Travel from YVR to SEA

[Phil'sFrontier]

I am finding out that flying out of Seattle is much cheaper than flying out of YVR. For me being from the Yukon, I am kind of stuck with traveling out of YVR most of the time. For me the DW and DD to fly out of Whitehorse to YVR will cost at least 1500 dollars. If I can save a bunch flying out of Seattle without too much trouble I think that would be the way to go. I just would like some options for travel between Vancouver and Seattle. Better if I can just go from airport to airport.
Taking the train would be nice as DD has not really been on one that I know of.
If you add travel to SEA and maybe a hotel there overnight is it still a savings or are you just scraping out a few dollars ahead and more time on the road?
I need help form the pros...

 

[aristocat65]

You can take the Quick Coach Shuttle: http://www.quickcoach.com/ which will take you from YVR to SEA in about 4 hours. There is supposed to be a coupon in the 2011 entertainment book for it also. If you don't have one, they usually are clearing them out for cheap @ Entertainment.com by this time of year.
As far as costs with hotel if needed, you'll have to price that all out for yourself to see if it is cheaper from SEA. One nice thing about SEA is that it has a non-stop Alaska flight to MCO. You can't fly non-stop from YVR to MCO, making your long trip even longer.
Good Luck.

 

[c&m]

Did the OP want to go to DL or WDW?

There are many options (train/bus) to get to SEA. However, given you're driving from the Yukon, why not take another 2.5 hours to get further south to Seattle? Why stop at YVR?

The bus/train adds more hours to your commute than necessary. Also, once you're at SEATAC, the MasterPark garage makes it so easy and inexpensive for you. The SEATAC area hotels are really inexpensive thru Priceline.com's Name Your Own Price option. I've gotten the nice SEATAC Doubletree for $55.

I always feel that vacation time is so limited that I feel the sooner we get there, the more time we get to enjoy the destination.

From a price perspective, your flights will be soooo much cheaper. Especially if you're planning to fly to DL. You have a choice of flying into SNA, LGB, or LAX. We've gotten one-way flights pp from SEA to those airports as low as $59 and as high as $89.

 

[Sue M]

I'm a little confused on what you are asking. Are you planning on flying or driving down from Yukon to Vancouver? If you plan on flying to YVR then bus or train from YVR to SeaTac, to catch another flight, I doubt you're saving much. But you'd have to price it out.

If you're driving from Yukon to Seattle to catch a flight wow! That's one long drive. Still don't know how much ahead you'd be when you calculate gas, hotels & time.

We often fly out of SeaTac, and get 1 night hotel before flight, leave our car at the hotel, used to be free, but after this next trip, it's changing, so will have to re-evaluate. Then on return, we stay another night at hotel, then drive home the next morning.


But as I said, after this trip, I'll have to re-evaluate because my fav hotel is now instituting new park & fly rates, in other words, rack rates, and have to pay for parking after 10 days I think. Not as good of a deal as it used to be.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

No I am not driving. Figured that since my starting point was YVR one would assume getting to that point by air.
MCO is my destination.
I am looking for options on the easiest way to get form yvr to sea. An airport to airport shuttle would be ideal but not a must as I have legs and do know how to use them
Flying out of YVR would be way way more than flying out of SEA. If I can save 500-1000 dollars by doing this I think it will be well worth the extra effort.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

AMTRAK operates two trains per day and four AMTRAK Thru-way bus services per day from Vancouver to Seattle. They depart Pacific Central Station in Vancouver and arrive King Street Station in Seattle. That station connects to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport via Sound Transit Link Light Rail service, about a two block walk. Unfortunately there is no rail connection from YVR Airport to Pacific Central Station so a taxi would be needed for that connection.

Fares to Orlando are MUCH cheaper from Seattle than from Vancouver. It's a more competitive route and since it's a domestic flight, fares do not carry all the international and Canadian (and Vancouver Airport) taxes!

BobK/Orlando

 

[aristocat65]

No I am not driving. Figured that since my starting point was YVR one would assume getting to that point by air.
MCO is my destination.
I am looking for options on the easiest way to get form yvr to sea. An airport to airport shuttle would be ideal but not a must as I have legs and do know how to use them
Flying out of YVR would be way way more than flying out of SEA. If I can save 500-1000 dollars by doing this I think it will be well worth the extra effort.

OK, I kind of figured that was the case. I did a little pricing out for you on travelocity (not knowing your dates of course) and on the dates I checked it was about $700 or more just to fly to YVR from Whitehorse. I see why you don't just fly to SEA as it would be even more and you have to change in YVR anyway. Travelocity came up with an itinerary Whitehorse-Calgary-Toronto-Orlando for around $1000 though. That's only $300 more. Your dates may be even cheaper?

I think when you factor in the cost of the bus to SEA and back, overnight hotel, food, etc, it isn't worth the hassle. Even if you could get a flight under $300 out of SEA (and prices have been higher this year) it wouldn't save you any money.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

This is great information guys, thanks!
I am hoping I can arrange it to get through seattle without a hotel. I can be at YVR by around 9-10am. If I can get down to the Vancouver bus station by 11-12, catch a bus and arrive in Seattle before dinner. possibly catch an evening or overnight route to MCO.

We are most likely going in Feb 2012. So I still have plenty of time to plan this out and see what works and what doesn't.

