This morning, we went to our travel agent and paid for our tickets. Although we’ve had a long time to prepare for our migration to Canada, this officially marks the beginning of our journey.
With this blog, we hope to share with you stories of how it all got to this point and how we move forward into our new adventure.
I think we’re going to be sad, I think it’s today, yeah.
We’ve got a ticket to ride,
We’ve got a ticket to ride,
We’ve got a ticket to ride,
…
By the 2nd week of April, we’ll be off to Canada. It is sad as we’re going to miss family and friends yet we are excited and happy to begin our new adventure.
We paid a little over US$2,100 for our tickets (US$700 each). Normally, the fare would range between US$900 to US$1,200. Fortunately, several airlines offer special fares for “1st time immigrants.” When we inquired last December 2007, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific, and Northwest Airlines offered special rates to Toronto. Those heading for Vancouver may be able to get good rates from Philippine Airlines, Eva Air, and China Airlines. Do take time out to check all available options. Try calling several travel agencies to get ideas of airlines you can use and flights you can take.
Although it is advisable to book as early as you can, it is not always possible to do so. When airlines come out with promotional rates, they usually have a validity period. When we first made a booking, we took the cheapest option which was Korean Air (Manila – Seoul – Toronto). However, the published fare for the “1st time immigrant” booking class was valid only until January 15, 2008. So the travel agent couldn’t guarantee the same rate for April.
So we made bookings as well on Northwest Airlines (Manila – Tokyo – Detroit – Toronto) and Cathay Pacific (Manila – Hong Kong – Toronto). Although we immediately got a confirmation on Northwest, it would have been a difficult route. First of all, you need to have a valid U.S. visa. On top of that, United States security regulations would require us to checkout all our luggage upon landing in Detroit and check-in again for our Toronto flight. The Cathay Pacific flights were all fully booked so we were put on a waitlist.
Note that you can book multiple flights and multiple dates with your travel agent. It won’t cost you anything to make a reservation. Each airline would assign an option date (deadline) where you make the final decision to pay for a confirmed flight or have it cancelled altogether. For example, we had a confirmation for an April 6 flight with the option date set at March 6. So if we wanted to take the April 6 flight, we had to book and pay for our tickets by March 6 or we lose the confirmation.
In our case, we had confirmed flights on Northwest and Korean Air and continued to be waitlisted on Cathay Pacific (CX). By the 2nd week of February, we got a confirmation on CX. Although the Korean Air flight would have been still cheaper by up to $40 per passenger, their latest fares were valid only until March 15. As we didn’t want to wait until the last minute before making our final arrangements, we booked our flights on Cathay Pacific. For your reference, these were the rates we got, inclusive of the PHP1,620 Philippine Travel tax:
- US$720 for Cathay Pacific
- US$680 for Korean Air (another travel agent quoted US$820)
- US$680 for Northwest Airlines
Today’s crude oil prices exceed US$100 a barrel. Hopefully, it goes back to Sep 2003 levels of US$25 per barrel and you can get even better deals on flights. Just make sure you ask around and understand all the options and restrictions for each type of flight.