Originally Posted by
skybluesea
If this happens, then basically with the massive AC bail-out soon to come these refunds just become a flow of future taxation to wealthier Canadians.
I would prefer to see AC preserve cash, as such less the bail-out will be.
And less the bail-out, this will mitigate taxation impacts which leaves more after-tax dollars in the hands of potential AC customers.
Please see the post I linked to in the other thread. Un-refunded non-refundable credits are not actually that big in the scheme of AC's financial position. They're scrapping for every dollar they can right now (as I would be, if I were in their shoes), but if they're getting a "massive" bail-out - of what, $2 billion? $1.5 billion? - $200MM of something like that in travel credits isn't a very big deal.
Even if it means the bailout has to be slightly bigger, I think it's preferable, because I don't like the precedent sets that an airline, or any business, can simply abuse its customers by ignoring its own policies and contracts, as well as regulations as they're generally understood prior to the crisis.
Somehow magically when AC gets a bail-out, and everyone knows its coming, some folks appear to believe this will NOT somehow be affected by the level of cash reserves available to AC - that in part will depend on the level of refunds vs credits.
No, not everyone knows a bailout is coming. AC's cash position was very strong, as was its overall financial position, going in to this mess. It may be that general wage subsidies and other programs, along with their strong balance sheet, and possibly some private sector financing, will be sufficient to get AC through this.
Or maybe it won't and there will be a bailout. But this situation is volatile, there's really nothing certain beyond the next few days.
btw...let's do a little poll...how many FTers here willing to stop flying AC because of this credit policy, if it sticks? My guess is remarkably few, and for those who mostly fly on OPM, I suppose the poll question is NOT relevant.
Since most airlines have similar policies these days, I'm simply not giving money to any airline at the moment. If their refund policies weren't so crappy, I would happily be committing dollars to trips in the summer/fall right now, but because they're all trying to screw us out of refunds, I'll just hold on to my money.
It's amazing how much smaller my credit card bills are when my spending on airfare is net negative.
Originally Posted by
skybluesea
The CTA's statement isn't definitive. It says that "
any specific situation brought before the CTA will be examined on its merits" and that credits are acceptable, "generally speaking".