CoastSavers & Other Fare Promotions

[Low Light Mike]

Aug 21, 2015 9:50:50 GMT -8 @sccommuter said:

Breaking: Walk on fares will be 50% off for mid day, mid week sailings on major and minor routes, as well as on Saturday afternoons and evenings. In effect Sept 8-Oct 15.

For the Northern Runs, all walk on fares will be 50% off for October.

A Coast-Saver by any other name is just as sweet.

BCFS release excerpt: from HERE

Enjoy 50% off regular passenger
fares on select sailings on all routes.


Major & Minor Routes:
When: September 8 to October 15, 2015
Select sailings* (see above link for listing)
Monday to Thursday, and Saturdays
Where: Metro Vancouver; Vancouver Island;
Sunshine Coast; Southern Gulf Islands;
Northern Gulf Islands



Northern Routes:
When: October 1 to October 31, 2015
All sailings**
Where: Inside Passage; Haida Gwaii; Discovery Coast Connector; Skidegate / Alliford Bay

Karl take note.

[Koastal Karl]

oh I already have taken note! Glad Saturday is part of it as I only get weekends off! I am surprised they are doing this on the northern routes like the inside passage too!

[Dane]

Hmmm I have a lot of pent up ferry riding to do. It had gotten unaffordable to ride ferries for no reason for me, so this will be a great opportunity. Plus I work a two day two night four off schedule so have a lot of weekdays off!

[Koastal Karl]

if you use a route with an experience card discount like example Comox to Powell River it was like $15.50 so half of that would be $7.75 but my question is would you still be able to use the experience card for a discount on top of that??? I kind of doubt you would be able to but I also dont now how much the experience card discount is on that route.

[Deleted]

Aug 21, 2015 17:10:31 GMT -8 Koastal Karl said:

if you use a route with an experience card discount like example Comox to Powell River it was like $15.50 so half of that would be $7.75 but my question is would you still be able to use the experience card for a discount on top of that??? I kind of doubt you would be able to but I also dont now how much the experience card discount is on that route.

As I understood Mr. Corrigan this morning, the answer is no.

[Low Light Mike]

Here's BCFerries' standard explanation for promotional fares, this time from the April-June 2015 MD&A report (released today, and available to view on

From time to time, we utilize promotional fares designed to stimulate growth in traffic or to direct traffic towards our less busy sailings while ensuring compliance with approved price cap orders.

In calculating the price cap, vehicle and passenger tariffs, as well as reservation fees, are combined. The utilization of promotional fare incentives may cause the average vehicle and passenger tariff rate to be under or over the allowed increase in any one period.

ie. The maximum fares are determined by the commissioner, called a Price-Cap. But this is supposed to cover BCF's fare and reservation. Because the reservation fees are unpredictable, the resulting "too much average revenue" needs to be periodically offset by these types of promotional discounts.

[Low Light Mike]

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the "Dear BC Ferries" facebook page's rant about the 50% discount. Even though that page posted the sale parameters a few weeks ago, they somehow forgot about them when posting a self-serving (and backfiring) rant yesterday.

It will give you a good laugh...

A great example of "don't think before you post" and a continuation of their showboating-without-facts legacy.

[Curtis]

And now we're getting 50% off Vehicle Fares from November 16-December 19. (A day earlier and a day later for the Northern Routes)

www.bcferries.com/promotions/50-percent-off-vehicles.html?utm_campaign=50percentoffvehiclepromooct2015&utm_medium=web&utm_source=bcfhome

Never thought I'd see the day this happens, but then again, it was also a nice surprise to have 50% off Passenger Fares for the last month or so.

[WettCoast]

Oct 22, 2015 14:50:56 GMT -8 Curtis said:

And now we're getting 50% off Vehicle Fares from November 16-December 19. (A day earlier and a day later for the Northern Routes)

www.bcferries.com/promotions/50-percent-off-vehicles.html?utm_campaign=50percentoffvehiclepromooct2015&utm_medium=web&utm_source=bcfhome

Never thought I'd see the day this happens, but then again, it was also a nice surprise to have 50% off Passenger Fares for the last month or so.

