Gardyloo

There are also a couple of (very annoying) technical issues in using American or Alaska miles.  

In the case of using American miles, most itineraries to what I'll call "secondary" destinations (no offense intended) like Rome or Athens will include a transfer to British Airways at London, since AA has very limited, if any, nonstop service to those cities from the US.  By including a segment on BA (e.g. LHR-ATH) AA will add BA's awful surcharges and fees (not taxes - those are already added) to the cash needed on top of the miles.  These can be outrageous and can reduce the value of your miles by as much as half.  You may very well be much better off looking for mileage seats to some non-UK destination for a round trip, then buying the connecting legs separately with money.  My hunch is that you'd probably have less out-of-pocket costs doing so.  Look at Madrid, Paris, Helsinki, Dublin or Rome, all of which have nonstop flights from someplace in the USA.  From SAN you'd have to change planes en route, probably in Dallas, Charlotte or Philly, but you might still be $$ ahead.

There's a different (or I should say additional) problem with Alaska miles.  Unlike American, Alaska does not allow combining multiple partners in one itinerary, so, e.g., flying on American to London, then BA to Athens, isn't allowed.  You'd have to fly BA all the way, for which the fees would probably be in the $1000 range in each direction on top of the 65,000 miles.  That's ridiculous for a ticket that you could probably purchase outright for $2500 or so round trip.  So again, consider looking for an intermediate point in Europe that you can reach using AA.  For example, using AS miles, a one-way business class ticket to Madrid the week after Thanksgiving (this year) would require 57.5K AS miles plus $19 in fees, with a routing of SAN-xMIA-MAD versus over $1000 in fees if routed through London.    A one-way ticket from Madrid to Rome the next day would cost $69 in economy and $202 in business.  

Not trying to put you off, but maybe some things to consider.  

I used to have a travel consulting service through which I did this sort of thing for clients.  I quit when some airlines went to dynamic pricing, making the practice a lot more difficult.

I can't speak to any of the current consultants but I'd personally probably just do it myself.  

What cards or airlines are on the "possible" list?  One thing to watch out for are "user fees" and surcharges added to the miles required.  These can reduce the value of the miles hugely.

7 minutes ago, crzncrze said:

Wow, thank you all for responding. I certainly have lots to consider. I probably should have mentioned earlier that my start and end point is an Island in the Atlantic, meaning any choice I make will include a 21\2 to 3 hour flight to JFK then a layover before heading to Syd.

If it's like Bermuda, have you thought about heading east instead?  In general flights to Australia/NZ from the UK or mainland Europe tend to be a little cheaper - sometimes a lot cheaper - than from the US east coast.  It's not that it's closer, it's that there's more demand.  

The basic choices:

Quickcoach - $40 - $60 per person (depending on baggage) - roughly 5 1/2 hours.

Amtrak Cascades (train) - $30 - $50 per person depending on when booked.  4 1/2 hours to downtown Seattle, plus connection (public transportation or cab/Uber) to airport - $3 to $40 (for whole vehicle.)  Two trains daily, early morning and early evening.

Amtrak bus - same or a bit less than the train, several departures daily.  Also around 4 1/2 hours, also requires connection to airport

Fly - $170 - $200 (Air Canada or Alaska Airlines) - from YVR airport, 1 hr, numerous daily departures.

Rental car - Usually around $200, can be less if early in the season.  Around 3 1/2 hours depending on traffic and border delays.  

---

Regarding the train, the morning train departs too early to make same-day connections off arriving cruise ships, and the evening train arrives in Seattle too late for most flights out, making for either an extra night in Vancouver (to catch the next morning's train) or an extra night in Seattle before flying the next day.  So while the plane fare might be less, the total out of pocket might not be.

The Amtrak Cascades train route runs along the coast for much of the way and is reasonably scenic.   The Amtrak buses, Quickcoach, and any Greyhound buses travel along Interstate 5, which is not especially scenic.  

