Flossie and Jim

Just a heads up if you booked Westjet Gatwick flights for late July onwards to check the prices every now and again.

When we booked our return leg for August there were no sale fares available at the time - we had to book those specific dates as we are limited with our vacation and the price was fairly reasonable anyway.

Just had a quick check and there are a lot of 'sale' reductions on quite a lot of the later flight prices for August - the flights for our family of four have dropped by over $150 each ($600 total)!!!

So, I have duly submitted my 'price drop guarantee' form to Westjet. We should get that $600 back in Westjet dollars once we have completed the flight so we'll be able to put the money to the next flight (shame its not cash but at least its not lost and I'll take what I can get!). I have faith this will work because the outbound flights dropped by $26 each and it needs to drop by $25 and we got the credits for those already!

Jpod

I'm coming out permanently to Vancouver in May 2016 (did a short landing Sept 2014) - just booked a one-way from London Gatwick for £230. Can't quite believe it - an equivalent flight on Air Canada was showing as £1500!

One thing I did notice - flight time from LGW to YVR shows as 10 hours 45 mins out but only 9 hrs 30 coming back. Why is that? Hope the new Westjet 767s go the distance!

Former Lancastrian

One thing I did notice - flight time from LGW to YVR shows as 10 hours 45 mins out but only 9 hrs 30 coming back. Why is that? Hope the new Westjet 767s go the distance!

Traffic lights on the return journey are better synchronized or it might be the jet stream.

scrubbedexpat091

Not unusual for one direction to be scheduled with less time. Airlines pad time into the schedule to account for ground delays, LGW is likely a fair amount busier then YVR is so more ground time needed plus different winds, traffic, time of day and a variety of other reasons go into the scheduled time.

magnumpi

Is down hill going back

Or

The jet stream (windy wind high up) travels west to east

bc2015

It's the prevailing winds - more likely to be a headwind heading west and tailwind heading east, so eastbound flights always have a shorter scheduled time.

KuroKuro

Never heard of that before. Air Transat always seem to schedule 9h25m, but are closer to 9h regardless of direction?

Snowy560

It's the same no matter where you are going (I think).

Vancouver to Toronto is half an hour shorter than Toronto to Vancouver. Flying East is quicker than flying West.

You really notice it on very long distances. Coming back to London from Oz for example, is a good couple of hours longer than the outbound flight (journey, I should say, as it's at least two flights).


S

KuroKuro

Interesting! Maybe I've always just been too tired to notice that extra half hour on my return journeys!

Atlantic Xpat

Paging Aviator....

Its the Jetstream. (High altitude winds blowing West to East). All Eastbound flights ride the jetstream and are shorter than the westbound flights that punch into them.

On the short hop from St John's to London, Eastbound the 2300 miles can take as little as 4hrs with a strong tailwind. Westbound it generally takes 5+ hours and when the jetstream is particularly strong, a refuelling stock in Ireland after leaving Heathrow is needed prior to heading across the pond. (This is in an Airbus 319 so not a lot of room for extra fuel).

Back onto the Westjet announcing flights to LGW topic.....AC dropped its prices next summer in response - at least for a while it did. I booked 4 return tickets YYT-LHR in August for $2365 taxes in. That's a cracking deal and about half what I thought I was going to have to pay based on prevailing fares when there was no competition. Thank you WJ!

not2old

I booked a flight this morning YYZ - MAN (direct) 23 November - 1 December 2015 with Transat $777.86

For around the same dates, I looked at Iceland Air (YYZ-RVK-MAN) $1198, as well as Air Canada (YYZ -LHR-MAN) $852.95, Air France (YYZ-CDG-MAN) $774.25

BristolUK

That's a long flight. No wonder it was cheapest.

not2old

from post 101, the Air France flight was just under 13 hours, with the Transat Flight direct just over 7 hrs. Cattle class, but who cares, its only me going with a carry on. Train from Manchester airport to my destination (MIA - LIV) one hour, no changes is £15.50 return

.

scrubbedexpat091

Granted not non-stop since no airline seems to like San Diego from Vancouver, but takes almost that much time sometimes to get there...... Last time I went from Vancouver-YVR took 7 hrs and 22 mins with the connection in Los Angeles where the lay over was longer then the first flight....


Paid almost as much as your flight to UK as well, about 50 less.

BristolUK

No...no...I meant "23 November - 1 December" 8 days was a long flight.