1. Tell us when you plan to travel by making a free reservation – you can do this up to 45-minutes in advance of your sailing.
2. Book online at bcferries.com or contact our Customer Service Centre at 1-888-223-3779 and book by phone.
3. Pay for your fare in full at the time of your booking.
4. Choose between two new fares: Prepaid and Saver.
   
   Prepaid fares are $25 one-way for a standard vehicle and include a free reservation. Arrive at the terminal 30 to 90 minutes before your sailing. You no longer need to show up hours in advance to try and make a sailing. Your free reservation provides travel certainty.
   
   Saver is our best value fare, ranging from $14.50 to $22 one-way for a standard vehicle, including a free reservation. Saver fares are available on select sailings at less busy times. Arrive at the terminal 45 to 90 minutes before your sailing and you’re guaranteed a place onboard.


5. Let us know if your travel plans change. You can make changes to your booking up to 45-minutes before your scheduled departure. Only some of our sailings are fully booked, so if you need to travel on short notice, or make a change, there should be space available on many sailings.

1. No need to reserve, just show up when you want to travel. Walk-on passengers will pay round-trip at Horseshoe Bay terminal only.
2. Use your Experience Card for payment if you wish.

1. Visit bcferries.com to see if reservations are available on the sailing you want. If so, choose between making a free reservation, paying between $14.50 - $25, and being guaranteed to get on that sailing, or drive up to the terminal without a booking.
2. Pay $33 for a one-way vehicle fare at the terminal and use your Experience Card for payment if you wish. Travel on the next available sailing, space permitting, in the order you arrive at the terminal. Sailing waits are possible during popular sailing times.

1. Tell us when you plan to travel by making a free reservation – up to 45 minutes in advance of the sailing. All commercial customers now need to reserve, and we have increased reservation space to make that easier.

This hasn’t been the experience on this route in the past. On average during the summer, only about one-third of sailings leave the dock full. On average in a normal year, only about 68 percent of the available ferry capacity is used, so there should be space available throughout the day. On peak days such as long weekends, sailings are in greater demand, and we are looking at options to stagger the release of reservation space to make it easier for last minute bookings.

Since last Fall, we’ve been engaging with communities to understand their concerns about travel on Route 3. We proposed this Trial in response to Sunshine Coast residents concerns about uncertainty around travel times, long waits at congested terminals, and lack of available reservations. We designed the Trial to address these issues.

We don’t believe the Trial trades one for the other. Our research and experience suggests that offering free reservations, increasing reservation space and being able to reserve 45-minutes in advance of a sailing provide both certainty and flexibility.

If you don’t take advantage of a free reservation, driving up will cost more. Travelling with a reservation will cost less. You can travel for about half the price at less busy times as you do now, with the additional benefit of a free reservation.

Sunshine Coast residents told us they wanted fewer line-ups, sailing waits and overloads. The Trial is designed to address these concerns. We are doubling the number of reservations on each sailing and eliminating the reservation fee to make reservations available for all.

Upper Sunshine Coast residents were part of our Fall community engagement. We know you have the added challenge of the drive between Earls Cove and Langdale. BC Ferries is exploring options to provide a more flexible and efficient check-in process during the Trial to facilitate your ferry connections.

During the summer, only about one-third of sailings leave the dock full. This number will drop as price incentives draw travellers to less busy sailings. You won’t need to resort to a third-party seller to get on. Buying up reservations won’t earn anyone a profit if there are more reservations available.

We chose 5% because that represents the highest volume of space on a single sailing used by residents in the past for this travel purpose. If we need more space during the Trial, we can adjust allocations.

If you need to change your travel plans due to a long-running appointment or other situation, you can change your reservation on the website from your mobile device; or phone us and we will do it for you. You can make changes up to 45-minutes before departure.

You don’t need either to make a reservation. You will be able to pay online and over the phone using Mastercard Debit or Visa Debit. Or you can visit the terminal administration office, book in advance, and pay with cash.

No, you can still drive up to the terminal without a booking and purchase an At Terminal fare at a one-way cost of $33. You will travel on the next available sailing after customers with bookings and priority vehicles are loaded. But if you know more then 45 minutes in advance of a sailing that you will be travelling, you can make a free reservation, be guaranteed to travel on that sailing and pay less.

You can change your Prepaid or Saver booking up to 45 minutes before your scheduled departure time.

You can also cancel your Prepaid booking up to two hours before your scheduled departure time for a full refund, less a $10 cancellation fee. Saver fare bookings can be cancelled up to 11:59 PM the day before departure for a full refund of the fare, less a $10 cancellation fee.

During the Trial, the Experience Card will not provide a discount at the terminal.  Advanced purchase fares will always be cheaper than the At Terminal fare. Experience Cards cannot be used to pay for bookings online, but can still be used as a payment type at the terminal.

To request a refund of the balance of your Experience Card, you can contact the Customer Service Centre. Should the terms and conditions of the Experience card change, registered card holders will be notified.

If you’re travelling on TAP, select the Prepaid fare option. This can be done online or through our Customer Service Centre. At the moment, you will pay for your full fare in advance, which includes a free reservation, and then upon check-in at the terminal, the fare will be refunded back to your original form of payment and charged to the TAP form used to pay for travel.

Website modifications are underway to allow TAP bookings to be made without payment in advance and we’re hoping to have that feature in place around the start of the Trial.

BC Seniors will continue to travel free from Monday to Thursday (excluding holidays). You can take advantage of the new Saver fare and will pay less than you do now, and only be charged for the cost of the vehicle ($14.50 - $22 for one standard vehicle, one-way).

We are increasing reservation space so you should be able to reserve on shorter notice. We are also looking at staggering the release of reservation space to accommodate customers with last minute travel plans. On average during the summer, only about one-third of sailings leave the dock full.