Flights and the train "pre-clear" US border controls (passport control, customs) before leaving Vancouver; the other modes require a stop at the border for inspection and clearance, adding anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more depending on the day.

With four, a rental car potentially offers a cost-effective ($50 per person) price, more flexibility, and, if desired, the ability to take an alternate route, potentially a more scenic one.   Google the places on this map for example - https://maps.app.goo.gl/tNYfJ7o2yKfbEtUJ7

If one could hear eyes rolling, it's likely that this post would result in that sound coming from the likes of Globaliser, Flyer Talker, and other frequent posters on this board, because it's a replay of numerous other posts I've made over the past few years.  So be it.

Now I/we have no idea about your budget, how often you cruise, how much time you might be able to spend traveling over the coming year, on and on.  Without knowing some of these things, it's likely that the following is a waste of bytes.  But just in case, here goes.

Member airlines of the two biggest airline alliances, Oneworld (American, Alaska, Qantas, British, Japan, many others) and Star Alliance (United, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Singapore, ANA, Air New Zealand, many others) all sell "round the world" tickets (RTWs) that allow multiple flights (up to 16) to be taken over the course of 12 months.  You have to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, going in the same direction, and end up in the country from which the travel began.  

Along the way, however, you can zigzag and backtrack to a considerable degree, provided you don't exceed the maximum mileage allowed under the ticket (for Star Alliance tickets) or the number of continents touched (for the Oneworld RTWs.)  There are lots of rules and dos and don'ts, but the bottom line is that this CAN be a surprisingly economical way to see the world - in business class - depending on where you begin and end the trip.  

Take your Australia/NZ cruise.  Right now for departures in this November, round trip business class from NYC to Sydney and/or Auckland is running upwards of $9000 on most carriers.  Premium economy on some days/carriers is somewhere between $3500 and $6000, which (in my view) is still in the realm of "are you crazy?"  Will fares for next November be higher or lower?  Your guess is as good as mine, unless you're a Hogwarts graduate.   Those fares won't appear until around the first of the year, but when they do, it's unlikely they'll be much less if at all, because the airlines hate uncertainty, and one way they hedge is by setting prices high at the opening of the booking period, in case their costs - fuel, labor, etc. - spike in the meantime.  Protect them profits, chaps!

But one big feature of RTW tickets is that they're priced VERY differently depending on where the trip begins and ends.  A Oneworld business class RTW ticket suitable for travel to Australia/NZ that has the trip beginning and ending in the US has a base price (before taxes and fees) of $11,071.  However, the same ticket, but with travel beginning and ending in Norway, has a base price of $5242, less than half the US price.  Ask your Hogwarts prof why, but that's what it is. 

Now, what do you get for that price?  Well, you get up to 16 flights over the course of 12 months.  Starting in Europe, you'd need a ticket that's good for four continents - Europe, North America, Australia/Pacific, and either Asia or Africa. 

You can spread those flights out over the full 12 months, stopping over for months at a time if you choose.  So imagine this. (Note I'm making this up - it could be completely different.)

Sometime next spring you get a cheap flight over the Atlantic.  Maybe a springtime cruise on the Mediterranean.  Use the cruise line's air service for a one-way booking.  (Or maybe you take a repositioning cruise in the spring from Florida to Barcelona or some such.)  Enjoy a cruise or non-cruise couple of weeks in Europe, then hop up to Oslo - maybe a hundred bucks from London.  

You've already bought your RTW tickets, so you turn up at the Oslo airport and get on a plane - in business class - and head back home.  There aren't (at the moment) any nonstop flights from Oslo to NYC operated by Oneworld airlines, so maybe the first flight is to Helsinki, then Finnair nonstop to JFK, or to London, or Doha, or Madrid, thence home.  

The ticket allows six flights (of the 16 maximum) within North America, which includes the Caribbean and Central America.  Maybe you use the ticket for an Alaska cruise, or for a non-cruise holiday in California, or the Canadian Rockies, or maybe for business trips to Texas or to see family in Puerto Rico... I don't know.  But then you end up back home.

