Endorsing a tix to a family member
 

Say I bought a tix at a great sale price, but my circumstances change. Can I have the name changed on the ticket, endorse it over to a family member? On AC my understanding is no. They say standard airline industry rules. But really there is no Canadian law against it, is there? In fact, in Peru there is a law obliging the transport industry to allow name changes on tickets. Is this just another example of how AC has us hoodwinked into acting like sheep and accepting that which is convenient to them? I can on LanPeru, so would it really be such a bad thing if one could endorse an AC tix over to someone else? Or is my understanding all wrong?

It would be a very good thing if you could endorse your ticket over to somebody else. I'm not sure how/why airlines get away with making flights "personal" but they do. It's in the T&C you agree to when buying the ticket, so you're stuck with it unless you can get the government here to change our legislation to forbid these quite arbitrary conditions.

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It prevents a secondary market for the resale of tickets. That's the main thought that comes to mind

Changing a name on a ticket is not impossible, for example the AC flight passes for business allows name changes for $125. I can well imagine how AC would like strict control over this one.

What's so special about air travel that a secondary market should not be allowed?

I think the idea is that so much capital investment is required to start up an airline, some regulation is required to maintain order and prevent even more frequent bankruptcy than we already see in the airline industry. We see the same thing in the utility industry - the government allows some monopoly-like behavior on the part of business in order to ensure sufficient profits to maintain order. It's obviously a tight balance and the recipe hasn't been perfected, but one could argue this outcome is better than an alternative where perfect competition eats away all the profits and eventually no one would be willing to provide air services at all.

I guess that's one way how airlines try to get people to justify premium fares. It would be great if you could transfer it over to someone else if you get a great fare and can't use it.

Interesting enough, while AC and most airlines I know of don't allow it, Westjet actually allows it under their new fares. Their 'Plus' fares have a free name change feature, and on their Flex fares you can change the name on the ticket for a $50 fee. So I guess some Canadian airlines allow it (just not AC)!

Because speculators would buy up cheap sale price tickets and gouge people on the resale price.

That's what I was thinking too.

You see an MR, and book it to earn a few miles. With name changes allowed, you'd have people whose full-time job it is to find those MRs, book all the tickets, then attempt to resell them for 3x the price.

It's interesting though. I seem to recall a SCOTUS ruling that purchases of electronic media must be allowed to resell them. And that was a tough decision, because of how easy it is to buy an mp3, and then sell it ten times. With something like an airline ticket, you'd only be capable of selling as many as you bought.

I hope this never makes it into a Canadian court, because I'm worried about what would happen if people were allowed to resell them.

Now, if you were allowed to change the name on a ticket for a normal change fee, would that solve everyone's problem?

Works for Ticketmaster.

Please don't ask how I know this, but WS permits one name to be provided in the event of cancellation of a booking and a credit being credited.

That is an interesting point. Why would AC care? They're still selling the tickets.

I suppose one risk would be buying up all the $2000 tickets, trying to resell them for $4000, failing, and then cancelling them with a $600 fee or something, such that the flight goes out empty, and AC has only collected $600 per seat.

Yes, WS has always allowed people to transfer a travel credit to another person, so they've been much more flexible there.

I believe it's new with WS that they now allow people to actually change the name on the reservation (so you can keep the existing fare without having to transfer the credit and rebook) for a reasonable fee (e.g. $50) or free on their higher fares.

I still stick with AC for now due to lounge access, upgrades, but definitely a lot more flexiblity with changes on WS.

It's easily done -- on a refundable ticket. You simply cancel the ticket in your name and buy a new one in the other person's name.

By providing the level of flexibility OP seeks in his post, only a fool would purchase a fully flexible ticket. Particularly in a business setting where the ticket will be used one way or the other.

I think this partially redacted part of your post is accurate. ;)