DO NOT EVER USE VAN CITY SEAPLANES. They are unreliable, dishonest, misleading, and lack communication. In April I booked a flight with Van City Seaplanes from YVR to Savary Island at 5:30pm on June 25th. The day of departure, they requested I arrive 30 minutes in advance, which is not stated anywhere on their website. As I had confirmed months ago on the booking, I told them I would be there by 5:30pm as my plane was landing in YVR at 4:35pm. Petra, the office manager acknowledged and responded "Ok, thank you" via text. At 5:11pm Petra called me to check in and I told her I was in a taxi going from the North to the Sourh Terminal, 10 minutes away. She said ok and that the pilot was told this. I arrived at 5:20pm and the dock attendants told me that Peter Grimm, the pilot, had decided to leave before the departure time even though he knew I would be there within a few minutes. I understand I was cutting it close but I still arrived 10 minutes before departure and they had known my timing since April. Peter claimed he had to leave early because of the weather but the water was calm, the wind was barely blowing at 6.8mph, there was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun set at 9:23pm on Savary Island that day giving him plenty of time to fly North and back in the light. Futhermore, Sea Air, the owners of the dock where Peter is allowed to land, said Peter never arrives 30 minutes before departure times but arrives 15 minutes at the earliest before a flight time. I was left stranded for a night in Vancouver. The next day Peter refused to refund me for a flight I wasn't on because he left early and offered to put me on a flight at 9:30am only if I paid for a new ticket. That day, I got to the dock at 8:20am and he arrived at 9:50am, 20 minutes after the scheduled departure time. Up until I saw him in person, Peter repeatedly refused to speak to me over the phone and explain why he had left early. He did not acknowledge or apologize for being 20 minutes late or leaving me stranded the day before. There are many other reliable services such as Harbor Air and Pacific Seaplanes that go to Savary Island and that properly communicate and conduct business in a professional manner and I recommend using these airlines if you need a seaplane. read more

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Warning: Never book with this AWFUL service! You will have a less than 50% chance of actually arriving at your destination. I and two other friends booked flights through their website to Savary Island. We received email confirmations of our flight bookings, but we noticed the fine print said the flights would be confirmed later. That seemed odd, so we called and emailed to confirm. This is when the problems began. The only thing this office seems to be capable of is charging credit cards. They rarely answer their phones and never respond to emails. When we finally got ahold of the disorganized woman on the phone, she said they wouldn't confirm the flight until 1-2 days before. In fact, they did *not* have space on the flight that they had accepted our booking for, even though they charged my credit card. She said she'd have to check with the pilot whether they would be adding another flight and would get back to me. She never did get back to me and we had to scramble to book a flight through another airline. She told me that they did have space for our return flight, so we kept that booking and went on our trip. While on the vacation, we called 2 days before the return flight, just to double-check that everything was still ok, since we had a spidey sense that they weren't super reliable. After dozens of calls over 2 days, we could not get any one to answer the phone. Then, the morning of our confirmed return flight, literally 6 hours before departure, we got a call from her saying that they were cancelling our flight. They realized that they didn't have another plane available. There was no weather or mechanical issue. They just decided they didn't want to fly the plane. They'd rather leave us stranded on the island with no other way home. They offered no apology for not giving us advance notice, no compensation, no alternatives other than maybe flying out the next day. This is your fair warning that a booking with this airline is a crapshoot. Your booking is not really a booking and is likely to be cancelled at whatever whims catch them on your travel day. Never again! read more

0 stars. Horrible company. Please do not ever book with this unreliable, dishonest company. They require payment upfront but don't follow up with you and you must track them down. They ended up not running the flight I prepared for and they never refunded me the $700! Stay far far away! read more

I've flown with Van City Seaplanes starting last year to visit my friends on Hornby Island. They're an excellent charter service, that beats the hell out of driving. The customer service, pilot, and seaplanes experience has been excellent. I understand that they're a small family operation - and they manage to run everything very smoothly. I purchased a round-trip trip ticket and was refunded the same day, after I called and spoke with customer service right away, they found me a spot and I was able to rebook my flight. I believe the best strategy is to book your flights in advance and once booked, give them a call to confirm your flight details. I will definitely call them before my flight to reconfirm - however, I had absolutely no issues with boarding or having my name on the list before. My experiences all have been great! read more

Absolutely AWFUL. Do not use. We booked a flight a month in advance, communicated with them via email, they said they'd confirm 24-48 hours before flight. 18 hours before flight I called, emailed. Called every hour for next 12 hours, no response to either calls or email. Finally, morning of flight I sent an email with "URGENT- FLIGHT TODAY" in subject line. Got response right away saying that they were fully booked and they had cancelled my flight. Now am stuck, as everybody else is booked. Didn't offer an alternative, didn't reach out to tell me they were cancelling until 2 hours before my flight. THE WORST. read more

