FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES

January 28, 2009

tar colleague Richard Ouzounian had an interesting experience with booking a flight to L.A. Seems he went online on Monday to buy a ticket for early February and his only Air Canada option was a Tango ticket at $930.13, all taxes in. He went on United's website and found a flight ON THE SAME PLANE but as a United codeshare flight for $396.97, all taxes included.

So, what's up with that? Richard finally tracked some folks down and they 'fessed up. It turns out both Air Canada and United have a certain amount of lower-priced seats to sell. By the time Richard went to book his, the cheap seats on Air Canada were gone but not so for United. So he saved $500.

Later in the day, he went back on-line and found the United ticket he had bought for less than $400 was now selling for $900. By this morning, he said tickets were $1,100 on both airlines.

It's all about timing, and checking Air Canada partners. For example, if you're flying to Europe you might want to check a Lufthansa flight.

TOURISM BOOST

The Tourism Industry Association of Canada is giving the Tories two thumbs up over Tuesday's budget. TIAC says the budget has more than $800 million in "key funding initiatives."

"The governments new investments in Canada's tourism sector ... will provide stimulus to the industry in these challenging economic times and will help address several longstanding competitiveness issues facing our industry," according to TIAC president and CEO Randy Williams.

Among the federal initiatives are $100 million over two years for "marquee festivals and events," $407 million for rail service improvements between Toronto and Montreal (gee, maybe tourists can someday go for lunch in Montreal and be back in Toronto for dinner, after all), $24 million for cruise ship tourism and $150 million for national parks. No mention of help for specific provinces, but no doubt folks in Newfoundland (see photo) would like a little help to lure folks to the Rock this summer.

Oh, the Tories also are giving $40 million over two yeras to the Canadian Tourism Commission.

EURO BLOG

Auto Europe has launched a new travel blog at http://blog.autoeurope.com/.

They also have expanded their presence on social networking sites, including Twitter, MySpace and Facebook.

Users can search the blog’s current news or archives for a wealth of information including featured destination information, tour and holiday suggestions, recommended travel accessories, travel tips and more.

Posted by Jim Byers at 01:37:37 PM in airlines, canada, Current Affairs, europe, ontario, tourism, Travel

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Travel Blog by Jim Byers

Jim Byers is the Star's Travel Editor. He has been writing travel stories for more than a decade, covered five Olympic Games and spent years covering the Blue Jays, the Toronto Raptors and the PGA Tour. He's been everywhere from Bonavista to Vancouver Island, as well as China, Hong Kong, Australia, the Caribbean, Thailand, Mexico, Tahiti, New Zealand, Vietnam, a dozen countries in Europe and just about every major city in the U.S. Okay, he was only in Liechtenstein for a couple hours in a rental car and his only visit to New Orleans was when he was 12, but you get the picture.

January 28, 2009