Come November and it's time for the Sydney-Auckland cruise.  So it's off to Auckland on the Qantas nonstop, or to Sydney via LAX, or via Honolulu... all in the flat beds in the pointy end.

Cruise over, you fly from Auckland to Hong Kong, thence through Asia and ultimately back in Norway before the ticket turns back into a pumpkin.  Stop in the Maldives?  Singapore for the best food on Earth?  No problem.  

OR, if you really have the travel bug and with enough time, fly on Qantas' nonstop from Sydney to Johannesburg, and go on a safari for a week or so.  Then it's back to Norway, game over.   You'll have earned enough frequent flyer miles to fly home on miles, or maybe you've put together a master plan/bucket list and just buy another RTW and keep on circling the planet.

Now I'll stop here.  If this interests you, post a reply and I can get deeper into the weeds.  Sounds of eyes rolling.

I'd suggest you do your homework on access to Denali NP while the park road is still closed past MP 43 and also in May, when things have barely begun in the park even in "normal" years.  

Look at the Alaska Airlines-branded Visa card which will give you a bunch of Alaska miles at sign-up but which also provides you with an annual $99 "companion certificate" - one passenger pays the going price, the companion pays $99 plus taxes (usually $122 total) on any Alaska Airlines ticket - round trip, open jaw, one way.  So if the fare from St, Louis to, say, Seattle is $500, the price for two would be $622, or $311 per person.  Alaska miles are also very useful - many partners and decent redemption rates.  

A few connected or unconnected thoughts...

When - June.  It looks like schools in your district let out the week before Memorial Day, so cruising in June (early- or mid-month) is probably the best.  While there are no guarantees, generally glacier viewing from the ships is easier later in the summer compared to earlier, owing to less sea ice and icebergs/floes hampering access into the bay(s.)  Also see below in "ports of call" regarding a possible bear-viewing opportunity in Haines.

One way/round trip.  Since it sounds (rightly) that budget is a concern, I'd advocate a round trip cruise rather than a one-way that starts or ends in Seward or Whittier.  Adding a land portion will cause the cost to spike, would require more time away, cost more in airfare, and, until the internal park road at Denali National Park is repaired (probably 2026) that excursion would be less than optimal.

Departure/arrival point.  Vancouver, hands down, and I say that as a Seattleite.  The Seattle boats travel on open ocean west of Vancouver Island, on rougher seas and far from any coastal views, while the Vancouver boats stay on protected "Inside Passage" waters for more of the time - lots more.  PLUS - and this is a big plus in my mind - there are few places more enjoyable for kids than Vancouver.  Google these places/activities - Grouse Mountain, Lynn Canyon suspension bridge, Bloedel Conservatory, Stanley Park, Granville Island market, Vancouver Aquarium, Bard on the Beach, Richmond Night Market... on and on.  You could even rent a car and drive up to Whistler for an overnight - the "Sea to Sky" highway to Whistler is one of the most beautiful drives in North America.

Cruise line.  If you sort for round trips and Vancouver start/end, you'll also be reducing the eligible cruise lines; only a few (Royal Caribbean, HAL, a couple of Princess itineraries, maybe Celebrity) operate those routes.  Alaska cruises tend to be port-intensive and the differences between cruise lines might not be as important as in other regions.

Ports of call.  I'd strongly urge you to consider an itinerary that includes Sitka.  In my view Sitka has so much going for it in terms of history, beauty, wildlife... that not including it would be a mistake.  Google "St. Lazaria Island" to see what I mean.  Another priority might be to look for a cruise that stops in Haines, which not only is (by its own telling) the "bald eagle capital" of Alaska, but which also offers views of brown bears going after salmon in the Chilkoot River a couple of miles from town.  The bears won't turn up in numbers until the salmon arrive, usually in mid-June, so if that's a priority, cruising later in the month rather than earlier might improve the chances of seeing the bears.  

