Originally Posted by darkros
I also wonder if this is a sneaky way for Air Canada to increase prices - if they have enough of their flight volume on passes, this will enable them to increase fares for a la carte customers if there are no other viable alternatives. Since the pass buyers are price insensitive to individual flight costs, it would drive them to purchase passes in the future if individual flights were more costly.
I would bet money that you are describing the exact behaviour the marketing trolls at AC are trying to stimulate. The danger of course is the same as a sports team that sells all season tickets, so the guy that wants to take his kid for an occasional outing is shut out. The strategy looks great from a revenue perspective until the home team is not doing so well and the season ticket holders bail, with nobody left to pick up the slack!
What we need is credible competition to keep the trolls in check, otherwise we may be faced with a day where you can fork over $2500 for a 10 coupon pass, that merely gets you from A-B (arm wrestle for UG's at the gate, because everybody will be travelling on passes) or you can buy a single trip for $600 and possibly use a SWU at time of booking.
Personally I think AC is a good airline, but they should not mistake my buying of their passes as true love. It is only a marriage of convenience!!
DF