Purchase a Costco Gold Star Membership and enter GSWEB in the coupon field during checkout. You will be mailed a $10 Costco Cash card. Gold Star Membership is $55 per year (plus applicable taxes) and includes a FREE Spouse card. This offer is valid for a new Costco membership only and expires January 14, 2007. A Spouse refers to either a spouse or a family member 18 years of age or older living at the same address.

More details at Costco’s website

H&M is having a special item at a special price from today until December 24, 2006. You can find the deal for each day at H&M’s website
Here are the ones for the next few days:

More details at H&M Canada’s website

Purchase your Christmas tree at IKEA for only $20 and receive a coupon for $20 off an IKEA purchase of $75 or more (coupons redeemable January 2 – March 1, 2007, while supplies last.).

It’s back! IKEA is having it’s famous moonlight madness sale on December 15, 2006. Up to 50% off selected items throughout the store and some crazy deals! Here’s more info for each specific IKEA store:

IKEA Burlington

Moonlight Madness
We’re open until 11pm on Friday, December 15th to kick off our annual Winter Sale.

Up to 50% off selected items throughout the store. Store selection may vary.

IKEA Calgary

Midnight Madness
We’re open until midnight on Friday, December 15th to kick off our annual Winter Sale.

Up to 50% off selected items throughout the store. Store selection may vary.

IKEA Coquitlam

Moonlight Madness!
Join us on Friday, December 15th for amazing hourly offers… until 11pm! We’re kicking off our annual Winter Sale with Moonlight Madness!

10 AM
POANG armchair leather bas red $289 -> $149
KUNGSANGEN bean bag chair $65 -> $19.99
ALVINE RAND rug 170x240cm dk green/grey $399 -> $139
BENNO tv bench black-brown $149 -> $69
HOBERG table antique stain $169 -> $99

1 PM
ALVE workstation antique stain $339 -> $129
ALVINE SMAL curtain 145×300 select colours $55 -> 19.99
CORRAS bedside table birch or black-brown $49.99 -> $19.99

6 PM
BILLY bookcase 60x106cm white $39 -> $19.99
BENNO CD tower $39 -> $19.99

7 PM
DIDRIK storage unit white or black $15.99 -> $4.99
MALM dress table white $179 -> $79.99
TOVIK bedside table $79 -> $29

8 PM
DIKTAD changing table antique stain $199 -> $99
NYDAL armchair alme natural $199 -> $49

9 PM
LEKSVIK CD cabinet antique stain $149 -> $69
GYLLEN wall lamp select colours $39.99 -> $19.99
FJELLDAL bunk bed twin $399 -> $199

10 PM
PJATTERYD picture 53×53 cm select prints $49 -> $9.99
DEKOR 12-piece service set $7.99 -> $2.99
LEKSVIK corner cabinet antique stain $249 -> $129
JERKER computer table $179 -> $59

Click here to view more Midnight Madness offers at IKEA Coquitlam

IKEA Edmonton

Midnight Madness
We’re open until midnight on Friday, December 15th to kick off our annual Winter Sale.

Up to 50% off selected items throughout the store. Store selection may vary.

Come into IKEA for our St. Lucia Midnight Madness Sale, Friday December 15th. You’ll save up to 50% off of selected products throughout the store, and keep an eye on our hourly time limited offers all evening to save even more! Join us in the restaurant for a meal, and be entertained by performances from the Scandinavian Junior Dancers. IKEA, fun for the whole family!

IKEA Etobicoke

Moonlight Madness!
Moonlight Madness Friday, December 15th – open till 11pm!
Come Early, Stay Late as we kick off our annual winter sale…
Save up to 70% on selected items throughout the store all day!

Hourly Timed Offers: At 6pm selected items will be slashed up to 75% off regular price!

Visit our AS IS department as we take an additional 25% off already reduced AS IS furniture. Beginning at 1pm every hour on the hour!

In the Restaurant: ½ pound chicken wings only $1.99 beginning at 5pm
Bring your Children: Face Painting and Holiday Magic shows starting at 5pm

IKEA North York

Midnight Madness
We’re open until midnight on Friday, December 15th to kick off our annual Winter Sale.

Up to 50% off selected items throughout the store. Store selection may vary, visit us for details.

IKEA Richmond

Moonlight Madness!
Join us on Friday, December 15th for amazing hourly offers… until 11pm! We’re kicking off our annual Winter Sale with Midnight Madness!

