Is there a way to travel from Canada to Japan that's cheaper than the most direct flight routes?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 31 Jul, 2023
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You should just shop around and go at a time that leads to the cheapest fares. It may be cheaper from Toronto so you could consider hitchhiking or something like Megabus to get from Montreal to Hogtown.
I’ve recently seen $542 CAD (about US$430) round trip YYZ to Osaka including taxes and fees. You’re not going to significantly beat that! It did have an overnight in SFO, which is inconvenient (as is unnecessarily dealing with US customs and immigration) but can be dealt with if saving money is the goal.
I’d recommend not doing the hitch hiking portion…Canada is silly big, after a 14 hour drive you’ll be relieved to find out your no longer in Ontario, but also know that your trek isn’t half over. Cities are not close together and it’s easy to get yourself stranded.
While living in Calgary, I found it far cheaper to get to Japan via Los Angeles…Flight from Calgary to LA, then Air Cathay from LA to Seoul, and finally Seoul to Japan. That worked out far better than Calgary to Van then direct to Japan.
I’d recommend getting out of Canada…our airport taxes and the sort can be expensive. Take a look into driving south across the US border (or hitch hiking if preferred) and catching a domestic flight into LA or Seattle. Go over the pacific from there. Remember Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver have some of the highest airport taxes world-wide and cost quite a bit to fly out of regardless of how much your flight actually is.
You may want to consider a flight to a neighbouring city and take the train to Tokyo if that’s your ultimate destination. For example, while not the most enjoyable flight you’ve ever been on, but Air Canada Rouge flight from Vancouver to Osaka is one of the cheapest ways to get to Japan. At its cheapest it’s around $435 per direction taxes incl.
Note that the route to Osaka on Rouge is only a summer seasonal leg and won’t be available for much longer.
But in my research it shows that a flight from Ottawa would be about 100 cheaper than out of montreal. Take the train to Ottawa and then get your flight from there. Train tickets are less than the money saved by leaving from Ottawa.
Ticket prices to Tokyo at the moment from Ottawa are about $925 taxes incl vs over $1100 from Montreal.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the above coast are round trip ticket costs unless otherwise.
Also check sites like Hipmunk and Cheap O Air for discounted tickets on any airline.
Those are by far the cheapest ways to get to Japan and that’s considering using train, bus, and discount airlines. Boat isn’t really an option since it alone would be thousands of dollars if it existed.
Distance is only one of the factors determining the price of a flight. Demand has a large effect too. End result is the cost savings of a closer departure often do not offset the cost of getting to the closer departure point.
You will want to price tickets out of Toronto, New York, Newark, Detroit before comparing to west coast departures and then ask yourself if you can get to the west coast for less than the difference.
There are no cruise ships from Vancouver to Tokyo, except the occasional round-the-world über-luxury cruises, and they usually cost…. more.
hitchhike from Montreal to the west coast
“Japan” and “hitchhike” really don’t belong in the same conversation. If you can’t afford the fare difference how do you expect to pay for your stay in Japan? It’s not cheap here.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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