Fellow South Floridians - Advice please!

I am researching flights to Alaska from Fort Lauderdale Airport - push comes to shove, we can leave from PBA or MIA.

We are on a cruise tour that leaves from Anchorage and disembarks in Vancouver. In your experience is it better to fly rt to Seattle then catch a flight to Anchorage and after the cruise catch a bus to Seattle? I've looked at multi city flights - FLL to Anchorage, Vancouver to FLL - and the options are not great.

We are going to leave at least two days before the cruise tour begins so time is not an issue but I would prefer to not arrive in Anchorage in the wee hours of the morning. Am I missing something? Is there an easier way?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

I do not know about cost and times after Cont. and United merger but direct to Chicago then direct to Anchorage. Return works from several airports into Chicago then to Southern Florida

I am researching flights to Alaska from Fort Lauderdale Airport - push comes to shove, we can leave from PBA or MIA.

 

We are on a cruise tour that leaves from Anchorage and disembarks in Vancouver. In your experience is it better to fly rt to Seattle then catch a flight to Anchorage and after the cruise catch a bus to Seattle? I've looked at multi city flights - FLL to Anchorage, Vancouver to FLL - and the options are not great.

 

We are going to leave at least two days before the cruise tour begins so time is not an issue but I would prefer to not arrive in Anchorage in the wee hours of the morning. Am I missing something? Is there an easier way?

 

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

We are flying into vancouver from WPB and returning from anchorage to WPB. I found cheapest flights by booking each as a one way flight .. Our flight out leaves at 7am arrives 4pm and return flight leaves 11pm arrives 1pm next day I paid a total of $665 .. Return flights had earlier times for about same rate but this time worked best for us... Hope this helps

I'm going from Charlotte but I researched a thousand options and it ended up being cheaper doing Charlotte to anchorage, then Vancouver back to Charlotte. Search on kayak and you get a lot of options. We got $550 per person, and Charlotte is a notoriously expensive place to fly from.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Charlotte is a notoriously expensive place to fly from.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I know I'm off topic, but this made me laugh. I fly to Key West regularly from Knoxville, TN. Once, and only once, did I fly USAir through Charlotte. It was $150 cheaper to fly from Knoxville to Charlotte to Key West than it was to fly on the exact same flight from Charlotte to Key West. Thanks for the validation of my suspicions. :D

Thanks everyone for your replies - so helpful. I will keep searching!

We are doing southbound so need to fly in to Anchorage and out of Vancouver. Can't book for another month but have been playing around. Doesn't save much money and sounds like a pain to take the train to Seattle from Vancouver and fly from there. We are coming out of Texas.

To take the train from Vancouver to Seattle is not an easy trip. First you will have to get a taxi from the terminal to the train station. There you buy the ticket for the BUS ride to Seattle. You can buy directly to the Seattle airport or go to the Seattle Amtrack station which I do not recommend as you would then have to take another transportation to the airport. It is about a 4 hour bus ride depending on conditions at the border. There you will have to take all your luggage off the bus and go thru customs and then put it back on the bus. There is a schedule for buses and it is not that good. Catching a particular flight out of Seattle would be a hit or miss item unless you spent the night in Seattle. Can it be done. Yes. Is it worth it to save a few dollars. having done it several times I would say NO. We now fly directly to and from Vancouver to Virginia. Much easier and less time consuming.

I am doing a northbound cruise. Decided to spend a couple of days in Seattle first (Pikes Market Place is on my bucket list) then take the Amtrack into Vancouver. There are United flights from PBI to Houston then Houston to Anchorage flight. Most of the flights from/to South Florida into/from Anchorage involve 3 connections. I was able to find 2 connections, but it took some research on my part.

I am doing a northbound cruise. Decided to spend a couple of days in Seattle first (Pikes Market Place is on my bucket list) then take the Amtrack into Vancouver. There are United flights from PBI to Houston then Houston to Anchorage flight. Most of the flights from/to South Florida into/from Anchorage involve 3 connections. I was able to find 2 connections, but it took some research on my part.

United has a direct Houston to Anchorage flight?? Are the times OK? Any other airlines with direct?

Thanks

To take the train from Vancouver to Seattle is not an easy trip. First you will have to get a taxi from the terminal to the train station. There you buy the ticket for the BUS ride to Seattle. You can buy directly to the Seattle airport or go to the Seattle Amtrack station which I do not recommend as you would then have to take another transportation to the airport. It is about a 4 hour bus ride depending on conditions at the border. There you will have to take all your luggage off the bus and go thru customs and then put it back on the bus. There is a schedule for buses and it is not that good. Catching a particular flight out of Seattle would be a hit or miss item unless you spent the night in Seattle. Can it be done. Yes. Is it worth it to save a few dollars. having done it several times I would say NO. We now fly directly to and from Vancouver to Virginia. Much easier and less time consuming.

