Why Are Flights to Canadian Cities from Chicago So Expensive?

[Greg Bernhardt]

Why are tickets to Canadian cities from Chicago Ohare so crazy expensive? Calgary, Ottawa, and Halifax are all about $800 RT. WTF mate! rant over

 

[Evo]

Wow, that's crazy. I wonder why. You can fly to England for half that.

 

[turbo]

If you can figure out air-fare rates, let us all know. When I was consulting for a mill in south GA, I could buy a round-trip ticket on Delta to Atlanta (their major hub) for about $1000. If I took a connector to Tallahassee (also on Delta) the total round trip fare was about $250. How could I save Delta $750 by taking another ride to Florida? I used to do that routinely, rent a car in FL, and drive back up to south GA. I had a really nice contract with that mill, but Delta wouldn't cut me any slack on bulk advance ticket purchases, so I had to spend more time and fly on to FL every time. I spent one week a month on-site, and saving $750 a month was a pretty big deal. out of a $50K/yr contract. My contract with Westvaco in KY was much sweeter, but it's pretty hard to get there without first flying to Nashville and taking a puddle-jumper to Paducah. Not much in west KY, and the little flights were more expensive than they should have been.

I had a pretty tight relationship with the local travel agency back then, since I was paying for all my travel, lodging, and food, and the ladies worked hard to cut my costs, though I had to jump through some hoops in order to get discounted fares, including staying over weekends in what were considered (destination) cities.

 

[Astronuc]

Hmmm - International, lack of competition.

Acually, if I fly my main airline, it would be ~$612 round trip from ORD to Halifax (8/15/09 - 8/20/09). So in this case, it depends on which airline, when, and how far in advance one purchases the ticket.

Flying from Newark (EWR) to any those cities would be as low as ~$418 to Halifax, $472 to Calgary.

 

[Astronuc]

Wow, that's crazy. I wonder why. You can fly to England for half that.

I just checked some specials flights to England and W. Europe are running between $410-$700 round trip (tax not included).

I could fly to Melbourne, AUS, from NY for ~$1200, and that's a regular fare (nonrefundable).


So Greg - fly to London or Manchester or Paris or Madrid, and then from there to Calgary or Halifax.

 

[DaveC426913]

Why are tickets to Canadian cities from Chicago Ohare so crazy expensive? Calgary, Ottawa, and Halifax are all about $800 RT. WTF mate! rant over

Typical American. Misjudging the awesome size of Canada. To get to the closest of those cities requires crossing eleven time zones*.

*in Canadian hours

 

[mgb_phys]

Have you tried Westjet?

 

[GeorginaS]

Typical American. Misjudging the awesome size of Canada. To get to the closest of those cities requires crossing eleven time zones*.

*in Canadian hours

I thought it was eleven and a half time zones, if you include Newfoundland Labrador.

 

[redargon]

Why are tickets to Canadian cities from Chicago Ohare so crazy expensive? Calgary, Ottawa, and Halifax are all about $800 RT. WTF mate! rant over

...'cos Canada's really big!

 

[cristo]

Why are tickets to Canadian cities from Chicago Ohare so crazy expensive? Calgary, Ottawa, and Halifax are all about $800 RT. WTF mate! rant over

Are you being restrictive with you dates, or traveling at a peak time of year?

Try this website I found a bit ago: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/ It's better than price comparison websites, since they aren't selling the product and so don't have to push certain airlines.

You can fly to England for half that.

I wish you could fly to England for $400!

 

[Astronuc]

I wish you could fly to England for $400!

Yeah - but I bet you're so close that you could see England through your window. You could walk there, you know.

 

[cristo]

Yeah - but I bet you're so close that you could see England through your window. You could walk there, you know.

You know what I mean!

 

[Office_Shredder]

I just checked some specials flights to England and W. Europe are running between $410-$700 round trip (tax not included).

The guys selling tickets for 410 bucks are the British airlines who charge you 300 bucks in tax.

 

[mgb_phys]

Yeah - but I bet you're so close that you could see England through your window.

Except it's always raining

You could walk there, you know.

The polar bears would get you

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Here is what I found using Bing. All are round trips on Aug 18 returning Aug 25 economy class.
Chicago - Calgary: 1390 miles $606
Chicago - Ottowa: 645 miles $566
Chicago - Halifax: 1220 miles $567
Chicago - London: 3961 miles $715
Philadelphia - Paris: 3716 miles $609

Obviously, using cost/mile as an indicator, people are more anxious to leave Chicago than Phila. and more anxious to go to Canada than Europe.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Ever since Canadian Airlines folded, prices have been creeping up. Supply and demand, I guess.

 

[Astronuc]

Except it's always raining

That's why the English perfected the umbrella, and then developed bola hats to go with the umbrellas.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm going to go with the peak season theory. July and August are the only months when Canada is defrosted enough to visit.

Throw in a couple hundred bucks more and you could join me here in Mozambique. It's hard to remember it's winter here when it's 70-75 F during the day (don't ask me what that is in C yet). The only way to be aware it's winter is that the sun goes down early, but with the adjustment to the different time zone, I don't know what time it is most of the day anyway.

 

[DaveC426913]

...and then developed bola hats ...

Are those anything like bowler hats?

 

[mgb_phys]

Are those anything like bowler hats?

No 'bola' hats are worn by the traditional London cowboys to round up llamas - you tie two of them together and spin them around your head (unless it's raining)