2015
22
January
Edmonton to places in Europe, plus bonus stop in Finland - all for ~$622-$680 roundtrip including taxes
22
January
Today I'm going to share a great little trick discovered by a travel junkie named Chad, a member of the YEG Deals Facebook Group, involving a way to get to certain destinations in Europe and back in September and October 2015, including a bonus stop in Helsinki, Finland, all for nearly half of the price of your typical roundtrip Europe flight!
Chad writes...
What I call 'The Helsinki Effect' of cheap fares to Europe is at its strongest point ever. Frankly ridiculous these days. Basically it goes like this: Pick a major destination in Europe. Then pair it with a short Helsinki stopover and you've got yourself a pretty inexpensive trip!
Here's how it works, and how you can find a cheap flight to somewhere in Europe...
1. Start with a multi-city flight, from Edmonton to somewhere in Europe and back, involving a stop in Finland. In this example, I'll use Paris...
Go to this example search: http://www.ca.kayak.com/flights/YEG-PAR/2015-09-16/PAR-HEL/2015-09-25/HEL-YEG/2015-09-27/2adults
As you can see, it's possible to get from Edmonton to Paris, France to Helsinki, Finland and back to Edmonton, for just $650 roundtrip including taxes.
2. But let's say you'd prefer somewhere else in Europe. At the Kayak search page above, click on the 'Change' button.
Now change the input boxes that say 'Paris (CDG)' to, let's say...Barcelona (BCN)
After hitting 'Search', a price of $679 shows up...
Clicking through to FlightHub verifies that the price is bookable.
Madrid, Spain for $668 is another destination you can substitute in.
Are there other dates I can try?
Yes. The cheaper prices are most likely to be found from mid September onwards.
Here's one in October 2015 from Edmonton to Istanbul, Turkey (IST) to Helsinki, Finland, and back to Edmonton, all for the ridiculously low price of $622 after taxes!
http://www.ca.kayak.com/flights/YEG-ISt/2015-10-17/IST-HEL/2015-10-25/HEL-YEG/2015-10-28/2adults
Note: If you play with the 'Layover Durations' slider on the left hand side of Kayak, you can find similar flights with a much shorter layover in Toronto for $706.
Updates
I will update this blog post if any more destinations or date combinations are discovered that work with this Helsinki trick.
- Copenhagen, Denmark (CPH) also works as the 'middle' city. It works out to $618. Here's an example search:
http://www.ca.kayak.com/flights/YEG-CPH/2015-09-16/CPH-HEL/2015-09-25/HEL-YEG/2015-09-27/2adults
- Dublin, Ireland (DUB) is available for $624
http://www.ca.kayak.com/flights/YEG-DUB/2015-09-17/DUB-HEL/2015-09-25/HEL-YEA/2015-09-30/2adults
- Brussels, Belgium (BRU) is available for $689
http://www.ca.kayak.com/flights/YEG-BRU/2015-09-16/BRU-HEL/2015-09-25/HEL-YEG/2015-09-30
- Milan, Italy (MXP) is available for $703.
http://www.ca.kayak.com/flights/YEG-MIL/2015-09-16/MIL-HEL/2015-09-28/HEL-YEG/2015-09-30
Update - Christmas & New Years flights now showing for $566 roundtrip including taxes!
Once again, credit goes to Chad for this one. Chad writes...
Just a heads up that the Christmas-in-Europe fares just sunk lower. Use the Helsinki trick. The nice thing about this one is you could do Christmas eve/day in Paris and New Years eve/day in Amsterdam. A high speed train between the two cities will run you about $50 if purchased 3-months in advance as an inflexible ticket.
To find this one, you need to do a multi-city search on the KLM website, like this...
So when you get to KLM.com, click on 'multiple destinations' (right below the search form), and then click the 'Add Flight' button, and enter in a search like the one in the image above (same destinations and dates).
screenshot from KLM booking page:
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Can't find this deal anymore? Prices change as deals sell out. The key is to be among the first to know when an amazing deal is posted.