10am:
IKEA PS BOASTAD coffee table
IKEA PS FÃ…NGST hanging storage (Black or yellow only)
BENNO CD tower. Red only

11am:
SCHLAGER table lamp
LEKSVIK corner cabinet
LAURILA gateleg table

12pm:
POÄNG armchair (Bas red leather cushion only)
KONGSVIK four-poster bed (Full/double or Queen size only)

1pm:
BRITT curtain
2-pack (145×300 cm only)

2pm
BÄSTIS cat/dog tent (Blue only)
BILLY bookcase, 80×202 cm (Red only)

3pm
NILSBY sofa bed (Almbro dark blue only)
50% off all RETA boxes!

4pm:
ALVINE SMAL curtain, 145×300 cm (Red/white only)

5pm:
ALVE work station
ARON chair (Birch/Gobo white only)

6pm:
MALM dressing table (White only)
IKEA PS FEJÖ self-watering plant pot (Red-brown only)

7pm:
ENNO TV bench (Black brown only)
BJURSTA dining table (Beech only)

8pm:
MALM storage unit (White only)

9pm:
DIDRIK storage unit on casters (White or black)

10pm:
JERKER computer table (Birch or beech)

IKEA Vaughan Hwy 400 & Hwy 7

Midnight Madness
We’re open until midnight on Friday, December 15th to kick off our annual Winter Sale.

Up to 50% off selected items throughout the store.

Click here to view list of hourly specials at IKEA Vaughan

More details at IKEA.ca

Jawaad just posted the second part of his “Air Travel in Canada” series. To make things interesting, we’re having a little contest. The winner gets a $20 Chapters/Indigo or cara Gift Card.

Try creating/finding the cheapest return fare from Montreal to Honolulu
Departure: January 26th , 2007
Return: February 10th, 2007

You don’t have to fly directly from Montreal. If it significantly helps reduce costs, you can take the coach to a nearby US city and fly from there. In that case, the cost of the coach must be taken into account. There are many options and a huge variety of possible routes. Reading Jawaad’s article will help you find the best routes.

The winner will be judged based on the practicality (duration) of the trip and the total price.

To enter the contest all you have to do is leave a comment with your trip details. Include price details, and where you got the prices from. Also include the total time your trip takes.

The winner will be announced on Thursday.

Let’s be honest, Canada is a great place to live, but outside BC, there is very little that doesn’t turn to ice in the winter. Snowbirds make the annual pilgrimage to the United States of America every year, and I don’t blame them one bit. Even as a patriotic Canadian, it is quite annoying to have to live through constant cloud cover and freezing cold weather. However, being the neighbour of the largest economy in the world, we are afforded certain inherent benefits; mainly, the variety of environments that accompany the vastness of the United States. Ranging from beautiful Hawaii to rugged Colorado, there are a large variety of experiences awaiting the curious traveler. It is a source of great frustration that parents reason that, family budgets being what they are, we can’t all spend a week in Hawaii or on Miami Beach. At the very least, that is the lie that doubtlessly convinced my parents that West Virginia (where the main attraction was eating at Taco Bell) was more worthwhile than Florida. So, what can be done to get a cheap flight down south?

This second part will examine the unique challenge of flying from Canada to the United States. Flying from Canada to the US is a profoundly different experience than flying between Canadian cities. For one, Air Canada and Westjet do not have an oligopoly going on; they need to be able to compete against several American airlines. As well, there is much heavier traffic from Canada to the US; although the era of branch plants might be over, a lot of business decision-making happens south of the border; this means a lot of businessmen are flying there all the time, meaning more flights, more competition, and better prices. If you read through this and internalize the “3 Power Techniques used by Successful People to Save Money on Airfare” (which will be discussed in the last section), you will be in a far better position to get the best rate on a flight.

Fact 1: If You Fly Out of Canada, You Are Effectively Locked Into Your Geographical Region

First, you must realize that geography means you might be locked into particular destinations for the best deal. It might be off-setting for a metrosexual Montrealer to be surrounded by fat 70 year old Quebecois from the boonies wearing speedos in Florida, but rest assured that the $130 ticket fare that you will pay will offset your initial disgust. Destinations for cities vary, but generally if you want to fly out of two of the three major Canadian hubs (Montreal and Vancouver), you will have a distinct set of choices; “specialized fares” as I call them.

