Routing options for YFC/YQM-SFO
 

Brand new here - I've been lurking the threads all morning.

I'm generally inexperienced flyer (3x/yr) that nonetheless has a capacity for researching and geeking out over details (scientist). Also super frugal because I'm poor (East Coast Canada), so I'm digesting all the stuff on these forums. Visited the dozens of threads, the rules, the wikis, expertflyer.com, attempting to learn abbreviations and lingo. It's going to take me awhile.

All this was prompted by my attempts at booking my first every points-funded flight, realizing the availability was garbage and the scamcharges were super high ($220/pp). I'm a nimble flyer who has more time than money - there must be a better way.

So feel free to give advice and say hi, especially if you are located nearby.

Roundtrip Canada to the USA will always be in the ~$200 range in surcharges. And with those airports, you're pretty much locked into AC.

All I can suggest is that you make use of the stopover privilege on the domestic rewards if you want to make your 'value' go a bit further. It'll still come out to around $200 in fees, but at least you'll get to visit another city on your trip which should soften the blow.

Play with www.awardnexus.com if you have time available - it's helpful in spotting alternate routings and searching more efficiently.

Thanks pitz, good to know early on that no amount of searching will yield a cheaper departure airport option.
c_9, I appreciate your recommendation and will definitely check it out. Got tons of time.

How depressing; I spent a week attempting a clever itinerary only to get shot down during the call.

Policy 28.1 lulled me into believing I could fly YHZ - YTZ (open jaw) - BUF - SFO -(turn around) - YHZ. Yet no dice.

28.1. Travel within Canada or between Canada and the Continental USA (not including Hawaii/Puerto Rico): One stopover permitted in addition to the point of turnaround. One open jaw is permitted in lieu of the one stopover.

Apparently this actually means that a stopover mid-journey can be replaced with an open jaw, but that open jaw must be at the turnaround location.

Back to the drawing board.

Force yourself on UA as much as possible. YHZ-EWR-SFO? Like others have said the scams in this case aren't that bad. If you worked for WestJet you'd pay about the same. The best you'll do, MAYBE is like $120. There's frugal and then there's wishful.

That being said if you just wanna take a vacation, look into the GIG flights. Sure the Brazilian visa isn't free, but the prices with the fuel dumps from YFC-GIG were ridiculous. I can't remember the exact cost but it was insanely low. I know that's not what your post was about, but I also assume you know SFO is super expensive as a city.

Not really-it's no more expensive than NYC/London/Paris/HK.
As well, I'm not sure if OP wants to/is capable of find(ing) a 3x to make such a fuel dump work...

I get that, but those cities are also super expensive. I'm cheap, not even frugal. I've been to some of those cities/want to go to others, but if you're concerned about $200 on fuel surcharges and an otherwise free flight, it might not be the best place to go or best time for a vacation was my thing.

I'm not sure what you mean by the 3x for the fuel dump. Those GIG flights seemed to be available for quite a while and my point was just it's worth looking in to IF the OP just wants a vacation, Brazil is a huge change from northern Canada and it can be fairly cheap once you get there. Though I realize that wasn't the original question.

I wanted to update on this for anyone in the same east coast conundrum: we drove to Boston. We left the car at a friend's (couch surfing network) and we were out the gas money but it was a fun way to extend our vacation, visit another city and catch up on podcasts/audiobooks. The added benefit: a direct flight. No storm delays in hub points, which was a real concern traveling in January.

This will not be a viable option for most people. It worked for us - the gas for our car was much less expensive ($120), the taxes were a fraction for UA ($45/pp) & the assurance we wouldn't spend a storm night somewhere unexpected was worth it.

We went to SF to visit friends.