Originally Posted by
Jazzed91
Yeah, making the magic of intercontinental air travel accessible to more people, courtesy of lower fares, is totally a terrible thing.
I'm not going to lie, I definitely tuned out while reading this thread. Maybe I missed out on some nuanced thing in the first post, but the whole premise of this thread just seems foolish to me.
But it really is all about the money, isn't it?
Air Canada already offers a product that is exactly like what you described in your first post, a reasonable fare that includes things like increased seat pitch, an included checked bag allowance, included drinks/meal, etc. But instead of accepting the product that AC has offered, you imposed some restrictions on yourself thus increasing your cost and/or time en route. So it seems like you either need to travel within your restrictions and pay more for the level of service you desire or you can loosen your own restrictions and pay less.
Is there something else I'm missing here?
What you are missing Jazzed91 and I don't think it was 'nuanced' is that they are removing mainline flights and replacing them with Rouge flights. So no, what I want is not available. I do not normally book a flight more than 6-8 weeks ahead of time. Often when I look at what is available on a given flight, there are no Premium seats available or as for a recent flight there is one seat left in Premium. Do my wife and I then not fly together? Not all plane configurations even have Premium Economy seats. Look at the configuration of the seats on Air Canada's two versions of the A330-300 here:
https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Ai...bus_A330_B.php Version 2 has 21 Premium seats while version 1 has none at all, replacing them with more Business class seats.
So if we look at it as there being 'cheap' seats (economy), 'expensive seats' (business) and 'reasonable' seats (Premium), there are far fewer 'reasonable' seats. On top of that, they are removing mainline flights in favour of an inferior product, Rouge. Look at the plans the CEO announced this month.
Air Canada adding more planes to Rouge for use on domestic routes - Business - CBC News
Move to narrow body, single aisle Rouge planes domestically. Convert A320 and 321s to 'high density, single class cabins'. Read, remove and replace 'reasonable' seats. Does that sound like they are improving their product offering to you? Reduce costs by $250 million through cost cutting including maintenance. If you reduce costs, does that lead to a better product or does it lead to the customer getting less. Does reducing maintenance make you feel safer? Did you hear about these two flights last year:
Air Canada pilot doesn?t notice as wheel snaps during take-off ? manages ?miracle? landing in England | National Post
You don't have to have done much flying to know what an LCC is. Air Canada refers to Rouge as their Lower Cost Carrier. What do you get with a LLC? An improved passenger experience? Now, the term ULLC has begun to be used. What does an Ultra Low Cost Carrier sound like it will provide as a passenger experience to you Jazzed91? An improved experience?
I don't see how anyone can try to deny that the airlines are in a race to the bottom.