I will be traveling to the Middle East next month and had hoped to fly Star Alliance (AC/LHR) as I am still pathetically pursuing SE status every year. The itinerary is Victoria-Dubai-Riyadh-Abu Dhabi-Dubai-Victoria. My company's travel agent said it would be over $14k for this itinerary with AC in J class and we ended up booking Alaska Air to Seattle and then all the other flights are Emirates and Etihad at a cost of less than $7k.

This seems a bizarre price difference especially as the timing is better with Emirates (they go direct to Dubai from Seattle) and they supposedly are a great airline to fly. I try to be loyal to AC but not at any price. I am surprised to see such pricing inefficiencies in what is supposed to be a very competitive business.

There has been some discussion about SEADXB not performing well for EK. Perhaps AC/LH's $7K J seats were sold while EK's were not?
Hard to tell.
You should price out YYZ-your destinations on EK. Might be a different story

ps - What was your intended *A routing? Would you not go LH via FRA? Why LHR? (edit: perhaps you meant LH when you typed LHR above?)

Simple, AC is a joint fare to be split with the participating airlines. AC can make more money selling a Canada-Europe fare in J instead of passing you onto another airline and having to split the comparable fare which is already less than it would charge to get to/from Europe. Etihad and Emirates are dumping capacity into the Canadian market and have lots of premium seats to fill because they are primarily relying on cheap through fares to take Canadian originating passengers onward to Asia or other destinations beyond their Middle East hubs. No mystery. Why should AC make less than half what it can otherwise make by selling you a seat? It doesn't need your business to fill a J seat half-way to your destination, so why bother competing to make less money?

Agree on the comments re AC making money on the European sector and is likely why the Cdn govt is not allowing extra slots to Emirates/Etihad as they would drain some of AC rev even in Y that would connect in Europe via Swiss/LH.
I believe Emirates J is a better product and they will match your status if you need it if you plan to fly the sector regularly. If you fly J all the time then the status does not matter other than points accumulation.

Can you give examples of capacity dumping in Cdn markets and cheap through fares?

BY FAR the cheapest way to YVR from DEL is via AUH, like half price....with the YYZYVR leg on AC ironically.

Did OP price *A options ex SEA to compare with EK?

I just priced YVRDEL, Mar 3-8.
J
Finnair (BA), China Eastern .... All (FAR!) cheaper than EK. Another airline that is 15% cheaper than EK, .... AC.

Where's the capacity dumping? EK wanted daily 77W service to YYZ, Feds say 3/wk so they come back w/ 380. But that's a whole different thread I guess.

J on the EK 380 is wonderful. It's not a full private suite, but it is a cubicle (in the nicest way), and the stand-up bar at the back is a nice touch. The 777 is not as nice, but still very good. My fairly limited experience of the service has also been very positive.

As to price, depending on when you fly and where from, they can be significantly cheaper than AC.

Capacity dumping is being confused with competition here AC does not like competition lowering prices.


It must be hard to dump capacity when one is restricted to 3 flights a week by a protectionist government full of AC-friendly cronies, which effectively is a subsidy on AC.

You wanna see cheap fares and capacity dumping, stop protecting AC and let free market reign.

Your post might be relevant if OP wasn't routing via SEA.

I was responding to this ridiculous statement:

Etihad and Emirates are dumping capacity into the Canadian market

I have flown TK out of YYZ and J was $7k less than AC/LH and the connections were a helluva alot better. Better food and service too!

Ummm, It's entirely relevant.
OP is ex YVR. Routing via SEA is not his preference. If EX were allowed to start DXBYVR, don't you agree AC+LH J fares to middle east would lower from YVR?
I don't get it?

Maybe, maybe not. I've looked at EK fares to India, ex-US and YYZ, and have never found them as the cheapest option, and never even close to it. Maybe its my routing. ex-US I've certainly seen QR cheaper. But never EK.

On the other hand, don't think the OPs situation is really any different than the broader debate on fare differences at border airports. Yes, leaving from SEA instead of YVR, or BUF instead of YYZ, to just about anywhere (except Canadian destinations, and around specific holidays like US thanksgiving) is going to be cheaper. Its been like that forever, and likely not going to change anytime soon.

However, to do a fair comparison with the itin leaving from SEA instead, would probably be best to actually compare prices SEA - destination and then take the ferry down. I bet AC's price drops considerably if starting from SEA instead of YVR, and especially YYJ.