Montreal generally has cheap tickets to Florida, and little else. If you are dependent on Montreal, you are SOL.
Toronto is Canada’s main hub. You can generally fly “cheaply” almost anywhere in the US from Toronto. There are no “specialized” fares available.
Vancouver has extremely cheap fares to Hawaii and San Francisco/LA available.

Generally, the “specialized” fares that you get are very competitive. Unfortunately, just like domestic fares, Canadian airports charge exorbitant fees and “improvement fees” which is reflected on your ticket. As well, the deceptive practice of adding a “Fuel Surcharge” means that Air Transat can advertise $30 fares to Tampa Bay, but the amount you end up paying is almost $200. The only way to avoid this is by flying through the United States.

Fact 2: The Major Travel Websites Are Great for Low Fares – on Non-Stop Flights.

As shown in my last article, the major sites (Expedia, Travelocity, et cetera) are horrible for Canadian air fare. However, these large ticket brokers provide excellent fare to America, especially to major cities. To illustrate this, I have collected some examples of flights from Montreal to Tampa. I simply chose the cheapest one-way fare for a flight leaving on December 13th 2006 and the January 26th 2007. (All fare information was collected on the 11th of December, 2006, and are listed in Canadian Dollars unless otherwise noted.)

Travelmix.ca is the best for last minute fares as it appears to lack a $7 charge for booking, as there is with Travelocity & Expedia; however both post very competitive rates, as you can see.

Now, let’s try a less popular destination; Montreal -> Oklahoma City.

It is clear that you can save very minor amounts of money by looking around, but that the big sites are a very very good indicator as to what the lowest price will look like for non-stop flights. You can save a few bucks at times by looking at the websites for the airline companies and some other smaller websites, but it isn’t likely you will save much. (You might save money on a hotel by booking on one of these websites, but this is beyond the scope I can cover in this series). For flights which require connections, these sites are ripoffs and I strongly urge you to either book through a travel agent, or to pay attention to the next section. These is very much a “Buyer beware” situation; look at these flights from Montreal to Honolulu:

Although Expedia provides you with the cheapest price, it is still an incredible ripoffs, as you will see in the next section. Using the 3 Power Techniques to Save Money, which I will introduce to you in the next section, you will be able to find a fare that is nearly half of what is being offered at the expedia site. The biggest prizes are available for those of us willing to book through a US airport.

Fact 3: You can save a lot of money traveling from the US; however you need to pay attention and apply the 3 Power Techniques.

Montreal has quite a few neighbouring International Airports in the United States that are within reasonable bus range. Both Burlington and Albany can save you money if you pay attention. In the previous article, I explained how it was possible to save some money on airfare within Canada by flying from Burlington to Seattle and taking buses. Of course there are some drawbacks to this method; no one likes taking a long bus trip. However, you can save a lot of money by flying through the US. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t do the necessary legwork, resulting in paying a lot more money than they should have. To see the pitfalls, take a look at Burlington -> Tampa.

Since these are direct flights, one can rest reasonably reassured that there will be little available that is significantly less than Expedia’s offer. Accordoing to our previous work, Montreal->Tampa is $173.91, at its cheapest. Thus, we have savings of about 56 dollars; however this savings is mainly a mirage. The money that is eaten up by the Greyhound ticket and the taxi fare to the airport, not to mention additional time spent going. If you are going to try to beat the specialized fare tickets (Montreal -> Florida, Vancouver -> California), you are going to have to do some legwork. You are going to have to use the 3 Power Techniques.

The 3 Power Techniques used by Successful People to Save Money on Airfare

1. Get a list of discount airlines and examine where they fly from. I am referring to Southwest, but Wikipedia yielded the following as well: AirTran Airways, Allegiant Air, ATA Airlines, Frontier Airlines, go!, JetBlue Airways, Primaris Airlines, Skybus Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, Ted (United Airlines), USA 3000 Airlines, US Airways, and Virgin America. In the case of Montreal, Southwest flies into Albany, New York. I didn’t even know Albany had a major airport until I read that. There is more frequent Greyhound Bus service to Albany; it is further away than Burlington and costs more to go to, but the savings on air travel can be substantial.

