Tango/T+ Price difference
 

I'm wondering why AC no longer wants me to fly with them. Just went to book a return YEG-YVR in early May. The Tango price is $345 all in, T+ is $584. AC wants $240 for 1004 status miles, advanced seat selection and $75 cheaper same day upgrade.

The problem is, I can make up 1000 miles for nothing by routing my next flight to anywhere through Calgary and Westjet is still cheaper than the Tango price ($311).

Its nice to see AC matching WS seat sales, but an 88% price differential for 1000 status miles seems too much.

yea. we all know. Check other threads in the forum.

I guess I saw the vast majotity of other threads are talking about long distance to Asia, or maybe $70 difference. When it comes to almost double the price for a 1 hr flight that isnt worth upgrading, there really is no point sticking with AC.

Right. I know someone who wanted to get involved with AC and collect miles as was going to have to do at least two trips a month YYC-YQB. He lost all his enthusiasm when he noted that each trip would be about $200 more to get his miles. (Tango + fare).
Another lost potential frequent flyer.
Oh well.

The defensive line of reasoning here is that it is a free market and AC can do whatever they want and if you want miles you should pay (those people are about to chime in in 3..2..1..)

The thing is that it has just become so absurd that I think I am losing faith in the free market economics argument. I'm starting to wonder if perhaps AC isn't quite so nimble or "in touch".

Perhaps they do make bad decisions? I know they have lost ~20k in domestic spend a year from me on short haul (porter) and long haul (WJ) because the points weren't a factor.

WJ wins often because of their LOW change fees.

Porter wins often because of schedule in to YTZ.

Both things that *A points would beat out if they were in play.

I know 4 people that have gone CX instead of AC in the past 3 weeks due to the crazy fare difference.

Lot of missed rev.

I think domestic flights have always been like this, it is cheaper right now to book yeg-yvr-las T+ than booking yeg-yvr Tango.

The big problem for me is the tango fares that exist for asia, where you can rack up significant miles...

That's why on those routes I now fly CX/KA/AA.

It is a free market system, yes, they can do what they want, but the point we are all trying to make is, just within this small sample of people we can show they are losing customers.
At some point AC have got to realize this, and hopefully they will adjust these fare differences.
Surely those status miles don't cost them that amount of money that they are charging in the fare difference?

My employer requires economy fares, cheapest if possible, but also has a policy that notes that Tango might be too restrictive. If a short flight is only $50 or so more expensive, then they are fine with T+ (might end up having to pay higher change fees etc). In my experience, the T:T+ difference has typically been in this range on flights I have booked.

I dont travel to Asia regularly, so haven't been hit by the impact that many are discussing there. My travel is a mix of NA and occasional TPAC/TATL flights that have got me past 50k status miles for the last few years (I know thats minor to some people here).

If WS to T+ fare comparison in NA is now almost a 100% increase, then its hard to justify T+ . That means I'm not likely to hit 50k miles; which then means I likely wont be able to upgrade outside NA next year; which means that there's no much less incentive to go with AC at any time.

I know that there's many thousands of complaints, comments etc about AC pricing and the lack of apparent sense to it all, but there are days when I look at the prices and have to wonder why I stick with AC....

Then fly TANGO ... 1,000 miles for 240$ ? just say no ... or fly westjet ... do you really think writing here will change anything ??

if anything else writing here proves to AIR CANADA that reads this that you CARE SO MUCH about stupid 1,000 miles that you are considering this and even WASTING YOUR TIME WRITING A MESSAGE HERE ... how much do you value your time ? you must work for minimum salary to waste your time like that ...

TANGO is cheaper or equal to CX ... what's your point?

That is one area where I will give full credit to WS, love the low change fees.
You must value your time a lot to write a response like that, too.

I stopped buying domestic tango plus fares for personal travel wholesale about 18 months ago... now just take the cheapest fare/best schedule for domestic trunk routes (mostly YYZ/YOW-YEG/YYC), and Porter in the triangle whenever possible. Used to be a loyal AC flyer, but its just not worth it now.

with this Tango/Tango Plus crap going (and the R games) I wonder what will 2013 AP member distributions looks like.

More people choose not to fly AC because of the ridiculous Tango Plus fare, or those who choose to fly AC but on Tango fare, in results much less AP status miles collected (lower AP operating cost because less miles given out)

And because of the new 25k/35k/50k/75k/100k tier structure, maybe even less people ended up in the 35k bucket, hence less *G (optional for 35k) need to give out. Again another reduction in operating cost because of less *A lounge access (?)

So, as someone said, maybe this is how AC/AP drive out the bottom feeder. And to those who have the money to spend and continue to fly AC Tango+ fare, you just have less competition in 2013 doing eUpgrade. In fact, even now, there will be less competition because not everyone can justify to pay 100% more on Tango Plus fare (no upgrade for Tango fare)...

Am I missing something?

Oh forget to thanks AP/AC teasing me with the discount codes, sales, all the eUpgrade credits and the SE status. Just another reason to fly 20k with A3 FFP for the *G.