Getting there & back is not easy!

[MJN]

Hi All,

We are trying to plan our airfare to get to Vancouver for our RCI cruise in July and then back from Anchorage. Finding the flights to Vancouver is more complicated than expected and then I find out that Alaska airlines doesn't fly to Vancouver so we would have to return through Seattle. If we go to Seattle we have to get to and from Vancouver. Why is it so complicated when so many cruise ships depart from Vancouver. I surely never expected this. What have others found that we are missing? Thanks to those in the know.

[Budget Queen]

I'm assuming you are looking at the open jaw/multi city options on booking sites. Vancouver has far fewer flights compared to Seattle. There are flights, however, if you are open to alternative airlines.

 

Otherwise, it's pretty simple to get between Seattle/Vancouver. There is Amtrak, Quick Shuttle, one way rental cars. You do need to add the time to complete the transfers.

[Keksie]

We are doing the opposite. Flying to Anchorage and then home from Vancouver. I found good flights on American.

[Yukon]

You must not be using a good air consolidator site, because it's very easy - although you may well have one stop en route. Try Flight Network or Vayama.

[AkSusan]

Hi All,

We are trying to plan our airfare to get to Vancouver for our RCI cruise in July and then back from Anchorage. Finding the flights to Vancouver is more complicated than expected and then I find out that Alaska airlines doesn't fly to Vancouver so we would have to return through Seattle. If we go to Seattle we have to get to and from Vancouver. Why is it so complicated when so many cruise ships depart from Vancouver. I surely never expected this. What have others found that we are missing? Thanks to those in the know.

No, but their partner/sister airline - Horizon does.

 

Susan in Anchorage :)

[MJN]

I will try those suggestions. I appreciate the tips. We had not tried those search engines, had been on Expedia and cheap air etc. and went to a few airlines directly but the ones suggested we hadn't tried. Thanks so much!

[AkSusan]

I will try those suggestions. I appreciate the tips. We had not tried those search engines, had been on Expedia and cheap air etc. and went to a few airlines directly but the ones suggested we hadn't tried. Thanks so much!

Another one I use is www.kayak.com. They don't sell tickets but go out and look at all the airlines and shows what they would cost. They also allow you to do multicity, so you can fly into one place and leave from another!

 

Susan in Anchorage :)

[Colexis Mom]

I used Kayak for our trip. Doing the opposite of you.....flying into ANC and although the cruise ends up in Vancouver, we're flying home from SEA since I saved about $150/pp on airfare that way! Ended up with Continental for our dates as they were the cheapest!

[kennicott]

The Alaska/Vancouver market is very low density, resulting in no direct flights to Anchorage. However, Alaska Airlines has the largest number of flights into and out of Seattle of any carrier. They also own Horizon. In fact they recently announced they are dropping the Horizon name and painting their Eskimo logo on Horizon tails.

 

Last year we got off a cruise ship in Vancouver. Visited a few days then flew home, Anchorage. I was pleasantly surprised. Cleared US customs and immigrations right there in YVR. Flew Horizon to SEA, made connections with Alaska to ANC. Bags were checked all the way and were just coming down the conveyor when we got to the claim area in ANC. Slick.

 

Go to the Alaska airline website. Alaska flies to Florida. Put in the dates and Florida(?)-YVR. Then ANC-Florida(?). You will get a myriad of options and fares.

[AkSusan]

The Alaska/Vancouver market is very low density, resulting in no direct flights to Anchorage. However, Alaska Airlines has the largest number of flights into and out of Seattle of any carrier. They also own Horizon. In fact they recently announced they are dropping the Horizon name and painting their Eskimo logo on Horizon tails.

 

Last year we got off a cruise ship in Vancouver. Visited a few days then flew home, Anchorage. I was pleasantly surprised. Cleared US customs and immigrations right there in YVR. Flew Horizon to SEA, made connections with Alaska to ANC. Bags were checked all the way and were just coming down the conveyor when we got to the claim area in ANC. Slick.

 

Go to the Alaska airline website. Alaska flies to Florida. Put in the dates and Florida(?)-YVR. Then ANC-Florida(?). You will get a myriad of options and fares.

Yeah, and on Horizon they give free beverages, including the choice of one regional beer or a regional red or white wine.

 

I do have to say Alaska usually gives good customer service but the best service I had was from a Horizon gate agent in Boise. The plane was late for mechanical and I had to change things to deal with that. She did it with a big smile and a no problem attitude and even gave me meal vouchers for the time I was stuck there!

 

Susan in Anchorage :)

[PennyAgain]

I also have used Horizon out of Vancouver with very good results. My Alaska FF number works on Horizon.

 

Expedia no longer shows flights on American Airlines.

[Sun 4-ever]

Forget renting a car and driving from Vancouver to Seattle. It's hard to get a car unless you book real far in advance plus they charge you a crazy drop off fee they call it. Dollar rental told me $500.00 drop off fee plus what the regular rental would be. We decided to take the train the only problem with the train is it leaves at 6:40am and the next one isn't until evening.

[cruzn single]

We flew US Air into Vancouver, and then Alaska Airlines from Fairbanks back! Just start investigating some one ways--usually only way to get into and out of difficult places. United Airlines is a code share airline with Alaska so that might help you. Think that US Air is also code share with both United and Alaska.

 

Good Luck. I booked far in advance, and even with that got some schedule changes, especially from Alaska which barely gave us enough time to change planes in Seattle.

[AkSusan]

We flew US Air into Vancouver' date=' and then Alaska Airlines from Fairbanks back! Just start investigating some one ways--usually only way to get into and out of difficult places. United Airlines is a code share airline with Alaska so that might help you. Think that US Air is also code share with both United and Alaska.

