Age has its privileges

It's no secret that I'm cheap (frugal). Growing up with a "frugal" parent - and yes, I'm using that word euphemistically - saving money in one place meant being able to use it somewhere else. There's never been so much money that I could do whatever I wanted; every activity from dawn to dusk involves some kind of trade-off or sacrifice. And that's OK.

Believing in the saying, "Count your nickels and dimes, and let the dollars take care of themselves," most of my cost-cutting tips are small savings that add up only over time. You get every one of these tips, but with rare exceptions, like airfare, you're probably not going to save a couple thousand dollars in one fell swoop (apologies to Richard Shakespeare who coined this phrase). However, by investing wisely in airfare and adding it to other smart hacks like choosing affordable "hub" airports or staying in hostels instead of expensive hotels, you can go more places more often with more people.

This "age" tip is one of those smaller, incremental savings that adds up as you go along.

The bad news is that, even if you qualify for age-related savings in other countries, you may miss out on the more important qualification which usually is citizenship to that country. This is typical of most train tickets, rail cards and the like.

The good news is that you may still qualify for other age-related savings, as we've found.

Canada's Via Rail has never offered me lower rail tickets because of my husband's "senior age" qualification. That's OK. I understand. It's reserved for Canadian citizens.

But I was surprised that we could save about $9, using current US conversion rates, by not buying our Toronto Union Station-Toronto Pearson Airport "UP Express" until the day we traveled.

Here's how.

Via Rail's website lets you add UP Express tickets, but even if one passenger is 60 years old or older, the UP Express ticket is offered at the full "26-59" price. Important to know - we've noticed no financial savings in getting the UP Express ticket now vs. six months from now.

In person at Toronto's Union Station, for a passenger who is 60 years or older, you can get a discounted UP Express ticket for travel this minute, this hour or this day.

It's $24.70C for a passenger who is 26-59 years old to travel round-trip between downtown Toronto and Pearson International Airport. It's $12.40C for a passenger who is 60 or more years to travel round-trip between downtown Toronto and Pearson International Airport.

That difference is $12.35C or $8.98US, by current conversion standards. Similar discounts exist for families, "meeters and greeters" and long layovers.

$8.98 (rounded up to $9) is enough of a savings that we'll absolutely get our UP Express tickets on the spot instead of in advance, and I suggest that you consider the same if you qualify. Even if you don't qualify for any age-related discounts, check Via Rail for the rates of train tickets purchase in advance vs. train tickets purchased on the day of travel.