Our trip to Switzerland

So as you all know by now this company that I have had two telephone interviews with has invited Melissa and I to Switzerland to check it out. Now aside from two heavy suit cases stuffed with Ryan and Matt here is my dilemma.

The suggested date for me to have the interview was the 19th of December (Monday).

I am not sure exactly how this is going to work, I sent an email back just now saying that I am looking at flying from Ottawa or Toronto on either the 16th (Friday)or the 17th(Saturday) and then returning on the 20th Tuesday. Not alot of time to look around, I may want to push this back a day and leave the 21st so we can look at apartments.

So I decide to research good old air Canada’s web site. What I found was that a flight from both Ottawa or Toronto to Geneva Switzerland is a staggering $5553.00 per person! Wow, I am glad I am not paying for this. If we select Executive the price does drop to $3499.00 per person (go figure, only in Canada).

As I said, we have a couple of options. Leaving from Toronto. Most flights that I checked out go from Toronto to Frankfurt or Munich, then a second flight to Geneva. Once in Geneva it would likely be a train to Lausanne. The flight typically leaves Toronto in the evening 5-9pm and would arrive in Geneva in the afternoon the next day. If we decide to leave from Toronto, Mel would have to come here and we would likely fly out on the Friday to arrive in the afternoon on the Saturday.

The other option is from Ottawa. This would mean I would have to go to Ottawa, likely after work on Friday and fly out on Saturday. but I may want to consider taking the Friday off... not sure yet but here are my options according to the air Canada site.

On Friday
Ottawa - Montreal- Frankfurt - Geneva or Ottawa - Toronto - Munich - Geneva. Both options are leave early Friday afternoon (~3-4pm) and arrive in Switzerland around noon on Saturday.

On Saturday
mostly just Ottawa - Toronto - Munich - Geneva. leave early Friday afternoon (~3-4pm) and arrive in Switzerland around noon on Sunday.

Now the Ottawa side of things would be good as well because I may be able to take some extra time off and stay in Ottawa for the rest of the week to spend with my family. If I do this, it will be hard to ask for the Friday off as well as the entire week. Plus most of the trips go through Toronto, and that will just suck taking a bus to Ottawa only to fly back to Toronto the next day.

The only other option is to have them split our tickets so that I fly from Toronto, and Mel flies from Ottawa. That is always an option, but seems strange asking for it.

There may be other international flights, that I do not know of that air Canada does not show me, but likely they will buy the tickets for me and I just pick them up electronically at the airport.

I need to get back to these guys soon, any advice? Some of this depends on what time I can book off from work (technically I only have 3 days left for the year so....)
MikeG