2013
17
January
How To Get The Best Deal On Flights From Edmonton To Miami
17
January
Guides
The Ydeals Noise-Free Guide To Getting The Best Deal On Flights From Edmonton (YEG) to Miami (MIA)
 | There are thousands of travel sites out there, all wanting you to believe they have unique or special prices on airfares to Miami. They don't. They use marketing noise to hide the fact that there is really only one actual source of unique prices on flights from Edmonton to Miami. This guide will remove the noise and show you what that source is, so you can stop wasting so much time when searching for the best deal on travel south. |
What are the unique sources of prices on flights from Edmonton (YEG) to Miami ?
Unique Source #1 - The Major Airlines
There are 7 major airlines that offer flights from Edmonton to Miami (MIA), and they are: Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines Delta, United Airlines, US Airways and WestJet.
Are there any nearby airports I can fly into, instead of Miami (MIA)?
Yes, you could also consider flying into...
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL) - 40km N of Miami
- West Palm Beach (PBI) - 110km N of Miami
Most of the time though, airfares to Miami (MIA) are pretty similar to the cost of flying to Fort Lauderdale (FLL). It never hurts to check though.
Where should I look to get the best deal?
All you need to do is search all the major airlines, preferably at once. My current favorite way to do this would be using Google Flights Explorer. You can enter 'Miami (MIA)' into the 'To' box, and see current airfares from all the major airlines. Not to mention how easy it is to browse through different date combinations.
But, what you may want to do instead is enter 'Florida' into the 'To' box, in order to see the airfares into all major airports in Florida at once. And then see if Fort Lauderdale (FLL) or West Palm Beach (PBI) have any better prices.
Even if you're planning to go for a longer date range than this tool supports (currently up to 2 weeks), it will give you an excellent idea of what the typical bottom price flight is right now, and which airline(s) it can be found on. Use it as a starting point, and then use a tool with more precise flight search options, such as...
My second favorite way would be to search using Kayak. It has all the sort and filter options I need, and searches all major airlines servicing Edmonton. Click on 'Make my dates flexible' and set it to '+/- 3 days'. You may be surprised how often being a little flexible with your dates can result in a better price.
Another thing you can do with Kayak is select the option for 'nearby airports' underneath your destination on the front search page. If you enter in Miami (MIA) for example, and select 'nearby airports', it will also search the 2 other surrounding airports at the same time. Or you can pick and choose which airports you would like to search by clicking on 'airport map'.
What about the thousands of other travel sites that have airfares to Miami?
This is the noise. There is no shortage of vacation sites or travel brands trying to convince you that they have the best value on flights from Edmonton to Miami. The truth is though, there's only one unique source of prices that they're gathering their prices from, and that's the prices from the major airlines themselves. These travel aggregators can't begin to offer a lower price than the airline itself, as there's already virtually no markup.
There's a few reasons why I think travelers from Alberta waste an enormous amount of time checking multiple websites, hoping for a better deal than the one they already found (studies show it to be an average of 22 different sites over 10 periods of research!). The first reason is just human nature. We all want to compare ticket prices and make sure we're getting the best deal on a holiday.
But I think the biggest reason can be blamed on the noise of travel marketing. With so many travel sites and brands competing for your attention, all hoping you'll book your airfare through them, combined with the fact that not one of them will *ever* admit to you that their source of prices is the same as everyone else, it's little wonder Edmonton travelers waste so much time searching.
What about searching the airline's website directly?
There's nothing wrong with doing that. It's usually just a lot easier to search all of the airlines at once, with a better interface using a good search tool. It's amazing how poor many of the airline's search interfaces are. The fares found on any half-decent search engine will be the same as the fares found on the airline's own website.
One thing you can do is just use a search tool to search all the airlines at once, and then go to the airline's own site to book it once you've figured out exactly which flight you want, and what the price is.
What about my local travel agency or independent travel agent?
They're seeing the same prices you are. Depending on the agency or agent, they may or may not charge you a 'booking fee' on top of the airfare price, for their time. As there's virtually no markup on the cost of flights, they can't offer you a price that's any cheaper than from the airline, or from a search tool that properly searches the latest airfares.
When should I book to get the best price on a Miami flight?
This is never an easy question to answer, as airfares are not 100% predictable. Airlines start by setting their price at a level they think will fill the maximum number of seats, based on the demand they expect to see.
