vancouver canada to Goa

carolinvancouver

My first time ..............in a perfect world what would be the easiest, stress free, cost effiecient way to arrive in Goa from Vancouver.

I've looked at Singapore air, Air Canada to London and an Excel charter to GOA............

Advice is a good thing!

__________________
bye and thank you

GoanCanuck

Carol, my advice would be to go on Singapore Airlines from Vancouver. The service is very good and their aircraft are usually the newest models. The AirCanada/Excel option is good on price but very bad on comfort. The seating arrangements on Excel from London to Goa are very poor with passengers packed in like sardines. Charter flights are in my view good only for short/medium haul flights like Vancouver-Mexico or Vancouver-Cuba, not for a 9 hour flight.

P.S.- When are you planning on going? I shall be leaving for Goa with a colleague on January 18.

04274108

You might want to check some of the deals through the U.K. If I was only going to GOA, I'd definitely consider this option even though 1 UK pound is about $2.25 CDN.

Check out this search engine...

http://host170.page-moy.co.uk/page.a...af filiate=28

This morning, I saw 2 week packages (flight and hotel) for about $800 CDN. I realize that 2 weeks is not enough but they do have 28 day packages too. If you can't find what you're looking for, check back every day. There are a lot of packages that come and go.

carolinvancouver

hi, on their glossy website Excel looks like they have lots of leg room, 3 different classes, although don't have a quote for the 3

singapore is 2300 ish + 230 to goa

i'd like to leave around jan 17 for 4 weeks

how long are you staying?

c

carolinvancouver

thanks,
staying for 4 weeks, have some family in town but may look for a place on the beach for 2 weeks.
will check it out when i get there.
c

monkgonemad

sg may be the best carrier - but it is never the cheapest. in fact, its the most expensive -and on a flight this long and r/t i suspect you can save 100s on another carrier.

my .02

Kingfisher

Carolin

Try Gaba Travels, which is on Main St around 59th (check the phone book, they also have a branch in Surrey, if that is closer) -- A flight with Singapore Airlines to Mumbai was $1570 plus tax for my November flight. I added a one-way to Goa with Jet and the total with taxes and surcharges was around $1800.

You could do the Mumbai-Goa leg for less by booking online with Deccan Air (on which there are *many* threads here which you can check for URL and details) or, to save even more, you could book a 3ac sleeper rail trip via internet as the Konkan has a special deal at a slightly pricey Rp1250 last I checked -- details available on the Konkan website or check some of the rail threads in the transport section.

And yes, Singapore is a fine airline, and the the overnite in Singapore with a free hotel is a welcome break in a very long flight. have fun.

ace

Carol,

My family is from Alberta and so when we were looking at ways to get to India, we found a few options:

-you may be able to get deals on Cathay Pacific going from Vancouver, but these stop along the way
-Aeroflot is by far the cheapest option, but we weren't sure about this airline
-Air Canada has the only(?) non-stop option: Toronto to Delhi, and getting from Vancouver to Toronto shouldn't be bad . . .

Your best bet is often talking to an Indian travel agent at home and seeing what deal you can get.

Cheers!
ace

trvl_in

Vancouver to Mumbai, whether via HK, Tapei, Singapore, Bankok, Seoul, or via London, Amersterdam, or Frankfurt tends to come in between 1550 to 1850 CAD this year for easy to find bookings in the contact sport bucket shops. Prices in any-old-high-street-agent can easily run 500 CAD more for the same ticket.

One good tactic is to get an any-old-shop quote and then phone around to the bucket shops for a 300 to 500 beat that.

ace

Geez trvl_in! I wish I would have known . . .

It's too late for me for this time (my flight's already booked -- leaving in 4 wks!) . . . but, um . . . excuse my ignorance, but . . . what's a bucket shop????

carolinvancouver

thx ace

i would prefer not to got to Delhi

am going to toronto for xmas but will be back here in vancouver for my mid jan departure...........

bucket shops are travel agencies in london that have sell offs, last minutes and such............i think

carolinvancouver

thx
going to check out new travel agent tomorrow!

carolinvancouver

hi

have tried Bain and Goyal on Fraser.

will definitely try Gaba.

trvl_in

[quote=ace] Geez trvl_in! I wish I would have known . . .

. . . what's a bucket shop????

"Bucket shop" is slang travel agents that sell deep discount airfares. Airlines publish regular fares for their routes, but offer fares at a fraction of this, in limited quantities, to selected travel agents, who then pass on most of the savings to the client. It is part of a very sophisticated science of "capacity control", whereby airlines ensure that their flights are full. While last minute tickets often pop up at "bucket shops", the capacity control wizards can scope this out months in advance, allowing a trickle of tickets to go out the back door.

To qualify as a bucket shop a dealer needs to have a record of fast selling so that the airlines get tight control on the discount inventory. Contrary to popular impression, "bucket shops" are usually not fly by night operations. Rather they tend to have hard core professionals who typically do steady business for years. The only thing about bucket shops is that often you need to be aggressive and have a thick skin to score that cheap ticket. They don't have time to hold your hand or to wander through dreamland exploring itineraries. If you can get their attention though, and shout out your exact day and be ready to pay, you'll get all the service you need.

"Bucket shop" is not a derisory term, btw, although one wouldn't usually want to call an agent a bucket shop person to their face. It just means good place for cheap tickets.

ace

cool! thanks . . . so just for future reference (as i am kicking myself that i didn't know about this before) . . . where/how does one find one of these "bucket shops"?