Too Costly to Visit Canada

Actually, it is expensive to visit Canada . . . We are planning on going home for a visit this summer and are investigating air fares. It costs over $600 each to fly from Atlanta to Toronto - and only $226 to fly to Rochester which is just across the lake from Toronto. $400 to fly across Lake Ontario? So, we will be renting a car in Rochester and driving across the Ivy Lea bridge to get to Kingston - just a half hour more driving time than flying into Toronto and driving to Kingston anyway. But why such a difference in air fare?

I have really noticed a price jump in air fare within the last year. I have flown many times from Ottawa to Atlanta and I've also noticed that it is cheaper to drive to Syracuse, NY and fly from there.

And an interesting fact that many people may not know (it was recently implemented) many airlines will now charge you for that 2nd piece of checked luggage.

Airlines are hurting badly. Ever hear this old joke? "What's a good way to become a millionaire? Invest a billion in an airline!"

With the U.S. dollar doing as badly as it is and the way airlines generally lose money as a business, they're looking for any possible way to cut their losses. Since the airline industry loses far more money than it takes in, many airlines are looking to merge, which could be a good or bad thing (although probably mostly bad). Currently, the airlines do as little as possible for the passenger and there are many competitors -- if the market shrinks and these airlines know Americans have little choice in choosing who to fly with, they'll raise prices, lower service and care even less about their passengers than they do now (if anyone could imagine that's possible).

What I've found the best thing to do (aside from what Kathryn did) is to sometimes take different flights on multiple airlines. That sounds counter-intuitive and it's often much more complex, but sometimes it's easier and less expensive overall. It depends on the airline, bags (whether or not you're checking anything) route, travel date (time and day) and airport, since an airline's hub will offer more flights, but also be far more crowded for that particular airline. IAH (Houston, TX) for instance, is Continental Airline's main hub and there have been times where the lineup to check-in and go through security at Termina C (which is reserved solely for Continental) has been backed up so far, it's gone outside and wrapped around the building, as if people were waiting to get into a nightclub.

One time, I found it worked out better in terms of both time and money to take a combined Continental/WestJet flight, instead of flying Continental all the way, using another U.S. airline in addition to or instead of Continental, or even Air Canada. It was a lot of work to figure out the schedule, but in the end, it was worth it.

Oh... and one quick note: even though United Airlines is partnered with Air Canada, you can only check-in online with United if you're within the United States. Otherwise, you have to check-in at the airport. I've never had that problem with Northwest or Continental; I can't speak about Delta or any of the others, since I haven't flown on them to or from Canada. Honestly, I think Air Canada is the best airline to fly with regarding Canada. Then again, I'm biased, since I really like their personal video screens (which is something I've never seen on any economy flight with a U.S. airline).

Because of our situations, most of us are probably frequent travelers. With that said, airfares in Canada, domestic or international, have ALWAYS been high. Also, it partners with some countries, like Britain, to make airfare cheaper between those two countries, but why would it cost me more money to fly from New Jersey to Toronto (an hour flight)then to fly from London to Toronto? It even costs you more to fly from Ottawa to Toronto than it does on some international flights. The internal struggle with high cost flights has been going on for years, regardless of the poor US dollar. The poor US dollar and the price of gas has now just made it worse than ever before.

Also, the luggage thing is terrible. I was talking to someone the other day about this. This is going to hit families the hardest, not frequent business fliers which pisses me off. Businessmen often don't check luggage and get their flights paid for. While families always have lots of luggage and incur all costs of the flying experience. My brother who plays hockey in the AHL and ECHL just flew home from South Carolina almost 2 weeks ago. With his hockey bag, sticks and luggage, it cost him 600 dollars to check his luggage, more than the cost of the flight. There should be a cap.

That's one of the reasons why I Southwest. First two bags, up to 50 lbs, are free. The third bag is $25. Bags 4-9 are $50. I've never had to bring more than two bags but, still. Those allowances are awesome. I remember having to pay an additional $120 to Air Transcrap for a few extra pounds coming back from England. Air Transcrap sux.

That is good to know!!! I don't usually fly with more than one bag but when I move to Georgia, I'll probably fly with a quite a few bags! Looks like Southwest is good to fly with if you have a lot of bags.

Flying into Windsor instead of Detroit would cost 200$ more, ridiculous D:!
It already costs me 8-900 for a 5 day trip, not including food, which is easily 3x what it costs here in Texas.