Airfare to Vancouver??

[lucia1024]

Hi all

 

I have a question. I will be sailing to Vancouver in Sept on a Pacific Coast cruise. I started checking airfare and the cost of airfare is quite high. I am coming from FL. I need a ticket to Vancouver and returning to FL from LAX. It looks like the fares start at $500 and more for flights that only make one stop. Do you think I might be able to do better in price? If so, can you recommend a site to visit for more reasonable fares? My research has been on the internet. It seems like the airfare is going to cost more than the actual cruise because I will be able to redeem 1000 points towards this cruise. Is there a better time of year to check for fares.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Luckysll]

What you also may want to look at is flying into Seattle, overnighting there and taking the Amtrak train to Vancouver. The train leaves around 7:30 am and you're in to Vancouver well before noon and it's then an easy cab ride from the train depot to the cruise terminal.

 

Even adding in the cost of the hotel and train, you may find it comes out cheaper than flying into Vancouver.

[Rickey 88]

Since you did not indicate where in Florida you need to travel from and return, it is difficult to come up with an exact cost for you. You would be better served to get a travel agent to help you.

 

Anyway, using Miami as an example, you can fly American to Vancouver with a stop and change in planes to Horizon in early September and return from Los Angeles to Miami also on American later in September for $484.29.

 

Using the same dates, a flight to Seattle only and a return from Los Angeles would cost $294.80. I doubt that you could save that much in the price difference when you add in the cost of a hotel room in Seattle and a train ride to Vancouver. Remember that you will also have to add in the cost of food for that extra day....

 

Hope this helps!

[giblert]

I have a question. I will be sailing to Vancouver in Sept on a Pacific Coast cruise. I started checking airfare and the cost of airfare is quite high. I am coming from FL. I need a ticket to Vancouver and returning to FL from LAX. It looks like the fares start at $500 and more for flights that only make one stop. Do you think I might be able to do better in price? If so, can you recommend a site to visit for more reasonable fares? My research has been on the internet. It seems like the airfare is going to cost more than the actual cruise because I will be able to redeem 1000 points towards this cruise. Is there a better time of year to check for fares.

 

 

1) Fly into Bellingham WA instead of Vancouver. 2/3 of the way from Seattle to Vancouver. Served by Delta (from SLC) and Alaska (from SEA). The airport shuttle from SEA -> Vancouver stops to pick up passengers there too.

2) Get a return ticket MIA-LAX and buy a one way, LAX-YVR. It may be cheaper.

 

Either way, you probably wont make it 'day of flight' so you'll be overnighting somewhere.

[Ephraim]

When you book airfare too far ahead the price is often higher. It also depends on which city you fly from, some cities have more competition than others.

 

Remember that when you fly into and out of Canada there are a number of taxes to pay to cover the cost of using the airport (we don't subsidize airports in Canada.) There are also fees for using US customs and Canada customs. The US even charges a fee for agriculture. Just to give you an idea looking just at the fees and taxes on a flight from Los Angeles to Vancouver, we see the following fees:

 

$22.10 Taxes and Fees for the flight leaving Los Angeles

 

On the way back you see...

 

$27.10 Taxes and Fees, $0.90 in GST (federal sales tax), $15 Airport Usage fee and $8.42 in Air Traveller Security Charge. That's $51.42 just in fees and taxes.

 

Unlike the US, in Canada we do not subsidize our airports or our airspace. The airlines have to pay for air traffic control and passengers have to pay for the running of the airports. You can avoid these fees by flying through Seattle, but the extra cost is inconvenience.

 

The airlines won't put down fares to Vancouver till after Easter. They seem to handle one vacation period at a time and can't think beyond the next vacation period.

[Ephraim]

Forgot to mention. Check out WestJet, they don't show up on all the reservation systems. They fly from some airports in Florida and certainly fly between LAX and YVR. They offer one way fares.

[giblert]

Forgot to mention. Check out WestJet, they don't show up on all the reservation systems. They fly from some airports in Florida and certainly fly between LAX and YVR. They offer one way fares.

 

However, and I love Westjet, but

1) They don't fly LAX-YVR (you have to change in Calgary), but that's not a problem as she's cruising from YVR-LAX.

2) They fly from FLL not MIA

3) The flights from Florida will involving clearing customs and re-checking in at Toronto

4) The flights from FLL - YYZ only run during the Winter.

 

 

Personally I think you'd be well off signing up for Alaska Air's online newsletter which has deals quite often (double pts etc etc), to try and find MIA-SEA or MIA-SEA-YVR or MIA-SEA-BLI for cheap. With a transcon like MIA-SEA, along with a signup bonus for the FF plan, you'll be pretty close to a free ticket with them by doing the route only twice.

 

Of course if you want the VERY cheapest, sign up for their credit card ($75/yr), which gets you 20,000 points, use 1/2 of them for a one way MIA-SEA-YVR (AS and WN are the only major NA airline to offer one way redemptions on points). and then you have 10k points left to do it another time.

[lucia1024]

Thanks so much for some of your suggestions.

 

I will be cruising out of MIA.

 

I am going to check into the one-ways and see if that is more cost effective. My cruise leave on Sun so I was planning to come in on Fri so I definitely need a hotel room for two days.

 

I guess it's best if I wait a few more months and hope for some sales. I really don't want to apply for any more charge cards. My NCL card works best for me.

 

 

Thanks again!

[LeftcoastBC]

Frontier Air has service to Vancouver after May something (?) or other... via Denver from Miami.

[Deadskins]

From a previous post:

"Good news, we were able to use Delta points to book IAD to YVR on a Saturday and back on a Monday. It took a while and multiple searches, but we finally booked. Delta does have a nasty habit of showing flights using SkySaver points and then responding a minute later that the flight is booked. Then, several hours later, the same flight is available. As they now team with Northwestern to use miles, watch out. When you book with Delta and get a Northwest flight, you cannot pick seats until 90 days prior to the flight. My guess is that they will then offer you nothing but center seats.

By playing their games I was able to book first class seats on our return flight using SkySaver, which was actually less than SkyChoice in a coach seat!

As for BLI, Delta does fly there, but, does not offer sky mile flights."

[Ephraim]

Any flight into our out of MIA will be more expensive. That's a known reality. Just looking (using the date of the 16th of July) a flight from FLL to YVR one way is $288. Leave from Miami and the flight is $337. And even I have to admit that these are horrible 2 connection flights.