Introduction
All prices are in Canadian Dollars, at the time of writing C$1 ≈ US$0.72

This trip report is for our 3 day, 2 night trip to Iqaluit. The trip report is broken into several sections and the rest will hopefully be uploaded within a few days.

Back in 2024, Mrs. Schweden and I had an Aeroplan redemption booking for Ottawa (YOW) to Pangnirtung (YXP) via Iqaluit (YFB) for a long weekend. Unfortunately, those plans were scuppered when our flight to Iqaluit was cancelled and Canadian North warned us that we would miss our connection with potentially no hotel rooms available in Iqaluit. In the end, the closest we got to Nunavut was the Starbucks kiosk at YOW.

We didn't plan on trying to travel to Nunavut again anytime soon, but the Aeroplan redemption changes in 2025 changed all that. With the announced changes, Canadian North redemptions with Aeroplan would go to dynamic pricing from their previous very reasonable fixed levels. Therefore, we acted fast and booked a YOW-YFB roundtrip on Canadian North for just 20,000 miles with about $100 in taxes and fees per person. We did not add an onward flight from Iqaluit as we did not want to repeat last year's mistake on a short getaway and as there were no good options for our dates. After devaluation, it seems that the YOW-YFB route now requires about 70% more points to redeem.

Fares to Iqaluit from Ottawa are around $1,000 on cheaper fares/dates. This Aeroplan redemption therefore represented a value of over 4cpm, which is quite a bit more than the typical 1.5cpm for economy redemptions. After we booked our flights, there was an announcement that Canadian North was being sold by Makivvik and Inuvialuit Development Corporation to the publicly-listed Exchange Income Corporation. For us, there did not seem to be any noticeable change except that our inbound flight to Iqaluit would have a stop in Kuujjuaq (YVP) in Nunavik, Northern Quebec. After the acquisition, it appears that the lone Saturday flights to/from Ottawa would have a stop there.




5T127: YOW-YVP-YFB
We arrived just over 2 hours early at YOW and returned our rental car. Executive Elite status and a premium special booking with National had yielded us a premium special class 2026 Mercedes CLA250. In our opinion, the car can be summarized as looking much better than it was built and designed.





It is only a short walk to the terminal from the rental car area and the Canadian North checkin had no line. We each checked in our allotted bag and the agent was able to seat us together after a bit of work. Initially, it appeared as though we would be assigned to 2 separate middle seats. For both bookings with Canadian North, it appears that Aeroplan redemptions cannot use online checkin or seat selection. Security had no line and Mrs. Schweden quipped that we should use the priority security line "just because". We had planned to visit the Aspire Lounge, which is pretty decent for a credit card lounge and located across from the Maple Leaf Lounge. However, we found it closed as apparently it only opens at 10am on weekends and boarding for our flight was at around the same time. In the end, we settled for some very marked up Starbucks coffee.





After about an hour of waiting, we checked the gate and the Canadian North 737-400 combi, registration C-FFNF, had shown up. These planes only have 13 rows of all economy class seating in a 3-3 configuration as the front of the plane is for cargo. Boarding is at the rear and is front to back after priority boarding. Because of the rear boarding, stairs have to be used.





We settled into our almost full flight and boarding was more or less completed on time. The exit row seating is at row 1 and there are 2 rear lavatories. The plane definitely shows its age but appears well maintained. There is no seatback entertainment or inflight WiFi. After take off, the only 2 flight attendants each did the meal service with a drinks cart and meal cart. The meal was unheated and consisted of a pastry with either a beef pastrami sandwich or a spinach ricotta roll.





After just over 2 hours, there was a thick layer of clouds on descent into Kuujjuaq. A burst of fall colours appeared on landing. We were actually surprised that Kuujjuaq was below the tree line and had trees. We taxied to the apron and parked next to an Air Inuit plane. More than a dozen passengers disembarked. The flight crew warned us that it was inadvisable for Iqaluit passengers to disembark. While we were being refueled, only 1 or 2 passengers may have gone out. Many passengers got up during the stop and an announcement was made to clear the aisles of crowding. However, boarding with the new passengers was quick and deboarding/boarding was complete within 25 minutes of landing. About 15 minutes later, the flight took off for a short 1 hour flight to Iqaluit. The flight attendants did another service with drinks and a snack of pretzels and a cookie.





There was a scenic descent into Iqaluit and we arrived just a few minutes late. Iqaluit airport was better equipped than we imagined. It seems that the small airside area with a lone store was where the diverted Air India flight passengers spent a night in 2024. It was a quick walk out to landside and baggage claim.









We had booked a compact crossover car rental from the Driving Force location at the airport. The counter is located directly across from baggage claim. It did not take too long for our bags to arrive, but it ended up taking about an hour to exit the airport due to a slow computer system at Driving Force. The nearby Budget counter was unattended when we arrived and other passengers from our flight phoned them to the airport. We had a choice of a Ford Escape or Maverick and picked the Escape. Driving Force seems to have a nearly all Ford fleet, while Budget seems to carry Stellantis options. The rental cars are parked right beside the terminal building. Our Ford Escape was a 2025 ST-Line non-hybrid with only a few hundred kilometers mileage. Car rentals are fairly on the expensive end at over $200 per day and we paid about triple what National would charge in Ontario at this time of the year. Personally, Ford Escapes are great vehicles and we enjoyed it for driving around Iqaluit.

(For those wondering about renting a car in Iqaluit, see the last part for our issues after returning)