Canada - Calgary / Rockies and YVR redemption

[HeavyElectricity]

I'm just planning some travel for next year, and will be arriving in Calgary from LHR.

For my way back to Australia, I've just seen a non-stop redemption from YVR open up, so would like to jump on it and cancel my long SFO-SIN-Australia route I have at the moment (it was all I could find)!

My question is, would you spend 2 weeks in/around Calgary and The Rockies (and therefore get YYC-YVR on the same redemption ticket), or is that too long to spend there, and should I fly to Vancouver/Vancouver Island earlier instead on a paid fare?

I've briefly visited Vancouver and Vancouver Island before in 2006, and absolutely loved Vancouver Island - but the primary purpose of this visit is really The Rockies and walking/hiking (never been before). I'm thinking I should just spend all the time in The Rockies, but I don't want to regret it if that's too long and I was so close (relatively) to Vancouver Island for a re-visit.

If anyone could share some knowledge it would be appreciated!

 

[pyffii]

I'm just planning some travel for next year, and will be arriving in Calgary from LHR.

For my way back to Australia, I've just seen a non-stop redemption from YVR open up, so would like to jump on it and cancel my long SFO-SIN-Australia route I have at the moment (it was all I could find)!

My question is, would you spend 2 weeks in/around Calgary and The Rockies (and therefore get YYC-YVR on the same redemption ticket), or is that too long to spend there, and should I fly to Vancouver/Vancouver Island earlier instead on a paid fare?

I've briefly visited Vancouver and Vancouver Island before in 2006, and absolutely loved Vancouver Island - but the primary purpose of this visit is really The Rockies and walking/hiking (never been before). I'm thinking I should just spend all the time in The Rockies, but I don't want to regret it if that's too long and I was so close (relatively) to Vancouver Island for a re-visit.

If anyone could share some knowledge it would be appreciated!

Salt Spring Island is amazing and well worth visiting...we are avid hikers and no hiking to speak of on Salt Spring but if you have time go to Tofino on Vancouver Island for amazing hikes ( Meares Island and the wild pacific trail at Uclulet )...Its possible to do both Salt Spring and Tofino but you will need a car

 

[RooFlyer]

What time of year? I'm assuming not winter if you are hiking in the Rockies. Hopefully not also school holiday time over there, as the roads and the places to visit get extremely crowded.

Having spent a lot of time in BC (including on the Island), personally I'd maximise time in the Rockies. The Island is pretty/beautiful, but not so radically different from many other places (except if you get on the water and go after the Orcas).

The Rockies are so very large and scenic, you can well spend 2 weeks there, especially as it sounds like you are doing hiking and not just driving around. I'm sure you have already done much planning, but you should look at:

* Bugaboo Provincial Park, with its glacier;
* Kananaskis area;
* Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Provincial Park
* Highway 93 between TCH and Radium Hot Springs;
* Icefields parkway from TCH to Jasper
* Glacier National Park of Canada

... as well as the usual Banff/Lake Louise areas.

For coffee, I recommend Wild Flour Café in Banff (they call themselves a bakery) and DeVille in Calgary (downtown, 1 St SW).

Have spent a lot of time in Calgary over the years - let me know if I can help with details there. This Trip Report has quite a bit on Calgary.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

What time of year? I'm assuming not winter if you are hiking in the Rockies. Hopefully not also school holiday time over there, as the roads and the places to visit get extremely crowded.

Thanks RooFlyer, that's made my decision. This trip will be all about The Rockies, and I'll leave a re-visit to Vancouver Island for another time.

I'll be heading there from around the last week of August until the first week of September. I hope I'll have avoided the summer holiday crowds, that will be very disappointing. I don't have too much flexibility (give/take a few days), as I'll be heading to Canada after attending a wedding in the UK.

Now to see if I can get SQ to swap my SFO-SIN-MEL ticket... :/

 

[HeavyElectricity]

So, that was a very strange situation...

SQ website shows availability for YYC-YVR and YVR-MEL, but not YYC-MEL. Not enough points to book this as a new flight through the website, and can't make an origin change to my existing SFO-SIN-MEL booking online.
SQ phone call 1 apparently showed no availability at all for YVR-MEL.

So complete failure there. Abort this attempt.


Hang up and try again...

SQ phone call 2 could see availability on both flights and offered to cancel/rebook immediately, but said taxes would be ~SG$500. The online options showed YYC-YVR at ~CA$39 and YVR-MEL at ~CA$68. So I was expecting it to be around ~SG$113. Hmmm.

Sigh. The trials and errors of flight redemptions!

I asked if it was the combination of the two legs which were resulting in higher taxes, but the phone operator said it's more likely that the 'offline' booking system is calculating things differently, than how the website is calculating it. After some discussion we decided to cancel my existing SFO-SIN-MEL booking, and points were credited back to my account immediately. I then made the YVR-MEL booking on the website myself (whilst phone operator stayed on the line to confirm it all went through ok), so I only paid ~CA$68. With the savings in taxes I can easily buy a cheap economy ticket YYC-YVR!

So, at least in this particular case, the failure of the website to show the two sectors for me to book was outweighed by its failure to charge the fuel surcharge! In fact it would be the same cost (maybe cheaper) to buy a revenue business class ticket for the YYC-YVR leg than to have paid the taxes using the phone booking option (not that I would pay for business class on a 1.5h flight).

Another side-note: Krisflyer phone operator was able to assign me a specific seat on the AC flight, even though that can't be done online via 'Manage my Booking' on the website (it only allows window/aisle preference to be chosen). He was very helpful.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

I'm sure you have already done much planning, but you should look at...

I just wanted to say thanks for these suggestions - I haven't actually planned anything yet - I have a lot of reading to do! It was just the difficult North America - Australia redemption availability that's made me want to get the flights sorted asap first.

I'll be certain to read your trip report this afternoon!

 

[RooFlyer]

Sounds like a decent result with the flights. Don't cut the transit in YVR too fine - when AC scheduling goes pear-shaped, it goes the whole way!

Assuming your bags will be checked through, if you make the transit more than, say, 3 hours, you can get the 'Airtrain' from YVR to downtown Vancouver where you can have some fun while killing time (and, depending on the departure time of the flight from YVR, maybe have dinner downtown as well).

 

[vetrade]

* Bugaboo Provincial Park, with its glacier;
* Kananaskis area;
* Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Provincial Park
* Highway 93 between TCH and Radium Hot Springs;
* Icefields parkway from TCH to Jasper
* Glacier National Park of Canada

What's TCH?

 

[RooFlyer]

Oops, sorry, Trans Canada Highway.