Travel Thursday: Flying from US Border Cities

While I'm not necessarily an expert on the subject, I do closely follow airfares and deals, and am a big fan of checking US border city airfares against fares for flights from Canada. In fact, I was recently featured in this USA Today article on the subject:

With taxes, fees, and surcharges from Canadian airports, especially Toronto, being among the highest in the world, it often makes sense to fly from a place like Buffalo. Though there isn't nonstop service from Buffalo to a lot of US destinations, it's a particularly compelling option when direct flights are available. On the other hand, if I'm flying to a place like LA that has nonstop service from Toronto, I'm much more likely to fly from Canada.

My experience is that flights from Buffalo to any US destination are at least $100 less for a round trip than they are from Toronto, and that the ease of navigating through Buffalo airport (vs. Toronto Pearson) often means that it won't take any more time that it would from Toronto, even with the 1.5 hour drive from Toronto.

In order to save money, time, and aggravation, I'll continue to explore both Toronto and Buffalo options when traveling to US destinations.