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Changes coming to BC Ferries reservations for Vancouver Island routes

Many customers are booking multiple reservations, inflating wait times
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Driving onto the ferry. BC Ferries predicts traffic levels for statutory holidays through historic monitoring. (Keili Bartlett/News staff)

New year, new reservation fare discounts could be coming for some of BC Ferries’s major routes between Vancouver Island and the mainland.

In 2019, BC Ferries is expected to launch a new website and pricing initiative for its advance booking reservation system, which will aim to redirect traffic to off-peak times.

“We are currently finalizing details of the new discount program. We’ll announce all the details in the spring,” BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall wrote in an email.

READ MORE: BC Ferries not as full as reported due to ability to book consecutive sailings

In October, Black Press Media reported BC Ferries reservations were being artificially inflated by passengers booking multiple reservations. The fee to reserve a sailing, if booked more than a week in advance, went down from $15 to $10 in April. Paired with a myBCFerries Account that allows users to book up to 10 sailings, the company has seen an increase in traffic displayed in their “current conditions” section of their website, only to have no-shows. If a reservation is not cancelled, the unclaimed booking can only be reopened to standby 30 minutes before a sailing.

READ MORE: Debit now accepted onboard BC Ferries


@KeiliBartlett
keili.bartlett@blackpress.ca

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