I still must be missing some suble nuance because I don't see what the tears are about. U.S. residents who want to start a trip ex-Canada merely have to do business with a Canadian TA instead of ticketing locally, but the worst that comes to is having to pay the exchange rate on the forex transaction and perhaps a couple days' extra planning ahead for the tix to be sent. And as has been mentioned for those with the f/f miles needed to get to a cheaper "starting point" like NZ, not having an advance purchase req'mt means pretty much showing up to pick up the tix.

What am I missing?