Hello, everyone. My girlfriend and I are just about ready to buy tickets for our summer trip, so I thought I’d see if anyone here has feedback or advice.

It’s kind of a complicated trip, for three reasons:

1. We live in Whitehorse, not exactly a mecca for cheap flights,
   
2. We have a wedding to attend in Lisbon on August 13,
   
3. We also want to go to Prague (we lived there for a year and want to visit friends – plus we miss the city).
   

Since Canada 3000 flies to Whitehorse in the summer months, I checked there first. Unfortunately, the connections between C3K flights at Vancouver don’t line up, which would require spending the night there twice – a waste of time and money.

So I looked at our other airline, Canadian. My first plan was to fly YXY-YVR-LHR on Canadian, then take Go STN-PRG. We’d take the train across the continent to Lisbon, fly Go again LIS-STN, and then home. I got a price of C$1650 from Expedia for the YXY-LHR part, and the two Go oneways would add about another C$500. The problem with this plan is the need to trundle across London from one airport to the other, twice.

So I next looked at an open-jaw ticket: fly Canadian YXY-PRG and return LIS-YXY. To my surprise, Expedia gave me a price of C$2170 – virtually the same as the Go option.

According to Herman’s website, Air Transat will have direct Whitehorse-Frankfurt flights this summer. They’d cost about C$1300 without tax. This plan would require taking the train from Frankfurt to Prague, flying Go PRG-STN-LIS, and then taking the train back to Frankfurt. These flights would cost maybe C$1900 or 1950 including taxes.

Another option I’ve looked at is flying from Alaska on LTU, but this doesn’t look very palatable. Anchorage and Fairbanks are both about a 15 hour drive away, and getting to Juneau requires a fairly long ferry ride.

As well, I’ve thought about using Tiss to get a cheap flight from Vancouver to somewhere on the continent (CDG or FRA), and I’ve also looked at open-jaws from YVR on AESU’s website. But once you add the C$420 round-trip from Whitehorse to Vancouver on C3K, the total price isn’t remarkably cheaper than the options I’ve outlined above.

We’re leaning toward the open-jaw ticket on Canadian. One plus is that we’d be on a scheduled airline, not a charter. We’d also have the most flexibility in our travels in Europe – we’d leave Whitehorse July 28, arriving in Prague on the 29th. We’d then be free to stay there as long as we want, and travel to wherever else we want, as long as we arrive in Lisbon before the wedding. The Air Transat to Frankfurt option would require things to be considerably more structured.

So, does anybody have any comments about this plan, or ideas that I’ve overlooked? Thanks for letting me take up space with such a lengthy post.