Cost-savings on airfare.  You might want to look at an Alaska Airlines-branded Visa card, which not only comes with a bunch of Alaska miles (very useful - many partners) at signup, but which also provides you with an annual "companion certificate" where one passenger pays the going rate and the second pays a flat $99 plus taxes (usually $122 all in) to fly the same flights - round trip, one-way, open-jaw, etc.   So say you want to cruise out of Vancouver, and let's imagine the round trip airfare on Alaska Airlines (plane change in Seattle) is $700.  (I'm just making things up, mind you.)  The first person pays $700, the companion pays $122, and the third (your son) uses some of the miles you got from signing up for the credit card) and pays $20 in taxes.  Total for 3 = $842, or an average of $280 each.  Alaska flies nonstop from CVG to SEA, so it would be hard for things to be any easier.

I'll stop here, sorry for blathering on and on.  Happy planning!

The cruise tours have apparently kept to itineraries that are very Denali-centered, despite the fact that the only road into the interior of the national park is closed short of the halfway point due to landslides, and is unlikely to reopen completely until 2026, maybe even later.    As a result, the number and length of tours into the park has been reduced, and while the tour packages try to advertise the glories of Denali to keep people coming, the reality is that you're likely to have a lot of time on your hands with four nights in the area (two of which are not that close to Denali.)  The cruise lines either own or control the hotels in the area, and obviously don't want to give up the revenue that might result if people chose to visit Denali on their own, or to skip it in favor of some other (more accessible) attractions.  

IMO the cruise tours aren't all that good value in the first place; spending 2/3 of your time for a reduced Denali experience strikes me as even poorer value.  

There's an (apparently) widespread belief that cheap seats and award seats on any given flight are made available as soon as a booking window opens, typically 330 to 360 days before the flight.  But that's just not the case.  

Put yourself in the airline's shoes (I know, hard.)  What will the price of jet fuel be eleven months from now?  Will the mechanics, or cabin staff, or pilots threaten work stoppages if their contract demands aren't satisfied?  Will some new airline start competing on the same (or similar) routes, perhaps some "discount" carrier?  Or will somebody exit the route?  Will the global economy soften, or a war break out, or...?

Uncertainty = risk, and the airlines HATE risk.  So they can - and often do - simply set airfares high enough early in the booking window to hedge against that risk.  Set the price high enough in month 1 to cover costs should the price of fuel go up in month 6.  Not to mention, your money is in THEIR bank earning interest (yeah, not much, but not zero) instead of yours.  

Later, once their operating costs are better known, and when the economic or political landscape is more predictable, they can lower prices to stimulate more sales.  They can do that until it gets close enough to the flight date that the only people left willing to pay higher fares are those who don't have any choice - last minute flyers, business travelers, people who need to get to someone's funeral or wedding, things like that. The prices will climb right up to when the door closes and the security video is showing.  

For award seats, the same thing applies, with the added dimension that while the airlines aren't getting cash for those seats, they're removing a contingent liability from their financial statements.  The airlines view outstanding mileage balances as liabilities, so allowing mileage redemptions plays big time into their profit and loss statements.  

If the same computers that decide when to reduce or raise prices for paid seats determine that releasing one or two into award inventory poses more benefit than risk to the airline's bottom line, they'll release them.  That might happen any day between day 1 and day 330; in fact often more seats are released at the last minute, when the computers have determined it's unlikely the seats will sell for the then-prevailing high prices.  

Some other factors also come into play.  First, summer is when peak demand hits for economy seats on international flights.  Makes sense - people going on vacations.  But it's also the season when business travel falls off (business people go on vacations too) so demand for business class seats falls off sharply in turn.  It seems ironic, but business class fares, especially on transatlantic routes, are typically lowest in the summer, the same time when economy fares are at their highest.

So all these words mean what to you?  Simple.  Keep track of fares, by all means, and when you see one that works with your budget, go for it.  BUT, remember that fares typically follow a "U" curve over the booking window - high to low then back to high.  Patience can pay off, sometimes big time, and remember that early birds don't always get worms; sometimes they get cats.

