Whether you're thinking of escaping the frigid Canadian winter for warmer climes to roast your bones and rejuvenate or flying home for the festive season, it's been suggested to do yourself a favour and don't book your holiday plans too soon.
There used to be cost advantages associated with booking one's getaway early. Nowadays, the opposite is true, at least when it comes to booking airline tickets, suggests an article in Yahoo! Travel.
But Allison Wallace, Media & Communications Manager, Flight Centre Canada in Vancouver, B.C., tends to disagree with the notion that booking last minute will guarantee the best deal. She says there is less inventory (flights) and more people flying. That in-turn has increased demand particularly during peak seasons.
"Unless you're extremely flexible and don't have a preferred destination, last minute deals are rare and limited," she cautions. "Suppliers are moving more towards offering 'Early Booking Bonuses' or EBBs to entice people to book early over waiting last minute so we as travel agents are seeing more people planning early and taking advantage of EBBs."
Thus she absolutely recommends booking in advance for a Christmas retreat.
"The periods kids are out of school are absolute peak and more people are choosing to go away at that time. If you do find space in hotels and you're not using a charter package, flights are tight as people are competing with a whole host of other travellers interested in flying during that time," she continues. "We tend to see people booking for spring break toward the end of November and early December."
But if you can avoid the peak days and fly a day or two before or after, you can usually find savings. For example, if school holidays let out on the Friday, look to fly out on the following Sunday or Monday.
"Christmas Day is one of the quietest days of the year to fly. Airports are quiet, virtually no lineups, less demand and more seats are available," she adds. "Generally speaking Mondays to Wednesdays are the best days to fly during the week but again, this is easily checked when looking at pricing. If you check within a day or two and have some flexibility, you'll be able to see the swing in pricing which will tell you where the demand is."
Brad Miron, executive vice-president of marketing for iTravel2000.com in Mississauga, Ont., says Christmas is always one of the busiest travel seasons.
"The winter holidays, be it domestic travel or outbound destinations to the sunny south, is incredibly popular and almost every year it sells out," he says. "As we get closer to Christmas, the demand outstrips supply."
Likewise, Claudia Viani, director, Leisure and Local Business Operations, CWT Canada in London, Ont., says the greatest cost savings come to those who plan ahead.
"Airlines continue to scale back their capacity growth plans, which is resulting in fewer and fuller planes in most areas, effectively increasing price for travellers," she says. "Advance booking bonuses with wholesalers are available in some cases, but we're also seeing some suppliers increase prices within three weeks of departure. Last minute discount opportunities are becoming few and far between today, so it's better to book early to gain the best value."
With respect to post-Christmas winter travel, there are last minute deals to be had, Miron suggests, adding if you're flying south there is more choice due to greater inventory.
"In terms of supply, generally that means a more aggressive pricing strategy from tour operators and airlines for advanced bookings and especially when it comes down to the last minute," he says.
"On top of that, there aren't a lot of Americans and Europeans travelling this year and you do have a lot of hoteliers seeing a softer year in the south. In spite of the economic downturn worldwide, there are Canadians still travelling in record numbers to places like Florida, Mexico, and Cuba."
But how are travel agents off-setting the do-it-yourself online method to travel planning? Viani says agents have access to a wide network of supplier, destination and tour operator discounts that cannot always be found online by the average consumer.
"Since they book a variety of trips to a wide array of destinations, travel agents also have very specific, first-hand destination knowledge to share with travellers," she says. "Agents are able to source lower priced options for their travellers as they become available in real time."
In terms of how the economy has impacted travel in Canada and/or Canadians travelling in the last couple of years, Wallace notes the coming Christmas holiday is shaping up nicely for Flight Centre Canada.
"The dollar is still strong so people are still seeing value for money and the EBBs were very good the past two months," she says. "We've been lucky as the economic conditions haven't seemed to have had the anticipated effect that experts were predicting. We initially saw a drop in our business travel when the recession hit but we're back to pre-recession levels on that front."
Concerning the economy, Miron cites three factors helping Canadians realize travel value: The strength of the loonie, increased airline capacity (read: more seats), and business is soft in other international markets. "Right now it's almost the 'perfect storm' to be a traveller," he says.
Like Flight Centre Canada, iTravel2000.com is also enjoying a solid year. "We're seeing very strong growth year-over-year, beyond double-digit numbers," Miron adds. "It almost like Canadians have a belief that it's a right to have at least one trip down south during the winter."
The economic downturn hasn't hurt CWT Canada either as holiday and spring break travel continues to sell well.
"We haven't seen a decrease in traffic or sales for these specific vacation periods and continue to provide the best value and best pricing to our customers when it is available," Viani adds.
By the way, before you plan on flying abroad, it's worthwhile to note Canada is the top brand among international travellers, the Ottawa Citizen reports.
Flight Centre Canada's Wallace says our home and native land is still popular with wandering Canadians but it hits its peak in the summer.
"I think Canadians believe that they'll always have access to their own country and they've definitely picked up on taking advantage of the strong dollar while they can," she adds. "Our U.S. travel sales and European sales are at their highest levels right now and that seems to support that."
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