Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF

[plam]

I was briefly excited that I might be able to do something like Waterloo -> Billy Bishop -> NYC, but I think its the same old problem - if you only have a single option in the morning and afternoon you risk some huge delays and problems if any of your flights are delayed.

I might try it sometime if the times work out really well.

Montreal on Porter or AC is also an option. There's a lot of flights there.

[jgsz]

So two weeks from today, FlyGTA takes off from YKF.  And I noticed that the times are much better than originally planned.  Instead of leaving YKF at 10:00 AM and 6:30 Pm, flights will now be at 7:45 AM and 6:30 PM. 

   

[panamaniac]

That works both for the "Toronto meeting" set (with time for breakfast!) and, depending on how long you want to sit around at YTZ, for those wanting to connect to a Porter flight.

[Coke6pk]

That works both for the "Toronto meeting" set (with time for breakfast!) and, depending on how long you want to sit around at YTZ, for those wanting to connect to a Porter flight.

And works well for Toronto exec's to come for the "Kitchener meeting" as well!

Coke

[panamaniac]

Indeed - I thought someone might mention that!   

[Coke6pk]

Tower demolition, day-by-day:

4-Oct:
   

6-Oct:
   

11-Oct:
   

12-Oct:
   

[Coke6pk]

13-Oct:
   

16-Oct:
   

23-Oct:
   

Coke

[SammyOES]

Those flight times are definitely better!

Its probably good enough to make me try YKF -> Porter -> NYC once for the novelty and to see how well it works.  But I still don't think I'll use it regularly because of the problems that happen as soon as you get delays.

Edit: And nice pictures!

[SammyOES]

On another note, used YKF last week for flying to Calgary and the experience is just so much better than Pearson.  Every time I fly in/out of the airport I'm re-impressed with how well it works.  I'm really sad that we can't use it for our yearly flight to Orlando this winter.

[plam]

Those flight times are definitely better!

Its probably good enough to make me try YKF -> Porter -> NYC once for the novelty and to see how well it works.  But I still don't think I'll use it regularly because of the problems that happen as soon as you get delays.

YYZ to YTZ are super flexible (fun fact: if you have a flight YTZ-YUL you can get onto a YYZ flight instead). I was out of Montreal at 1:45 and into YTZ at 3:45 yesterday, because everything just lined up perfectly and you can stand by for an earlier flight. So any flight delays for YKF to YTZ are going to be OK if you're flying on to YUL. I might do that in the future if I'm going on a weekday.

I don't think that they guarantee accommodations if you're flying to NYC, but it's possible that Porter would help in the event of delays.

[SammyOES]

I fly pretty often between YYZ and NYC. The thing that makes it not that painful is that there are flights every 1-2 hours from LGA and they're really good at moving you around flights. So I can aim to be at the airport last minute for the flight before my scheduled flight and about 70% of the time I make it on there and end up with no waiting time.

It's hard to give that up. Even in the best case with no delays there's only one flight from Porter to Waterloo and so I'd have to wait for it while also leaving a good cushion there to account for the frequent small delays in flights leaving LGA.

[danbrotherston]

I fly pretty often between YYZ and NYC.  The thing that makes it not that painful is that there are flights every 1-2 hours from LGA and they're really good at moving you around flights.  So I can aim to be at the airport last minute for the flight before my scheduled flight and about 70% of the time I make it on there and end up with no waiting time.

It's hard to give that up.  Even in the best case with no delays there's only one flight from Porter to Waterloo and so I'd have to wait for it while also leaving a good cushion there to account for the frequent small delays in flights leaving LGA.

Lol, I was stuck in LGA for about 5-6 hours one time flying out of NYC, miserable experience, eventual total travel time exceeded drive time.

[SammyOES]

I often drove from NYC to Ontario when I lived there because total travel time was typically similar but driving was way less frustrating (and I had a car the whole time I was here).

Now I don't travel as much during really busy times and I only ever have carry on luggage - so my experience has gotten way better. Plus I've learned the right questions to ask of people. Air Canada employees in the LGA terminal are frequently amazing. I've only had one bad interaction out of about 50 and many really good ones.

[tomh009]

I've done the drive twice (for work -- plus once for a vacation). No fun in my opinion.

I leave Kitchener at 4 AM to catch a 6:30 flight from YYZ to EWR, and I get to the office just before 9:00.  Mr Google says that by driving I would arrive sometime between 12:00 and 1:30, assuming zero stops.  Yes, I need to rent a car, but I spend 45 minutes having breakfast and sleep 90 minutes on the plane -- and still arrive 3-4 hours earlier. And neither security or US immigration are a problem at that time of morning.

[danbrotherston]

I've done the drive twice (for work -- plus once for a vacation). No fun in my opinion.

I leave Kitchener at 4 AM to catch a 6:30 flight from YYZ to EWR, and I get to the office just before 9:00.  Mr Google says that by driving I would arrive sometime between 12:00 and 1:30, assuming zero stops.  Yes, I need to rent a car, but I spend 45 minutes having breakfast and sleep 90 minutes on the plane -- and still arrive 3-4 hours earlier. And neither security or US immigration are a problem at that time of morning.

Lol, leaving at 4 AM just isn't something I'm willing to do.  

But the later you leave, the longer you need.  And you know, with the 401 this week, leaving at 4 AM for a 6:30 flight you'd have missed it half the days this week.

I guess that's not really to do with NYC though .