I don't know that I would be willing to fly PRC airlines currently. Let's forget the tit for tat that we just went through, but most of the airlines there are worse than what we have here and the transfer process IME is dismal. Not saying the others are great (waiting an hour in line to re-enter the departures area isn't my idea of fun). I know there are some standouts (Xiamen and Hainan being the ones to come to mind) however, my experience (and anecdotal from others) has not been great.

Honestly though, I would say the high prices are the result of the rent that Ottawa (at least for us) charges. Can't say what drives them in the US.

Unfortunately that doesn't always work the way you want. For example, SQ only returned to Canada for what? 18 or so months because the competition was too cut throat here (or so that was what I've heard has been inferred).