emcampbe

I was trying to price out an itenerary on Air Canada's website, and got weird results. When looking at the price of YYZ - ORD one way, and specifying myself as a Canadian resident, the base price was $178 (CDN). When I specified American $, just to see the difference, it was $193.

Does this sound weird to anyone else? I mean, I know the Canadian $ is doing very well, and is at par, but shoudn't, if anything, the price in CDN be a little higher? Anyone seen something like this before?

geoffishere

I noticed exactly the same thing, but I thought it was an isolated incident.

emcampbe

It gets better now....since this is a US-Canada trip, I thought I'd check it out on UA's site. United.com offers the trip for US $316.81. United.ca, which prices in CAD, offers the same trip, with the same exact flights, for $561 and change. Something tells me us Canadians aren't getting the pricing that we should.

geoffishere

If you want to get ripped off, try buying a car in Canada. Even though the dollar is at par, prices on some models are 30% higher in Canada.

daniellam

For Canada (within buffer zone - see note below)-> U.S. tickets sold in Canada, 6% GST applies on base fare.

For Canada (within buffer zone) -> U.S. tickets sold in the U.S. 6% GST on base fare, plus 7.5% on base fare U.S. Transportation Tax applies.

Note: 7.5% U.S. Transportation Tax applies for trips between airports in the 225miles buffer zone north of the Canadian-U.S. border and the U.S., U.S. domestic trips, and trips between the U.S. and airports in the 225 mile buffer zone south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Most Canadian cities such as YVR, YYZ, YYC, YOW, YUL etc. are within the buffer zone for U.S. transportation tax purposes. (This is probably to prevent U.S. people from driving up to Canada to fly so they can avoid the 7.5% US Transportation tax).

Also...

For U.S. -> Canada (within buffer zone) tickets sold in the U.S., no GST applies to base fare, but U.S. transportation tax of 7.5% applies.

For U.S. -> Canada (within buffer zone)tickets sold in Canada, no GST on base fare and a flat USD 15.10 (each way) U.S. transportation tax applies.

Note: even if no GST applies on the base fare, GST may still apply on the Airport Improvement Fees included on the ticket.

Also...

For Canada (within buffer zone) -> Canada (within buffer zone) tickets sold in the U.S. 6% GST and 7.5% US Transportation tax.

For Canada (within buffer zone) -> Canada (within buffer zone) tickets sold in Canada 6% GST applies.

why fly

I bought a ticket from BUF-DXB on UA, because I was using a CND Credit Card they had to change to CND dollar......... the price of the ticket was just over $4 cheaper^^^

sgt_harris

That's odd, emcampbe. I just bought a ORD-YYZ ticket from united.ca one way and it was C$220 all-in (about 60 cents cheaper than buying from AC).

About two years ago I complained to Air Canada because they were offering flights from YYZ to LHR for something stupid like $200 more than if my route was LGA-YYZ-LGA. So, it was cheaper to get a ticket with two extra segments in there, and the exact same transatlantic flight! Both priced in CAD. I was a bit miffed that our national airline was offering way better deals to our neighbours down south.

Shareholder

UA has some inventory on AC codeshare flights and so its pricing is based on what fare classes it has left on those specific flights/dates. AC may sell out its lowest fares because most people booking AC will go to AC. UA on the same flight may have several unsold seats in these cheaper fare categories. Thus the disparity. It exists on virtually all airlines that offer codeshares, albeit price will always be based on set aside inventories.

As for your other "disparity", there are now 8,798 threads on this in the AC forum alone. When you fly AC to Europe or Asia or South America via Canada from most US gateway cities, AC matches or is lower than the US (or other) carrier non-stop fare between these two cities. AC is not alone in this regard, since all carriers price similarly for such "top up" customers when a third country transit on that carrier is required between two international cities. The Brits complain that BA rips them off for the same trip they can fly AF via CDG. And the French complain about AF ripping them off when they can fly via LHR on BA to similar overseas destinations.

wannagoexplore

Or books for that matter.

DanJ

I guess this explains why when I price YXU-DTW-FLL on NW that the total fare is $23 less, but the taxes are also $47 less on the CDN page (for 2 people).

Speaking of strange pricing, I also looked at YYZ-FLL. On WS, the cheaper fares are YYZ-YUL-FLL for the dates I'm looking at. $424 round trip, before taxes. So, out of curiosity, I priced just the YUL-FLL segments. $484 r/t before taxes