tcook052

MONTREAL, Oct. 27 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada is offering customers greater
choice and control of their travel experience by enabling them to design
tickets to meet their individual travel needs.
Air Canada's redesigned www.aircanada.com website will make it easier for
customers to purchase any of its simplified fare types - Tango, Tango Plus,
Latitude and Executive - and clearly sets out the attributes of each of these
fare categories. It will also make it possible for travelers to customize
their travel by buying added services or, conversely, to save money by
declining benefits normally included in their selected fare type.
"Air Canada is making it easier than ever for customers to choose only
the products and services they want with pricing that is transparent and
clearly understandable," said Charles McKee, Vice President, Marketing, at Air
Canada. "By coupling our branded fares with a la carte options on our revamped
website, we are providing people an unprecedented ability to find the best
value for their travel dollar through flexibility and product selection. As
they build their individual tickets, travelers will see exactly what they are
paying for and thus be better able to determine whether to spend more for the
added services they want or to save money on those things they can do without.
We plan to expand the range of options in the future."
All options will be clearly available on Air Canada's redesigned,
easy-to-use website. Customers will be presented with a variety of options to
choose from, including:

<<
- Free value-added car rental and hotel offers.
- An option for Latitude customers to have lounge access for $25.
- The ability for Tango customers to choose their seat in advance for $15
(for all other fare categories advance seat selection is
complimentary).
- An option for Tango and Tango Plus customers to purchase a $5 inflight
meal voucher, saving $2 on regular prices (snack and sandwich is free
for Latitude customers).
- Save $5 by not checking baggage (for Tango, Tango Plus and Latitude
customers).
- Save $7 by agreeing not to change or cancel flights (for Tango
customers only).
- Save $3 by declining Aeroplan Miles (Tango customers only).
>>

ALW

Oh yes, that's much simpler!

What happens if you buy a meal voucher and they sell out before they get to you?

=aw

yvrcnx

My thoughts exactly.
It's confusing enough for someone like us who are used to travel a lot. If I think of those who infrequently do a trip and book online - I can just see their frustration with all the choices and "clicks" they have to go through to finally get their ticket. I wouldn't be surprised if they just give up halfway through and go to the competition.

WR Cage

System has crashed folks. Tried to get YYC-YVR to load for November and got the system is down message. Stellar performance by the AC IT guys again.

Sebring

I find that absurd. You don't have to click anything if you accept the defaults. Yes, you can go to the competition and not get these savings.

cattle

You just beat me to this. I have to fly YYZ-YYC on Dec 17th and WS is cheaper than AC Tango but I looked because I am a FTer I noticed that you can save $3 by not choosing to earn any AE miles.

My math says $3.00 / 835 miles (tango @ 50%) means that AC is only paying $.0035 cents per mile. That's 1/3 of 1 cent.

The other thing that I noticed is that the difference between Tango and Tango+ is now $40. I checked multiple days and can't find it any lower. Did I miss this increase previously?

West Jet is $224 vs AC $259 (even with the $7 discount for no changes) for the 8:00am flight. Seeing as I would be using 24 hour web check in there is not difference to me by choosing Tango.

This ones out of my pocket and looks like WS is going to win now that I am not worried about collecting AE miles anymore.

yvrcnx

I would much more prefer if they kept the fare diffirence between Tango and Tango+ more consistent as they used to at mostly around $ 30.00 or even $ 50.00. Right now it is mostly over $ 100.00 between YVR - YYZ.
I doubt that I will go for E status next year if this persists as it isn't worth $ 100.00 per fligth to get status and I mostly do YVR-YYZ trips on AC, the rest is transpacific on other * carriers.
It probably comes down to that they can do pretty much anything with regards to FF program for flights within Canada as there is no competion for them - who can blame them for that.

Sebring

System seems to work fine for me.

What browser are you using? It is crashing Safari, but my new Firefox 2.0 (a great browser for Mac users in particular) works fine.

cattle

I'm using IE6 and it kept crashing on me as well this morning. Had to close the browser a few times and keep retrying my flgiht options

yvrcnx

I understand that for us having to click 2x "next" or "continue" if we choose nothing is not a problem, clicks increase if we choose different options.
I frequently make bookings for friends that are older and for them to read through 2 pages right now of additional options can be quite confusing, not only for them for many people that don't travel and book online as frequently as we do. It isn't confusing for me and for you as we probably book a Tango+ or Lat. fare and know even before we book to just skip everything and continue.
I just think there are a lot of people out there that will have a hard time.
I don't know what the general consesus is but saving $ 3 here and there, $ 2 on a sandwich? Is it worth it, maybe for some it is.
My own oppinion is that it isn't.

zorn

If AC had offered all these options before on the website, and then decided today to eliminate all these options, there would be a thread about how bad the changes are, and why is AC taking away my ability to save money for checking bags, all they care about is nickel and diming us, is it legal to not give a discount for not checking bags, when will justice be served, etc.

It doesn't seem to matter what AC does. It is bad. And if it isn't bad for me, it's bad for the people down at the retirement home where I volunteer to book flights for them, so therefore it's bad.

I guess in the end, AC is the opposite of sex. Even when it's good, it's bad.

cslusarc

My findings:

-Latitude Plus (tm) fares are gone from domestic/transborder travel.
-Latitude Plus (tm) is still available on travel to Sun and European destinations.

It is too bad they could remove all the frills from tango fares and permit upselling from there.

why fly

AC did say it was going to make things SIMPLE........ Yah whatever!

yvrcnx

Hate to admit it, but you are right. I have to agree that if it was the other way around we would be complaining about exactly what you wrote above.
I feel a little bit in a complaining mood this morning. Luckily it was AC I found first to complain about this morning and not my wife or employee.
And the fact that I was trying to book a flight to YYZ for next week and AC really doesn't do it this time which I am sad about as I would prefer going on AC but can't justify the extra cost to get status miles, added to my mood.
Now I am o.k., got everything of my chest.

ypqRD

I just booked 4 tickets and decided to get Tango, which i never do, because for 3 of us this is the only flight this year, and for me i will land in the dreaded 50,000 zone where 500 status miles one way or another doesn't matter. These are coming out of my own pocket so I'll take the 20 or 30 a ticket saving. I have to tell you, I found it confusing, I was on instant messenger with two other family members who were saying things like "no you can't leave sunday you have to stay till monday" and when we finally got agreement I just wanted to buy the tickets and be done with it and every time I clicked Continue it was popping up with more questions, do you want to save $5 with this and $7 with that, and I generally had to get back to the other people I was booking with, what do you think, I might have to stay, etc etc. Then at the end it said it was sorry that I hadn't been able to choose my seats, made it sound like an error when the fact was I declined the $15 seat selection charge. I was confused... and I have booked a lot of complicated itineraries this year.

If this is simplification I think I would rather just give Air Canada the PIN to my debit card and let them take money when they want it.

I am glad I am Elite, the lounge made our 7am flight-as-a-family easier this morning, and AC has never treated me as poorly as United is busy treating me right now and generally treats me, so this isn't anti-AP/AC it's "come on AC any more simplification and travellers will need a one-day course to buy tickets." Grrrrr.