F***ing terrible service. They CANCELLED our flights tomorrow WITHOUT notifying us!! The only reason i found out is because I called today to confirm and was told they were cancelled on august 2nd "because they're sold out." I was told an email was sent but received nothing (except for the paid invoice). Well, why did you sell us flights if you were already sold out??? Anyway. These guys ruined our ONLY family holiday this summer. We are stuck now, as other companies are sold out. Meanwhile, the other half of our family are already at the destination and we are very sad we all can't be finally together. ARGH. WTF, VanCity?! Get your act together. read more

Horrible customer service. They were late to my flight yesterday by one hour and no responsiveness by phone, text, or email about it. This made me miss my other flight and book an overnight hotel. Avoid them if possible. Extremely disorganized and unprofessional. read more

Unprofessional, unreliable, and rude. On March 22, 2021 I reached out by email to the owner of Vancity Seaplanes (Peter) to reserve a flight for a client of mine who wished to travel via seaplane to a remote destination for her elopement with her fiancé, mother in law and 2 infant children. The wedding was scheduled for August 11, 2021. He was busy at the time and didn't get back to me with the quote I was looking for. On April 23rd I reached out a second time looking for pricing, information about destinations and photos and I was encouraged when Peter sent what I asked for a few days later. On April 30th I requested a final quote for the client's preferences and Peter responded saying that the preferred destination would require the minimum charge for a charter but didn't clarify what that amount might be. After requesting a formal quote, Peter responded that the "Minimum charge is 75 miles @ 9.35 per mile plus tax. $75/hr plus tax hold fee for time on the ground waiting", but did not send a formal quote or invoice with all charges, fees and taxes incorporated. I calculated what I thought was as close as possible to charter price, not knowing the mileage involved, and confirmed the estimated price with the Client. On May 6th I emailed Peter to confirm the reservation officially and Peter responded right away, confirming the date was wide open. On May 7th I asked Peter to give me a call so I could share my credit card information with him to reserve the booking. On May 14th Peter still had not called and the client was getting nervous and so I forwarded the Client's email to Peter to encourage him to respond regarding our reservation. On May 27th I sent a follow-up email to Peter. On May 28th Peter emailed saying that we had too many passengers for the flight, despite his previous confirmation that the plane could take this number of passengers. He mentioned needing more information to confirm the booking (information I had already sent). On May 31st I emailed Peter requesting that he clarify the quote total (for the third time), clarified all the details related to the booking that we had previously discussed, and re-confirmed that he had previously approved our quantity of passengers. On June 2nd Peter responded stating we needed to cut a passenger, which meant no childcare for the infants while the ceremony was taking place. I asked whether there was a number of passenger limit or a weight limit as we were under the weight limit for this craft, and had the same number of passengers as seats on the plane. He responded that there was a limit to the number of passengers and failed to confirm whether our 6th passenger could attend. On July 7th I followed up with Peter a fourth time regarding the passenger list and the total price of our flight. He then confirmed that the price he would "honour as quoted. There's 5% GST plus 8% fuel surcharge. From YVR there's port fees of $2.75 per person departing or arriving at the airport" but never provided a detailed quote and never confirmed or denied whether our passenger total was approved. On July 7th I emailed stating that I had now requested a finalized quote on April 30th, May 27th, May 31st, and July 7th and had never received it. Peter did not respond. On July 12th, less than a month to the wedding, I sent a follow-up email asking for a final quote. Melissa responded (new person), stating that we had too many passengers for the flight and complained that she had 10 other messages from me in her inbox and that "next time if you can get everything in one to 2 emails that would be great". I responded by stating "The volume of emails is a result of the lack of responses from your office unfortunately. I continue to ask the same questions and have not gotten a lot of answers back. Once again, can you please confirm the total price for the wedding on August 11, 2021?" Melissa responded by stating "I did not work here in March so cannot say. As for August the 11th we are not flying at all that day due to pilot hours and plane needs maintenance." Shocked, with less than a month to find an alternative at a comparable price, I responded "This is the flight we have sent your office 28 emails about.... can you please speak with Peter and let me know immediately if we need to hire an alternative?" Melissa & Peter both chose never to reply. I ended up scrambling to find my clients an alternative, which cost them over $1000 more, changed their departure point, their destination, the length of their flight, and completely stressed them out and shook their trust in me. I spent weeks researching, comparing prices, apologizing, and rebuilding my relationship with my client just a few days before their wedding. If you're looking for a RELIABLE and RESPECTFUL seaplane company, book with Harbour Air read more

We had a flight today at 2pm. We have a confirmation email showing this was booked. No pilot showed up and found out at 2:45pm they didn't have any record of this. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND read more

Do not ever use this company they the worst company I have ever dealt with. They owe me money and do not even return my calls or emails. They take your money but cannot confirm flights before you leave they left us stranded and we had to find our own way home I having been waiting fir my credit for over two months. read more

This may be the worst run business on the planet. Had a flight booked from one of the islands. Showed up on time and the pilot told me he didn't have me on his list. Showed him my confirmation email and he let me on. we took off on time but one third of the way to our destination he turned around and told me he had to drop me off and go back to get the other people. They said they sent me a cancellation email. I checked and sure enough they did. One hour before the flight. Now they won't answer my emails asking for an explanation. Avoid at all costs. Spend more for another airline. Save your money. Have one star because zero is not an option read more

