Trying to find a flight to Dublin for Christmas to visit family. Leaving from toronto and don't want to go through the states. I have only been able to find flights far over $1000 canadian. Does anybody have any ideas. I am not opposed to flying somewhere else in Europe and then getting a cheap ryainair flight to Dublin.
thanks.
I don't know how much CAD1000 is in euro, so I can't say if it's a reasonable deal or not. I guess you are already aware that you're planning to travel during one of the peak seasons. Also, as far as I know your options of flying from Canada directly to a main airport in Europe are more limited in winter than in summer.
Problem with Ryanair is that they don't use the same airports as the one your intercontinental flight arrives at. This means that you have to factor in costs for bus/train transport between airports - especially in Frankfurt this means hiking out to "Frankfurt" (Hahn) Airport, which is actually nowhere near the city of Frankfurt. If you go via Amsterdam you have to travel 2 hours to Eindhoven to catch your Ryanair flight and in London you need to get from Heathrow to Luton or Stansted.
Worse, if your intercontinental flight or your transfer to the Ryanair airport is delayed and you miss your flight, you have no right for a refund or free rebooking.
So: unless you have a compelling reason to avoid the US, I'd look into flights via anywhere on the west coast. Or bite the bullet and buy that $1000 ticket.
Maybe you would get more help on the Canada forum, where you might find people who have had first hand experience of this. In the UK, we are less likely to know the costs of such flights I think. It might also be useful to have converted the CAN$ to Sterling!
www.skyscanner.net is a useful tool.
£565 doesn't sound unreasonable.
If flying into LHR then maybe be more cost effective to book a through ticket direct to Dublin rather than changing to another carrier as there is a time / cost involved in changing airports.
BE AWARE of luggage weight restrictions as it will cost you a lot for excess baggage.
Try [url]http://www.flyglobespan.ca/[/url], [url]http://www.canadianaffair.ca/[/url] or [url]http://www.airtransat.ca/en/Home.aspx[/url]
If you're looking to get from the UK to Dublin and are having problems with Ryanair's luggage restrictions or don't want to risk tight airport connections, don't forget that you can buy inclusive train+ferry tickets from any UK railway station to any Irish railway station, and they're often cheaper than short notice low cost flights. See [url]http://www.seat61.com/Ireland.htm[/url] for an independent low down.
$CAD = £564, that's not too bad to get to Dublin for Xmas from YVR. I'd consider taking it if you really really don't wanna fly via BOS or JFK.
What is the problem with going through the States? If you are only in transit and have the air tickets to prove it, they won't hassle you at all. From doing my own searching (I'm flying London to Ottawa at christmas) the only reasonable prices are through the USA (£600 vs. £1600 for a direct flight or changing in Canada). There was one exception, which was via Frankfurt with Lufthansa, but that low price seemed to disappear into the ether. I know Toronto should be cheaper than these prices, but not by much.
Is the $1000 including taxes? If so, that's not a bad deal. If not, I would keep checking for a sale through air canada. I flew from Saskatoon in June for about $800 (not including taxes). This was actually cheaper than flying into London, or even traveling to Calgary and flying out of there. It's not quite peak season compared to Christmas but it was summer. If I can find a deal out of little Saskatoon, there has to be something better out of Toronto!