2. Try to incorporate heavily traversed routes into your itiniary. When going from the East to the West Coast, it is essential that you save money over the longest haul of the trip. Luckily, this trick is a great way to do so, especially in the US. Taking a flight to a city like San Diego or San Francisco is very competitive (read: cheap); this means you can travel vast distances for very competitive rates, and you can then switch over to short-haul flights to take you to where you want to go. Airlines work like this, but unlike them, you aren’t forced to take any one airline in particular; it won’t violate some sort of union contract for you to take a United flight to San Diego and then another flight to Hawaii (more about this particular route’s amazing savings later)

3. Don’t Forget to Look At Smaller Local Airlines and Charter Aircraft. There are many routes that simply do not have a low-cost carrier. In this situation, if the major airlines are giving you a bum deal on your flight, take a look at smaller airlines that enter into a particular city. You will be surprised at how much the lack of organized labour and old 70s era contracts can depress the prices.

Keeping these three techniques in mind, how much do we save to Tampa?

First, we have investigated Burlington and Montreal already – but both were a big mistake, because we didn’t do step 1. Southwest doesn’t touch down in Montreal or Burlington, but it does in Albany. Checking the Southwest website, you can find a fare for $89.62 CAD. The Greyhound bus fare is a steep $55, but it goes straight to the airport. Thus you have a sum total as $144.62. This is a 17% savings over Montreal’s CHEAPEST route!

Now, 17% might not sound like much, but when I was a student, it was a BIG DEAL, especially on a round trip ticket. You are basically saving food money; and the possibilities for savings are not yet exhausted. It is a lot easier to get a deal from Greyhound than it is to get a deal from an Airline. You definitely can find ways to chip away at this; a student/hosteler might be able to do the same trip for $115 (with the right coupons), giving you a 34% savings; or buy 3, get one free!

So we’ve established that we can save money on the best fare Montreal has to offer. How about on the worst fare, the Montreal -> Honolulu fare?

These fares are not that great. Sure we could knock a few dollars off these fares, but what I want is the big money savings. $339 with the Greyhound $55 is about the same as what we get in Montreal. What can we do to flip the tables on these airline companies?

First, we need to set our methodology; Honolulu is far harder to get into than it is to get out of Burlington. That is why we are going to start there – it is the “choke point” so to speak. Honolulu is an interesting destination as it doesn’t have much in the way of discount liners that serve it. US Air is supposedly a discount carrier, but its only flight to Honolulu (Phoenix -> Honolulu) costs $748!. Thus Rule #1 does not apply; however, Rule #3 does, and we get the interesting situation involving Aloha Air and Hawaiian Airlines. Both ostensibly specialize in Hawaii, with small hops over to the mainland. This works to our advantage because both offer flights to some major hubs; including a little gem called San Diego (SAN). Burlington offers some insanely cheap to San Diego; I chanced onto a $104.59 USD fare by playing around on Orbitz.com. Using Delta Airlines 5421, one goes from Burlington to Cincinnati, whereupon someone travels from Cincinnati to San Diego on Delta 691. Hawaiian Airlines then offers a San Diego (SAN) -> Honolulu flight for $160.21 CAD. What does this mean?

Burlington (BLV) to Honolulu (HNL), using the 3 Power Techniques:

Burlington (BTV) -> San Diego $117.06 via Delta Airlines ($104.59 USD through orbitz.com)
San Diego (SAN) -> Honolulu (HNL) $160.21 via Hawaiian Airlines

117.06 + 160.21 = _$227.27_ CAD for a flight to Hawaii from Montreal!!

Even including the bus fare, this is simply a fare that cannot be beat out of Montreal, Toronto or even Vancouver! You could take 3 people on this flight for the price of sending one person via Air Canada’s fare on Air Canada.ca!

Now a word of caution. Setting your own connections is dangerous in that flight status cannot always be foreseen beforehand. Be sure to leave a lot of time for the connection, and don’t let yourself end up stranded in the airport! This is a great way to save some cash, but only if you are comfortable with spending extra time in the air, and carrying your own luggage around in different airports.

Conclusion

For those willing to tolerate some potential risk during the trip, it is entirely possible to fly across the continent for less than a week’s salary. Although this method of travel is not ideal for families – moving luggage and keeping noisy brats in line during a 2 hour bus trip is not an easy endeavor in today’s climate – the fact remains that it is possible, without switching airports; which is far more than the impression I was given.

