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Mom's flights — Toronto, all options
Mom flies from Toronto, and she has two shapes to choose from: straight to Quito, or to Cali first for family days, which then needs its own Cali → Quito flight. Every option below is priced and checked; nothing is booked. The island legs from Quito are a separate problem, on the Quito ⇄ Galápagos tab. Her own page in Spanish: vuelos-quito-galapagos.pages.dev
At a glance
CheapestDirect Copa round trip: $774 (CA$1,085, re-checked Oct 27)
Via Cali$1,301 total — $527 more, buys the Cali family days, $0 lodging (family)
Deadline shapeShe must be in Quito by the evening of Dec 17 — the island flight leaves Dec 18 at 7:50 AM
StatusUnbooked. Her pick. Fares have already moved once this week
✈️ Option A — Direct to Quito (Copa round trip)
Out Dec 15 → home Dec 21 — the cheapest workable pair$774
Out Dec 14 → home Dec 22 — workable at the Oct 26 baseline$789
Out Dec 15 → home Dec 27 — a week longer in Ecuador$806
Out Dec 16 → home Dec 22$925
Out Dec 16 → home Dec 28$941
Comfort split: Copa out Dec 15 + Air Canada AC961 nonstop Quito → Toronto on Dec 27 (09:00 → 15:10, no layover home)$952
- Prices in USD for the round trip, both ways. $774 = CA$1,085 at the Oct 27 re-check; the same pair was $789.24 / CA$1,107 on Oct 26.
- Traps to avoid: headline fares ~$16 cheaper than these are overnight Panama layovers (up to 14h47 in PTY) or 03:08 AM departures. Flagged in the checks, not real savings.
- January returns are a price cliff — the cheapest Jan 2 return home priced at $1,444. The value sits in the Dec 21–28 returns.
- Arriving before Dec 17 adds ~$120 per extra Quito hotel night while she waits for the group.
🌴 Option B — Via Cali first (family days, then Cali → Quito)
Toronto → Cali, Mon Dec 14 — Copa Basic$651
Same flight, Classic with a checked bag$709
Cali → Quito, one-way — the extra leg this routing needs (Copa via Panama, daytime, Dec 17)$212
Total, home Dec 22 — Toronto → Cali + Cali → Quito + Quito → Toronto$1,301
Total, home Dec 27$1,278
- Fully bag-included version of the Cali routing: $1,435 (Oct 26 numbers).
- She stays with family in Cali, so this routing adds no hotel cost — the +$527 over direct is purely flights, and it buys days with her brother and family before the cruise.
- The Cali → Quito leg is the piece she had priced at ~$800 on her own; the checked price is $212.
- Her brother's own ticket on the same Cali ⇄ Quito leg: Avianca round trip $385 (confirmed on avianca.com; $387 on Oct 26).
Next step: Mom picks A or B and the flights get booked. Her return date also feeds the cruise operator, who needs it to lock her Galápagos seat — see the Quito ⇄ Galápagos tab.
🧮 Every combination — the full price matrices
Mom's Toronto flights — one-way component sums, checked Oct 27, 2026. Cells marked ★ are verified Copa ROUND-TRIP totals, which can beat the sum of one-ways. Copa Basic = no checked bag (~$38–40/direction extra). All prices USD, Duffel bookable, checked Tue Oct 27, 2026 (afternoon).
Matrix 1 — Direct: Toronto → Quito, out × home
| Out ↓ / Home → | Dec 21 | Dec 22 | Dec 24 | Dec 25 | Dec 26 | Dec 27 | Dec 28 | Dec 29 | Dec 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 14 | $956.16 | $976.01 | $881.11 ★ RT $774.18 | $1,022.60 | $974.16 | $908.81 | $974.16 | $1,022.60 | $1,423.51 |
| Dec 15 | $982.94 ★ RT $774.18 | $1,002.79 | $907.89 (RT $909.83) | $1,049.38 | $1,000.94 | $935.59 ★ RT $926.26 | $1,000.94 | $1,049.38 | $1,450.29 |
| Dec 16 | $1,091.81 | $1,111.66 | $1,016.76 | $1,158.25 | $1,109.81 | $1,044.46 | $1,109.81 | $1,158.25 | $1,559.16 |
| Dec 17 — priced out | $1,965.74 | $1,985.59 | $1,890.69 | $2,032.18 | $1,983.74 | $1,918.39 | $1,983.74 | $2,032.18 | $2,433.09 |
| Dec 18 — infeasible | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Best overall: Copa RT Dec 14 → Dec 24 = $774.18, confirmed on Google Flights at CA$1,085.
