It's an article of faith for Canadians that things are cheaper in the States. This gets shaken from time to time when the exchange rate is adverse, but normally, it's true. It makes sense, because when we say "things" are cheaper, we mean stuff like bike tires. But if you add health care to the mix, or if you need a government service, things even out.

All in all, if you live on Vancouver Island and want to get to Florida, checking out flights from Seattle is natural. From Victoria to Fort Lauderdale, a return ticket on Air Canada right now is about $CAN 800. From Seattle, with "Captain Kirk" negotiating for you on Priceline, it is $US 337. You will fly Jet Blue. Get the idea!

Now for us to fly from Seattle, we have to take a "BC Ferry" and thereby get ripped off for about $200 (return). But Seattle has another ace up its sleeve. Five aces, actually - family members Laurie and Avi and Violet and Dave and Evelyn. So Seattle it is.

The next thing to think about is that Fort Lauderdale is not that far from Montreal (just 2600 km). Montreal has five aces too - family members Josh and Sabrina and Amelia and Evelyn and Joseph.

Surprisingly, it was not that long ago that we realized that most airline booking offers the possibility of "open Jaw", or multi-city trips, and that sometimes these are cheaper than booking each stage as a one way trip.

In this case, Seattle to Fort Lauderdale to Montreal to Seattle came out as $US 672. Clearly, putting in a Canadian destination triggered the high prices monster a little bit. Or to put that another way, we fly out of Montreal on Air Canada -grrr. On the other hand, one way to look at it is that if we just decided to go see the grandchildren in Montreal, from Victoria, we might pay $CAN 800 (all these figures are per person). But now for $US 672 plus the ferry cost, we get a cycling tour of Florida and three bonus children in Seattle!

Wrap it up, it's a sale!

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