If they experience less demand than they expected, they may decide to lower them. If they experience more demand than they expected, they may raise them. Unfortunately, a lot of factors that influence demand can be unpredictable.
How long a person can wait it out in hopes of a better price is a personal decision. Personally though, I am usually not afraid to watch prices on the major airlines up to about 8 weeks before departure in hopes of a better price without fear of the price rising. But everyone has a different tolerance for risk.
What about last minute deals from Edmonton?
Last minute airfare deals to Miami on the major airlines don't really exist. Typical of most airfares on the major airlines, as you get fairly close to the departure date, if the airline has done their job correctly, and filled most of the seats on the plane, they feel the last remaining seats become more valuable, and often decide to raise the price.
What's a decent ticket price to fly from Edmonton to Miami?
From Edmonton, flights to Miami (MIA) tend to bottom out around $450 to $550 (roundtrip after taxes). Fort Lauderdale (FLL) is usually pretty similar. This is just a general guideline though, based on average demand periods of the year.
Airfare prices are highly affected by demand. So anytime you can think of a reason that there might be higher demand than usual for travel to Miami (such as dates when many people in Edmonton have holiday time) you can expect prices to react accordingly.
As for the Christmas holiday period (anything between Dec 21 and Jan 5), that's a whole other level of demand, which means prices are never anything but very expensive relative to the rest of the year. As a very general rule of thumb, I find you can usually take a decent price from an average demand period and multiply it by 1.5 to get your typical Christmas price.
What about one way flights to Miami?
You should be able to get to Miami (MIA) or one of the surrounding airports for about 50-60% of the cost of a roundtrip flight. Use the same search techniques as for round-trip flights, and just change the search option in your favorite search tool to 'one-way'.
What about non-stop (direct) flights to Miami?
From Edmonton, there are not currently any non-stop (direct) flights to Miami (MIA) or any of the surrounding airports. The fastest you can get there is usually with 1 stopover each way on Delta, United, Air Canada, or Westjet.
What about a multi-city flight? Such as into Miami and out of another airport nearby?
Searching for multi-city flights in travel is still a bit of a pain. Even Google Explorer currently can't handle it, as there's too many possible combinations. I'm sure eventually someone (likely Google) will put enough processing power behind it and create something useful for searching multi-city fares.
But for now, you're stuck with searching one departure date at a time when it comes to multi-city fares and experimenting with different destination combinations. Most of the decent travel sites will offer a multi-city option (it should be right next to 'one-way' and 'round-trip').
Kayak would be my preferred option here. Just click on the 'multi-city' option and in the first box, enter in Edmonton to Miami (MIA), or whatever airport you want to fly into, and then in the second box, enter Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Edmonton, or whatever airport you want to fly out of.
You never really know what you're going to get with a multi-city fare. From Edmonton to the Miami area, it can often be around the same price as a typical roundtrip fare to the same destinations (or an average of the two). Sometimes it can be slightly more. In rare cases it can even be cheaper. Of course, you're still left with figuring out the cost of getting between the two airports.
I think I've found a great deal on a flight to Miami!
Excellent! Please share it with your fellow Edmonton travel lovers, they will appreciate it and thank you for it! You can post it in the YEG Deals Facebook group (click 'Join Group', at the top-right, when you arrive), where thousands of people from Edmonton are crowd-sourcing the best deals, and sharing great travel advice.
Or if you prefer, you can always give me a shout through the YEG Deals contact form or on Twitter @YEGdeals or through Google Plus. Great deal finds are always appreciated.
Why should I trust this travel guru guide?
 | The info in this guide is based on my observations of the travel industry over the years, including all the thousands of websites out there, and where all the different players get their prices from and how they interact with each other. The goal is to remove the noise of travel marketing, so people can stop wasting so much valuable time searching the same prices over and over. |
But, as social proof of it's accuracy, feel free to join the YEG Deals Facebook Group (click 'Join Group', at the top-right, when you arrive) and publicly disagree with any of it, or make a comment below. Critiques are always welcome!
I think I have some info that could help improve the guide!
Great! Please post your info in the Facebook group above, or contact me directly. Suggestions for improvement are always appreciated. Let me know if you see something that seems inaccurate or outdated.
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