xbeta

I'm trying to book a flight flying from SFO (San Francisco, USA) to YYZ (Toronto, Canada) between Sept 1 ~ 5, returning on Oct 4 ~ 10. For about a month.
It's not summer, it's not Christmas. Isn't it October suppose to be a low season, what's going on? All tickets I've searched for direct flight are listed at least $800 USD.
And I just came back from a trip in Asia, flying from SFO to HKG (HongKong), lay over at KIX (Kansai, Japan), and only cost me $700 USD.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"All tickets I've searched for direct flight are listed at least $800 USD."

Why must it be a direct flight? If price is the most important factor for you, you must be flexible and consider making connections.

Also, check fares to BUF on Southwest at southwest.com, or on other carriers at an online travel agency. Megabus offers scheduled service between BUF airport and downtown Toronto.

emma69

Labour Day weekend at the front end (5-7th I think) and Canadian Thanksgiving at the back end (Oct 10-12th) may explain it somewhat. If you can travel a week later, and return a week later you might find more reasonable prices.

neuron

Lack of competition. On YYZ-NYC, the tickets have been consistently cheaper than previous years! On another note, there have been many cheap fares ex-YYZ this year to US, Asia and Europe, some in Biz

natmicstef

If you do a flight with one stop each way price goes down to $500.

xbeta

I'm flying with a newborn, prefer a direct flight with less hassle.

I can only travel earlier, perhaps end of August? like 08/31 and come back earlier?

I used Google Flight to search for the best date and the lowest I could find is $790:
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...2015-09-28;s=0

Yep, I blame the "lack of competition" cause.

neuron

Rates go up the last week of Aug (from 685 - 780/885), might be timed with the travel seasons, but as AC is the only carrier who flies non-stop. Basically, everything after Aug 26th is about $100+ more RT.

DO you have miles? IF so, return, AC and UA offer non stop availability on select dates YYZ-SFO. Unfortunately, reward seats (non-stop only) are not available going there, so you could buy 1way there, redeem for 12.5K+~$50 taxes coming back.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"I'm flying with a newborn, prefer a direct flight with less hassle."

Then expect to pay a premium. Airlines know that many passengers -- especially business travelers -- prefer nonstops, and the airlines set their prices accordingly.

TrojanHorse

Collusion

xbeta

Cool ! so I pay the one-way to there? And use my Aeroplan points of something similar to buy the ticket back?

neuron

one way reward is 12.5K miles + taxes and fees. For United, tax/fees would be about $50, on Aeroplan it would be about $96
The SFO-YYZ should be roughly 1/2 that price and probably books into Flex, not Tango, so you get 100% miles and 'free' seat selection.

You can play around with the dates and award availability, but I checked and saw some dates open for nonstop return on 1way rewards.

Shareholder

Round trip you're not going to find anything under U$400 at the best of times, but as noted, you are looking at two holiday run-up periods. I booked YYZ-DEN-SJC for early December at C$225 (and upgraded with a UA RPU) and C$215 SFO-JFK-YYZ on AA (and also upgraded it with an eVIP). I'm finding average fares of C$700 on midweek flights on your dates with AA...that's about U$550. Also between U$470 and U$550 on UA. Both with a connection. And U$680 nonstop on AC.

BuildingMyBento

What about checking Tam (JJ)?

TravelinSperry

I'm waiting for southwest to open up YYZ

neuron

Apologies for the inarticulate post I made above re: NYc-YYZ fares, this year has been consistently less than previous ones.

I have tried TAM. I find their on-ground service poor, but on board was very nice - they manage to serve a full plane on such a short flight. Staff were friendly to me. Biz, obviously is much nicer than Econ, and even in Econ, there are seats with ample leg room (exit rows are huge!). I flew Econ and my sister and niece wer up front. Interestingly the staff told me I had an aisle seat (seat F) when in fact, it was a middle (grrr). Turned out ok as people started to shuffle around and I ended up in an aisle.

Boarding was crazy (I don't trust their posted boarding times) and my flight was delayed but they were giving the wrong reason (claiming weather when it was actually one runway down for planned maintenance).

They had a nice introductory fare, but since then, they have been consistently higher than WS, AC and PD. Given you have service from 3 airports in NYC and 2 in YTO, the competition is pretty heavy (and from the last dozen flights) in demand!