Flights to Canada - Transit Experience

[chilkootcee]

Hey all,

Didn't think I'd be posting about finding flights from Dubai to Canada but wondering what others have experienced in terms of transit visas. We pretty much want to avoid transiting through the US (just too much hassle). I'm Canadian and husband is Syrian (yeah, I know)...we both need to travel...

So if anyone else can provide some advice, that would be great....looks like the cheapest is through Saudi Arabia...used to always be able to find good deals between YYC and DXB on Lufthansa...seems like there is nothing now...

Anyways, welcome your comments and experience! Maybe we should just look into a US transit

Take care,

Cindy

 

[jomz]

There's really not much to YYC. I flew Emirates via Seattle, it's not a super crazy airport to transit in. Avoid JFK at all cost lol I'm a Canadian citizen and connected through jfk for my flight to and back from Casablanca. Absolutely ridiculous transit for a Canadian citizen , they were insisting I go through immigration lol. In the end I didn't I just walked around these guys and snuck through to the green card holder and U.S. Citizen line and got through in 2 minutes.

Now back to Dubai, you can also search for direct flights into Toronto either from Abu dhabi or Dubai and see how much it would be to fly to CALGARY from Toronto.

 

[winnipegmb]

I'd suggest Emirates for the least hassle.
One tip: try not to buy the local tickets separately i.e. from Toronto to Calgary etc. - if your Dubai flight is delayed for example, your (missed) onward Air Canada or WestJet flight isn't Emirates' responsibility. Emirates (and Lufthansa, Etihaad and even Saudia) has code share agreements with AC and WJ and will let you buy the entire ticket together from its website; in which case your missed onward connection would be rebooked by Emirates. Right now, Emirates for example is ~C$1,700 (from DXB all the way to YYC), not great but not bad either - partly because of our dollar right now.
I personally would avoid transiting through Jeddah, especially if you're trying to avoid hassle.

Kayak is a good site to compare and search across multiple airlines, airports, layover options etc.
google.ca/flights is great for looking at price trends, e.g. is the same itinerary cheaper if you flew on a Wednesday etc.

Hope that helps, good luck!

 

[nmclean]

Kayak is a good site to compare and search across multiple airlines, airports, layover options etc.
google.ca/flights is great for looking at price trends, e.g. is the same itinerary cheaper if you flew on a Wednesday etc.

Google Flights also has a lot of filters. You can search by specific airline, alliance, time, and connections. So for example you could exclude Jeddah and JFK (under More, click the X next to them in the list of airports).

 

[chilkootcee]

We ended up booking flights via Frankfurt. Air Canada actually has the best rates on their website (for least amount of stops)...while there are better deals on Emirates (

I transited through Seattle last summer on my way back to Canada and not only did I have to go through immigration, I had secondary interviews for both immigration and customs. I had lots of visa's in my passport for Oman (it's a favourite hiking spot and only an hour or two away)....the immigration officer didn't know what or where Oman was...I think she just saw all of these visa stamps...LOL! You should have seen the look on her face when I told her that I had been to Afghanistan as well.... (it was in a different travel document)...it was priceless. The customs officer wasn't really interested in what I had in my bags...he just continued on with the questions....he finally stopped when he asked me the name of the company where my husband works...

Thank you all for the great advice....less than a month my husband will finally be able to meet the rest of my family!!

C.

 

[jomz]

We ended up booking flights via Frankfurt. Air Canada actually has the best rates on their website (for least amount of stops)...while there are better deals on Emirates (

I transited through Seattle last summer on my way back to Canada and not only did I have to go through immigration, I had secondary interviews for both immigration and customs. I had lots of visa's in my passport for Oman (it's a favourite hiking spot and only an hour or two away)....the immigration officer didn't know what or where Oman was...I think she just saw all of these visa stamps...LOL! You should have seen the look on her face when I told her that I had been to Afghanistan as well.... (it was in a different travel document)...it was priceless. The customs officer wasn't really interested in what I had in my bags...he just continued on with the questions....he finally stopped when he asked me the name of the company where my husband works...

Thank you all for the great advice....less than a month my husband will finally be able to meet the rest of my family!!

C.

That's crazy they put you through the ringer. I didn't have issues in Seattle but with the U.S. Customs you just never know lol. And yes Oman is incredible, but each time I went to Oman from Fujairah they never stamped my passport. but one time UAE border guys were giving us a hard time, the guy took my passport and asked from which country is this passport from?? Lol I guess he couldn't read hahaha