Cruisetour ending in Fairbanks

[rowrow]

To fly directly out of Alaska to New Zealand after a cruisetour ends in Fairbanks, is it preferable to self-journey down to Anchorage and fly from there or fly direct from Fairbanks which I believe changes at Anchorage anyway. What options to get from Fairbanks to Anchorage under self steam?

[fishywood]

Plugging FAI-AKL into the various search engines finds the first leg of most itineraries as FAI-SEA, followed by a short hop to the gateway city, either YVR, SFO or LAX; thence to AKL. Some of these routes are 5 or 6 hours less total travel time than starting with an FAI-ANC leg. You have to watch layover times carefully--itineraries that are more or less the same price vary between 28 and 36 hours total.

 

ETA: a little more digging found on certain days a FAI-ANC-LAX-AKL with far less layover time than routing through SFO and the FAI-ANC at that hour is an actual 737, not a turboprop (another significant item to watch given luggage limitations on the smaller planes).

Edited April 1, 2017 by fishywood

[skippyjasper]

Is it plausible to reverse the tour and begin in Fairbanks, do the land part and then move to the ship?

You then disembark in Vancouver.

We did this same trip and found it favorable.

Skippy