No-Frills Airline, Vancouver to Maine

[Callum]

I'm trying to find out about travel within North America after I go to university, but I'm having trouble finding any sort of airline site that will tell me what I want to know. Anyone know a cheap airline that flies from Vancouver to Maine, and Wisconsin?

[True_Moose]

Well, you'd pretty much be looking at an American carrier then. Air Canada and it's subsidiaries are...crap, to put it mildly, and while WestJet is a good bargain type of airline, they don't fly many places outside of Canada. I'm not too familiar with what American carriers you'd be looking at.

[Sir Goulum]

Originally posted by True_Moose: Well, you'd pretty much be looking at an American carrier then. Air Canada and it's subsidiaries are...crap, to put it mildly, and while WestJet is a good bargain type of airline, they don't fly many places outside of Canada. I'm not too familiar with what American carriers you'd be looking at.

West Jet flies to all the big places in the US, they took me from Orlando to Toronto, and they also went to Phoenix. Not sure about Maine though.

It seems that American Airlines flies there, however. Not sure how cheap it is.

[True_Moose]

Actually, Sir G, according to their website, they really only seem to fly to the big vacation hotspots. Off their site, their US destinations are:

• Fort Lauderdale
• Fort Myers
• Honolulu
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Maui
• Orlando
• Palm Springs
• Phoenix
• Tampa

[wellard]

Qantas

[Bungleau]

You can basically get to anywhere. And the cost varies from week to week.

First things first: Check out the Vancouver airport for their departure schedules. That will show you the airlines that fly in there. Not too bad, actually...

Second: Most airlines in NA use the hub and spoke sytem, where you are either in a hub or spoke city. Hub cities are places like Chicago (United, American), Denver (United), Atlanta (Delta), Minneapolis (Northwest), and more. With few exceptions, a city is only one airline's hub. So Vancouver is a spoke to most airlines, which means that you'll fly to their hubs and then on to your final destination.

Vancouver is the second busiest airport in Canada, and it's Air Canda's hub for Pacific operations. That means that AC will fly to spokes from there as well as to other hubs (like Toronto, the busiest), while others will fly only to their hubs.

So... where can you get to? Anywhere. And for cheap? Pick your destinations and set them in something like Orbitz or Yahoo's travel planners. Every day, Yahoo tells me what the lowest fares are to some 25 cities that I keep an eye on... just in case

For Wisconsin, look at flying into Chicago (Milwaukee's just an hour north). For Maine, you could look at Boston, which is a bit south. All depends on where you want to go... and if you go to Boston, I *know* there will be an IWer or two that would be able to meet up

[Callum]

Originally posted by wellard: Qantas

Thanks mate, will look into it

Ya loon... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Ah well, it sounds complicated, and it doesn't really matter much... I can always go to an actual travel agent when I'm actually there... Was just wondering about visiting current school friends... well alright, my girlfriend... But it's nothing really important. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Sir Goulum]

Originally posted by True_Moose: Actually, Sir G, according to their website, they really only seem to fly to the big vacation hotspots. Off their site, their US destinations are: Fort Lauderdale Fort Myers Honolulu Las Vegas Los Angeles Maui Orlando Palm Springs Phoenix Tampa

Oh, my bad. I thought I heard they were expanding where the went again.