Thanks for this - I feel like I can now eliminate this option while doing my search. I was thinking of spending the night in Seattle - but I think the hassle just isn't worth it.

I am doing a northbound cruise. Decided to spend a couple of days in Seattle first (Pikes Market Place is on my bucket list) then take the Amtrack into Vancouver. There are United flights from PBI to Houston then Houston to Anchorage flight. Most of the flights from/to South Florida into/from Anchorage involve 3 connections. I was able to find 2 connections, but it took some research on my part.

Pikes Market is on my bucket list too - but I think I'm going to wait for a land trip to visit that part of the country. Completely off topic but DH and I are actually in the process of purchasing an RV (a necessity due to our much loved canine child) and plan on touring the country slowly and in depth over the next few years. The entire west coast is on our bucket list! We have a friend who toured all of Alaska in his motor home and swears that is the only way to do it....we'll see. Right now I'm having a blast planning this cruise!:D

It looks like we are going to just have to accept the fact that we will fly direct and deal with multiple connections. We did a land tour of the Big Island in Hawaii a few years back and it took 18 hours door to door. It sure was worth it as I am absolutely sure Alaska will be as well!

I've looked at multi city flights - FLL to Anchorage, Vancouver to FLL - and the options are not great.

I was in the same boat last year. We flew Alaska from FLL to Anchorage with a layover in Seattle.

For the flight back, we flew Air Canada from Vancouver to FLL with a layover in Toronto.

These flights turned out to be perfect. Good luck!

Thanks for this - I feel like I can now eliminate this option while doing my search. I was thinking of spending the night in Seattle - but I think the hassle just isn't worth it.

That post described the BUS trip not the TRAIN. The first line said TRAIN but then he/she went on to describe a bus trip. An entirely different scenario. And was it the Amtrak Cascades Bus or Bolt Bus or Quick Coach?

.

Many people fly into SEA, then take the evening train to Vancouver 6p-10pm.

OR, Alaska Airlines flies almost hourly to Anc so people book a multi city trip; home-seattle-anc-home. Or look into the $100 companion fare on Alaska if you have their credit card.

If you're spending that much time (and aggravation) looking for a good fare and convenient flight, why not go to a reputable travel agent ? I had a multi city Europe trip, following a cruise from Venice and spent COUNTLESS hours researching airlines, city pairs, trains, buses, etc. I finally got frustrated and went to a local TA on my lunch break. When I stopped by after work, they confirmed I HAD chosen the best route, but good grief, I had wasted so much time, whereas they did it in an hr !! They charged $25 per ticket which I thought was reasonable. Plus he got our Venice hotel at a cheaper rate than I found on the internet. I'll continue to book simple flights myself, but if have to spend more than an hour, a $25 charge to my TA is well worth the aggravation.

Pikes Market is on my bucket list too - but I think I'm going to wait for a land trip to visit that part of the country. Completely off topic but DH and I are actually in the process of purchasing an RV (a necessity due to our much loved canine child) and plan on touring the country slowly and in depth over the next few years. The entire west coast is on our bucket list! We have a friend who toured all of Alaska in his motor home and swears that is the only way to do it....we'll see. Right now I'm having a blast planning this cruise!:D

I rented an RV in Anc for 2 weeks and it was fantastic. What a great way to see Alaska ... you just roam around with total flexibility because your bed, kitchen and bathroom are with you all the time! My retirement trip will be to spend a summer driving to and around Alaska.

If you're serious about it, you'll find this blog site very helpful. Just look down the page and you'll find trip journals from people RV'g from all over the country to Alaska .... . Enjoy! http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-United_States-Alaska

I rented an RV in Anc for 2 weeks and it was fantastic. What a great way to see Alaska ... you just roam around with total flexibility because your bed, kitchen and bathroom are with you all the time! My retirement trip will be to spend a summer driving to and around Alaska.

If you're serious about it, you'll find this blog site very helpful. Just look down the page and you'll find trip journals from people RV'g from all over the country to Alaska .... . Enjoy! http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-United_States-Alaska

Thank you so much for this. I am so excited for this next adventure and am only hearing good things about traveling by road and camping. We already travel 1500 miles on the road from Hollywood FL to our retirement home in the Adirondack mountains and staying in pet friendly hotels is so limiting. I am already "stalking" (haven't joined yet) some RV forums - they're as active and opinionated as cc!

I was in the same boat last year. We flew Alaska from FLL to Anchorage with a layover in Seattle.

 

For the flight back, we flew Air Canada from Vancouver to FLL with a layover in Toronto.

 

These flights turned out to be perfect. Good luck!

Yes, I think that is what we are going to end up doing - it just gets too complicated otherwise. There's more than enough to do trying to figure out what to do once we get to Alaska!!