Air Fare from Canada

[KAWS]

We usually save and use Aeroplan points for our March Break cruise. What I've always done is book the flight the SECOND they become available and wind up getting something from Toronto to wherever for about 25,000 points each.

 

Well this year I had some health issues and couldn't/didn't even give it a thought until just this past week and wouldn't ya know.........a flight from Toronto to FLL is about 140,000 return for two instead of the usual 50,000. The price for the flights is around $1,400 for the two of us too. YIKES.

 

I don't want to fly out of Buffalo because March can be so iffy here and the long line ups at customs driving over at that time of year can drive you bonkers too. Not a great start to your vacation.

 

Are there any Canadians out there that have any suggestions as to where I could look? I'm actually thinking of changing my Princess cruise to a RCCL one so we can use the Choice Air (or at least checking that possibility out). Failing that dh is saying that we should just do an all inclusive (what?????????) and save the points for the cruise we want to take in 2012 instead.

 

Anyway, just thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone has some ideas that I haven't thought of or has something creative they can share. I'll "do" an all inclusive but I'd rather be cruising!! Not to mention we have the corner aft cabin on the Ruby booked! Don't want to give that baby up....

[thinfool]

 

Are there any Canadians out there that have any suggestions as to where I could look?

 

I am not Canadian, but this is $400. less and is typical of current midweek fares for next March.

 

 

$481.83 average cost per passenger in US Dollars

$963.66 total for all passengers

2 adults @ $481.83 each

Show booking details

 

 

 

This ticket is non-refundable.

 

Changes to this ticket will incur a penalty fee.

 

This ticket has advance-purchase restrictions.

 

 

Airport legend:

 

YYZ: Toronto Lester B Pearson

CLT: Charlotte Douglas

FLL: Fort Lauderdale Int'l

Toronto, Canada to Fort Lauderdale, FL: 1222 miles 5 hrs 38 min

 

US Airways Flight US795 on an Airbus A319 (jet) in coach class

Departs Toronto, Canada (YYZ) Tue, Mar 8 6:25a 1 hr 59 min

Arrives Charlotte, NC (CLT) 8:24a

Layover in Charlotte 1 hr 31 min

US Airways Flight US1997 on a Boeing 737 (jet) in coach class

Departs Charlotte, NC (CLT) Tue, Mar 8 9:55a 2 hrs 8 min

Arrives Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) 12:03p

 

Fort Lauderdale, FL to Toronto, Canada: 1222 miles 4 hrs 48 min

 

US Airways Flight US1507 on an Airbus A321 (jet) in coach class

Departs Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) Fri, Mar 18 6:30a 1 hr 55 min

Arrives Charlotte, NC (CLT) 8:25a

Layover in Charlotte 1 hr 0 min

US Airways Flight US3170 on an Embraer RJ-175 (jet) in coach class

(operated by US AIRWAYS EXPRESS-REPUBLIC AIRLINES)

Departs Charlotte, NC (CLT) Fri, Mar 18 9:25a 1 hr 53 min

Arrives Toronto, Canada (YYZ)

[Atomica]

Unless Air Canada has a sale (and they might - keep looking), you're probably better off considering flying on another airline and simply saving your points.

 

We routinely drive down and fly out of Seattle if we can't find a cheap flight out of Vancouver. Not my favorite thing to do either, but if you save $400-600 per person, the drive is well worth it. I'd keep Buffalo in mind as a last resort.

[cruiseryyc]

WestJet has direct flights from Toronto to Ft. Lauderdale and they seem to have more seat sales than Air Canada. Go on their website and sign up for email alerts, then you will know when the sales come on.

[LuvTheGoodLife]

We were in a similar situation for November 2010 - no Aeroplan point 'classic award' availability for Toronto - Fort Lauderdale and I was checking the day the flights were released. We kept our cruise booking and kept checking Air Canada for seat sales. Worst case scenario was we were prepared to fly from Buffalo. We got lucky and found a seat sale on Air Canada back in February that showed the sale price through November (which is pretty unusual). We ended up with $79 tickets each way - the cheapest I have ever seen from Toronto to FLL.

 

My advice, check regularly on AC and WestJet and be open to flying US carriers out of Toronto. We are flying Toronto to Tampa this week on US Air - connecting through Charlotte NC and the fare was $86 one way. Air Canada and Westjet were showing fares of $209 each the same day.

 

Remember you can also fly into Miami or West Palm Beach - both are within easy driving distance from Port Everglades port in FLL, especially if you get a rental car.

[DanJ]

I'd be looking at Buffalo as a more realistic option. March is a terrible time to be hoping on a seat sale from Toronto, with school vacations going on. I wouldn't let the QEW keep me from the holiday I want to take. Look at an early morning flight, and get a hotel the night before at an airport area hotel that includes parking for the week (which will probably be cheaper than parking at the airport itself), and cross the Peace Bridge around 8-9pm, and you should be fine.

 

I also think that $1400 for 2 people is about the going rate for cruise air from Toronto to Florida on most cruise lines, so I'm not sure the RCI thing is any better an option than what you are looking at now.

[scottbee]

We usually save and use Aeroplan points for our March Break cruise. What I've always done is book the flight the SECOND they become available and wind up getting something from Toronto to wherever for about 25,000 points each.

 

Well this year I had some health issues and couldn't/didn't even give it a thought until just this past week and wouldn't ya know.........a flight from Toronto to FLL is about 140,000 return for two instead of the usual 50,000. The price for the flights is around $1,400 for the two of us too. YIKES.

