B.C. Ferries is offering a 30 per cent discount on passenger fares on certain sailings until Tuesday, March 29.
I took advantage of that discount on the weekend, and overheard discussion and confusion about when the 30 per cent off applies.
It’s not straightforward.
Here’s an overview, based on information provided by B.C. Ferries.
The 30 per cent discount is for passenger fares, not vehicles.
On south coast routes, it’s on offer Monday through Thursday, and Saturday, but not for all sailings.
On the busiest route, between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen, the discount sailings are:
Monday to Thursday: Sailings departing between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Saturday: Sailings departing between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.
On the north coast routes, it’s on all sailings, with asterisk.
There are no discounts on Thursday, March 24 (the day before Good Friday) and on Monday, March 28 (the day after Easter Sunday).
The discounts tend to be for sailings that traditionally see less traffic.
Here’s a B.C. Ferries webpage that offers a summary.
Details for the south coast routes are here.
Many of the 30-per-cent-off sailings are very busy. When I was travelling this past weekend, I noticed that several discounted sailings had full car decks, leading to one-sailing waits for motorists.
On Monday, the discounted 1 p.m. sailing from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay already had a full car deck when I checked at 12:15 p.m.
On my weekend trip, the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen regular adult fare was $16.70; with the discount, it was $11.65.
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Email me at pjang@timescolonist.com
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