Say, hypothetically, you thought it might be nice to head to Canadialand for Christmas. Cos, y'know, you haven't seen your family in almost a year -- and hey, if you could get an Air Miles ticket and stay for a couple of weeks, maybe you could also take a few days and hop another flight down to Ottawa and Montreal to visit some friends there too, who by then you wouldn't have seen in a year and a half. So you pick up the phone and call Air Miles, because you know you have oodles of flexibility on both travel dates and airports. So for travel dates, you give them the option of departing Dec. 15 to Dec. 24, and the option of returning Dec. 27 to Jan. 4.

Choices of departing airports: San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.

Choices of arriving airports: Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Toronto.

Silly me. I must have lost my mind there for a few minutes. No? No flights? No?

Well, Air Canada had some but it was the only airline out of the list. I like Air Canada, but unfortunately Air Canada doesn't like pets in cabin (and not that I'd ever put my dog in cargo, but for information's sake, most airlines don't take pets in cargo during the Christmas travel season).

Soldiering on. Anyone else think it's funny that the fare from California to Thunder Bay is about the same as the fare from California to Melbourne or Sydney, Australia? Same continent vs. other side of the world. There's something more than a little wrong with this picture. And you at least still get complimentary non-alcoholic drinks on trans-continental flights.