Travelling to Canada
 

I live in Minneapolis, MN and am travelling to Montreal, QC. The tickets I see online are about $400 for a round trip over the weekend. I'm not happy nor am I satisfied with that. I know there has to be a better way. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you!

It depends how you want to get there. If you want to fly, that's probably the price you're going to be stuck with, regardless whether you shop around some more or not.

If you're more interested in saving money, take the Greyhound. It's about 250-300 round trip.

www.mobissimo.com is probably one of the better airfare search engines around... and comes up with all the airlines (except southwest) Depending on when you are travelling, 400 is a decent fare...

Alternate airports are usually a cheaper way to go -- any other airports near Minneapolis... or fly into somewhere other than Montreal....

According to your profile, you're a student.

Try studentuniverse.com; my fiance and I use them, and normally our tickets are 2-300 dollars cheaper than anywhere else.

I looked up a random date at the end of June, and found tickets from Minneapolis to Dorval Airport for $327, all fees included. Keep in mind that you'll get cheaper fares if you fly between Monday and Wednesday (sometimes up until Thursday). The only catch is they need to be able to verify your student status, but that's the way I personally would go.

PM me if you need any help, or have any questions.

Try driving into Canada to start your flight...or flying into the US and driving to Canada. Burlington is only 2 hours and Plattsburg is not much more then an hour from a bridge over the St Lawrence.

This might get your sought after $79-129.00 air fare.

Other then that, and barring some awesome Air Canada sale 300-400 bucks is reasonable for an international flight.

Don't forgot a passport too...post 9-11 travel betwix US and Canada no requires a passport.

-bear

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$400 is not terrible. Flights into/and out of Canada are far more pricey then the US at most times. You are going to have a blast in Montreal...it is amazing!

I'd take Amtrak up to Toronto and take a shuttle flight between Toronto and Montreal.

If you're still a verifiable student, I'd second the recommendation for studentuniverse.com. I just got back yesterday from a flight I booked through them and it was MUCH cheaper than what I'd usually pay.

edit: for the record the flight I just took was from the Charleston, WV airport to Dorval in Montreal. I'd recommend looking around a bit more, because $400's not a terrible rate for a flight, but there are usually better ones available.

While a passport could help make the crossing easier, it's not required. A drivers licence and a birth certificate is good enough. I think the usa is talking about making it mandatory in 06, but it's not in stone yet.


Like already mentioned, it might be best to drive across the line and take a flight while already in Canada.

Well the border is 6 hours away from where I am in MN, buuuuut if I can do it I may fly to Bulington and get picked up from there. It came out to about 243 including tax which is pretty freaking sweet. I'll take my passport either way, just to be safe I think. My only concern is that I am not technically still a student and want to use studentuniverse. I still have my ISIC card which is valid and my school email address. Do you guys know if I need any more proof that I'm a student?

You might be right, but I had heard that it was in place already.

Not so much going to Canada but returning to the US, as I understood it.

My and the fam are headed up to Munch in August, and I made sure the wife had her expired passport replaced and also just applied for one for the youngin'.

That's not bad at all. For that difference you could probably rent a car, drive yourself both ways and have wheels (even though you really don't need wheels in Montreal) while enjoying my hometown. Which Airline?

-bear

Actually, there's already some discussion of abandoning those plans of requiring passports--the Homeland Security dept. proposed it in April, yet the plan has gone unsupported by President Bush and the ambassador to the US from Canada is predicting it will go nowhere.

So no, it is by no means set in stone.

I could get picked up, though for 361 total I could fly direcly to Montreal

Both flights are american airlines.

And I'm not 25 and therefore can't get a car if I remember correctly.

They actually confirm with your school that you are still registered as a student - since this is not the case, may be a no - go.

True enough. Just a rambling thought.

-bear

If you have a school e-mail address, they can probably verify your student status.
In Montreal, BTW, you CAN rent a car if you're under 25; they'll just give you a small penalty on the bill.

splck and onesnowyowl and completely correct. It is neither mandatory to have a passport to travel between the USA and Canada, nor is the '06 deadline set in stone.

Customs would prefer you to have a passport yet it is by no means a "must". Trust me - I am very fanatical about checking into it each time I travel to the States and they assure me every single time that photo ID and a Birth Certificate are more than acceptable. I have never ever had trouble travelling between our two beautiful countries with only these two pieces of ID.

Turns out they need more than that. I booked my ticket and got a call asking for a recent transcript of either the semester before or the semester after this summer. I was sol. Trying other things now. :(

Don't forget your tuque eh!