Travelling to Canada via the USA...ticket details?

Question

In october i will be working in Whistler for a year. I have the correct finances and working visa as well as full insurance.

I have some friends in the USA and we would all like to meet up and have a weekend in Vegas together. Ive been looking at flights and instead of flying from the UK direct to Vancouver, is it ok for me to fly to New York and make my way to Vegas across the USA and then onto Vancouver where i wil then fly back to the UK.

I understand the 90days maximum time allowed in the USA and despite me going to Canada this will still be in effect. I rang a few people up and want to make sure that if i book my flight with a return from Vancouver under the 90 days, and then change it to a later date when I am in Canada, I wont be punished for staying longer. I will be flying back to the UK from Vancouver and I wont be going back into USA to make that clear.

Basically would it be best to book a UK to Vancouver return ticket and just get a separate Vancouver to Vegas return ticket. Or booking a UK to New york with a Vancouver to UK return would also be acceptable as long as my return date is less then the 90 days permitted and I will have no problem changing my return date when I am in Canada.

I know it looks complicated but I have found a lot of cheaper flight options rather then the direct Uk to Canada route.

many thanks

Answer 1

The airline or travel agent is about the only reliable source for an answer to this question. Since you plan to stay in Canada for a year and you have a 90 day return ticket, some airlines may not allow you to change it period. If you go NY-Las Vegas-Vancouver, you will be buying a series of point to point tickets and those can be expensive unless you happen on some kind of last  minute deals. If your air ticket from the UK to Vancouver allows stopovers in the US, then your itinerary would probably work, but I would not depend on using the ticket for return to the UK as it may well not be allowed a year later.

A Vancouver to Las Vegas ticket is likely to be reasonably cheap, and if you are willing to travel overland from Vancouver to Bellingham airport (about an hour) or Seattle-Tacoma airport  (about 3 hours), you can probably get a cheaper ticket still. There are airport buses from Vancouver to both airports. For the consistently best fares in the western US and BC, (not always the cheapest, but 4 out of 5 times they tend to be best) try http://www.alasaair.com

Whistler is great; you should enjoy your year there.