JamilD

This seems to be matching oneworld's deals from YYZ to Northern Europe. Seeing the lowest fares on KLM; Google Flights seems to be pricing it even cheaper at $398, but with a 33-hour stopover in AMS on the return.

$408 USD is for the following:

Departure: Sunday 4 October 2015

Sun 22:40 Toronto - Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
Mon 12:05 Amsterdam - Schiphol (AMS)
KL0696 Airbus A330-200

14:00 Amsterdam - Schiphol (AMS)
17:30 Helsinki - Helsinki-Vantaa (HEL)
KL1169 Boeing 737-800

Round trip: Wednesday 14 October 2015

07:00 Helsinki - Helsinki-Vantaa (HEL)
08:30 Amsterdam - Schiphol (AMS)
KL1164 Boeing 737-800

10:05 Amsterdam - Schiphol (AMS)
12:25 Detroit - Detroit Metro Wayne County Airport (DTW)
KL6051 Boeing 747-400
Operated by Delta

13:45 Detroit - Detroit Metro Wayne County Airport (DTW)
14:59 Toronto - Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
KL8030 Bombardier 900
Operated by Delta

Weaver

This is awesome. Im hitting Helsinki for Thanksgiving. ^

devriesryan04

Weaver!^^

chunky649

I'm temped to go during thanksgiving as well, as I have 2 weeks of vacation, and need the DL MQM. However, I'm worried about not having much to do there. By November, it will be mostly dark in HEL, and not terribly comfortable... Any ideas as to cheap nearby diversions?

IggySD

Estonia. Just a quick ferry ride away. May not be cheap compared to some places but definitively compared to Helsinki. I spent a week going down through the Baltics and loved it. Although that won't help much with the dark / cold.

tc fly girl

As IggySD mentioned, Estonia would be a good option. You could also take the boat to Saint Petersburg as by boat you do not need a formal Russian visa, you can get a temporary 72 hour one.

chunky649

Thanks TC! My subsequent research into HEL and region (looking as far as Sweden and Denmark)... the weather and short daylight really makes visiting the area difficult. Going to St. Petersburg is infinitely more interesting, especially without the hassle of a Russian visa. I'm going to look into visiting the Hermitage...

IggySD

When I was looking into doing this as well it seemed the only way to avoid the normal visa was to be part of a package tour - I think there were only specific cruise itineraries with certain companies that were eligible for the 72 hour visa. I'm sure you'd still get a chance to go to the Hermitage but not sure how structured you like your vacations. I could be wrong or things could have changed but as I recall that's why I chose not to go this route.

Weaver

Tallinn is awesome, well worth the visit. It might get dark early, but the pubs will be warm and properly lit.

Weaver

Ha! It will be a bit brighter in March.

roadtripman

No longer true - all you need are ferry/cruise tickets through St. Peter Line, and to buy their "bus pass" (dummy booking, or you can actually use their circle-route to get around). You can stay wherever you want and do whatever you want - you'd be surprised at how lax Russia is these days, all things considered. I wasn't accosted by officials once during my time there, and didn't receive more than a cursory glance and nod from immigration officials - so don't believe everything you hear!

Toronto1970

OT, but as a gay man I beg to differ!

chunky649

can you tell me where I can read up on this change? I was under the impression that I have to take the cruise (not the ferry) and pay for a "tour" to get into the city...

I looked up the St. Peter cruise schedule, and found that the departure/arrival/return gives me barely 2 days of sight seeing at St. Peter, along with the long uncomfortable boat ride, I decided it wasn't worth it. However, if I can take the ferry instead, and perhaps take it to Stockholm or Tallin, I would be much better off.

Also, I recently saw a very good MR deal ARN-LAX with Skyteam and OW. This YYZ-HEL/ARN-YYZ for under $500 is looking very interesting again!

chunky649

I decided to bite for November dates. Saw prices as low as $476cnd ($363usd), but here is what I ended up with for $512cnd ($391usd) booked on DL.com:

YYZ-AMS-HEL (KLM)
ARN-CDG-YYZ (AF)

Comfortably short stops at AMS and CDG. As DL gold, I get lounge access at both airports...

I've also nested a 4 day ARN-LAX ($363usd = 2.8cpm) near the end of my itinerary, so I get to spend a day in AMS and a day in CDG (intentionally).

Overall, I'll get 22K MQM with Delta, and (hopefully) a nice relaxing vacation seeing 6 countries/cities (HEL, ARN, Tallinn, CDG, AMS plus either CPH or St. Petersburg) :-)


Thanks OP!

JamilD

I know I posted this for SkyTeam earlier, but it looks like *A has matched. Now all three alliances have extremely good deals on this route!

Cheapest fare departing Oct 3, but looks good throughout the Fall.

Air Canada from YYZ then Swiss, Turkish, SAS connecting in Europe. Don't know how *A mileage earning works, but I found some with connections in IST on Turkish -- 3.8 cpm is with IST on the outbound and CPH inbound as connections, 10,918 miles; Google Flights link


--------------------


Toronto (YYZ) to Helsinki (HEL) - Tue, Oct 6

Air Canada 810 Dep: 4:25PM Arr: 9:25AM 10h Boeing 767 Coach (K)
Layover in IST Wed, Oct 7 4h 35m
SAS 3408 Dep: 2:00PM Arr: 5:25PM 3h 25m Airbus A321 Coach (T)
OPERATED BY TURKISH AIRLINES

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Helsinki (HEL) to Toronto (YYZ) - Mon, Oct 12

SAS 1707 Dep: 6:45AM Arr: 7:25AM 1h 40m Boeing 717 Coach (T)
OPERATED BY BLUE1
Layover in CPH 4h 50m
Air Canada 883 Dep: 12:15PM Arr: 2:14PM 7h 59m Boeing 787 Coach (K)


FARE AND BOOKING DETAILS


Fare 1: Carrier AC KKXRCT61 YTO to HEL $43.66
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code K, T
Covers YYZ-IST (Economy), IST-HEL (Economy)

Fare 2: Carrier AC KKXRCT61 HEL to YTO $43.66
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code T, K
Covers HEL-CPH (Economy), CPH-YYZ (Economy)

Turkey TR (TR) $5.60
AC YQ surcharge (YQ) $245.20
Toronto Airport Improvement Fee (SQ) $19.20
Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax (ON) (RC) $2.50
Canadian Air Travelers Security Charge (CA) $19.80
Danish Passenger Service Charge (ZO) $16.70
Finland FI (FI) $9.80
Finland Air Transport Supervision Charge (XU) $1.30
Finland DQ (DQ) $5.20

Subtotal per passenger $412.30
Number of passengers x1

Total airfare & taxes $412.30