Toronto Pearson Airport may be offer a cheaper way to fly to Europe. (Photo: Getty)
By Steve Dinnen
Europe is still wide open for late summer getaways from Des Moines, and the best gateway for business class travelers is … Toronto.
Don’t believe me? Check out the airline websites. I recently found a roundtrip fare in business class with ITA, the Italian carrier, to Barcelona for $1,812, which is unusually low. It cost me $700 to get to Toronto, but still, that works out to $2,512. Other than that, the best fare I can find from Des Moines to Barcelona for a Sept. 1-10 journey is currently $3,654, with United and partner Air Canada, through Montreal.
The ITA flight was an extraordinary deal, no longer available. Airlines do this all the time. They offer a “flash sale” to load up the front of the plane. You have to be flexible with dates. And sometimes it doesn’t pay to fly to Canada and then onward. I see fares from Des Moines to Montreal for $602, to Toronto for $673, and to Vancouver for $804. So you have to factor that into your total travel cost. And maybe a hotel room, too, although some of these flights leave late in the evening. A KLM flight from Toronto to Amsterdam departs at 10 p.m. You can easily reach Toronto from Des Moines by 2 p.m.
Here are some other Sept. 1-10 journeys that look good from Canada: Toronto to Paris is $3,298 with German carrier Condor ($4,121 from Des Moines); Toronto to Barcelona is $2,420 with British Airways ($3,952 from Des Moines); and Montreal to Amsterdam is $2,292 with Air Canada, ($4,265 from Des Moines).
Even Toronto to Istanbul is $2,940 with Egyptian Airlines ($4,292 from Des Moines), and you could arrange a layover in Cairo that’s long enough to jump in a taxi to visit the Pyramids. Royal Air Maroc also has discounted business class fares from Toronto or Montreal to Spain, Portugal and Italy that allow for a day extra in Casablanca.
If you are heading the Far East or Down Under, consider Vancouver as your jumping off point. From there to Tokyo, the Japan Airlines subsidiary ZIPAIR will fly you roundtrip Sept. 1-10 for $2,366 (or $5,228 from Des Moines). You could also fly from Vancouver to Sydney for $6,796 with Fiji Airways (from Des Moines it’s a painful $10,219). Even tacking on the flight to Vancouver and two nights in a hotel, you’ll save $2,223 per person. And that, mate, can put a lot of extra shrimp on the barbie.
In other air travel news: In Europe, canceled flights come with perks
Let’s hope your vacation is not disrupted by a delayed or canceled flight. If it comes to that, though, you’ll want it to happen in Rome rather than Dallas.
U.S. federal regulations do not require airlines to pay cash compensation for delays or cancellations. Travelers are entitled to a cash refund only if a flight is cancelled or significantly changed and they choose not to travel.
Delays, missed connections and denied boardings in Europe earn cash. Case study: My Aug. 22 flight on Italian carrier ITA from Toronto to Barcelona by way of Rome. For some reason, the flight left 90 minutes late, so when we landed in Rome my connection to Barcelona had already departed.
ITA rebooked me on a flight that departed 4 hours later, and that timing meant European Regulation No. 261/2004 kicked in. Missed connections of more than 3 hours earn a minimum of 250 euros or up to 600 euros for long flights. Within 24 hours after I contacted ITA through their website, they mailed a check to me in Des Moines for $684.
Weather-related delays don’t count. And this is for flights in the EU on European carriers. UK travel delays have their own rules.
This is a leisure trip, so I’m in no rush to return. If I’m lucky, maybe things might get gummed up on my return trip, too.