How flexible are you on time and days?  

Reason for asking, is that if you were willing to fly from GSP to Toronto, probably the day before your current plan, in order to be safe for the transatlantic connection, you could fly round trip from Toronto to Paris in business class on Air France for around US$2200 round trip.  The round trip (in coach) from GSP to YYZ is around $570 (Delta via LGA or ATL) so altogether you'd be out $2800 or thereabouts, for a MUCH more pleasant experience.  The downside is the flight time to/from Toronto and possibly a hotel night going and/or coming back.  It might be worth considering.  

18 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

Yes, and I have rented one.  They are in great shape, and Klondike is the only private car rental I recommend in Skagway as an alternate to Avis.  

 

Definitely go the car rental option.  The sites are beautiful.  I have gone as far as Whitehorse, but I do not recommend it.  There wasn't much to see there and unlike most Canadian cities, I found the people to be very cold and unwelcoming.  

 

However, do try to make it to Carcross.  It's a quirky little village with a cool history.  If you do have time to go a little further than Carcross, the Robinson Roadhouse is a neat little historical site to visit. If you make it that far, that should be your turnaround point.   

I would also recommend the Robinson Roadhouse ghost town as the turn-around point.  Kids can get a kick out of the old buildings, and the very noisy protesting marmots that populate the site.  

I'd also stop at the Carcross Desert for something quite unexpected in the north.  

https://maps.app.goo.gl/28BBe7nK24QG9Z67A

While you're looking, do consider trips that depart and return to Vancouver BC instead of Seattle.  Most of the cruises from Seattle travel north on open ocean west of Vancouver Island, where conditions can be rougher and where there are no views.  Most departing from Vancouver travel on protected "inside passage" waters east of Vancouver Island - smoother and more scenic.  Worth checking out.

2 hours ago, Blue and Green said:

Now that we are sometimes scheduling cruises 1 or 2 years out, I am wondering when is the best time to book the flights from US to London? We have travel insurance for the estimated cost of the entire trip, and Mr. Blue wants to fly business class or first class.  Will we be better off booking as soon as the flights become available, or waiting and watching? (This is my least favorite part of the planning process.)

 

Don't know where you've cruised or plan to go in the future (or non-cruise travel for what it's worth) but if you're planning that far out and want to fly in the pointy end, and especially if you're interested in global cruising and not just Europe/Caribbean, then you might want to do a little research on round-the-world (RTW) plane tickets.  I'm a broken record on the subject (those that know my shtick are groaning at the moment) but there might be some benefit in investigating this approach to flight planning.

Basically, these are tickets that allow up to 16 flight segments (takeoffs and landings) over the course of 12 months.  You have to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans one time each, and in the same direction, and end in the same country from which the first flight departed.  Aside from that main rule, however, the tickets can be quite flexible.  Within the ticket's limitations (either the total miles flown or how many continents you touch) you can zigzag and backtrack (not over the oceans) fairly easily.  

The feature that makes them potentially interesting to those who like to fly in premium cabins is that they can be excellent value depending on where the travel begins and ends, NOT depending on where you live.  The tickets are priced VERY differently depending on the "country of origin," meaning where the first flight departs.  For example, a three continent RTW ticket using Oneworld carriers (British Airways, American, Iberia, Alaska, Qantas, Japan et al) in business class has a base price of $10,426 if travel begins and ends in the USA.  However, the same ticket with travel starting and ending in Norway costs $4875; in Japan $4423.  (Note these are base prices; taxes and airline fees will usually add 10% - 20% to that total.)  

For that you'd get up to 16 flights, with a maximum of 4 flights in Europe, 4 in Asia, and up to 6 in North America, which includes Central America and the Caribbean.  (You'd also have to fly 3 intercontinental flights, so with a limit of 16 some continent would get shorted by one.)  