One should keep in mind that there are new requirements for crossing the border into the US; I wouldn’t chance going without a passport and two pieces of ID. I have been interrogated by Homeland Security once in the past, and the ones I encountered were a decent and pleasant bunch; however, you don’t want to end up there if you can avoid it. Don’t be a joker and leave your ID behind, especially in a foreign country (which the United States surely is).

Frankly, even I am surprised at how cheaply I could fly to Honolulu. Honolulu, which is effectively 1/2 way between Montreal and freaking Tokyo – for $227.27, one way? Well if that is possible how much would it cost to go from Honolulu to Tokyo? Unfortunately, this trip is NOT the same thing. International Travel is hobbled by many rules and is controlled by the International Air Transportation Association (IATA). A flight from Honolulu to Tokyo is showing up as being an incredibly overpriced $1074. Keep in mind that during the height of the oil spike, I only paid $930 to go to Tokyo from Montreal! How is this possible? This conundrum will be tackled in Part 3 of our series; world-wide air travel.

So looking to save some more cash during the Christmas Season? Would a gift certificate help? Smartcanucks.ca is running a contest for those of you who think you can find a cheaper route to Hawaii from Montreal; we look forward to seeing your entries!

Click here to print your Pizza Pizza coupon

Thanks coeternity for the coupon.

Click here to print your Petsmart coupon

This deal is too good to be true! Thanks gregv for the info.

Spend $40 or more on December 16 or 17, 2006 (including gift cards) and receive a free $10 gift card good on merchandise purchased on December 26 – 31 in store and in gas bar.

In follow up to the post “Banana Republic Canada: Cheating its Customers“, Nina who has worked at GAP for a long time explains why people get cheated with GAP, Old Navy & Banana Republic’s “gift cards”. Thanks for this very useful info Nina. It will sure help a lot of us avoid getting tricked again.

Hey

I myself worked at the Gap for the longest time, and unfortunately this is not a new thing with these so-called gift cards ! They are actually not real gift cards but a sort of promotional card which is most certainly not the same. If you purchase something with a real gift card at GAP, Banana, or Old Navy you will be able to return items / exchange them etc. and your money will be put back onto a gift card.

However with this promotion and a few others, it is nearly impossible to get your money back, because it is a one time deal. I personally think it’s not a fair policy and as a cashier always made a point of letting my customer’s know about this “fine print” that most people do not pay attention too.

In the end, your best chances are to either ask if you can exchange the item against the same item in a differnet size or colour, but in my experience that is all that the manager’s will do for you (even though you might get lucky and run into a store that is a bit more lenient with their policy). The only other thing you can do is to call Gap customer services, and they most of the time will send you some kind of a gift card or so just to keep their customer’s happy.

In the longrun, the best thing to do when you use any “giftcard” is to read the fineprint and ask the cashier about the exchange policy etc., before using the card to make a purchase because sometimes you will run into these problems and I myself have had hundereds of customers which were left standing there without a store credit or anything. It sucks, but it is actually part of their policy and I doubt you will be able to do much about it. The only thing that might change the mind of the people at the head office would be thounds upon thousands of complaints and requests to change their policy. You can always give that a try too.

But for now, as I said, your best solution to this is to be an informed consumer, because this happens all the time, and you really will not find a lot of cashiers that will give you the heads up on these policies (because in the end it’s bad for bussiness).

I hope all this works out for you guys though !

Oh, and by the way. If you do make a huge purchase and get one of these facy little “gift cards” and you return the whole purchase, you still get to keep your cards unless you volunteer to give them back. I have never encountered a situation where that was a problem.

Nina

Expires: March 31, 2007

Click here to Print this Lick’s coupon

The Swiss Army 8-Function Pocket Knife is on sale for $24.99 $9.99 at Canadian Tire. A great deal for an item that can come in handy when you least expect it. If you stay in the library until late at night and go back to your res/home walking it’s a good idea to have one of these . You can buy them at any Canadian Tire store or online.

More details on Canadian Tire’s website

Jawaad M. of Ordisante.com is writing a well researched 3-part series on Air Travel in Canada and has kindly offered to share his series with us.