 

Good Luck. I booked far in advance, and even with that got some schedule changes, especially from Alaska which barely gave us enough time to change planes in Seattle.[/quote']

Two one ways a lot of times isn't cheaper than doing a multicity.

 

When I investigate booking a new reservation on Alaska Air where I need to go to a city that Alaska services and then a city without Alaska service I get either Delta or American or one of their smaller regional carriers. Haven't seen United or USAir at all. So not sure if they are code sharing anymore!

Susan in Anchorage :)

[Budget Queen]

Forget renting a car and driving from Vancouver to Seattle. It's hard to get a car unless you book real far in advance plus they charge you a crazy drop off fee they call it. Dollar rental told me $500.00 drop off fee plus what the regular rental would be. We decided to take the train the only problem with the train is it leaves at 6:40am and the next one isn't until evening.

 

This is not true, I have driven, Seattle/Vancouver many times. This poster is using the WRONG car rental company.

 

I have used National, Avis, Budget and Alamo, there is also Hertz. I go with the cheapest. I use the downtown Vancouver locations. NONE are in this price range.

 

A car rental can offer plenty of sight seeing along the way and a very good tranfer option.

[MJN]

Hi to all,

I appreciate all the input from you folks. Still working on things but I have so far found some flights from Tampa, Fl to Vancouver by Air Canada and then return by United from Anchorage to Tampa that may be the way we go. When I put it in to "flightnetwork" these two options came up the lowest price, at least for now. Going to see if any flight sales come up over the Presidents day weekend. We are awaiting some more info on some dates etc. before actually booking but we are seeing some better flight options than what we were first finding. Thanks to all

[Chenega]

The Alaska/Vancouver market is very low density, resulting in no direct flights to Anchorage. However, Alaska Airlines has the largest number of flights into and out of Seattle of any carrier. They also own Horizon. In fact they recently announced they are dropping the Horizon name and painting their Eskimo logo on Horizon tails.

 

Last year we got off a cruise ship in Vancouver. Visited a few days then flew home, Anchorage. I was pleasantly surprised. Cleared US customs and immigrations right there in YVR. Flew Horizon to SEA, made connections with Alaska to ANC. Bags were checked all the way and were just coming down the conveyor when we got to the claim area in ANC. Slick.

 

Go to the Alaska airline website. Alaska flies to Florida. Put in the dates and Florida(?)-YVR. Then ANC-Florida(?). You will get a myriad of options and fares.

 

Although Alaska Airlines dropped the summer nonstops from Anchorage to Vancouver, one a day is still operated by Air Canada; it is also a codeshare with United.

 

Alaska codeshares with Delta and American Airlines; they dropped a codeshare agreement with Continental who has, of course merged with United. United also codeshares with US Air. Confusing, huh?

[barefoot cruiser]

You might also try Southwest which doesn't always come up in search engines....They fly between Tampa and Seattle. Just another avenue to pursue:cool:

[scottbee]

Hi All,

We are trying to plan our airfare to get to Vancouver for our RCI cruise in July and then back from Anchorage. Finding the flights to Vancouver is more complicated than expected and then I find out that Alaska airlines doesn't fly to Vancouver so we would have to return through Seattle. If we go to Seattle we have to get to and from Vancouver. Why is it so complicated when so many cruise ships depart from Vancouver. I surely never expected this. What have others found that we are missing? Thanks to those in the know.

 

AS/Alaska serve YVR from SEA/Seattle and PDX/Portland on their QX/Horizon subsidary, and also have multiple daily flights to LAX on AS mainline.

 

MIA-SEA-YVR on AS/QX and ANC-SEA-MIA on AS is a perfectly reasonable flight. MIA-SEA is an early morning (8:15 IIRC), and SEA-MIA on AS is a red-eye

 

 

However, I've often asked myself a similar question as to why it's so hard to fly to Florida when so many cruise ships leave from there; there's not a single airline with non-stop flights (whereas I can fly to Cuba non-stop)

[scottbee]

You might also try Southwest which doesn't always come up in search engines....They fly between Tampa and Seattle. Just another avenue to pursue:cool:

 

Given WN serve neither Anchorage nor Vancouver, I'm not sure how much use it would be.

[thinfool]

Hi All,

We are trying to plan our airfare to get to Vancouver for our RCI cruise in July and then back from Anchorage. Finding the flights to Vancouver is more complicated than expected and then I find out that Alaska airlines doesn't fly to Vancouver so we would have to return through Seattle. If we go to Seattle we have to get to and from Vancouver. Why is it so complicated when so many cruise ships depart from Vancouver. I surely never expected this. What have others found that we are missing? Thanks to those in the know.

 

I am seeing, at the moment, $597.pp rt, TPA-YVR, ANC-TPA, mid-July. (Air Canada/United)

 

If you want to fly directly to Vancouver then home from Anchorage, it won't get any better than this.

 

oops...went up while I was typing...now it is $643. Still a good price.

[BCHappyGal]

Try doing 1 way fares and compare them to your multi city fare. these days I usually book 1 way fares as it is cheaper or the same price as the multi city and gives me much more flexibility....

 

I fly Vancouver or Seattle to Orlando a lot and you should not spend more than $130 pp each way....into SEA or now Vancovuer is a different story.

 

For Vancouver you might also try West Jet Airlines they fly into both Vancouver international and Abbotsford (a suburb to Vancouver) and often put on seat sales.

 

Just did a multi city Vancouver to Orlando and then Ft Lauderdale to Seattle and it was cheaper and better options (more flexibility) to do 2 1 way flights rather than the multi city return idea. The 1 way out of Vancouver was $284. pp while the 1 way return to SEA was $130.

 

Remember when you book either Air Canada or West Jet there is no charge for your first checked suitcase.