Imagine you had two European, one or two Caribbean or other North American cruises, and one Asian cruise planned over a 12 month period.  (I'm just making this up.)  Say you make your way to, say, London for the first cruise, on your own nickel.  You cruise the Mediterranean or the Baltic, whatever, then when the cruise is over, you fly to Oslo for cheap, and start the RTW that you've already bought.  You fly home, in business class.

Some months later, you use the same ticket to fly to Florida (or wherever) for a Caribbean cruise, or use it to fly to California for a Mexican one, or to Vancouver for an Alaska cruise.  Maybe two.  Then back home again.

Then it's time to shoot over the Pacific for an Asian cruise.  Hong Kong to Singapore?  Whatever.  Then you fly back to Europe, maybe for a fjords cruise, or Greece...   You end back in Oslo before 12 months have elapsed from the first flight.  In the meantime you've had up to 16 flights in the front end, with an average cost of around $350 - $400 per flight.  Not bad for business class from Detroit to Miami; pretty terrific for Chicago to Hong Kong or Rome to Dallas.  For $500 or so more up front, you could get a 4-continent ticket (also 16 flights) that could include Australia, Africa or South America.  

I'll stop here, but if this sounds appealing, let me point you to a thread I posted on Fodor's a few years ago that covers the subject in more depth.  Maybe for nought, but worth a thought.  

Here's the deal.  The road into and out of the interior of Denali National Park is closed past milepost 43 (of around 90) due to landslides and unstable conditions that will keep the road closed until 2025 or (more likely) 2026.  While the part of the road that's open can be quite scenic, and while you might see some wildlife from the tour buses that travel the road, you'd need to weigh whether the reduced access into the park, coupled with the VERY high price on the tours, is worth it to you.  

The many hotels that are clustered around the park entrance (accessed by road or rail) are dependent on (and sometimes owned by) the cruise operators, so while the experience in the park is reduced, the tours still spend the same amount of time as if it wasn't, for obvious reason$.  

The train ride from Anchorage to Denali is scenic in a few parts, but mainly goes through forest.  By comparison, the train rides to Anchorage from Whittier or Seward, where the one-way cruises from Vancouver dock, are fabulously scenic, albeit shorter.  

If it was me (and of course it's not) I'd save my money on the cruise tour and use it for some self-touring.  If you're on Princess, you'll be docking in Whittier.  Depending on when your cruise takes place, on arrival at Whittier, I'd take the "26 Glacier" cruise that's offered from the Whittier dock, then take the evening train into Anchorage.    

I'd then (the next day or the one after) do a flightseeing tour of Denali on a floatplane from Lake Hood in Anchorage.  This will be an incredibly memorable and - IMO - a far better investment than the land tour.  

If time permits the next day, you could rent a car and drive up to Independence Mine, an historic site on a mountainside above the town of Palmer, around an hour north of Anchorage.  This is a very scenic and interesting glimpse into Alaska's past, well worth the few hours it takes.  

Of course, these are personal opinions; but IMO they'd make for a more rewarding experience with your short time on the ground.  

Phillips Cruises Glacier Tour Whittier Alaska Prince William Sound

Alaska Flightseeing Tours & Air Charters | Rust's Aviation (flyrusts.com)

Hatcher Pass map - https://maps.app.goo.gl/twDdgkGfBxFSfg5y9

Rather than wrestling with the "multi-quote" option (which I always manage to screw up somehow) let me address some points raised in several posts above.  Sorry if these are out of order.

1.  You will NOT go through any immigration in London on a connection at Heathrow.  Security, yes, immigration, no.  This is called a "sterile transit" as long as you don't leave the secured (aka "airside") parts of Heathrow.  Even if you had to change terminals, for example from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3, you wouldn't technically enter the UK hence no need for border controls.

2.  You will go through both immigration (people) and customs (stuff) at your first port of entry in the US.  If that's PHL, it's there, if it's LAX, it's there.  You'll re-check your bags (if at PHL) after clearing customs, usually a formality.  Changing terminals at PHL is not a big deal; a little walking is all that's involved.  Sometimes it can be quicker than at LAX.  Scratch that - usually quicker.

