From UK. Fly into Seattle or Vancouver

We are doing a cruise from Anchorage and trying to work out whether it is better to fly into either Seattle or Vancouver from the UK and then a another flight to Anchorage.

 

Can anybody be able to help please. Also any advise on best paced flights greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks

 

Lou

I would recommend seatle as once you are in the country it's an internal flight to Alaska. If you fly in to Canada, you will have to go through border control twice. Once to get in to Canada & then in to the US.

 

A few years ago, I went from LA to Hawaii and the internal flight was a lot easier as I just walked of the plane when I got to Honalulu.

 

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There are a lot more flight options from SEA, a lot fewer from YVR (might even be/probably is seasonal) to Alaska.. If you're not fussy, you might be able to book the flights on one ticket which would point toward Delta (UK-SEA-ANC/YVR-SEA (or elsewhere)-UK) . AA/BA may work with Alaska Airlines and provide competitive though.

Thank you very much.

 

Cruising cockroach can you explain a little further please. Im not the brightest.

 

Thanks

 

Lou

We are doing a cruise from Anchorage and trying to work out whether it is better to fly into either Seattle or Vancouver from the UK and then a another flight to Anchorage.

 

Can anybody be able to help please. Also any advise on best paced flights greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks

 

Lou

 

I would recommend Seattle. There are more flights between Seattle and Anchorage than Vancouver.

I think you can fly with Icelandic air to Seattle. Short hop from uk to Reykjavik then on to Seattle. This may be a lot cheaper than a direct flight to Seattle. Have done this in reverse (Seattle to UK) and found the airline very good.

Just another idea for you!

 

 

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I guess you want to fly to Anchorage and then home from Vancouver. If so, go to the airline website of choice and try a booking (multiple destination) BRS or LON (generic code for all London area airports) to ANC and then YVR-LON (or wherever) and see what fare you get. You can also do the same on Kayak to check (but book directly through the airline website).

 

This way, you don't have to pay for separate tickets and possibly extra baggage fees (checked bags cost extra on domestic U.S. flights but will be included if on a single international ticket). Just price everything in.

Many Thanks.

 

Just looked at Icelandic air and they don't seem any cheaper at present.

 

 

Lou

It looks like FI (Icelandair) does fly into ANC (though only bi-weekly) so you could fly via KEF. It'll avoid all the misery of unnecessary flight changes. And you can fly from Vancouver (or Seattle if you particularly want to visit) on your way home so best to fly if the fares are competitive. All the US majors fly to ANC from many of their hubs so it'll be at least one change of flights anyway.

You might want to check out Norwegian Air, depending on when you are flying (you don't say in your original post). One-way from London to Seattle can run as low as $180. You could then connect with a domestic USA flight such as on Alaska or Delta from Seattle to Anchorage.

Thank you very much.

 

Lou

Just wonder as the Seattle flight is approx 12 hours from London and the Vancouver is approx 15 hours which wold people recommend.

Just wonder as the Seattle flight is approx 12 hours from London and the Vancouver is approx 15 hours which wold people recommend.

The Vancouver to London - Hearthrow is about 10 hours direct.seattle probably similar. To fly from Seattle add about 3 hours extra from Vancouver. If cruising to Vancouver from Alaska . There are at least two nonstops to Hearthrow and one to Gatwick.

Sorry are you saying Seattle and Vancouver are the same trade time. oe 10ish hours.

Just wonder as the Seattle flight is approx 12 hours from London and the Vancouver is approx 15 hours which wold people recommend.

"Block" (i.e.nominal) time for LHR-SEA is 9h 55m while LHR-YVR is 9h 30m. Both are around an hour shorter flying TO London due to prevailing tailwinds. In other words, flying nonstop, LHR-YVR is actually around 20 minutes shorter than LHR-SEA; Vancouver is actually 80 miles closer. Of course if one is changing planes someplace, all bets are off.

 

Because it's an international route, there's only one daily flight between YVR and ANC (Air Canada) in the summer, vs. around 25 flights daily from Seattle.

Seattle & Vancouver have almost negligible differences in flight time from any UK airport - it's all Great Circle routes over the pole, with Seattle a smidgen further therefore on average a very slightly longer flight time (e.g. Seatac is ~65 nautical miles extra compared to YVR from Heathrow - a few minutes extra in the air). A 3 hour difference I guarantee is down to a much longer layover somewhere on the particular Vancouver route you're looking at rather than how long you're in the air.

 

I can't recall from your original batch of posts if you decided to definitely cruise from Vancouver or Seattle - but if it's the former, remember that it will take an absolute minimum of 3 hours to travel between them (and that assumes you are in a rental car right after touchdown, avoid any traffic, have no undue delay at the border, and basically boot it at least a few mph over the speed limit the whole way - bus, train etc. will add at least 4 hours plus whatever time is required waiting for the next scheduled trip).

 

Edit - actually I see that your first post in this thread did confirm your cruise started in Anchorage! So for your flight over here, an additional factor is did you decide you wanted to hang around and sightsee for a while, then fly up to ANC? Or were you planning to just get all the flights out of the way in one go? If it's the latter then flights from SEA will be more frequent and offer a better chance of a shorter total flight time, as well as a more efficient layover en route based on the two flights you mention.

