Certainly people here are creative enough to think of ways to circulate useful information other than just posting it in FlyerTalk. And let me assure you that if it is posted here, it will be shut down in short order. Let me tell you about the Mexican Hat Dance experience.

For those of you who don't already know, the Mexican Hat Dance (or MHD for short) was a very clever use of international fare tariffs for flights originating in Canada. For many reasons, including an airline monopoly in Canada (proceeded by an oligopoly) but also including our small population and vast territory, airfares within Canada and from Canada to the US are obscenely high when compared to the US airfares.

But for equally varied reasons, flights from Canada to Mexico are very inexpensive. As it turns out, if you bought a business class ticket (or in some cases even a restricted economy ticket) you had stopover privileges in many cities throughout Canada and the US.

As an example let's look at a trip I made in December 2000. I needed to go from Vancouver (home) to Toronto for about a week. I then needed to go to Chicago for a few days. After that, I wanted to go to San Francisco for Christmas, and eventually return home to Vancouver. The best price I could get for this itinerary was about $5400, in economy. If I were to do it in Business class the cost would be almost $7000.

But instead I bought a ticket to Guadalajara, Mexico. I flew YVR-YYZ-ORD-GDL-SFO-YVR, stopping for as long or as short as I wanted in each city. I stopped in YYZ and ORD. But ironically, even though it was a ticket to Guadalajara, I only stayed there long enough to clear immigration and customs, hit the lounge to use the bathroom, have a snack and check my e-mail -- in total perhaps 2 hours. (Others have done “quick turnarounds” in as little as 55 minutes.) I then continued on to San Francisco where I again stopped for several days before going home to Vancouver.

What did I get? Well, first off I went in business class (and in comfort) the entire way. I got the use of the Mexicana lounge simply by way of the business class ticket. I also had the benefit of a completely flexible ticket, changeable at any time, fully refundable and no restrictions, and being a walk-up fare, I bought it the day before travel.

I got a 25% Class-of-Service bonus that is included in my elite status qualifying total. I got extra segments. I got to stop in those various cities for as long as I needed. I picked up several thousand extra qualifying miles, that also got the 25% COS bonus. (In the end I got an additional 3300 Q-miles, and about 5000 bonus miles.) I saved at least 3 upgrade coupons, and I travelled in business on Mexicana even though I don't have upgrade privileges on MX. (The MHD motto: We don' need no steekin' upgrades.)

And what did I pay for this trip which originally priced out at $7000? For going to GDL and spending a few hours, I paid $1336. Total. Fees, taxes, PFCs, everything. $1336. Canadian dollars, no less. And most important, perfectly legal.

(This had the additional benefit of alternatively astonishing, and then scaring the hell out of, travel agents.)

As you might imagine, this perked the interest of Air Canada forum members. At first there were only a few of us willing to try it. But as we did, other began to take advantage of the MHD. And in short order, it caught on like wildfire. People just were just astonished at the benefits of this technique. It got to the point were over the last month, we had several members doing MHDs at the same time, passing each other along the way, sometimes meeting in groups of 2 or 3 or 4 in Mexico city or other Mexican destinations. As I write this, there are 3 AC forum members in the air (right now) on different planes, all doing MHDs. So you could say it caught the attention of Air Canada forum members.

It also caught the attention of the national media. In late December an article entitled "Mexican Hat Dance Brings Cheap Flights, More Points" appeared in the Canadian equivalent of USA Today. At the same time, it was described on a national TV program. This made us nervous, even though we continued whistling bravely through the cemetery. There was of course the problem of publicly tweaking AC's nose. But it caused something else to happen.

Flyertalk.com was mentioned in the article, and immediately we had a steady stream of new members who joined because they'd seen the article. Many of these newbies went on to become productive and contributing members of the forum. The AC forum came abuzz with talk about the MHD. There was so much discussion and interest we had to start maintaining an index page of posts, as there was just too much information. (See: Summary of MHD posts.)

Of late, the national media again became interested. In one case, a TV reporter wanted to bring a small digital camcorder on a trip to Cancun, and do a piece. On top of that, due to an Air Canada promotion that rewarded segments, people were starting to do 16-segment itineraries, going from Ottawa to Cancun (almost due south of Ottawa, and on the east coast of the continent) via Vancouver and LAX. Each of these 16 segment tickets required the direct intervention of the AC fares department. Travel agents who couldn't believe the fare started refusing to ticket. Even if they did ticket the itinerary, they invariably called AC to make sure the fare was legit, which it was. Then there was the mailing in of boarding passes for retroactive credit on missing flights. Flights weren't posted for two reasons -- with completely flexible ticket people were making changes willy nilly (and legally) as their plans or desires changed. And there were the missed connections and cancelled flights that are inevitable when you start flying 16 segments in three countries over 60 hours.

But on Wednesday last (May 16, 2001) it all came crashing down before our very eyes. One member who had reserved but not yet ticketed got a call from his TA, advising him that the previously quoted sub-$1400 fare was now over $6000. Routes that many had just recently paid $1290 for, were now coming up at over $9000. Let there be no doubt, the MHD was dead.

But more importantly for this discussion is how it came about. Because of the Star Alliance, you simply picked whatever flight or route or destination you wanted on AC, UA, or MX. If UA didn't cover the route, then AC did. If not, then MX would. It was like picking items off a Chinese menu. Some thought it was more like shooting fish in a barrel.

This flexibility also meant that no single carrier could stop it. It would take co-ordinated action by all three airlines.

And on Wednesday, co-ordinated action they took. AC changed valid routes to preclude connections within Canada. UA strategically removed selected useful cities from their routes. And MX changed their routing tables wholesale. And we literally watched on Wednesday afternoon, while route after route initially displayed MHD capabilities, only to have Expedia display "Fare rules not available at this time, please try later" minutes afterwards.

Have no doubt, AC, UA, and MX planned, set-up and executed an MHD ambush on Wednesday, and they executed it very well.

So it comes to this... we have almost everyone above posting "Yeah! Post it! That way we can all use it." But if you do post it, and it is effective and useful, then consider it a one-time deal. Do it now, or forever hold your piece.

Here's the real question -- do you carefully let people know about, perhaps denying a few? Or do you let everyone know, including the airlines, denying everybody except the few who will be able to do it this month, this week, this day?

The Mexican Hat Dance. October 4, 2000 - May 16, 2001. R.I.P.

[Heavily edited to correct a zillion grotesque spelling and grammtical errors. (I was too embarrassed to leave it up there in it's original form.)]

[This message has been edited by Ken hAAmer (edited 05-20-2001).]