3.  The extra cost for the British Airways flights ($295 vs. $90) is NOT due to taxes.  It's because BA adds "carrier imposed fees" on award tickets that use BA flights.  Years ago BA called these fees "fuel surcharges" (technically, "YR" or "YQ" fees on the tariff breakdown) but a US court ordered BA to stop calling them that, after BA lost a big class action lawsuit that showed they were no such thing and that they were simply a means to elicit increased profits from mileage award flights.  So BA just changed the name to "carrier imposed surcharge" and kept on as before.  The (Dutch, British and US) taxes on AMS-LHR-LAX are the same regardless of whose plane you're on; the difference is due to BA's surcharges.  AA has agreed to levy the same charges between LHR and LAX (or any US destination) even if it's an AA plane from London.  I believe the technical term for this practice is "ripoff."

4.  The algorithms used by the airlines to set fares and release seats into award inventory, and at what "cost" in miles, are some of the industry's most closely guarded secrets.  Trying to outguess these robots is a fool's errand, absent, like I say, an advanced degree from Hogwarts.  Ever since the major airlines went to so-called "dynamic pricing" for award seats (where the mileage can bounce all over the place, from, say, 22,500 miles for a coach seat to/from Europe to 100,000+ miles for the same seat) it's been harder and harder to know what good value is vs. poor.  My old rule of thumb was that I never used miles when their value was less than 2c or 2.5c per mile (divide the airfare by the miles needed) but those rules of thumb are much less useful now.  

5.  BA generally releases more seats at the opening of the booking window (330 or 360 days for most airlines) than other carriers (like AA) because they can use the "carrier imposed fees" (above) to hedge their profits.  But all airlines - BA, AA, all of 'em - release seats into award inventory throughout the eleven or twelve months of the booking period, when and only when their robots tell them it's more profitable to do so.  Not only will the robots tell them to release seats, but also how to price them - cheap to astronomical - in terms of the mileage requirement.

6.  Late August typically is when you see the highest cost for transatlantic economy-class plane tickets.  Ironically it's also among the cheapest times for business class, due to the falloff in actual business demand.  Looking at the required mileage for mid-August (up to 8/20, which is as far as AA goes at the moment) I can see some business class one-way awards for under 100K miles under $100 in fees.  Of course I don't know how many miles you possess, but even if you had to buy some miles from AA, this might be worth investigating.  Or, depending on how many Avios you have, you might look at using them for flights on Aer Lingus from Amsterdam to Dublin, connecting to Aer Lingus' nonstop to LAX.  You can book using BA Avios on Aer Lingus' website (Aer Lingus is owned by the same company that owns BA and Iberia) and one big advantage of traveling via Dublin is that you "pre-clear" all US border controls - immigration and customs - at DUB, so when you arrive in LAX it's like coming off a domestic flight.  Major time-saver.  

I'll stop here; hope this isn't too confusing.

The rental car offices in downtown Seattle have pretty normal hours; it shouldn't be hard to do some comparison shopping to see where the cheapest place is, counting base rates, one way drop fees, etc.  A taxi or Uber from Seatac airport to Pier 91 will run around $50, more like $15 - $20 from downtown, so add that to the total.  

I have to wonder, however, if taking the train (twice daily, morning and evening) might not be a better choice.  One-way fares between Vancouver and Seattle run around US$40, and the (daylight) ride is pretty scenic.  Home Page | Amtrak Cascades

Please, there's no "s" in the Pike Place Market.  Pike Place is a street.  

Remember there are two cruise terminals in Seattle, at Pier 66, right downtown, and at Pier 91, located around 2 1/2 miles north of the downtown core in a predominantly industrial area.  Most cruise lines use Pier 91; NCL is the main tenant at Pier 66.

It's important to include the "when" question with the "where" question.  You don't indicate what month this might take place, how long you have, or if you have any particular interests (or limitations) to take into account.  

