Canadians living close to the U.S. border have long been targeted by American airports. Plattsburg, NY, even calls itself “Montréal’s American Airport.”
The West Coast is no exception. As the Canadian loonie hovers near parity with the U.S. dollar, the Bellingham, Washington airport (about 30 min. south of the border and an hour from downtown Vancouver) is vying hard for its share of the Canadian market.
For months we’ve seen a ramp-up of ads in transit stations and on Vancouver’s trains and buses for both the airport itself and Allegiant, the low-cost airline that serves about 10 destinations from Bellingham International, including Maui, Honolulu, San Francisco, L.A., San Diego, Vegas and Phoenix.
We recently booked direct Bellingham-Maui flights for under $350 per person on Allegiant Air – a good $200 cheaper than anything out of Vancouver’s airport at the time.
Pulling into the airport’s paid parking lot ($10/day – not bad) less than two hours before our flight, we were struck by the ratio of B.C.-to-any other license plates. It was 10-to-1 easy – what you’d expect to see at, say, a Canucks home game lot.
The airport itself was… regional—a mashup of a bowling alley and legion. In a good way.
After checking our bags we were ushered through security by a TSA agent who reciting Homeland Security regulations like a sermon, happily stopping to answer questions by what he referred to as “our Canadian friends.”
We sped through security through so quickly that we still had time for a meal at Scotty Browns, a U.S. foray by the popular Browns Social House pub chain out of Vancouver. The total for our veggie burgers, sweet potato fries, edamame and pints of locally brewed Mac and Jack’s was less than what we’d pay in our local North Vancouver location – not something you’d expect given the usual mark-up of airport restos.
Walking out onto the tarmac and into the fresh air (instead of a stuffy tube leading to another stuffy tube) was a final affirmation that BLI is our preferred airport from now on. We can only hope that, with renovations currently underway, the experience doesn’t modernize too much. Unless, of course, part of that expansion plan is to install an actual bowling alley in the waiting area.
Pacific Northwest Family 