Edited September 9, 2017 by martincath

You will find far more options between London and Vancouver than you will between London and Seattle. Between Heathrow and Vancouver you have BA (A380 during the summer) and Air Canada (with one or two flights daily). Out of Gatwick you will be able to fly WestJet, airTransat and Air Canada Rouge.

 

You will find fewer flight options between Vancouver and Alaska than you would from Seattle. If you chose to use Vancouver between London and Alaska you do not clear Canada customer. During most of the day you will clear US customers in Vancouver before boarding your flight to Alaska.

 

The expensive aspect of your flight will be transatlantic part. You want to get that on a single ticket. That will give you the best price. If you can get the Alaska segment on the same ticket even better.

 

The key advantage of Seattle is there are more flights between Alaska and Seattle than between Vancouver and Alaska. The key advance of Vancouver is it is far less congested in the mid-late afternoon when most of the European flights are operating. Your bags will also be automatically transferred in Vancouver. In Seattle you will have to claim your bags and recheck them in.

Thanks for your replies. I seem to be getting myself a bit confused. If I am sailing from Whittier, I think (I'm not to bright) I have 3 options

 

1 London to Vancouver, Vancouver to Anchorage

 

2 London to Seattle, Seattle to Anchorage

 

3 London to Anchorage.

 

If the above is correct is there a reason why I wouldn't fly directly to from London to Anchorage. What would be the reasons for taking either of the other option. Is it cost, flight availability etc ??

 

Also can any tell me their preferred option for getting to Anchorage from London.

 

Thanks again

If your going to Anchorage .I would fly to Seattle and then to Anchorage . More daily flights on more airlines. Return after Alaska , Vancouver would been my choice..

 

 

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1 London to Vancouver, Vancouver to Anchorage

Cost and flight time to Vancouver roughly equal to that flying to Seattle. Cost to fly from Vancouver to Anchorage MUCH higher than flying from Seattle to Anchorage, only one airline serves the route, one flight per day.

 

2 London to Seattle, Seattle to Anchorage

Roughly same price and flying time as flying from London to Vancouver. Cost to fly to Anchorage MUCH lower than from Vancouver. Many more daily flights.

 

3 London to Anchorage.

No nonstop flights from the UK, several one-stop options available with plane changes in Germany, Iceland or in the US.

 

My recommendations:

 

1. "Open jaw" booking with one airline that flies both to Seattle and Vancouver. London - Seattle, Seattle - Anchorage, Vancouver - London. BA serves both SEA and YVR and are partners with Alaska Airlines (for the Seattle - Anchorage connection.) The "open jaw" itinerary on BA (LHR-SEA//YVR-LHR) will cost about the same as a return trip to either.

 

2. "Open jaw" on Icelandair - UK - (Iceland) - Anchorage, Vancouver - (Iceland) - UK. This will probably be the fastest and probably the cheapest alternative. In the UK, Icelandair fly out of Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Heathrow and Gatwick. They have daily flights from both Seattle and Vancouver that connect through Iceland back to those same British airports.

 

 

I don't believe there is a direct flight between London and Anchorage. If there is, that is probably your best bet.

Thanks for your replies. I seem to be getting myself a bit confused. If I am sailing from Whittier, I think (I'm not to bright) I have 3 options

 

1 London to Vancouver, Vancouver to Anchorage

 

2 London to Seattle, Seattle to Anchorage

 

3 London to Anchorage.

 

If the above is correct is there a reason why I wouldn't fly directly to from London to Anchorage. What would be the reasons for taking either of the other option. Is it cost, flight availability etc ??

 

Also can any tell me their preferred option for getting to Anchorage from London.

 

Thanks again

 

There are not direct flights from the UK to Alaska. You will have to transfer somewhere. There are a number of cities in the US that can be used for that connection as well as Vancouver in Canada. Seattle has the most flights to Anchorage of any airport.

 

 

Option 1

 

What you want to do is go to the web-site for BA, as well as Air Canada and Delta. Do a multi-city search from London (or the city of your choce) to Anchorage and Vancouver to London. At that point don't worry about where you make the connection, the software will sort that out. Each airline will present you with various options and prices. When the connection is made on the same ticket the airline is responsible for the costs of rebooking if you miss a connection.

 

You can also try online travel agencies.

 

Option 2

 

If you want to be responsible for missed connections, spend more time traveling, manually transfer your bags instead of letting the airline do it or have more stops on your journey you can try to build you own connections. An example of trying to do this would be to buy a separate ticket on ryan air to Iceland, icelandic from Iceland to Seattle and Alaska from Seattle to Anchorage.

 

I would go with option 1. If you do option 1, your journey might involve a connection between multiple airlines, but since it is all on one ticket the airlines are responsible for making it all work. If you do option 2 your responsible for making it all work.

Yuy

Edited September 10, 2017 by Kamloops50

You could try program to do a search.

 

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

Should also add if you do option 1. You want both the trip out and back on the same ticket. For a transatlantic flight, in most cases that makes the flight cheaper.

 

Select Multi-City:

 

London -> Anchorage outbound date

Vancouver -> London return date.

 

Some airlines to try: Air Canada, Delta, BA, Condor, Icelandair, American, United. Probably missing a couple.