Originally Posted by
becreative
Actually I would disagree with parts of your argument. Canadians buy the same things that American buy (same brands, same crap manufactured in third world countries). We just pay a higher price because:
a) we have a smaller population than the US
b) our currency was weaker than the US dollar and as such the prices reflected that. it is no longer the case but prices still haven't trended down (similar to gas prices or that pesky YQ that tends to increase when price of crude goes up but doesn't fall nearly as fast when crude prices drop)
So we equally "screw the environment, labour rights, local economies, local manufacturing, service standard, quality". I mean all you have to do is look at tar sands, mining etc to see how we love to screw the environment, look at the City of Toronto to see what how much we love our labour rights, local economies, manufacturing etc does not really have a high priority on any agenda these days etc.
As for Air Canada, it does not provide the cheapest prices (if you are originating from Canada at least) far from it. They gouge domestic passengers (flying within Canada is very expensive). They also gouge international travelers (OP mentioned he actually pays less for his CX flights with better service in air, so better value proposition all together). They know they have a captive audience and take advantage of their (almost) monopolistic positioning in the Canadian market. Mix that with the policy makers favoring AC over the citizens of this wonderful country and you have even less of an incentive for them to treat customers properly. AC is in a position where a lot of people will fly with AC to support a Canadian airline (hoping their money stays in Canada) which then goes and spends the money elsewhere (even the pillows and blankets in J are made in China, makes one wonder why our national airline can't afford or won't bother to support the local economy)
so no AC is not the cheapest. it does offer convenient connections to a captive audience and has the policy makers of the country help in keeping competition at bay. it is an airline that does not really support the local economy but still enjoys preferential treatment due to its name/image. granted it has a great hard product compared to other north american airlines but it is probably going to loose that advantage in a few years if it doesn't keep innovating.
Actually main reason why prices are higher is because Canadians bend over and take it. Volvos cost 30% more in Canada but their sales still went up. IF Volvos cost so much more in the US then Americans would stop buying.
But I was talking about other aspects. Americans still have no mandatory vacation law. Some companies actually dont give any vacation whatsoever. Anytime this issue comes up, companies complain that it would "hurt their productivity". Productivity more important than giving a measly 2 week / year vacation to your employees like every other developed country in the world.
A large number of Americans (larger than the entire population of Canada) were without health insurance and same complaint! If you make us pay for healthcare (like every other developed country in the world), it'd hurt our productivity.
Cost of general labour is next to nothing, due to lack of decent minimum wage and number of illegal workers willing to work even below that.
I can give 20 more examples but it's not a political discussion. I do agree, Canadians are not *too different*, and I wish we were. The IT world would be a much worse place if it wasn't for Apple showing companies that customers will happily pay higher margin if they feel they're getting something in return. There are plenty of options for people who don't care about anything other than price. I just wish there were at least a few reasonable options for people who care about getting the best value out of their hard-earned dollars. I've never flown business class and I hate being treated like cattle.
Back to this thread, yes AC should treat it's regular customers (SE is a good indication) better, but the entire "customer service" culture has eroded unfortunately. Companies have adopted this shortterm "how much can we milk this person" philosophy and in absence of anyone else doing the opposite, this continues.
That's part of the reason why I like Southwest so much. Free bags checkin. No change or cancellation fees. It's a budget airline and I know exactly what I am getting, I don't feel nickled and dimed. One time I had three bags to checkin and Southwest let me check in the third for free, sayin they'd feel bad charging me money for it. Whenever I am booking a vacation in the US, I just go ahead an book southwest before my dates are finalized because I know I can always change my flight (for no cost) or heck, even cancel it and get my money back (not credits for future flight, but my dollars refunded back to me). Wish we had an airline like that in Canada to compete with AC.