BC Ferries: Free website tells passengers when spots open on full sailings [Video]

Over the summer, Victoria software engineer Vedran Budimcic watched his wife spend a week trying to get a coveted BC Ferries reservation, refreshing the website hundreds of times a day hoping for a cancellation on sold out sailings.

It was a problem he knew how to solve.

In just half an hour, Budimcic designed a program that would alert him when a spot opened up on a previously full ferry route. So he decided to make a website that public could use. In late September, he launched NextSailing.ca

“You select where you’re leaving from and where you’re going to, not unlike the BC ferries website, and then you pick which days you’re interested in,” said Budimcic. “You can pick one or more days, one or more times on those days – and then at the end, you just enter your phone number, hit next, and you’re done.”

There is no download or sign-up needed, Budimcic added.

If the software detects a spot has opened up on one of …