Alaska, -Vancouver-airlines? NY or other airport?

[Pattycruise]

I posted in “other travel” with essentially no response so thought aid try here.

I booked B2B cruises out of Vancouver for Alaska in May.
 JetBlue has only 1 direct flight from JFK   and it seems decent enough price wise, but of course, if that one flight cancels that's the end of that. (will fly in 2 days early)

Air Canada seems to nickel and dime.  Has anyone flown them?  Thoughts?

Any recommendations to perhaps fly into another hub, maybe stay a night and then take a flight to Vancouver? 
Input on airline reliablity.
Any other helpful info.
Hotel recommendations for Vancouver would be appreciated as well.

Thank you!

[sleepy425]

We are doing Boston to Vancouver on Jetblue in June for our Alaska cruise.  The cruise leaves on Sunday, we are flying out Thursday.  I figure this gives us two more shots to make it on the one flight they have each day, or switch to Seattle or whatever we have to do to make it by Sunday.  Originally everyone else wanted to fly Friday, but I felt like it was cutting it too close with such limited flight options.

ETA: we also considered JFK but Boston has better flight times for us.  Since we are in CT either airport works for us.

[Pattycruise]

I think another question I should ask  in case I book flights with a stop….airports to avoid making transfers?!

[Biaggio]

You can fly to Seattle and take The Amtrak Cascades train to Vancouver. It may give you more flight options and it’s one of the most picturesque rides in the world. Fare is reasonable. 

[Zacharius]

13 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

JetBlue has only 1 direct flight from JFK   and it seems decent enough price wise, but of course, if that one flight cancels that's the end of that. (will fly in 2 days early

I think you're worrying more than you need to. Yes, they may only have one nonstop (which is different than direct) flight a day. But if you're flying in two days in advance, it would take something quite dramatic to happen for you to miss your cruise. Could it happen? Sure...but the odds are on your side. I would take the Jetblue nonstop, hands down. 

11 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

I think another question I should ask  in case I book flights with a stop….airports to avoid making transfers?!

Not really. Maybe something like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, LA, or Phoenix, because they are quite a bit out of the way, but that's really the only reason. Something like Minneapolis or Detroit (on Delta) would be most convenient. But I still would vote for Jetblue. 

4 hours ago, Biaggio said:

You can fly to Seattle and take The Amtrak Cascades train to Vancouver. It may give you more flight options and it’s one of the most picturesque rides in the world. Fare is reasonable. 

There's also a bus between SEA and Vancouver. Or OP could fly Alaska or Delta and just connect JFK-SEA-YVR. 

[smokeybandit]

I would try to fly into Vancouver.  I assume you're looking at Delta which means you may have a flight that could connect in Detroit or Minneapolis.

[baltodave]

On our recent Alaska cruise, we used A2S and flew to Vancouver via Toronto.  Looking back, the only advice I would give is to avoid Air Canada.

[AndrewPunch]

Using WestJet (Canada's #2 airline) to go from MSP-Edmonton-Vancouver.  Will let you know how it goes. 

[Floatingby]

If possible, look into flights from Newark as well. 

[Va4fam]

The one flight on Jetblue would make me nervous.

We flew Alaska Airlines to Anchorage with a return from Vancouver.   Plenty of flight options.  Seattle is one of their bigger hubs if you choose to fly there.

[suna]

As said above, if you have other options avoid Air Canada!

You never know with the poor service they offer: you pay a bit more for a direct flight and they change it last minute in a connecting to YYZ (happens 75% of the time) or you book with a connection and they delay the first leg and you miss the connection so the whole plan is disrupted..

I will fly with them (yul to yvr, so far direct) in 45 days for my Alaska cruise and I'm waiting for the itinerary change to arrive. I already ''print screen'' the other options to argue a compensation of some kind if this happens.

30th cruises, 28 flights to get there, I'm using American and Delta out of Yul to avoid the problems.

[Zacharius]

3 hours ago, Va4fam said:

We flew Alaska Airlines to Anchorage with a return from Vancouver.   Plenty of flight options.  Seattle is one of their bigger hubs if you choose to fly there.

Seattle is by far Alaska's biggest hub, and their headquarters. They operate hub-ish operations at a few other airlines, but Seattle is without a doubt their largest. 

[VeronicaS1970]

We are flying out of Newark to Vancouver next May nonstop on Air Canada.

We return to Seattle, and are flying nonstop back to Newark on Alaska airlines.

I cannot do plane changes with 81 yo FIL and 24 yo DD- it is like herding cats traveling with them so one time on and one time off is a must.

I am a bit concerned now about Air Canada reading these posts

[AtlantaNole]

Air canada used to be decent, i have heard they now just nickel and dime you to death.  We are flying from ATL to vancouver in may 2024.  Doing direct a day early on delta ( actually westjet.)   We seriously thought about the seattle then amtrak option but ultimately decided to pay a little more and avoid potential issues with a tranfer/ layover.  We have heard vancouver is pretty easy to navigate

[deep1]

I did Alaska Airlines last time Loved em... 

