From time to time we're all guilty of failing to read the small print when we make a purchase - but when that purchase is costing over $1,000 then surely it has to be a must.
Take BC Ferries' Assured Loading Tickets (ALTs), for example. If you're a frequent traveller between Vancouver Island and the mainland, ALTs offer priority travel right up to 20 minutes before departure time. The down side is that you have to pay for ten ALTs at a time, and that's currently going to cost you $1,250 up front. And you have to use your tickets within two years, or the card expires, along with your cash.
The conditions of sale are clearly spelt out by BC Ferries - and so when someone fails to take notice, is it really any wonder that the company says "sorry, not our problem" ? No matter how clearly terms and conditions are spelt out, there will always be customers who fail to read them and suddenly realise that they're out of pocket. Today's Nanaimo Daily News cites one such case, and without doubt there will be others.
The moral of the story is clear - buyer beware! If you're paying as much as $1,250 to any business, then make sure you understand what you're getting. After all, BC ferries spell out the terms quite clearly.... [click to enlarge]
One of BC Ferries' best kept secrets is SailPass - a prepaid voucher for either 4 or 7 consecutive days' travel over much of British Columbia's island ferry network.
With a 7 day SailPass costing just $40 more than its 4 day counterpart, the 7-day ticket offers much better value - though, in reality, even 7 days hardly provides enough time to experience all of the dozen or so available routes. Still, with claimed savings of around $200 on a typical 7 day itinerary, Island Transport Solutions decided to put the product to the test.
As with any multi-route ticket, planning the journey is half the challenge - balancing the desire to get maximum use out of the ticket with the desire to actually see something of Beautiful British Columbia along the way - apart from a series of ferry car decks that is. Our journey begins in just over 7 days time - and already we've realised that not everything is quite as straightforward as it seems.
First off, where can you buy your SailPass? They're not sold at ferry terminals - even the major terminals - so you either have to search out one of the few Tourism Centres that does sell them (which means only Nanaimo or Victoria on Vancouver Island) or buy it on line. If you're a BCAA member, there's another 10% discount if you buy on line - but, perversely, the discount isn't available if you take your BCAA membership card into a sales agent. There must be some logic to that..... or maybe not.
Ok, so now you have your ticket to travel - your passport to freedom of the Salish Sea. Well, not so much a ticket - more a flimsy sheet of paper, less than half the size of the receipt you printed off your computer when you booked it. The sort of thing any student with access to the school's laser printer could produce in less than 5 minutes. And small enough to blow away at the first sign of a sea breeze. Note to self - pin it to something heavy before you leave. If BC Ferries can issue credit-card style Experience Cards, why not do the same for a SailPass? That way, they could prevent counterfeits and monitor the amount of travel undertaken - surely of value for future marketing?
Next it's time to plan your itinerary - to build a vacation around your ticket to travel. If it's summer, it's probably wise to pre-book overnight accommodation along the way - but what about reserving space on ferry crossings? Only the major routes offer advance reservations - but how do you decide whether a reservation is actually needed? Obviously, BC Ferries will encourage you to make advance reservations on all major routes - after all, it means they can charge you another $15 for the privilege.
Our planned itinerary will [probably] look something like this:
Day 1 : Gabriola-Nanaimo Harbour; Departure Bay-Horseshoe Bay; Horseshoe Bay-Langdale.
overnight at Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast.
Day 2 : Earls Cove-Saltery Bay; Powell River-Comox. Overnight in Courtenay.
Day 3 : Buckley Bay-Denman Island; Denman-Hornby Island. Return to Courtenay overnight.
Day 4 : Chemainus-Thetis Island & return. Theatre and overnight in Chemainus.
Day 5 : Cofton-Vesuvius. Maybe a quick hop over to Pender Island? Overnight on Salt Spring Island.
Day 6 : Salt Spring-Tsawwassen via Mayne Island. Overnight in Vancouver.
Day 7 : Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay; Brentwood Bay-Mill Bay; Nanaimo Harbour-Gabriola.
Well, that's the plan anyway, with various events along the way. So what about reservations? $15 may provide peace of mind on the busy crossings - but it does mean committing to a specific departure time - thereby limiting the options for sightseeing. Decision time - we reserve for Powell River-Courtenay (only 4 sailings a day) and Salt Spring-Tsawwassen (1 or 2 sailings a day). The rest will just happen - or not!
Online reservations are easy - but hardly straightforward. On routes between the Mainland and Vancouver Island, you pay only the $15 reservation fee at the time of booking, then pay the fare (or present your SailPass) at the ticket booth. Then there's the Salt Spring route. Before I realise it, I've paid the full fare online for a journey that I've already paid for on my SailPass. That can't be right, surely? A phone call to BC Ferries Customer Services (press 4, press 2, press 0 - you know what I mean) confirms that reservations on this route require full up-front payment. But I've already paid - and I don't want to pay twice! "That's a problem with this system" explains the customer service agent - "but don't worry, I'll refund the fare and put a note on the reservation that you have a SailPass". Sounds good - so long as the reservation is still there when I get there!
Only time will tell..........