 

[aristocat65]

This is great information guys, thanks!
I am hoping I can arrange it to get through seattle without a hotel. I can be at YVR by around 9-10am. If I can get down to the Vancouver bus station by 11-12, catch a bus and arrive in Seattle before dinner. possibly catch an evening or overnight route to MCO.

We are most likely going in Feb 2012. So I still have plenty of time to plan this out and see what works and what doesn't.

You actually won't have to go to downtown vancouver as the Bus to SEA stops at YVR AFTER downtown on the way to the border, and it will be faster this way.
A warning though. If you are considering Alaska Airlines out of SEA, don't book too early as they have twice changed their schedule this past year eliminating the red eye after many were booked on it.
Good Luck!

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

You actually won't have to go to downtown vancouver as the Bus to SEA stops at YVR AFTER downtown on the way to the border, and it will be faster this way.
Good Luck!

Ok, so if I had about 60-90 minutes in between my plane from yxy(whitehorse) and bus to SEA; I would be OK. I believe the early flight from here arrives in Van at 9:15am. This should give me time to get to Sea-Tac to catch a evening flight.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

bump....
does anyone know how to get to the bus stop heading for sea-tac at the Vancouver airport? Do I just show up there and hope there is room on the bus? Can I buy a ticket in advance online? From Amtrak's website?

 

[aristocat65]

bump....
does anyone know how to get to the bus stop heading for sea-tac at the Vancouver airport? Do I just show up there and hope there is room on the bus? Can I buy a ticket in advance online? From Amtrak's website?

This link for YVR has the info for where to catch the Quickcoach to SEA. You should buy your tickets online in advance. There is a link to do that on this page also.

http://www.yvr.ca/en/getting-to-from-yvr/long-distance-scheduled-buses.aspx

I hope this helps you.

Amtrak would be an entirely different thing. I personally think the Quickcoach shuttle is much easier as you catch it at the Airport and it takes you to SEA. Amtrak would require some transferring to downtown I think and not as convenient for YVR-SEA airport travel (IMHO)

As to your earlier question of 1.5 hours being enough time, I think that is plenty. You only need to get off the plane at YVR, and claim bags if any which should take 30 min at the most. You will arrive at the domestic terminal and have maybe a 10 min walk to the international terminal where the QuickCoach stiop is. You might even have time to grab a quick snack.

 

[mbb]

Ok, so if I had about 60-90 minutes in between my plane from yxy(whitehorse) and bus to SEA; I would be OK. I believe the early flight from here arrives in Van at 9:15am. This should give me time to get to Sea-Tac to catch a evening flight.

Don't forget to factor in weather.

February weather can be dicey anywhere, and one late connection can really put a in major hassle to your vacation.

If you're booking individual segments, be very sure about missed/cancellation fees before you pay

HTH!!
And have a great trip!!!

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

Awesome! Thanks guys. If we can get a bus to arrive in Seattle before dinner I think there should be a evening or redeye to mco. I would feel fine stretching out the travel day to avoid a possible missed connection. We acctually missed our YVR connecting flight last year on the way to Disney, and it cost us a day(wasn't a total loss as united upgraded our seats to econ. plus).
Granted it would be a long day anywhere over 16 hours Im sure; it would save easily 500-1000 dollars on travel. Money that can be put towards a Disney hotel. Or a cruise out of Port Canaveral on DCL.

thanks again

 

[Sue M]

My 19 yr old took the bus from YVR to Sea. I had left 2 wks earlier with other daughter, but 19 yr old couldn't get off work that long, so she joined us later on, and then flew home with us.

I booked her in advance on line. It worked very well, bus was on time. She arrived at SEA about 3 hrs before her flight.

I believe the bus makes a couple of stops after YVR. One before the border, you go thur customs then it stops at The Seattle Outlet Mall too.


We freq. fly from Seattle. Way cheaper, even factoring in overnight hotel for us.

You may also want to check out Alaska Air, they are starting to fly out of Bellingham, WA It's a small airport closer to the border. Not sure what their sched. is like to MCO, but worth checking on. As time goes on, they may start adding more flights out of Bellingham. I think this is the first year they are flying out of BLI

 

[mbb]

I forgot to mention www.kayak.com if you don't know already

Easy search engine for flights.

HTH!

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

I was doing some checking on expedia and a trip right out of YXY(whitehorse) to MCO is close to or above 4k! YXY to YVR can be found for 1500 I would say. I can catch to quick coach to SEA-TAC for I think 250 bucks(retrun). Again this would be for DW,DD, and I. We could get from SEA-TAC to MCO for around 1k. We could have a night in Seattle at hotel and still be under 3k. I think this would be about the best I can do from up here. If anyone has ideas on how to cut it down a bit feel free to share them. I hope my plan will not be to confusing and it will work out.

 

[livingskies78]

When do you want to go, we are going feb/mar 2012 taking clipper from victoria-seattle, i get cheap flights

a

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

When do you want to go, we are going feb/mar 2012 taking clipper from victoria-seattle, i get cheap flights

a

Unfortunately we can only fly into YVR, so then we would have to get from yvr to Vic.
What is the Clipper?

 

[ABCanada]

What is the Clipper?

The Clipper is a passenger ferry from Victoria to Seattle.

Not certain what your travel dates are but I did a quick search on Kayak for mid Oct and came up with flights thru Calgary for under $900pp on AC (total travel time <13hrs down <15hrs back) traveling mid week.

For me it would need to be a significant saving to try and make all these connections. You need to factor in at least two nights accomodation, one there and one back, and meals.