Really terrible customer service. It is totally impossible to get a hold of this company in any way, they don't pick up the phone, don't respond to emails or texts, don't even seem to have a physical office anywhere. They notified me by text the evening before my flight that it would be three hours earlier than was scheduled. No apology or offer of refund or anything, just informed me that this is the way it's going to be. Then they ended up being an hour late. read more

Had two awful experiences in 4 years with vancity, while flying w them 3 times. Today, waited 3.5 hrs for our return flight that we were certain would not come... they were more than 3 hrs late... no apology, and not one communication by Danielle, their communications person, until we were already airborne. We were flying with a toddler and were in a very uncomfortable position - both waiting so long, and thinking we were stranded on Hornby Island. Think twice... err three times... before ever flying with them. read more

TL;DR: Don't waste your time travelling with Van City Seaplanes and if you do, don't count on them to be reliable. Or to get a full refund. Have a backup plan. Story: Made a booking request for a Cortes to Vancouver flight (selected 6pm Sunday) and the next day received an automated confirmation for 4pm along with an email from Chase confirming that 4pm was their nearest time. No problem, that'll do. Everything was all good and we were looking forward to our weekend trip to see our mom for her 60th. A few days later, I receive another automated email confirming my 8am booking on the Sunday. Odd. I inquired with the support team, and Danielle told me that the request I originally sent on the website was only a request. I clarified that Chase already booked me on the 4pm, I shared my confirmation emails, and she told me that they only have the 8am take it or leave it. After more back and forth she eventually let on that the 4pm was actually cancelled. Why not just be up front about that? Instead of pretending my original booking never existed... Either way - coming home at 8am on Sunday would have made the weekend trip not worthwhile. I opted to cancel and get my money back. The following day I reached out to them again asking if there's any availability on the Monday as we managed to get an extra day off work to make the trip happen after all. Silence. Maybe they were ignoring me because I called them out for being unprofessional, I'm not sure. Fast forward a week or so and I notice the refund they gave me didn't line up to what they had originally charged me. Why? I have no idea. I've emailed, sent a website contact form, called the support line many times. Silence. Either they're ignoring me or they've gone out of business. Either way, it's clear I'm not getting all of my money back. Overall, very disappointing. read more

Been flying with Van City Seaplanes for 14 years now to and from Savary, Desolation Sound, Cortes Island etc. I can't say enough good things about the owner and his commitment to safe and reliable transportation. Certainly seen some crazy people and crazy animals trying to get in the plane each year...you'll be glad someone with some discretion and good skills is operating the plane! read more

I took a flight from Vancouver to Cortes Island and returned 3 days later. Going I had a pilot called Greg & returning was Peter, who I believe is the owner. Both flights were very smooth, took approx one hour, no problems. Nothing flashy about them, just good pilots and a pleasant experience. On the return flight, we were asked if we could possibly leave 1 hour earlier, we were able to accommodate. read more

I never write reviews, but this is fully worthy of a tremendously bad review. Absolutely horrendous customer service and professionalism. Avoid them at all costs. Due to weather, they took me to a random island and expected me to find my way...I'm from out of the country and it took me an entire day to get to my destination. They went quite after my refund request. This business should be shut down for unethical practices. read more

This company has the WORST customer service. We purchased 2 tickets to Cortes island and the plane NEVER showed up! When we finally got in touch with them they demanded another $1650 to fly us the following day. On top of the amount we already paid them! And then tried to blame us for their failure to honour the transaction that occurred via their horrid website! This company is a complete sham. No ethics. No business acumen. We finally got our money back via the credit card company. They ruined Easter, my vacation, an important business meeting and my anniversary. Not one apology. Only excuses and blame. I recommend you NEVER fly with them. read more

Took a flight from Hornby to Vancouver this summer, showed up on time and was pleasant. The booking process is a little clunky, but it's a small business so I don't blame them. read more

WARNING** DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY** I was told I would be issued a refund as the company wanted to charge me about $1000 extra (AFTER booking my flight) on the basis that my destination was not part of their scheduled route. They gave me the option of cancelling and obtaining a refund in full, which was a fine alternative. However I NEVER received my refund. This is following a conversation with "Danielle", a staff member, who had confirmed with me in writing that they would issue me a refund in full. Since then, the company has failed to respond to any of my e-mails. They also NEVER answer their phone, which makes it difficult to correspond with anyone before and after bookings. There are numerous companies within the Greater Vancouver Area you can fly with, so save your money and go somewhere else. I have told all of my friends and family with cabins all over the gulf islands to avoid this company at all costs. They will take your money and never get back to you. read more

A big ZERO Stars !! Van City Sea Planes is this biggest joke!!! NEVER book with them, I have been waiting for a month for a refund now my visa is disputing them for not returning my money. I booked online because there is no one that will EVER answer their phone...finally got a response two weeks after I booked to find out that they wouldn't come to Savary Island to pick me up left me stranded..awesome oh after they took my money! I hope this place gets shut down so they can stop ripping people off! BEWARE this place is a SCAM!!!! read more