Air Canada will soon offer another direct flight from Canada to Europe. Beginning June 2, 2023, Air Canada will operate a direct flight between Montreal and Amsterdam on a seasonal basis.
This route complements the existing year-round service between Toronto and Amsterdam, and could be a good way to get a deal on a flight to Holland for the summer months.
Air Canada’s New Montreal–Amsterdam Route
As of June 2, 2023, Air Canada will fly between Montreal and Amsterdam five days per week. This route is scheduled to operate until October 14, 2023.
Eastbound, flights are scheduled to depart from Montreal on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Westbound, flights are scheduled to depart from Amsterdam on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
The flight times are as follows:
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AC900 Montreal (YUL) to Amsterdam (AMS), departing 10:10pm and arriving 11am the next day
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AC901 Amsterdam (AMS) to Montreal (YUL), departing 2pm and arriving 3:30pm
With a late departure time from Montreal, passengers travelling from other parts of North America should be able to easily connect to the flight. From Europe, the mid-afternoon departure means you won’t have to rush to the airport to catch a flight at the very beginning of the day.
The flight will be operated by the three-cabin Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft with Signature Class, premium economy, and economy cabins.
The flights are already available for booking with cash or points on the Air Canada website.
Booking Air Canada’s New Montreal–Amsterdam Flights
Naturally, Aeroplan is the program of choice for booking flights with Air Canada, especially since you’ll have access to every single seat that’s available on Air Canada flights.
The flight between Montreal and Amsterdam measures 3,340 miles, placing it in the first distance band on the “Between North America and Atlantic zones” table on the Aeroplan Flight Reward Chart.
In theory, this means that you should be able to book the flight for as few as 60,000 Aeroplan points in business class, if you’re able to find flights at the lower end of Air Canada’s dynamic spectrum.
In reality, you’ll be lucky to find a business class flight at under 200,000 Aeroplan points on this route, which is typical for direct flights between Canada and Europe during the busy summer months.
Rather, if you happen to have any tier of Aeroplan Elite Status, and therefore eUpgrades, you’ll be happy to know that there is ample eUpgrade space throughout the schedule on this new route.
So, while you may not be able to get a ticket for 60,000 points, you can use the Latitude Attitude to bring down the cost substantially. As the route is less than 5,000 miles, you’ll have to use 11 eUpgrades per direction.
Otherwise, you can look to other Aeroplan partner airlines for flights to Europe, which have fixed pricing at 60,000 Aeroplan points, as long as you stay under 4,000 miles.
For a point of comparison, KLM also operates a direct flight between Montreal and Amsterdam, which can be booked using Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles.
If you can find a flight at the low end of Flying Blue’s dynamic pricing, you’ll pay 55,000 miles plus a few hundred dollars in taxes and fees for a direct flight in business class.
At the same time, you can also pay in excess of 200,000 miles for the same flight, due to dynamic pricing.
If flying direct is important to you, be sure to consider all options at your disposal to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
Conclusion
As of June 2, 2023, Air Canada will introduce a new route between Montreal and Amsterdam. The route will operate five times weekly, and is set to fly seasonally between June and October.
This is Air Canada’s second direct flight to Amsterdam, with the other being a year-round service from Toronto.
There is ample eUpgrade availability on the route, which is great news for anyone who is looking to get to Amsterdam on a deal.
