London and Paris via Toronto

Flying friendlier and cheaper skies via Air Canada to London

I have mentioned for the past couple of years about how I planned to take my niece to London and Paris for her high school graduation gift in June 2016. Well that time is quickly approaching, like just 100 days from now. So this past weekend, I finally bought our transatlantic airfare and I'm sighing a huge relief. I was getting nervous when I started to check on flight prices last November. About that same time, I went ahead and purchased our British Airways tickets from London to Paris because those seats sell out very fast - especially due to the disruptions the Eurostar has experienced recently due to the migrant problems in Calais, we decided to fly to Paris instead of taking the train (which we really wanted to do). Consequently, I started to research the prices for London from Detroit and it was migraine inducing.

I'm used to paying north of $1500 to fly to London these days. But that's for me. Now that I'm buying my niece's ticket and covering her hotel, I have to be on the lookout for more reasonable prices. My mother invited herself, so I have to purchase all three of our tickets now, so that I can select seats for us to sit together. Well, long story short, the non-stop Delta flight from Detroit to London was close to $1900 each, down from $2300 last fall. The comfort and convenience of just driving 20 minutes to Detroit Metro airport for this direct flight, at $1900 a pop, was not worth it. Thankfully, I had an epiphany, and I research flights departing from Pearson airport in Toronto. Low and behold, Air Canada has direct flights to London for $850 each. Sure, I would have to drive almost 5 hours to get to that airport, but it will only cost $40 in gas, and we can make a fun road trip out of it. And this is on top of the fact that I have driven to Toronto half a dozen times. Sold! I literally saved us $3000 in airfare by driving to Toronto in five hours, than dealing with a mere 20 minute drive to Detroit Metro and being ripped off.

American airliners are screwing Americans left and right, and those airports w/in driving distance of Toronto, will continue to lose a lot of American customers because we are saving so much money by going to another country to fly to, another country. I'm not asking for airfare to be dirt cheap, but reasonable. If Air Canada in Toronto can charge customers at their flex fare rate of $850, surely Delta could offer the same. But nope, they won't do it because unlike Pearson, at DTW, Delta has a monopoly on direct flights to London and there are people, who like me in the past, coughed up the money for the convenience of flying from their home airport of Detroit. I'm traveling to the UK with family for the first time and we have to be budget minded. In the end, we will be flying the friendlier and more economical skies from Toronto! I'm so excited about my Euro trip with my niece and mother before I take off for my new life in California later this year.