 

[Fuzzywuzzy]

Just back from an Alaska cruise on Brilliance. Flew out of Newark to Vancouver on United the day before. Flight was almost an hour delayed. Stayed at the Fairmont Waterfront which is across the street from Canada Place (port). It is NOT CHEAP. Flew back to Newark on Air Canada. The United plane did not have the seat back entertainment screens and the cabin smelled of urine. The Air Canada flight did have the screens and it was a Godsend while travelling with 4 kids. Got back almost a half hour early. AC tops United on this vacation.

[Fuzzywuzzy]

As a P.S.: Air Canada has 2 direct flights from Newark to Vancouver every day of the week. And vice-versa.

 

 

 

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

I am pretty late to the party on this thread but as a Canadian, I would also advise that you avoid AC at all costs. In fact, they were just rated North America's worst airline. The other thing is that if you are planning on using Air2Sea, AC will not allow you to pick seats until you make final payment. They don't consider you "ticketed" until then. Something to also consider.

@Pattycruise you also did not mention if the AC flight you were considering was direct? If you have to make a connection through YYZ (Pearson), that is also something I would try to avoid. The direct flight from YYZ to YVR is safer, but YYZ (Pearson) is notorious for losing bags during connections as well.

That being said, the only way I would consider flying AC is if it was considerably cheaper that other options. But it would have to be a pretty deep savings for me to consider that. I am actually stuck right now trying to plan flights to Europe next summer. AC is a lot cheaper than flying Delta. Even if I booked with AC, I would drive to YYZ and avoid connecting through YYZ for sure.

[Curt From Canada]

13 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

<snip>

That being said, the only way I would consider flying AC is if it was considerably cheaper that other options. But it would have to be a pretty deep savings for me to consider that. I am actually stuck right now trying to plan flights to Europe next summer. AC is a lot cheaper than flying Delta. Even if I booked with AC, I would drive to YYZ and avoid connecting through YYZ for sure.

We have not done this yet.  We are only researching for 2025 (I am an Engineer ... this is "normal").

We are looking into Icelandair for trips to Europe (YYZ to AMS).  They are quite inexpensive, but the best part is they will allow layovers more than one day.  You get two direct flights (YYZ to KEF & KEF to AMS) and get to visit Iceland (1, 2, 3 ... days) on your layover.  It may even help break up the jet lag.  They fly from YYZ, and to most major European hubs.

Again, we have not tried, but we are seriously considering.

I hope this helps ...

Curt from Canada

[Lovetocruise2002]

17 minutes ago, Curt From Canada said:

We are looking into Icelandair for trips to Europe (YYZ to AMS).  They are quite inexpensive, but the best part is they will allow layovers more than one day.  You get two direct flights (YYZ to KEF & KEF to AMS) and get to visit Iceland (1, 2, 3 ... days) on your layover.  It may even help break up the jet lag.  They fly from YYZ, and to most major European hubs

Thanks. I will check them out. We don't want a layover, that's the whole point. We are looking to fly direct to BCN. I don't want to hijack the thread but basically, it's hard to avoid AC because no airline will fly direct from DTW-BCN. And the non-stop on AC is way cheaper than any flights with connections from DTW.

BTW, have you looked at Air Transat? They are actually cheaper than AC but I am always too worried to fly lower cost airlines like that. Good friends of mine are in Europe right now and they went with Air Transat. I will ask them their experience when they return in a few weeks.

[OCSC Mike]

14 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

We don't want a layover

Why, have you had a bad experience?

Too soon?

[Lovetocruise2002]

3 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Why, have you had a bad experience?

Too soon?

Traumatized lol

[OCSC Mike]

1 minute ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Traumatized lol

Sorry, couldn't help it. I sincerely hope you earned many years of smooth travel karma after that nightmare.

[Pattycruise]

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I am pretty late to the party on this thread but as a Canadian, I would also advise that you avoid AC at all costs. In fact, they were just rated North America's worst airline. The other thing is that if you are planning on using Air2Sea, AC will not allow you to pick seats until you make final payment. They don't consider you "ticketed" until then. Something to also consider.

@Pattycruise you also did not mention if the AC flight you were considering was direct? If you have to make a connection through YYZ (Pearson), that is also something I would try to avoid. The direct flight from YYZ to YVR is safer, but YYZ (Pearson) is notorious for losing bags during connections as well.

That being said, the only way I would consider flying AC is if it was considerably cheaper that other options. But it would have to be a pretty deep savings for me to consider that. I am actually stuck right now trying to plan flights to Europe next summer. AC is a lot cheaper than flying Delta. Even if I booked with AC, I would drive to YYZ and avoid connecting through YYZ for sure.

Great information which adds to what others have said about avoiding AC.  It would have been connecting.

 I see someone mentioned direct flights out of Newark  which I can look at.  It’s a further airport for me so Im unsure of my ride issue going  “that much further”.  
So now I’ll explore flights to Seattle and the train to Vancouver as well as Newark flights.

thank you for your input!