So, as a reaction to this fare inducement, I have just finished booking* Inside Passage travel for my wife & I during the Christmas season.  We will go south on December 18th & get passage for our car at half the shoulder season fare.  We will pay the unreduced shoulder season passenger fare, & also book a cabin, all for a total cost of $544.  Without the inducement the fare would have been $712.

We will return north on January 2nd, when fares will be as per 'low season' or 'off-peak' rates, and we will pay $581.  Without the inducement we would have chosen to drive south (via Prince George) and deal with ~1500 km of winter highways ...

*This 'booking' was via a northern reservation 'request form'.  I don't know for sure if we will be on the boat until BCF contacts me & confirms my booking.  I am wondering if they are ever going to bring the means by which northern reservations are made into the 21st century.

[Starsteward]

Oct 22, 2015 14:50:56 GMT -8 Curtis said:

And now we're getting 50% off Vehicle Fares from November 16-December 19. (A day earlier and a day later for the Northern Routes)

www.bcferries.com/promotions/50-percent-off-vehicles.html?utm_campaign=50percentoffvehiclepromooct2015&utm_medium=web&utm_source=bcfhome

Never thought I'd see the day this happens, but then again, it was also a nice surprise to have 50% off Passenger Fares for the last month or so.

    Maybe if BC Ferries did away with their stupid economic model, and lowered prices for all periods of the year, the "slight increase in traffic" noticed and reported by
    Head Office, might actually lead to an increase in walk-ons, vehicle traffic and those folks who make reservations. This would result in a much healthier bottom line
    for the company and they wouldn't have to resort to all theses hockus pockus promotions in order to 'burn off' excess profits! 

[YoursTruly]

Heya, so BCF announced they are doing a promotion for the 20' (regular car) at 50% during select sailings from November 16th - December 19th for South Coast routes, and November 15th - December 20th!  Good chance to take a car over or do a round trip of ferries drive up Island down the sunshine coast or what have you. Anyway, thought you'd like to know


www.bcferries.com/promotions/50-percent-off-vehicles.html

[Koastal Karl]

I think next they should do car and passenger 50% off at the same time then see how many more people they get instead of doing them as separate promotions.

[KE7JFF]

They should cut 50% of everything in general for 10 years

[Starsteward]

Oct 26, 2015 3:54:03 GMT -8 KE7JFF said:

They should cut 50% of everything in general for 10 years

     That's a great idea but as long as BCF is strangled by the Coastal Ferry Act, let's not hold our collective breaths.

[Deleted]

I'm surprised no one caught this yet. 30% off Passenger fares in March (no savings really compared to the Experience card, on those routes). www.bcferries.com/promotions/30-percent-off-regular-passenger-fares.html

[Low Light Mike]

Feb 11, 2016 22:49:07 GMT -8 @sccommuter said:

I'm surprised no one caught this yet. 30% off Passenger fares in March (no savings really compared to the Experience card, on those routes). www.bcferries.com/promotions/30-percent-off-regular-passenger-fares.html

Thanks for posting this. I hadn't seen this.

I'm not surprised that you posted this, because you're on top of these things. Well done.

[titanium48]

"Size up the savings" returns for summer 2016: www.bcferries.com/promotions/2016-xft-details.html

The number of discounted sailings has doubled, but the discounted fare has gone up to $3.25/ft from $2.00/ft last year. It really says something about BCFerries over-length fares when even with a 50% discount your second 20 feet costs more than your first 20 feet.

[1foot2ships]

wow. i cant believe these discount sailings have been going on for 13yrs already. personally, i think its brilliant as im poor and quite price sensitive on things i can control, like choice of sailing.

2019-sunrise-sunset-promo-brochure.pdf (1.17 MB)

im confused why the super late midnite runs are not included though.  any of you know why?

[futureferrydriver]

Aug 21, 2019 12:23:08 GMT -8 1foot2ships said:

wow. i cant believe these discount sailings have been going on for 13yrs already. personally, i think its brilliant as im poor and quite price sensitive on things i can control, like choice of sailing.

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im confused why the super late midnite runs are not included though.  any of you know why?

I’m 96% sure they didn’t exist this year... It definitely wasn’t worth it last year so for Fridays this season they kept the 6am departures and left out the 10pm’s. I didn’t work there this summer so I can’t say that with 100% certainty but I’m fairly sure that was the standard Friday this summer.