Traveling By Air

Pricing for trips by air are a lot of work, which we’re more than happy to do for our clients, but the process takes longer than we wish.

Unlike the high-volume operators of trips to Europe, who negotiate flat, contract fares from major gateway airports with a few transatlantic airlines, VISIT CANADA feels that it can negotiate lower fares for its clients, within North America, on a case-by-case basis.

As most of our clients undoubtedly know, air fares depend on the season of the year, the day of the week, and the time of day, and fares can go up or down by hundreds of dollars in an afternoon, or from one day to the next.

Moreover, unlike almost anything else you can buy, seats on airplanes are not cheaper by the dozen. Indeed, the more seats you need, the higher the average fare, because all domestic airlines sell a few seats on every flight at a low price, and as those seats fill, the fares get higher and higher, not lower and lower.

When a client selects an itinerary and a departure date, VISIT CANADA routinely contacts three or four airlines to find the best air fare for each group. However, these fares are guaranteed/held by the airlines for only 14 to 28 days without a deposit, and then, after the deposit is paid, the fares are subject to occasional tax increases until paid in full.

Thus, when you do request a price for a trip by air on a given date, it will take us two to three days to get a fare, another day to price the trip, and by the time we get it to you, you will have about a seven- to ten-day period within which the price won’t change. Thereafter, prices are subject to change, without a deposit, and fares usually go gradually up, rather than down, over time.