Jawaad will join the SmartCanucks.ca editorial team. He will have his own account on SmartCanucks.ca and will publish articles directly. I’ll also add a brief biography of him in the About section very soon. For the time being you can find more about him by visiting his blog. Jawaad will write special articles every now and then giving us advice on how to save money on flights, hotels, car rentals, etc. His articles will be published on both Ordisante.com and SmartCanucks.ca

Thank you Jawaad and welcome to SmartCanucks.ca 🙂

Read Part 1 of Jawaad’s “Air Travel in Canada” below

Introduction

Buying a plane ticket isn’t quite the same business as it was when Sinatra was crooning about buying a ticket to Acapulco Bay. People no longer dress in their Sunday finery. No one makes stops in Gander and the Azores anymore – the day of refueling stops ended with the appearance of the long range Boeing 707. Low-cost airlines entered the business since Southwest in 1971 and the No-Frills style of airfare has no less than the late Sir Freddy Laker’s “Skytrain” in its pedegree.

Saving money on flights has always been challenging; the entire travel agent profession revolves around finding ways to save cash, while providing the best vacation possible. This business suffered through much shocks when the Internet appeared; however, for those without any inside links or understanding, booking through a travel agent is still probably one of the best ways to get a deal on a flight.

This three-part series is intended to give you a bit of an understanding so the next time you are booking a flight, you understand the differences between domestic and international flights, as well as the differences between different fares. Our first part deals exclusively with domestic fares. This is based on the Canadian market; do not make the mistake of assuming it is the same in the USA, most European countries and Japan. Canada is in the unfortunate position of having its small population spread over its vast territory, and as a result has few competitors in the domestic airline market.

My love for flight has always been there, but being from a strictly middle-class background kept me grounded. As my mom always explained to me, airplanes were very expensive for families, and we couldn’t possibly afford for us to go on those expensive vacations that we saw on TV. Our dreams of Disneyworld ended at the “Welcome to West Virginia” sign, as we crawled by in our rusted up Ford Taurus. Of course, the reality was that my family didn’t know anything about the airline business. The only ticket prices my mom was aware of were Karachi’s Quaid-e-Azam International to Montreal’s Dorval, not Montreal’s Dorval (now Pierre-Elliot Trudeau Airport) to Vancouver International Airport. Unlike the cartel-dominated world of International air travel, domestic airfare was and still is significantly affected by low-cost airlines that sprouted up everywhere. I can’t go back in time and teach my mom the lessons I know, but I am volunteering this knowledge so that no other children are victimized by a vacation in Morgantown ever again.

There are four things to take into account when trying to get the lowest airfare;

– supply vs. demand
– the date the flight is booked
– the rigidity of one’s schedule, and
– whether you are flying from the US or Canada

Notably missing on this list is where you buy your ticket; contrary to popular opinion, you cannot save money on domestic Canadian plane ticket by booking on independent websites. If you keep these simple facts in mind while booking, and the penny-pinchers among us should be set.

Fact 1: Booking a Month From Now Does Not Make It Cheaper

Most people are bound by invisible constraints; they have a specific destination in mind when they leave, as well as a specific time they need to be there. If you want to have any sort of peace of mind about a trip, you really do need to book in advance. However for those of us with more flexability, last minute booking can save money, especially if one is purchasing straight from the airline. Our example for this will be Montreal to Vancouver, as it is probably the longest (read: most expensive) flight available in Canada. These prices were obtained on the morning of December 6th, 2006, and involved two dates

According to Aircanada.com, I can get a flight on December 8th on AC129 for $263.99 (Taxes included). Now when I look for the same price on January 26th, 2006, it is available for $347.17. Westjet.ca offers the exact same fares for December 8th on WS629 ($263.99), and a $275.38 fare on the 26th of January. On the surface, it is clear that you are saving some dollars by booking at the last minute; what is the catch?

Well, for one, look at the times the planes leave. WS629 leaves at 5:35 PM (so you need to be there around 3:30, when rush hour traffic has already starte piling up in Montreal), and arrives at 8:07 PM in Vancouver. AC129 leaves at 7:55 PM (meaning you are going to be in the bumper-to-bumper phase when you get to the airport). More importantly, you have no choice over the time you leave; all the other timed flights are significantly more expensive. Planning in advance costs more, but you have more control over your itinerary.

Of course, your next question is probably “Why is it cheaper??”. The answer is, of course, supply and demand. Vancouver has been battered by rainstorms and snowstorms at the time of this writing; it isn’t exactly a good time to be on the West Coast. Airlines sell a certain number of seats to bulk dealers and base their ticket prices on sales. Clearly, sales to the west coast aren’t particularly strong, and are reducing traffic on the flight. The reverse flights (from Vancouver to Montreal) are more expensive, almost $240 + tax for the 8th.

