My cousin called me today in need of one of those ‘wanna get away’ trips. Unfortunately his departing country is Canada, a country that isn’t serviced by Southwest. Thinking me a magician, he asked if there was a cheap ticket from Toronto to Los Angeles departing on August 4th. I know next to nothing about the points business in Canada but know enough to say that it isn’t as generous as the US. As such, I didn’t even bother asking him if he had any points for a free flight.
Instead I headed over to the handy-dandy Matrix – ITA page and started putting together prospective itineraries. Here’s what I came up with: A flight leaving Kitchner to LAX connecting in Chicago on US Air then a flight from LAX to Toronto via Calgary.
That’s $558 for an inconvenient flight to Los Angeles. Appalled by the price I sent it to my cousin who to my bewilderment was happy with the fare. An Expedia search yielded flights in the $800 range making this one a ‘bargain,’ he said.
With the weakened Canadien dollar, traveling to the US will be even more expensive which is why I think it’s time for him to stop paying for tickets and to start reading my colleague’s blog, Canadian Kilometers.
Not bad eh?
Typos
It’s Canadian, and Kitchener
YKF is Kitchener-Waterloo airport
YKF-ORD-LAX is doable, but one should also try looking YYZ-LAX on Avios
Parking is $6 CAD/day at YKF, it’s 1 hour west of YYZ airport
Kitchener is a typo but I’m from Quebec so I write it Canadien. You say colour, I say color.