a travel blog
Flying from Canada (Montreal) to Japan for $807CA return with Air China
Autumn to Winter 2019, Flights to Asia are not so expensive
Some of my Canadian friends think that flying to Aisa is expensive, but it is not true. You just need to be patient and watch the price changes.
I always go back to Japan at this time of the year, in October. After staying in Japan for a few weeks, I come back to Canada. Also, my boyfriend and I always go to Asia from December to January during the Christmas holidays.
We live in Montreal, and you can have some very good options to go to Asia from Montreal. A couple of years ago, Air Canada started the direct flight between Montreal and Tokyo, which doesn’t really work for me because my hometown is in the Kansai region, near Osaka.
Air China started direct flights from Montreal to Beijing as well and I will fly with them this time: Montreal, Beijing and Osaka, the return is the same routing.
One thing which is not ideal is that I have to say one night in Beijing on the way. Still, it is the value for money for me. Departure and arrival timings are also good: it is the time of the day when you can easily access the airports. Additionally, I may be able to enjoy authentic Chinese food during my overnight in Beijing!
How is flying with Air China?
We have flown with Air China a couple of times and our reviews are not bad. Their service is OK. I could say that it is even better than some American airlines. They serve Chinese wine and beer, which is not enough for you sometimes (once we were told that beer was sold out). Food was not superb, but it was no worse than the food on Air Canada.
Entertainment may be a bit boring so that you can focus on taking a rest. Cabin attendants can speak basic English, although they speak in Mandarin to me because my face is Asian.
Flying to Asia is not expensive
Now, we are looking for a flight to somewhere in Asia in the early of December. It is not expensive to fly to Asia from Montreal, Canada, compared with flying to Europe, when you think about the distance.
We have found reasonable flights (more or less $1,000 CA) to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia via Osaka, which worked perfectly for us. Also, there are some options to go to Bangkok via somewhere in Europe for less than $1,100 CA. It all depends on timing though.
If you want to get the best flight, I recommend using multiple flight search engines to compare them. Google flight works well, but they don’t cover the cheapest flight sometimes. It is always better not to rely on a single online service.
HANA is a Japanese born writer who writes stories and poems in both English and Japanese. If you are an English reader, you can follow her English publications, ‘Etude of Creativity (poetry, haiku, fiction)’ and ‘Japanese Writer (blogs & essays)’ or on Twitter.
All stories written by HANA are here (a list in English).