Island_Girl

I just booked my stepsons round trip flights from London Gatwick to come to Vancouver BC in July to Aug.
I booked through Canadian Affair flying with Air Transat (Air Transat does unaccompanied minor without extra charges for the service and much cheaper than BA or Air Canada the only other two airlines that still accept unaccompanied minors)
What I discovered is that it is cheaper to book using the UK site and International booking agents instead of the Canadian site and the Canadian booking agents.
When I called Air Transat directly the booking agent quoted me almost $1500 for the ticket I wanted. I had the web site up on my computer in front of me showing the exact flights I wanted while I was talking to her and it showed the flight at £618 + 2% booking fee for a total of £630 doing the math to convert pounds to dollars it defiantly did not work out to be $1500 even with the conversion and charges from my credit card company(they charge the Bank of Canada Rate at closing of that day) and I told her so and I told her I wanted the flights at the British pound cost showed on the web site.
The agent said that I would have to book with Canadian Affair international booking agents to get cost in pounds and gave me the #. (Even though as the agent told me they are in the same building)
I called the # she gave me and told the agent the exact flight #'s and dates I wanted. I got the same exact flight that Air Transat quoted me $1500 for £563 even less than their web site price of £630.
I booked and paid for the flight in British pounds on my Canadian Credit card once the flight was booked I checked with my credit card company and the flight cost me a total of $1160 Canadian I saved $340 by booking the flight with the international booking agent and paying in British pounds instead of using the Canadian booking agent and paying in Canadian dollars for the exact same flights.

So my advise check out your flight on both the Canadian and UK sites and book with the one that is cheaper.

Island Girl

Judy in Calgary

A fabulous tip, Island Girl.

I hope you will not be offended if I add your tip to the following Wiki articles:
x

AmyDavid

I wish I knew this a week ago

chigirl

thanks island_girl that really is a good tip.

can you post the telephone no. you had to call?

Raymate

Yes I did this a year or so ago for my wife, we booked the flight and we was in Toronto but I used the UK website.

It was all paid for with UK pounds and the flight was Toronto to UK and back again.

Used Canadian-Affair now for years never had any problem with them. On the odd occasion I have gone direct to Thomas Cook or AirTransat but my first port of call is always Canadian Affair

Island_Girl

Hi Judy

glad to have you post it I hope it helps others.

Island_Girl

Island_Girl

I called 1-866-847-1112 and make sure you tell them you want the British pounds cost not the canadian.

I actually had the web site up with the exact flights I wanted while I talked to the agent.

Island Girl

Helen Parnell

This reminds me of when I booked Calgary to Manchester (UK) with BA. I had to change at Heathrow. Booking it all with BA on line in Calgary was about $1200. Booking Calgary - Heathrow was about $900. I then went on the UK BA website and booked Heathrow - Manchester for about $60.

I then had to checkin with my luggage at Calgary and just let them know that my luggage was on a connecting flight and it all worked out ok.

So definitley check with UK and Canadian websites before booking with anyone.

chigirl

thanks for the number island_girl.

i'm booking flights for a family of 4 back to blightly for next spring and the potential savings will help greatly.

chigirl

oops.... blighty, should use spell check more often lol

toni1

island girl, what website was that? would these prices be similar to booking from canada to Dubai?

Island_Girl

Hi

I was using the Canadian Affair web site not sure if fly to Dubai but for what ever airlines you look at I would check the canadian site and the site for the country your flying too and compare the price as I find the Canadian side charges more for the same flights.

Island Girl