In the early 1960s, Canadian National began offering a “red, white, and blue” fare plan in which the lowest (red) fares were on Mondays through Thursdays and Saturdays with higher (white) fares on Fridays and Sundays and the highest (blue) during holidays, with fares stepped up to just white and blue from June through September. For example, the lowest one-way coach fare from Montréal to Vancouver in 1963 was $43, while the highest was $51. Canadian Pacific, which was a higher-class operation, charged $91 for the same journey.
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In 1968, however, CP advertised this “faresaver plan” which did not, in fact, save any fares. Instead, it offered first-class passengers a special price that included meals. From Montréal to Vancouver, for example, the fare including a roomette but no meals was $83 (note the drop from 1963, when it was $125), but inclusive of meals it was $99 or just $16 more. Since that trip included three breakfasts, two lunches, and three dinners, and dinners typically cost $4 to $6 each, that could save first-class passengers some money. Coach passengers, the brochure generously noted, still had the “opportunity to purchase meals of their choice in the deluxe dining room or Scenic Dome coffee shop.”
Although Canadian Pacific didn’t publicize a red, white, and blue plan, the brochure does note that fares would be higher on journeys beginning on Fridays and Sundays as well as from December 6 to January 5. The fares quoted in this brochure are for October 1 to December 5 and January 6 to April 30, so presumably fares were also higher in May through September.