Canadians at least in Ontario are being hit with a new environmental tax on petroleum products which has to be passed on to the consumer. So some of the increase can be blamed on the government.

quote:

Originally posted by busman7:
Canadians at least in Ontario are being hit with a new environmental tax on petroleum products which has to be passed on to the consumer. So some of the increase can be blamed on the government.

And it'll probably get worse if and/or when the proposed taxes on carbon emissions get voted in by whichever party wins the upcoming federal election. I can just imagine how much my RTW ticket will cost me in five years time.