It's free, and it gives you all sorts of fun statistics. Like the fact that we sat in airplanes for a total of 64 hours during the year!
And they keep track of your flights on a map.
Our flight map from 2014
We love flying. Some people find it a chore, having to deal with security and lineups, but 95% of the time, we simply love it. Even layovers in airports. We find that time passes quickly, and just sitting watching the people coming and going is fun.
And our regular readers know that we also love getting the best price.
Recently, we flew from Las Vegas to Ottawa, and because it was a surprise we didn't talk about it when we bought the tickets. We've also got a few more flights coming up that we haven't discussed yet.
We knew that we would be flying back to Canada last year. What we didn't know was our route. But because we had the motorhome with us, we could essentially drive to whatever airport was reasonably close. I started checking prices from Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Denver. We could leave the motorhome in any of those cities in order to fly back to Canada and it would be waiting for us when we returned in mid April for the drive back to Saskatchewan in time for us to get there May 1st.
We did manage to get a decent price, but not a screaming deal like we've had for some of our past flights. Still, we paid $141 USD for the one way flight from Las Vegas to Ottawa, which actually would have been a great price until we had to pay for it in Canadian dollars, which ended up being $185 CAD each. Still, not bad. We had to fly Vegas to Philadelphia, and then to Ottawa from there.
Next up, we're flying Ottawa to Halifax on April 1st. It's tough to find a flight deal that both originates and arrives in Canada because Canadian airport taxes and fees are so high. This time, I had enough air miles to help pay for the flight itself, but with the Canadian Air Miles program we still have to pay the taxes and fees, which amounted to $71.33 CAD ($55 USD) each. That's for a direct, one way flight.
On April 14th, we need to get back to Vegas. I watched the flight prices for almost three months waiting for a deal that never came. It had been sitting at about $275 CAD ($212 USD) and not moving at all. One day, I saw it drop to $268, and I bought it. That's the lowest it ever went, and shortly after that it went up to $300 where it currently sits. Sometimes a deal just doesn't come along, but at least we paid the lowest price that I saw.
That flight is a real milk run though. We'll be flying Halifax to Philadelphia, then Philadelphia to Dallas, then Dallas to Las Vegas. Still, we leave in the morning, and arrive late afternoon so it's not like we have any overnight layovers.
So, four more flights coming up over the next three weeks or so. Good thing we like flying!
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Enjoy you flights and visiting with more family too.
ReplyDeleteWe will George, thanks!
DeleteGood thing you like hiking so much because that was a lot of sitting time! ;c)
ReplyDeleteYep, we sure made up for that time with all the hiking we have done in the past year. :-)
DeleteWe've been spoiled by the inexpensive flights available to fly within Europe. I read RyanAir is hoping to operate in the USA and Canada, but it may not happen for another four to five years. No doubt there's a lot of opposition on the part of Air Canada. Big surprise there.
ReplyDeleteWe certainly need more competition here in Canada for airlines. It will be interesting to see if this actually happens or not, I know we would love to see it go through. :-)
DeleteI love flying too - I totally get it. I hate long road trips but then have never tried it with a motorhome. I managed to get our flights to cancun for $500 each when normally they are $900 from here. Most sales seem to occuring these days at about 2-3 months out except charters which sometimes go on sale at the last minute. You might want to sign up for Westjet's Jetmail http://www.westjet.com/guest/en/deals/jetmail.shtml - they email you when anything goes on sale which is how I got my cancun flights so much cheaper, even on one way flights.
ReplyDeleteWhen we travel in the motorhome we don't really think of it as a road trip, it's just a different way to travel, so I am sure that you would like it, especially if you like to just take your time and mosey along.
DeleteNot sure but I think Kevin may already have us signed up for that, if not I know that we have liked their facebook page so many of the deals show up there too. That's a pretty good price on your trip to Cancun, glad you were able to great deal on it.
World travelers - your flight map from 2014 is neat!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what our one for this year will end up looking like. Who know where we will be this fall and winter. ;-)
DeleteLove your header picture and your flight map. You really did have a very exciting 2014 Travel Year and to think you spent 6 months of it in Canada makes it even more amazing how many flights you took.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sherry and yes, we really did have an exciting 2014 considering that we stared off in Africa and then over to South Korean and down to Mexico. Looking forward to seeing where we will end up by the end of this year.
DeleteI used to like flying, now I really don't care for it. For me, it's not the layovers or the stops, it's the rude people that you encounter on each flight. Lucky for us though, we have met some really nice people as well, so I suppose it balances it self out. So you are taking Sherman back to Canada this year. Are you just going to park it there? You have a great little house at that Campsite (if it's the same one as last year). Enjoy your flights!
ReplyDeleteWe have seen all kinds of people on our flights and on the layovers and that part of why we like flying so much, because it is all so interesting. :-)
DeleteYes, Sherman is coming up to Canada with us but no we wouldn't be staying in him over the summer. We may possibly do a motorhome swap this summer, someone might use him over the summer and then we will use their motorhome in the winter in Europe. Nothing is certain yet but you never know. We like to keep our options open though.