50% Off VIA Rail Long Haul Trips
VIA Rail is offering a pretty sweet 50% or more sale promotion on long-haul trips. You will need to book between March 3 and 13, 2016. You need to travel between March 10, 2016 and June 30, 2016.
Conditions
You must purchase at least 7 days in advance. The number of seats at these fares are limited, so don’t wait too long to make your reservation.
Tickets are non-refundable, but exchangeable subject to a service charge of 50% of the value of the ticket (per direction; minimum service charge is $20).
Below is a list of some of the more popular routes to watch out for. I put in bold some of the sweeter deals.
Economy Class
- Toronto – Winnipeg – $167
- Toronto – Edmonton – $249
- Toronto – Vancouver – $348
- Winnipeg – Edmonton – $116
- Jasper – Vancouver – $114
- Saskatoon – Edmonton – $54
- Montréal – Moncton – $87
- Montréal – Halifax – $100
Sleeper Plus Class
(Upper berth, per person)
- Toronto – Winnipeg – $341
- Toronto – Edmonton – $416
- Toronto – Vancouver – $616
- Winnipeg – Edmonton – $274
- Jasper – Vancouver – $276
- Saskatoon – Edmonton – $164
Sleeper Plus Class
(Cabin for 2, per person)
- Toronto – Winnipeg – $516
- Toronto – Edmonton – $626
- Toronto – Vancouver – $929
- Winnipeg – Edmonton – $412
- Jasper – Vancouver – $416
- Saskatoon – Edmonton – $248
- Montréal – Moncton – $206
- Montréal – Halifax – $239
Sorry Matt,
I wasn’t sure where to post this question.
Well, the Airmiles experience has made me think about cashing in my points. I tend to be a “pointshogger” and I hoard mine. At least with some of the programs, you can cash the points in for gift cards. If I get stuck with my over-500,000 IHG points (from the Capital One thread), I’ll just buy Keg and Red Lobster gift cards. So, I am not too worried about that.
I have collected VIA rail points for years. I have used quite a few to pay for 6 First Class trips from Toronto to Vancouver over the years. (The beauty of this program is that there are NO charges AT ALL. No taxes and no fees. When you book your trip it costs you the points and exactly $0.00!!
But, I have also hoarded a lot for use when I am working less (that’s why I was hoarding the IHG points too.) But with all this talk about points expiring, I contacted VIA rail. I never really thought about the points expiring. I was advised that the current VIA preference program expires in December 2017 “unless it is extended”. There are NO options for exchanging the points for anything but VIA travel and there are no options for exchanging the points for VIA rail gift cards.
Do you know how much notice a program is required to give if they are going to end? I have 85,000 VIA points and it only takes 13.000 for a trip from Toronto to Vancouver. I’d have to take 6+ trips by the end of next year to use all those points. Don’t think my employer is going to go for that! And, after saving for years, I don’t want to run the risk of losing all my points either.
This is an appropriate place to ask this question. VIA Rail is known to continually extend its reward program. I heard from VIA once that they would give 6 months notice if the program were to terminate.
Oh, I hope they give more notice than that! 6 months to take 6 cross country trips…I don’t get that much vacation. I guess it could be three trips for two, or even one trip for six! Thanks for the info.
Earn and burn. Just keep burning as you can. So long as you do it continuously. You can also bring a companion on the trips with you that would spend the points twice as fast.