Easiest/Cheapest Way To Get To Alaska

[AKStafford]

Originally Posted by SaucyAussie

I'm thinking Seattle - Juneau will be the cheapest/quickest/best option - does that sound right?

You might find tickets to Anchorage to be cheaper. Start with Alaska Airlines, but also check Jet Blue.

[Dakster]

I use kayak to check everyone's fares -- Lately I have been finding better prices on Delta - unless Alaska Airlines has a special.

You always have to check around. I check search sites, check the airlines direct site, I have AMEX so I check Amex Travel.... It's been the difference between a $800 one way ticket and a $264 one...

[6.7traveler]

I agree with shopping around. I recently bought 4 round trip tickets from Fairbanks to florida for $540 each. I've seen them $800-$1000+ so you just got to shop around. If you are flexible on your dates, and you shop around for a while it's not THAT expensive to fly to and from Alaska. The problem comes from unplanned family emergency type fly outs where you need to buy a ticket right away. I don't even want to look at the prices for those . After this last trip of flying with a family of 4, I swore I was just going to drive next time, but we'll see.

[Dakster]

For 4 if you can afford to take the time, it saves money to drive... It doesn't typically pencil out for just one person. Sucks dropping $1800 for 4 just to take a plane out... And then renting the car.

The cheapest I have gone roundtrip to Florida from Anchorage is $464. The mid to upper $500s is typical. I have paid even waiting, over $600 though. I have actually found that making two one way tickets can be cheaper which is how I did the $464 total roundtrip tickets. I used Alaska airlines to get down and Delta to get back.

I've seen those last minute fares - you are using good judgment to not even look at those.

[6.7traveler]

$464 round trip to Florida is cheap! Most of my wife's family and some of mine live down there so we feel obligated to take our yearly vacation down in that cesspool of swamp land and white trash . I actually felt refreshed and relaxed in the giant metropolis of Fairbanks after spending 5 weeks in FL. When I got back to my windy spruce bog in Delta I cried and kissed the ground haha . I need to start heading down to Hawaii like everyone else in the winter instead.

I do prefer driving but it does take up a lot of the time. A week on each end of the trip depending on where you're going. I have a vehicle down in Florida that I'm planning on picking up and driving up here this summer. That should be fun. It will be my 6th time driving up/down.

I drive on the Alaska highway for 20 miles each way on a regular basis if anyone wants up to date road conditions for the first (or last) 21 miles of the Alaska highway .

The cheapest way to get to Alaska is to ride your bike!. I ran into quite a few people doing just that this summer. I honest to god also met a guy on a unicycle who was unicycling the length of the highway. Maybe someday. I am planning on riding my bike from Delta to Dawson City this summer if time permits.

[Dakster]

As long as that bike has a motor... I might consider it.

I met a guy at our hotel in Tok that pedal biked from Argentina up... That's a long bicycle trip. Not for me either.

MIA is cheaper than TPA most of the time. FLL is where I get the $237 one ways out of.

[AlaskaErik]

Stick out your thumb. It doesn't get any cheaper than that.

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by SaucyAussie

..I don't really have the time or money to do it properly,

Fly to Juneau, spend two nights downtown, visit the Mendenhall glacier, wander around a bit in town, take the Mt. Roberts tramway-call it good.