The components behind Matrix 1
- Outbound one-ways (Copa, arrive Quito 17:35): Dec 14 $538.67 · Dec 15 $565.45 · Dec 16 $674.32 · Dec 17 $1,548.25 (priced out) · Dec 18 infeasible — it arrives after the Dec 18 morning cruise flight.
- Return one-ways (best workable): Dec 21 $417.49 (AC via Montreal, arr 19:50) · Dec 22 $437.34 (Copa Classic, bag incl.) · Dec 24 $342.44 (Copa, sane 15:08 pattern) · Dec 25 $483.93 (American; sane Copa $778.14) · Dec 26 $435.49 (AC via Montreal) · Dec 27 $370.14 (Copa; AC961 NONSTOP $432.19) · Dec 28 $435.49 (AC via Montreal) · Dec 29 $483.93 (American) · Dec 30 $884.84 (Copa sane pattern; cheaper options need 00:50–03:08 departures).
Matrix 2 — Via Cali: three separate one-way tickets
Toronto → Cali + Cali → Quito + Quito → Toronto. The Cali → Quito leg is $212.45 on Copa on Dec 15, 16 and 17; the returns are the same Quito → Toronto one-ways as Matrix 1. Only combinations with at least one night in Cali are shown.
| Legs ↓ / Home → | Dec 21 | Dec 22 | Dec 24 | Dec 25 | Dec 26 | Dec 27 | Dec 28 | Dec 29 | Dec 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Out Dec 14 → Quito Dec 15 1 night Cali, 2 buffer days · legs subtotal $863.93 | $1,281.42 | $1,301.27 | $1,206.37 | $1,347.86 | $1,299.42 | $1,234.07 | $1,299.42 | $1,347.86 | $1,748.77 |
| Out Dec 14 → Quito Dec 16 2 nights Cali, 1 buffer day · legs subtotal $863.93 | $1,281.42 | $1,301.27 | $1,206.37 | $1,347.86 | $1,299.42 | $1,234.07 | $1,299.42 | $1,347.86 | $1,748.77 |
| Out Dec 14 → Quito Dec 17 3 nights Cali, 0 buffer ⚠ · legs subtotal $863.93 | $1,281.42 | $1,301.27 | $1,206.37 | $1,347.86 | $1,299.42 | $1,234.07 | $1,299.42 | $1,347.86 | $1,748.77 |
| Out Dec 15 → Quito Dec 16 1 night Cali, 1 buffer day · legs subtotal $1,001.01 | $1,418.50 | $1,438.35 | $1,343.45 | $1,484.94 | $1,436.50 | $1,371.15 | $1,436.50 | $1,484.94 | $1,885.85 |
| Out Dec 15 → Quito Dec 17 2 nights Cali, 0 buffer ⚠ · legs subtotal $1,001.01 | $1,418.50 | $1,438.35 | $1,343.45 | $1,484.94 | $1,436.50 | $1,371.15 | $1,436.50 | $1,484.94 | $1,885.85 |
| Out Dec 16 → Quito Dec 17 1 night Cali, 0 buffer ⚠ · legs subtotal $1,001.01 | $1,418.50 | $1,438.35 | $1,343.45 | $1,484.94 | $1,436.50 | $1,371.15 | $1,436.50 | $1,484.94 | $1,885.85 |
- Best Cali trip: $1,206.37 (out Dec 14, Quito Dec 16, home Dec 24) — +$432 vs the best direct.
- Comfort variant: the AC961 nonstop home on Dec 27 makes it $1,296.12 — that is the Dec 27 cell recomputed with the $432.19 nonstop instead of the $370.14 Copa.
- The Avianca Cali ↔ Quito round trip verified at $385 (Google Flights, Oct 27) can replace the $212.45 one-way plus a separate Quito → Cali positioning, if the uncle flies it too.
- Toronto → Cali on Dec 17 is a dead end ($1,413.31, arrives too late to continue to Quito).
- Dec 15 Toronto → Cali on American (2 stops, $681.09) would cut $107.47 off the Dec-15-out rows, but it arrives 21:46 after 2 stops — not used above.