Air Canada flight prices went up $120 in two days!
 

I'm trying to fly YYZ-LIM in June 2018, and I have been watching the prices. It started somewhere in the high-400 range back in August, but I wasn't sure about my dates so I waited. Over Christmas, I saw that it was in the low 500's, and I thought that after the holidays the prices might drop. Then a couple of days ago, it shot up to $570, and today it is at $625.

I know that these prices are unpredictable, but I know that airlines sometimes set the prices to expire at the end of a month, so it could just be some software thing and I should wait it out. On the other hand, I'm terrified of the prices going up even higher.

Are there some factoids about Air Canada that can help my decision whether to buy or not? A part of me is panicking and wants to buy right now, but it is Feb 2 (which means that their prices might have expired a couple of days ago) and maybe I should wait it out... Or, are there any regular sale dates or anything like that? Any help would be very much appreciated!

Welcome to FT, flyer225!

In this case I don't believe there's too much magic to it. The lower fare classes are beginning to sell out. You've probably popped into the next higher one. I'd buy now.

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Obscure2k
Travelbuzz Moderator

Air Canada has been watching you.

as soon as you buy your tickets, the price will drop.

If a flight is far enough away and EF shows 9999999999, then I'd maybe risk it. Though some international fare deals can have nasty advance purchase (I think I saw a P fare to India with over 100 advance purchase requirement once).

If a flight is T0L0K0, or I'm within 21 days of the travel, I'd stop dicking around. If it's also S0, then I would seriously stop dicking around.

I'm very new to these shorthands. What does EF mean, and what does T0L0K0 (Tango/Latitude/???) mean, and what does S0 mean? How do I find out information about the flight?

EF = Expert Flyer https://www.expertflyer.com Free version or subscription based.

When one checks load on flights, i.e. "flight availability, it will appear with the number of seats available for sale at each fare code (someone else can describe this better)

For eg. AC 101 YYZ-YVR on March 7 looks like this right now

J9 C9 D9 Z9 P8 R0 O9 E9 N9 Y9 B9 M9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 G9 S9 T0 L0 A0 K0

My apologies.

EF = Expert Flyer, a Web tool that allows you to see seat inventories

STLK are very low category inventory codes

Visit the Expert Flyer website and create a dummy account. From there you will be able to try their product for a couple of days to search for published fare information and inventory buckets. Very useful.

Report back once you have an account, and I'm sure many will guide you on how to use it.

Thank you for such useful information! I just created an account on Expert Flyer, but I'm not seeing a bunch of codes. I just did a search via "create a seat alert" and got the status on the round-trip flights. They're practically empty, especially in the economy seats. (They're AC 1946 on June 10/2018 and AC 1947 on June 25/2018). But I can't figure out where to see the sale at each fare code. Can someone help me figure this out?

I have a paid subscription.

Here are screen shots of the steps. I used the same example, March 7, YYZ-YVR

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6cc39266df.png

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d55aaaeca7.png

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...01198bd2d6.png

Is this thread about you asking others how they would gamble with your money?

Depends on the time of year, but $5-600 for a direct flight on AC is pretty decent. I've definitely paid much more to fly that route during a holiday week.

AC also has a monopoly on non stop YYZ-LIM and does not run the route that frequently so capacity is limited so prices can go up quickly. If price is your main concern, AA/LATAM is usually cheaper, but it will involve a layover, and sometimes a long one in Miami.

Haha, yes, I guess I'm asking advice about gambling (although it's more like I'm just trying to be informed?)

So I'm guessing S, T, L, K are cheap buckets? They show as S9T9L9K9 on both legs of the flight. Does this mean the prices might drop? I forgot to say that I'm looking at the prices USD, so currently it's about $630 USD (and nearly $800 CAD). Thank you so much for your help!

No no no ... they wait 24 hours first so you cannot cancel for free.

Edit: I had a P fare once to Europe that dropped $200 48 hours after! Life is hard.

Prices do not drop. When seats at the lowest fare bucket sell out you will have seats at higher fare buckets. One exception might be a sale and no, I certainly won't guess or predict when an airline will have one.

And further to the post upthread about alternatives, you can see this discussion in the Premium Fare Deals thread which covers Business Class and Premium Economy.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/prem...-660ish-2.html