yolo1966

Anyone done this recently? How was your experience?

Fares from LGA/JFK to YUL are in the mid 400's and trip is just under 4 wks away. I heard you could fly to Burlington, VT and catch a greyhound directly from the airport for significant savings. So far I priced out airfare to BVT at $160 and $38 Round trip greyhound ticket to/from downtown Montreal in 2 hrs. Total would be $198 for everything.

My only worry is that there are only 4 greyhound departures per day and I've always had poor experiences with greyhound in the past. (Weird clientele, oversold buses, rude staff etc.). Should I even bother?

hm212

I once flew to Burlington and rented a car to drive into Canada. It was about five years ago so I don't remember the details just that it was very expensive to fly directly in. I think it was a holiday weekend and this saved me more than a few hundred dollars.

zkzkz

I've done this by car before. It's definitely doable with your own car. I'm not sure I would do it by bus though.

I would avoid doing it in the winter too.

You should look for flights to Plattsburgh. It's much closer.

Just noticed you're coming from New York. You could take the bus or train the whole way and it wouldn't be much longer agree factoring in time to get to JFK and security and stuff. And a car rental from NYC to Montreal might not be more than $200 depending on how long you're staying

CDTraveler

NYC to Montreal is not a route where I'd chose to fly. [/heresy]

Either Amtrak, driving or a combo or the two would be far easier, and Albany or Plattsburgh would make more sense as connection points than Burlington.

yolo1966

I just checked kayak for flights to Plattsburgh and 0 flights are coming up between there and JFK and LGA. Is this route seasonal?

mrsyeltzin

I think the idea is to limit the costs while still benefiting from the speed of air travel. Flying to Albany from NYC makes little sense - you would be better off driving or taking the train when you consider time at the airports and the remaining 5 hour drive to Montreal.

Amtrak is a viable option if you like trains and have 10 hours to spare. It really seems like the OP wants to save money without adding much travel time. If the bus ride is really only two hours from Burlington, it's hard to beat. Plattsburgh is a better option but I would imagine flights are extremely limited and there may not be bus service right from the airport.

yolo1966

Amtrak would be a great option but it has only one daily train arriving in evening. It would really eat into the short time I have since I'm only going fri-sun.

I see Greyhound non-stop from NYC to Montreal is actually a bit more flexible. For $124 RT there are several daily departures and it's about 8 hrs. I might be able to survive the ride by taking the midnight bus overnight and arriving in the am. At least I could sleep it off. If anyone has done this id love to hear about it.

So now it's either Montreal via Burlington, redeem an award ticket for 25K or greyhound from NYC. I refuse to pay over $400 for an hour flight on a regional jet...

lostinthewash

I fly YYZ-YUL on a regular basis and pay the horrific Canadian airfares to do so.

Boggles my mind that you'd even consider a bus, when you're only looking at a $400 airfare for the trip.

I guess it's relative.

CDTraveler

I'm starting from slightly further south than the OP, but was researching this route just last night. Our plan is Amtrak to Plattsburgh and renting a car for the final leg to Montreal. Right now the cost of NYP to Plattsburgh is $137 rt, and the times aren't bad for a 3 day weekend, especially if you factor in it is city center to city center (last leg via auto) and not treking out to the airport.

Because of the border crossing, I am quite skeptical that Greyhound takes only 2 hours Burlington to Montreal - it took us that long to drive that route, and our border crossing took about 2 minutes in the family car.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

No, it's not seasonal -- it's non-existent. PBG has limited service, and nothing from NYC.

Do you have any BA Avios, or Chase UR points or Amex MR points, both of which convert to Avios? It costs only 4,500 Avios for a one-way Coach flight from LGA/JFK to YUL on an American Eagle jet (if there is SAAver availability on the flight). And BA offers one-way awards, so you could fly one way, and use a different mode of transportation in the other direction, if you wish.

yolo1966

I didn't even think about that. No active BA acct now, but I do have a few ultimate rewards points left. I've mostly been transferring them to Hyatt and United so my latest UR balance is around 8200 now. It's a little less than the 9000 I need but I could buy the extra points for $25 for 1000 I think. Thanks for the tip!

aragundicm

Either Amtrak, driving or a combo or the two would be far easie

BuildingMyBento

Plattsburgh, even though it seems closer, would likely involve a flight somewhere to/from somewhere else first (if from, then it's Florida, if to, then it's...Montreal).

I actually did the OP's journey in reverse last month, on a bus that I think left around midnight. I went to the newish bus depot in Montreal, but it seemed at the last minute Greyhound (the operator) divided the passengers into two camps- one going to Burlington Airport, and another going to Boston (originally, the route involved both stops, among others). This worked out well, because my BTV bus didn't have that many aboard.

Anyway, there was understandably not much traffic, so we made it to the unwelcoming Highland Springs, VT border after a bit over an hour. Doubt I'll ever go through there again, so a passport stamp was due. We were held up somewhat because of the variety of visa-needing foreign nationals aboard, but it didn't matter, since there were no flights leaving anytime soon.

After about thirty minutes at the border, we took another fifty or so to reach the airport. Mostly painless, and as far as US airports are concerned, it's quite tolerable.

sophiagymgall

I'm a broke college student and I've done Montreal-Manchester by bus a couple times. It's on the same Montreal-Boston route as Montreal-Burlington, although it's a lot longer, obviously. I guess it depends on what kind of comfort you're used to, but I quite enjoyed the ride. The bus usually isn't full, the scenery is nice, you have a bathroom available at all times (massive plus for someone with bladder issues, let me tell you!), the seats are comfortable and it's just a generally nice time to chill/zone out. People mind their own business, and they're mostly broke kids like myself. The border crossing is run seamlessly, though I've seen a couple people get turned away when trying to enter the US - not fun to witness, but in most cases it was their own fault. Obviously not everyone will be patient enough to enjoy the ride, but I quite like it, especially for the price!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

There will be some Canadian departure taxes on the flight from YUL to NYC. For 8,500 Chase UR points, you could fly to YUL, and take Amtrak back from YUL to NYP. (Chase UR points transfer to Amtrak Guest Rewards.) The only thing I'm not sure of is whether you can transfer just 4,500 UR points to BA, or whether you would have to transfer an even 5,000 points.