john2003

As a lowly 25k, it is frustrating to fly a competitor. Booked a trip on April YYJ TO FLL and LGW to YVR.
Ended up on Westjet outbound. Around $600 vs $900 on AC in economy.
Returning PE also on Westjet. Just over $2000 vs $3600 on AC.
In the past it seems to me the fares stayed more in line. Guess this is what happens when demand exceeds supply. In case I am too enthralled by WJ, we have to ferry back to the island as they added $200 each for the 20 min hop to Victoria.

fbrdky

I think Flair and/or Lynx offers more pressure to AC than WS. At least I think it's keeping key routes like YYZ-YYC/YVR down to a reasonable Basic fare.

trek604

Flair is garbage though... Isn't there a Jetblue from YVR to LGA? Could you do US domestic to FLL somewhere from there?

john2003

True. But Westjet is going to start flying from LHR so can they ignore that?

john2003

The Westjet fare is reasonable for today for FLL. Being on the island reduces the options as it expensive to leave. Used to use Alaska as it is less flying but we can only connect to their redeye now.

trek604

Wow just looked you are right. The ferries are totally full and even harbor air is $300 from Victoria to Van harbor...

john2003

lots of costs at every turn and the market tanked. Not an encouraging situation.

Nitehawk

I have lots of complaints about YYJ now being seemingly decoupled from the regular AC fares. It used to be almost always the same as prices to/from YVR (plus like 50-100). Now YYJ flights can be ridiculously more expensive. For example I want to fly home from DC on Saturday. IAD-YVR is selling for ~$400 in flex. If I want to go to YYJ it's ~$1400.

​​​​I'm planning to use harbour air a lot more to get to YVR. They have their own version of flight passes and for about $1600 you can get 10 credits from YWH to YVR. On the plus side I don't have to worry about getting all the way to YYJ, I can just walk to the harbour air terminal and save on parking.

vancouver25k

The views from that flight are unbeatable.

john2003

Sounds like a great plan, and you are definitely right about yyj pricing.

cedric

A theory: YYJ's seen a lot of low cost competition with Swoop, Flair & Lynx offering 5 destinations non-stop from YYJ with some overlap between them. Result is that those 5 routes have become quite competitive (except YYZ, which Westjet ended up dropping with their tail between their legs). But because these carriers don't allow passenger to purchase connections, it's no doubt negatively impacted AC & WS on those routes for point to point traffic to the point where they have had to downsize capacity. For instance, AC had planned to operate mainline on three flights/day to YYC this summer, and all were moved over to Jazz. That's a lot less capacity that's now available for connections through YYC into Victoria.

Nitehawk

Trying to not derail this thread to be specifically about YYJ. I have another example that makes no sense.

Back in April there were lots of people taking advantage of great fares to EZE from YVR/YYZ/YUL. When searching from YYJ there wasn't even on option to fly AC to EZE, it would only produce results connecting in the US on UA for about 3x the fare (~$4k, vs $1.5K ex YVR in PY no less). I called in as well and they couldn't do anything about it except sell me YYJ-YVR for $300 each way as a seperate ticket. Now that YYZ/YUL-YYJ are operating it offers options to EZE on those flights but nothing connecting in YVR? It's like they are trying to kill off the YVR connections altogether. I'm sure those flights are expensive to operate.

cedric

I imagine the staffing shortage has likely extended to the planning team that does routes, schedules, fares, etc.
Probably a fare filing oversight that would have been caught in other times.

john2003

This is helpful as I have an EZE flight in January which is screwed up by a change. The option on my original date is to sit in YYZ for 14 hours waiting for a direct Rouge flight to Victoria. No YVR connection being offered. Bizarre from the customer perspective. Sounds as though fixing it will be a larger problem than I imagined.

HerpaYvr

Growing up in Richmond, we use to see those Harbour Air Beavers and the cost was so cheap compared to what the majors were charging. Good thing about YYJ is that fact a ferry ride to SEA for cheaper flights is a possibility.

Pre Covid I did a few Mileage runs to TPE and I had to go through YYJ for a one-hour layover a couple of times. YYJ was cheaper to fly into than YVR for a while. A few days ago i was asked if i would be interested in a role in Victoria and thus fly out of YYJ and I said no! Well that and the cost of living, lol