YYZ-WAS (aka How Crazy Is That???) - input needed!
 

Hi all,

Those of you who fly to/from/within Canada know how outrageously expensive it is in comparison to domestic travel in the US. The easy solution for us Torontonians, to the best of my understanding, is to travel by land out to Buffalo airport, just across the border, and fly out of there - often for less than half the price. Here's my planned itinerary for a weekend in Washington DC, about 10 days from now:

Outbound flights: BUF-DTW-BWI, roughly 3.5 hours including connection time in Detroit.
Actual travel: My place > Public transit to bus depot > Bus to Buffalo > Public transit from bus depot to airport > BUF-DTW-BWI > Public transit from Baltimore airport to my friend's place in DC.
Total travel time, door to door, including wait times: close to 11 hours. :eek:

Similar itinerary on the way back (flying via Cleveland, shorter flights and connection, but longer bus ride back to Toronto).

Total cost (roundtrip): $161 airfare (NW and CO) + ~$45 bus fare + local transit = ~$210.

Alternative: Direct flights YYZ-BWI or YYZ-WAS at about $400 :td:, should take around 4-5 hours each way, door to door.

What do you guys think? Has anybody from Toronto ever used the BUF airport for domestic flights in the US? Any relevant tips?

Thanks! :)

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Did you price the BUF-BWI roundtrip on Southwest? They offer several daily nonstops in that market. They are currently offering a $59+taxes/fees one-way fare, but it requires a 14-day advance purchase.

That would've made things easier, eh? :) Well I usually search on expedia (searching individual airlines' websites is often very time-consuming, and expedia shows most of their online-available fares anyway), and Southwest isn't coming up on that search. My base fare is $103 R/T I think (+tax), with NW outbound and CO inbound, plus I'm SkyTeam Elite and miles are important, so I doubt I would've done it had I known of the possibility...

So where is that fare available? On their website?

Yes, at www.southwest.com. I don't think that Southwest participates with Expedia.

While miles are important, if you're going on a weekend trip, having more time at your destination is important too. Have a good trip!

I agree. However, I'll be spending the vast majority of my travel time getting to/from BUF. My flights are with fairly good connections, but on my departure date, it should take me around 6 hours between when I leave my place and when I board the plane. That's also the part I'm most concerned about - I've never crossed a border to catch a flight... (except in Europe but everything works way better there in that respect).

I used to bus it to BUF in the early '90s when I was in university and cost trumped all other considerations. :)

My only suggestion is that you leave AMPLE time at BUF to make your flight. Border problems can cause unexpected delays and the bus terminal isn't exactly right next door to the airport. Your time estimate seems to be on-the-mark to me, but things might have changed since 9/11.

Hmm.

Well, the bus is scheduled to arrive at Buffalo at 12:45 and my flight leaves at 3:20. I'll be checking in online (so no waiting in line) and have priority boarding plus I bought trip interruption insurance, just in case... I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes ;)

I use BUF frequently as its an awesome option for travel out of overpriced YYZ.

I took the train back once, and the Greyhound back a couple times as well.
Couple notes about public transport from the Greyhound station, try to take the Express bus (240?), its much faster (have exact change as well), the 24 takes a really long time and goes through the less desirable parts of town.
There are schedules for both online on the Buffalo Airport website.

The bus can be fast or painfully slow, check if yours goes via Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, etc, if so, its very prone to delays, if its the express, it could be faster. Of course the border is always a gamble, but the bus usually gets through quickly, but it does wait for everyone, so if there is one "troublemaker", you wait as well.

The security line at BUF at some times of the day is horrendous (I ve been in line for 45mins before), there is no elite bypass.

Yeah, YYZ IS overpriced, eh? What's up with that?

As for security - you know what, where I come from (Israel), airport security procedures are about ten times as strict as they are here in North America; and yet, I've never had to wait longer than 15 minutes (usually just a couple of minutes, really, but sometimes it gets busy). Either way I'm not planning to miss my flight due to security ;) I'll just go to the front of the line if I feel it's getting too tight and elbow my way through.

Thanks for the tips though! That was helpful! ^

Few factors, often discussed in the Air Canada forum
1. Much higher taxes on tickets in Canada (GST, NavCan, etc)
2. Air Canada's monopoly in Canada
3. Buffalo's perceived lower economic status as a market
4. Jetblue/Southwest/Air Tran all have a presence in Buffalo
5. YYZ being one of the most expensive airports in the world to land a plane
6. The limitation of BUF to short/medium haul domestic flights

You should make your flight no problem assuming the Greyhound is on time.
You can always take a taxi if need really be, its about $25 to the airport.

You should also consider driving and parking your car in Buffalo. Saves time.

Yeah, I've considered that - given that I don't have a car (I live in Toronto, owning a car here isn't very wise) it'll be a little difficult. I've also considered renting a car and leaving it at BUF, but it's going to cost more than simply flying out of YYZ...

As for the comments above - I just hope that some day, someone will wake up and say: "you know what? maybe it wasn't a good idea to let AC buy out ALL of its competition."

Just a thought. @:-)

My mom had a similar dillema - YYZ-IAD-YYZ was coming out to a mere C$603 for her dates in late March. Luckily we had avion miles to spend; it cost a dear 30,000 but that isn't bad considering a C$650 ticket to Europe would cost 60,000 miles to redeem.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

What limitation is that? Even before the recently-completed runway extensions, BUF could accommodate transcontinental nonstops, and in fact had them years ago when they were economically feasible.

You have a thing for proving people wrong, don't you? :eek: You don't do it in a very pleasant manner... Just sayin' ;)