The cruise tours make logistics easy, but they also only let you see (and stay) where it's best for the tour operators' bottom line.  On the other hand, independent travel in Alaska is expensive, distances are great, and you have to handle all those logistics yourself.  

MICA's treks on the Matanuska Glacier are well known and popular, but there are other options that might appeal; for example you could do a flightseeing tour of Denali with a plane that lands you on a glacier.  Pricey, yes, but talk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience... 

Or you could take the money you'd spend on some pricey cruise excursion, add the money you'd spend on a couple of (also pricey) days of car rental in Southcentral Alaska, and use it to fly up to Kotzebue, an Inupiat Eskimo community located on an inlet of the Arctic Ocean (around $320 round trip on Alaska Airlines from Anchorage.)  Kotzebue is above the arctic circle, and if your trip occurs during most of June or the first half of July, you'll have 24 hour sunlight.  Learn about this remarkable part of the world and the remarkable people that live there, stay at a comfortable Native-owned hotel across the street from the beach, stick a toe in the Arctic Ocean... 

What I'm saying is that more research is better than less, but we need more information in order to be of more help.  

14 minutes ago, Coral said:

I would not.

 

I think you have a better chance of traveling to Norway or Sweden during more predicted times (considering you are from the UK).

I was going to say the same thing.  Round trip airfare from London to Tromsø, Norway in January/February is around £190, and there are numerous tours out of the city (which is way farther north than the arctic circle turn-around on the Dalton Hwy in Alaska) to see the aurora, as well as other activities like dog mushing, etc.  

If your cruise is stopping in Victoria, odds are that this is a Seattle-based round trip.  (The Victoria stop is to satisfy the US legal requirement that foreign-flagged vessels on trips originating and ending in US ports have a stop en route in a foreign port.)

If that's the case, and if you have some time in Seattle before or after the cruise, it's worth noting that there are a couple of excellent gardens easily accessed from Seattle.  I won't say they're the equivalent of Butchart Gardens (although IMO Butchart is rather overpriced) they might be of interest.

1.  Kubota Garden in south Seattle is a beautiful (mainly Japanese) garden complex developed privately by Fujitaro Kubota and his family over decades.  Entrance is free, and it's a stunner of an experience.  Kubota Garden Foundation - Home

2.  The Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, reached by a 40-min. ferry ride from downtown Seattle, is regarded as one of the best botanical gardens in the US.  Take the ferry to Bainbridge, then connect to a local dial-a-bus service out to the gardens, and you're in for a terrific experience.  Bloedel Reserve | One of North America's 10 Best Botanical Gardens

The Alaska red king crab fishery has been cancelled for the past two years, so any king crab legs you'll get will likely have been frozen long ago. (Overfishing and climate change most likely.)

Try Dungeness crab, which is more plentiful, costs less, and is quite delicious.

You're on the open ocean instead of protected Inside Passage waters, so yeah, it's going to be bumpier - maybe a little, maybe a lot.  And you'll be far enough offshore that I wouldn't expect much in the way of scenery, but that will depend on the precise locations chosen in real time.  That's a problem with (a) Seattle departures and (b) ships the size of the Quantum - too big to handle some of the narrower passes in the Salish Sea and other parts of the Canadian Inside Passage.

Here's the view from the Portage Glacier visitor center taken a couple of years ago in the late summer/early fall.  https://goo.gl/maps/A6pNg1NUwwyuT1PM8

Here's a picture I took from basically the same spot around October 1980.

The Marx Bros. opened in 1978 or 1979 IIRC.  I broke up with a girlfriend over an expensive dinner there shortly after they opened.  (Her loss.)  

I was going to suggest an even older "old time" place a short walk from the Hilton, Club Paris, a definitely "old school" steakhouse but a major Anchorage tradition/landmark.  It appears that it's better lit than in the day, when we used to joke that one should order a sirloin medium rare, accompanied by a flashlight.