Thousands of dollars for a fine?! Now I wish I hadn't had paid a deposit on our tickets. I hope I can get out of them now. It's with a travel agent.

I just thought that if we were paying for the flights crossing both oceans, that it would be okay that we're not physically there for one of them..

We're flying Economy class all the way. Our tickets were about $3000Cnd per person. We don't even have enough money in our banks combined to pay for one of the fines!

I can't find the USD$200 departure tax for flights out of Venezuela - the US. I found a flight on www.aeropostal.com (VH506) CCS - MIA for $163.25USD including taxes (which were $48.25). I also found a flight with Americawest MIA - YYC (my home) for $278USD including taxes. The least expensive flight routing I can find from SYD - YYC is at least $1400USD whereas CCS - YYC is $441USD.