Fact 2: You do not save on domestic flights at smaller websites.

I went ahead and checked some of the last minute travel sites for airfare quotes. This is what I got:

December 7th, 2006
itravel2000: $367.17 + tax
expedia.ca: $354 + tax
travelocity.ca: $350 (Tax Included)
travelmix.ca: $263.99 (Tax included)
flightcentre.ca: $262.99 (Tax Included – Appears to have been a mistake on the site, as the taxes are $1 less than they are supposed to be)
flightnetwork.com: $263.99 (Westjet), $283.99 (Air Canada)
orbitz.com: $404 (American dollars)

January 26th, 2006
flightcentre.ca: 275.38 (Westjet) and $338.38 (Air Canada) (Tax included)
travelmix.ca: $275.38 $347.14(Tax included)
travelocity.ca: $354 (Westjet) and $412 (Air Canada) (Taxes Included)
flightnetwork.com: $275.38 (Westjet)

As you can see, these prices are the same, or more, than what Air Canada and Westjet charge. Air Canada and Westjet have a deliberate policy of listing the lowest domestic fare on their website (note, this is NOT THE SAME as the lowest international fare; more on that in the third part of this series)

Fact 3: The United States is ALWAYS CHEAPER than Canada… except at the last minute.

The US should, logically, be cheaper than Canada. More competition, more airlines, more sales – what isn’t there to like? Well, for one, the US has a better economy, and more people move around than in Canada. As a result, the last minute sales just don’t exist; how could they when there is no excess capacity?

Look at Burlington -> Seattle (the closest we can get to Montreal->Vancouver) is 500 dollars for a last minute booking; US Dollars at that. However, long term bookings are obscenely cheap. Kayak.com has Burlington -> Seattle for $102, I have no doubt you could find something cheaper if you looked. Booking beforehand can save you a lot of money, especially if you are flying out of hubs for major discount airlines. This isn’t to say that money should be your only factor; there has been a deep decline in customer service ever since the tragic events of 9/11. I personally have been interrogated and kept aside for a period of 4 hours (on top of the normal luggage check-in), on a trip to Japan which only stopped for refueling in Detroit. Still, as long as you don’t have a funny middle-eastern sounding name like I do, you won’t share my unfortunate experience.

If the potential hassle doesn’t bother you, the question becomes “Is Burlington -> Seattle REALLY cheaper than Montreal -> Vancouver?”. Taking a flight from Montreal to Burlington flight is out of the question, because you have to pay the airport taxes (which is what hobbles most Canadian flights, including Montreal -> Vancouver). The train is out of the question as well; I am well versed with taking VIA and trust me when I say that it is not the “cheaper” way to go, by any sense of the word. Taking your car to Burlington from Montreal costs about $40-60 in gas, but then you need to arrange for parking. Assuming you have no family in the area, this could easily cost a lot.

The cheapest way to spend those two hours getting there is to leave by Greyhound, and it costs $32 American. The flight from Burlington to Seattle costs the aforementioned $102 (USD taxes included). The bus stop (345 Pine Street) is about 4 miles away from Burlington Airport; let’s say a $10 taxi fare. It works out to $165 American, and 3 extra hours. Of course, this assumes the bus gets you there in time (The only daily bus arrives at 2:15 PM, which is good for any flight that leaves around 4:30 PM). There are several buses from Seattle Airport to Vancouver, and they all cost approximately $40. This brings you up to $205 American, and another 2 hours. Factoring in everything, it is $220 Canadian, which is about 55$ cheaper than the cheapest flight in Canada. Although it might not seem like much, remember that this is a 20% savings over flying in Canada, with all expenses factored in. In short, if money is a bigger problem than time, it is worth it to fly through the US when booking in advance. This is doubly true when flying to the US, a situation we will cover in the next article.

Conclusion:

There ARE ways to save money in flight, even in the money-dry world of Canadian aviation. Whether you are in Montreal, Quebec, or Inuvik, NWT, the planning and thought you bring to booking your flight will pay dividends. Even in the busy vacation time, a little foresight can yield great dividends. Now, admittedly, this is of limited use. After all, like I said, all my vacations as a kid were in the US; how can a family save money going to Florida or Hawaii? Our next part will deal exclusively with Canada -> US travel, and some surprising stories of how you can get your family to Florida without having to take out some of that home equity. 🙂