Tuesday, January 29, 2008

from the "let's make a deal" dept.


I'm looking for a cheap flight to Copenhagen. That should be easy enough, but with all the flight booking options out there, it really isn't.

How do you know a quoted fare is the lowest? You don't. You have to search, compare and finally at one point, trust your gut enough to hit "buy."

My travel dates for Copenhagen are limited. I'm looking for an outbound flight between my last day of work (April 25) and a previously booked flight from Copenhagen to Bucharest, Romania (May 2). The return to Vancouver is flexible, but I figure around May 21.

I started looking a few days ago and quickly realized it would take some time to get the lowest fare. And just because I find something low now, it doesn't mean that I won't find a lower fare later.

In these situations I have to weigh my tight departure date with the chance of fares dropping. I pick a fare that I think is fair and, if I can find it, I'll buy it.

Flying from the Pacific coast to Copenhagen isn't cheap. And I've tried the option of a cheap flight to London and then using a discount carrier (Ryan Air, EasyJet) onwards. This option not only costs time, but lots of extra money. The savings, if there are any, are generally not worth hassle.

I'm lucky in that I can fly out of Vancouver or, with a short 3 hours trip south, Seattle. Generally, the Seattle fares are cheaper. Sometimes by a lot.

Back to my flight: If I can beat $1000 (either US or CA -- the dollars are at par today) I'll be happy. So, let's see what's out there:

Air Canada: Vancouver-Copenhagen return $1104
Air Canada: Seattle-Copenhagen return $1014
Travelocity: Vancouver-Copenhagen return $1051
Travelocity: Seattle-Copenhagen return $914
Travelocity: Seattle-Copenhagen-Vancouver $812
Expedia: Seattle-Copenhagen-Vancouver $895
Expedia: Seattle-Copenhagen return $1061
Expedia: Vancouver-Copenhagen return $930
United (SAS): Seattle-Copenhagen return $1042
NWA: Seattle-Copenhagen return $856
NWA: Seattle-Copenhagen-Vancouver $989

You get the idea. Even using Kayak and ITA software, I wasn't able to beat the Travelocity Seattle-Copenhagen-Vancouver fare of $812 -- the cheapest by far and that includes taxes.

Another thing, the Seattle-Copenhagen flight is direct on SAS (code share United) and the return portion is direct to Seattle with a 45 minute flight to Vancouver. All the other quotes generally included 1 or 2 stops along the way.

All this means: I'm getting a cheap fare and with the savings I'll head to Seattle on Saturday the 26th to take in two Seattle Mariners baseball games (vs. the A's). And when I come home... I don't have to deal with the bus or getting a ride up from Seattle. Perfect.

I'll keep an eye on the fares... but I think I got a pretty skookum deal. Not bad for spending the time to really see what's out there.

Cheers!

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