Vancouver flights - when is the best time to buy?

[NYCMommy]

We have always done our cruises out of Florida in Feb and know the best time for flight purchases for us has always been in the July/August time frame. Cruising to Alaska this summer late July and no idea about flights to Vancouver. Looking now and none of the options seems great and are pretty expensive. Is there an ideal time to purchase? Hopper app says to wait - but I worry we will get stuck with awful options and expensive. Help?!?

 

[Shanti]

We have always done our cruises out of Florida in Feb and know the best time for flight purchases for us has always been in the July/August time frame. Cruising to Alaska this summer late July and no idea about flights to Vancouver. Looking now and none of the options seems great and are pretty expensive. Is there an ideal time to purchase? Hopper app says to wait - but I worry we will get stuck with awful options and expensive. Help?!?

We booked flights for our upcoming June cruise last summer and got an amazingly low rate to Vancouver via WestJet. And when I say low, I mean low. We're flying from central Texas, and I've occasionally paid more to fly to Orlando than I paid for our tickets to Vancouver.

Rates are undoubtably higher now than they were for us last summer, but I still recommend you check them out. Be sure to look at the rates in American dollars, not Canadian dollars. Book soon.

 

[xlxo]

Late July has several festivals in Vancouver. This is high demand pricing.

 

[cmph]

I'm not sure where you are coming from, or if you're working with a TA? We're sailing in late June, from Phoenix, which wasn't so bad and didn't change much since I first started looking last year.We could have saved by flying a cheaper alternative - some Air Canada affiliate (something Jazz?) that has small planes - but the small planes make me airsick and that's a long flight to be sick on. Or by booking with stops. But neither option was worth the minimal savings. My extended family coming from St. Louis saw fares that were a bit wacko, more than twice as much as our flights from Phoenix when our TA started to price it out. She kept at it for a couple of weeks, re-checking over and over, and ended up grabbing airfare that was far less than the cost of what she (and my family via their own searches) had been seeing since we started looking long ago. Like $250pp less. Shockingly, that was through DCL! and yeah, it was that different than the quote we got from them just a couple weeks prior. Persistence pays off, which is why I love my TA! We're getting toward the paid in full time frame, and people who booked through DCL are possibly canceling, so maybe that's where the great airfare came from? I don't know. Trying DCL may be worth a shot.

 

[NYCMommy]

Flying from NYC...

 

[Alura21]

I booked mine for my May alaskan voyage last month. Rates can drop, but there's too much of a risk of it increasing. Especially if it's a long trip. Mine was only 280 and now its 248. Tuesday I think is the best day to get air reservations.

 

[Belle2002]

I used to be a TA and there really is no "best time" especially with Canadian airlines. I live in western Canada and Vancouver is an incredibly popular destination in the summer and I think flight options between Vancouver and NYC are probably super limited and terrible scheduling. I know right now none of the Canadian carriers (west jet and air canada) are offering any sales for the summer. Best suggestion is to sign up for e-mail notifications from the airlines to be notified about deals.

 

[Trip planner]

We just booked our plane tickets (from the east coast) for June and we paid $400/ ticket. That is the cheapest I had seem them. I had budgeted $600.

 

[Disney_Alli]

Get the Hopper app and start tracking flights. It shows you exactly when to book and what prices to expect. It does skip one of the major carriers though (Delta maybe? I can't remember)

 

[Trip planner]

Booking earlier may yield better availability on more ideal flight times. You also have to consider what you are willing to put up with for a cheaper flight. I found cheaper flights with 2 stops (and thus 6 hour longer flight time) and other cheaper flights landing in the middle of the night. My husband was game to save $50/ticket until I pointed out we would have to get at least another meal in an airport, put up with tired children, plus find a lyft/Uber at 2:30 am.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

We are traveling from the Northeast for our cruise first week in August. We are using Southwest to Seattle and Amtrak to Vancouver. Fits the budget due to using points with Southwest. But check this route even w/o points as Southwest has sales and their prices are usually good. Coming home we found the flights day of arriving back poor. You can't fly early to get the best prices as you are not off the ship yet. We decided to spend the day and night and got an early morning, non-stop on Air Canada back to Boston. Not cheap, but the best we could do as no one wanted a red eye flight with stops and layovers. Our Southwest flights were booked when the window opened, back in November. The Air Canada flights I watch from the end of last year and then snagged the non stop and bought the tickets in January. Good luck. I personally wouldn't wait too long. Maybe a TA can help and check with Disney.

 

[sisterpate]

We bought one way tickets home from Vancouver to San Diego through Air Canada. best customer service ever and cheapest fare buy over $200 US dollars.

 

[xlxo]

We just booked our plane tickets (from the east coast) for June and we paid $400/ ticket. That is the cheapest I had seem them. I had budgeted $600.

The luggage and other airline fees may push it to $600.

 

[RedSox68]

When we sailed in May 2012, we flew into Seattle (much cheaper) and took Amtrak to Vancouver (great experience and wonderful views).

 

[buzzsmom]

We booked our tickets about 6 months out from our cruise last August through Delta, didn't see prices go down after that. I would advise to double check the actual carriers of the flight you end up booking. The red-eye leg of our return flight ended up being on WestJet, a budget carrier and definitely not the most comfortable seating arrangement. All things being equal, I would have paid a bit more to be on an Air Canada flight.

 

[disneycruise100]

Check out the app "Hopper".

It compares flight prices and tells you if you should wait to buy them For example if the prices are about to rise or fall.

 

[x19]

When we sailed to Alaska from Vancouver, we actually flew into Seattle (from Chicago) and then took the train up to Vancouver. It was significantly cheaper, and we enjoyed a very scenic train ride. If we sail to Alaska again, and we intend to, that's probably the route we'll take again.

 

[Shanti]

Our flight costs were about $300 round trip per person between Austin and Vancouver via WestJet for this June. We booked that 11 months in advance and I was awed by the price- I've paid more to fly to Orlando at certain times of year. The flights were conveniently scheduled, too.

 

[NYCMommy]

Get the Hopper app and start tracking flights. It shows you exactly when to book and what prices to expect. It does skip one of the major carriers though (Delta maybe? I can't remember)

Have been monitoring hopper and it keeps saying wait, but also shows terrible flights that won’t work, like a 6am return...

 

[Disney_Alli]

Have been monitoring hopper and it keeps saying wait, but also shows terrible flights that won’t work, like a 6am return...

Yeah it just shows everything available. I usually only fly one airline but it still helps me see trends