 

I don't want to fly out of Buffalo because March can be so iffy here and the long line ups at customs driving over at that time of year can drive you bonkers too. Not a great start to your vacation.

 

Are there any Canadians out there that have any suggestions as to where I could look? I'm actually thinking of changing my Princess cruise to a RCCL one so we can use the Choice Air (or at least checking that possibility out). Failing that dh is saying that we should just do an all inclusive (what?????????) and save the points for the cruise we want to take in 2012 instead.

 

Anyway, just thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone has some ideas that I haven't thought of or has something creative they can share. I'll "do" an all inclusive but I'd rather be cruising!! Not to mention we have the corner aft cabin on the Ruby booked! Don't want to give that baby up....

 

Air Canada flights are just about the worst thing to spend your Aeroplan points on. Book the flight on CO, US or UA, who don't charge an extremely high 'fuel surcharge'. Last I looked, AC's fuel surcharge was something in the neighbourhood of 380% (ie your share of the fuel cost is 3.8 times the part AC pay for).

[twoputt.plusone]

I'd be looking at Buffalo as a more realistic option. March is a terrible time to be hoping on a seat sale from Toronto, with school vacations going on. I wouldn't let the QEW keep me from the holiday I want to take. Look at an early morning flight, and get a hotel the night before at an airport area hotel that includes parking for the week (which will probably be cheaper than parking at the airport itself), and cross the Peace Bridge around 8-9pm, and you should be fine.

 

I also think that $1400 for 2 people is about the going rate for cruise air from Toronto to Florida on most cruise lines, so I'm not sure the RCI thing is any better an option than what you are looking at now.

 

I'm with you on that one. We never fly out of Canada anymore, most often from Buffalo. Toronto is just not worth the extra expense or hassle.

 

We have plans to visit a friend who lives in S Georgia that we met years ago on CC. With that in mind, last weekend I sat with my laptop and booked a couple of hotels for our road trip next month. That's when the sticker shock set in. It's been a while since we've driven and the hotel prices have skyrocketed, not something I expected to see during a recession. I decided to check flights into Atlanta and found we can fly from Buffalo to Atlanta complete with a rental car for less money than it costs to drive. :eek: That would never happen in Toronto.

[monicajay]

Not sure what you have against Buffalo. Leave a day early, stay at an airport hotel, have your first fru-fru drink, enjoy.

 

We always cross and fly from Burlington. My brother from Toronto always crosses to Buffalo. I would never give up a corner aft for an all inclusive.

[gunner22a]

Check them out for your airfare. My TA just booked us through them for a YVR - PEK - BKK - YVR business class ticket for less than AC wanted for economy. The flight is on one of their Star Alliance partners who half my flight would have been on anyway booking AC. The Expedia fare was over $1000 less than she could get from any of her consolidators and almost $2000 less than Princess wanted with one leg of 5 hours in economy as they didn't have a business class contract with that particular carrier. Keep shopping! It pays!

[ilya12000]

I have just booked the flight even not from Buffalo (we live in Toronto), but from Detroit. The price for 3 of us for DIRECT flights to FLL and back is only 616 USD. From Buffalo I found the best fares ~USD 880, and both flights with 1 stop each.

It is the second time we'll fly from Detroit: the last year we flew to Costa Rica for ~$250 per person versus double price from Buffalo and even higher from Toronto. In Detroit we just took one night in Stay, Park Fly hotel and left there our car for 2 weeks. Hotel's shuttle brought us to airport and when we returned - back to the car. So the saving for 3 people was very worth of 4-4.5 h drive (at least for us)

 

Best,

Ilya

[jtdlmc]

I agree with most others on here - we always fly from Detroit - the wait at the border is well worth the $100's saved! We are only 1.5 hours from Detroit but still stay the night in an airport hotel that includes parking in case of nasty weather. When we fly within Canada, we have found West Jet to be the cheapest by far, so the same is probably true when flying to Florida.

[manonreal]

I live in the Atlantic which is NB and I learned my lesson on rates last year flying from NS....I rather drive to Portland or Boston in order to get a cheaper flight. I saved around 400$ a person doing that.

[boulders]

We flew from BUF on the first day of Ontario's March break this year - well, we were supposed to anyway. We crossed the border around 6:30 a.m. - there were only about 3 cars ahead of us. When we got to the airport, the UA ticket agent was trying his best to reroute everybody. Not sure why - maybe there was a backup somewhere else on the East Coast. In any case, he asked a nearby family holding Canadian passports if they wanted to fly from Pearson. We were holding our US passports, but I let him know that we were willing to fly from Pearson. We ended up with first class direct tickets on AC to MCO. When we crossed the border again, around 9 a.m., the lines were backed up at least an hour. There are plenty of inexpensive hotels right near BUF too. We've stayed overnight at one of them to take advantage of the cheap flights.

[KAWS]

Air Canada flights are just about the worst thing to spend your Aeroplan points on. Book the flight on CO, US or UA, who don't charge an extremely high 'fuel surcharge'. Last I looked, AC's fuel surcharge was something in the neighbourhood of 380% (ie your share of the fuel cost is 3.8 times the part AC pay for).

 

We can never score direct flights using those airlines and hubby won't fly unless we do direct. We use the Aeroplan points only for flights so we wind up spending around $300 or so for a direct flight using them rather than over $1000 if we used another airline and then having to get a connecting flight.

 

We wound up just staying with what we have for our next cruise. We'll save our points for our 2012 cruise but I'll book that flight the SECOND it becomes available through Aeroplan.