Click here for tips on how to never miss a deal again.
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15 Responses to "Edmonton to places in Europe, plus bonus stop in Finland - all for ~$622-$680 roundtrip including taxes"
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i just stumbled upon this website! this is genius!!!
Thanks a lot guys, u saved me tons!
I've been waiting for Turkey to drop to this level of ridiculousness since the deal you posted in 2012. Thanks for the heads up and i'm booked for 20 days in October!!
Nice one Mo! That price of $622 actually bests the crazy KLM deal from 2012. I think it was around $750.
The deal is great but unfortunately it fell through. There is a Helsinki to Frankfurt leg of my trip (that I take on the way home) that no one seems to be able to book and my reservation keeps getting cancelled.
Have you heard of others being successful in completing their reservation?
Mo, the airlines got wise to this little trick and have told travel agents to not accept bookings. It was good while it lasted. Some people got in on the deals.
Can anybody confirm if they've booked through this deal via travelhub???
Mo and Curly,
I successfully booked this email through Travelhub this afternoon, it was cancelled twice when I booked online, but when I called to book, it worked! My travel was for mid-November.
So i'm guessing we can't book online travelhub we have to call them??
Calling travel hub didn't help me - I also tried booking via fared emotional to no avail. Seems like all flights leaving Helsinki are being cancelled (I've tried connecting via. Frankfurt and Munich). My flights were for Oct 11-25.
I wouldn't worry if you can't book right away - this Helsinki trick has been around for at least four months now. Remember that the stopover is part of the fare rules, so you're not tricking the airlines into giving you a low price. And Air Canada wouldn't have asked agents to not book these flights - the stopover is part of Air Canada's permissible fare rules. You can see fare rules here, where category 8 lists the free stopover:
https://matrix.itasoftware.com/#view-rules:research=YEGPAR-PARHEL-HELYEG;solution=058do4w0JB5BMyFyCm7tl9T/M6u5pASPgJ5QD2O9c00EHG002;fare-key=0/0
And you can see that Hesinki flights standalone are cheap:
https://www.google.ca/flights/#search;f=YEG;t=HEL;d=2015-06-03;r=2015-06-16
If you can't book via Flight Hub, try calling Air Canada's booking centre. Have a few options ready in case the agent can't help you with the first one. And pay close attention to codeshares, interline flights, and flights operated by Air Canada since this is very important in the agent being able to access the cheap flight.
Mo: Try this search on Kayak...
http://www.kayak.com/flights/YEG-IST/2015-10-12/IST-HEL/2015-10-23/HEL-YEG/2015-10-26
(note the slightly different dates)
Click through from Kayak to Priceline or Orbitz.
The price is verifying on both Priceline and Orbitz on those dates. Generally speaking, in my experience, if it's verifying on either of those sites, there's a very good chance of a ticket being issued, even when it's a fare that other sites claim can't be ticketed. Note that the $543 price is $USD on both of these sites.
By contrast, using the original dates from my blog post, when you get to Orbitz, it shows the cheaper price initially, but does not verify when you go to book, suggesting there's a good chance that particular date combination is no longer bookable.
If the dates of travel above don't work for your schedule, try playing around with some other dates on Kayak.com (not ca.kayak.com) - and then clicking through to Orbitz, and trying to book on Orbitz. If you get past the initial results screen on Orbitz, and it appears you can book it, I think there's a good chance those dates will work.
I just booked a flight via Kayak from Edmonton-Copenhagen-Helsinki-Edmonton for $584.00 tax included during mid-October. Cannot believe this is for real. Thanks for the websites and amazing information.
My flights are mostly operated by Air Canada and one SAS and Lufthansa flight but the ticket was issued by Lufthansa entirely. Lufthansa uses Air Canada as a code share. Couple connections in Toronto, Frankfurt and Calgary on the way back.
Nice one Steve!
Awesome! Dublin-Helsinki, mid September $570. Had to call Flighthub, wouldn't work online