BC Ferries False Advertise
BC Ferries
In normal circumstances the term reservation means you have a guaranteed spot on the plane, train or automobile. BC Ferries calls their Reserved Boarding Ticket a Guaranteed Travel Option on their Fare Info Page. But instead of rewarding a person for planning ahead and offering a ticket for less, BC Ferries charges a per diem for the privileged of arriving on time. This is not a reservation. Call it a “I don’t want to show up early tax”, “I’m richer than you and get more options surcharge” or call it anything but it’s not a reservation. Especially now that the fine print was activated this holiday weekend and people with Reserved Boarding tickets found themselves with the – ah-hum – rest of the unreserved riff-raff, the truth about BC Ferries’ reservations comes out.
If BC Ferries thought to do it right and correct, they would find it easier to run their entire system.
1 Reward people for thinking ahead and charge them less for reserving because then…
2 more people will think ahead and…
3 The entire system will have a better idea of how many are travelling on any given day
Whatever BC Ferries is doing now, it’s not a reservation and if any other private company advertised like that, there would be hell to pay.
It’s not even an “I don’t want to show up early” tax — after you make the reservation, they state that you still have to be there 45 minutes in advance.
Nick & I made a reservation a couple of weeks ago because he was going to be working late, and we wanted to make sure we had a spot on the last ferry. AFTER paying, they drop the “oh yeah, by the way, you have to be there by 8:15 for the 9pm sailing.”
wtf? Doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose?
I’d be happy to pay the entire ticket price up front (hell, I’d even be willing to pay more for the service), actually RESERVE a spot, and if I show up before they’ve closed the gate, I get on. Otherwise, the spot goes empty, but that’s fine — because they’ve already got my money, right? No loss there.
As it is, I’m not even sure what the reservation actually DOES. I guess if there are multiple sailing waits, you get priority, but from what you’re describing, reserving doesn’t do crap for that either? So what ARE people paying for?
How about those poor souls (not really poor considering the outrageous price paid) who bought “Assured load tickets” which were not accepted over the weekend. These people shell out huge dollars (around 1400$ for a book of 10) to get guaranteed boarding. Of course they would not go and buy a reservation since they were “Assured” a spot on the boat…not that they could have gotten a reservation since they were full weeks in advance of the long weekend. If I was one of them, I would be filing a lawsuit.
That’s right Donna and I agree, paying the full amount upon “reservation” would actually mean reservation. Heck, it might even add to the BC Ferries bottom line when someone didn’t show at departure time, (lets make it 5 minutes, not 45 minutes prior) and they re-sold the spot to a standby, (this is what we call those who didn’t think ahead).
A system like that would be understood.
victag I didn’t even bring those people up in the post because it almost needs a completely separate post to deal with the absurdity. We know what the term “reservation” means but the phrase “Assured Boarding” seems to be a marketing product created by BC Ferries. Again, filed under the heading Guaranteed Travel Option on their Fare Info Page. Those who purchase this ticket really got bent over the railing.
A good website Paul.
I moved from Victoria to the mainland in 1965. I have purchased and was family gifted the BCF Assured Boarding ticket (ABT) product over the many years since its inception. These were firstly offered in (good for life) booklet form then the BCF admin went to a swipeable plastic form only a few years ago. Always only purchasable with cash or a major credit card, (BCF will still not allow DEBIT CARD for anything ?). Over the 100s of boardings and many years these were saved for emergency family and other emergency crossings. (These do require to be there 20 minutes before sailing). This last Christmas day my wife and I were at the terminal 1 hour early but were informed at the wicket that the sailings were 2 hours apart, and we would miss the next sailing. I therefore
produced my card (with 7 sacred sailing credits on it). (When checked the night before the website seemed to
indicate 1 hour Christmas holiday sailings?). The ticket attendant said my AST sailing credits had expired. I was astounded and very upset. Especially upset because a previous attendant had transferred 3 lifetime book for sailing credits to my swipe card, when I balked she assured me that they would not expire. These sacred and very expensive sailing credits were never squandered but were cherished and saved only for emergencies. The ticket attendant was truly very sympathetic but said I would have to contact the BCF for some kind of an explanation? I last paid ~ $ 90 per credit an my last card, they are now ~ $ 140.
We have grandchildren and a wonderful 97 year young father which we must always be quickly available.
I understood all our Crown corporations were proposed to serve all BC taxpayers only in their best interest?
Assured loading tickets appear to be a rip off of the highest order. I have a remaining 5 trips left on my last purchase of 10 trips, and as I now find out, having passed the expiry date, the remaining value (over $400) is only redeemable as a ‘trade in’ for the purchase of 10 tickets at a cost of $1250. Meanwhile… The equivalent cost for a reservation… and achieving the same thing is 89.50 vs. the $125 costs using the assured loading. Also.. I am only able to use the remaining $400 as a down payment against another 10 assured loading tickets, not for another product such as a reservation.
Reservations are cheaper than assured loading, so why buy assured loading. Shouldn’t the costs be the same? Some option should be made to use the credit against other products. Either I spend another $840 or lose the $400 remaining value.
This is dishonest marketing.
BC Ferries is acting like a true monopoly by treating its valued customers like shit!!
Since when does a business put conditions on how a credit has to be spent?
The expired assured loading tickets credit remaining should be transferred to a BC Ferries Experience card (which is basically a business gift card with a set dollar value) so a customer is able to use them for future sailings with or without a reservation.
Credit is credit and it doesn’t expire!
What is going on here? Is this legal???
These guys are steeling us blind. The money left over from assured loading ticks was always usable for thepurchase of your new book of 10.Now they jack up the price so a new coast card costs 1200.00 and if you don’t pay the difference in 6 months they keep your money.I just about lost 1000.00 because I had changed my email and didn’t know about the new money grab policy.[They send you one email telling you your pass is expired] I know there are a lot of pissed people out there who have lost a lot of money. I hope they start a clase action suit against these BCF A-holes.
Definitely agree with “Peeved” and “Jack Reimer”, as we are also in the same boat with nearly $500 balance remaining to either forfeit or purchase a more costly item.
It’s starting to become evident we are not alone. We only purchased this pass for emergency situations, too, and consequently had 6 tickets left when it expired. Our usage was pretty evident to BCF.
So instead of paying double fare for an assured loading, we obviously have paid 5x for each of the four trips. All we were hoping to have from BCF was the opportunity to transfer the balance to another BCF item as we have no other choice for ferries, but such is not the case.
BCF could also have put a time limit on the tickets debiting at an initial rate for two years, then moving to an indexed rate thereafter. It would reduce the number of tickets if the consumer didn’t use up the balance by the end of two years, but the consumer would continue to have the ability to get an assured loading pass, and BCF would have the money in their account.
I also feel ripped off with the assured loading passes as I having been purchasing when they didn’t have an
expiry date and now have to keep buying them.. They have skyrocketed in price and unless I hand over BC
ferries $1000.00 I have to keep buying them as I also bought them with the intention of using them for
emergencies. I believe they are no different than a cash card and should not have an expiry date. The whole
system of reserving and assured loading passes is just a cash cow for the ferries. Either you have a
reservation or you don’t.
I wrote the post quite a while ago but it’s still front and centre news. A regular business could not get away with this.