dundeelawrence

I am furious at Air Canada. In June it was promoting a seat sale on its new premium economy service to Shanghai from Vancouver. One of the conditions of the sale was that it had to be booked by June 18. To reinforce that point the text of the promotion was accompanied by a 'countdown' of the days and hours until expiration of the offer. I took the bait and booked a seat for a total cost of $1849.48.

A couple of weeks later I checked the Air Canada website to see how much the 'promotional' fare had changed since my booking. I was angry to discover that the fare I had paid was still available. I felt I had been duped into thinking that the fare I paid would no longer be available after June 18. I was angry that I had been persuaded to book earlier than necessary but let it slide.

Today I again went back to the AC website to check the fare and was furious to discover that the exact same itinerary that I had booked was now $1726.12, $123 cheaper! I feel cheated and I feel stupid. To my mind a countdown to the expiration of a promotional fare offer implies that the fare will no longer exist after the clock runs out. It's a tool meant to persuade the consumer to book earlier than later by implying that the fare will no longer be available after the countdown has run its course. I feel that Air Canada is engaged in a form of false advertising to suggest that a promotional fare will cease to exist at the end of a countdown and then weeks later offer a fare that is even cheaper.

I have sent a letter to AC expressing my feelings but I don't expect that it will lead to much. I'd be interested in learning from my forum colleagues if you agree with my point of view and, if you do, what agencies or regulatory bodies I could launch a complaint with. It might lead to nothing but it would certainly make me feel a whole lot better. I feel well and truly shafted by Air Canada by its engagement in promotional tactics that are totally lacking in integrity.

Thanks for hearing me out and any advice or perspectives would be appreciated.

tcook052

False advertising? Since when have airfares come with a lowest price guarantee?

TemboOne

Sorry dundeelawrence,

There's no guarantee that a sale price will not be further reduced at a later date, nor is there a guarantee that a sale will not be extended.

The business class sale to South Africa is a case in point. As far as I know this sale has already been extended once.

Air Canada is in the business of providing air services and is at liberty to discount fares in response to market demands and competitors' pricing.

We don't all go screaming "foul" when AC offers better fares from the US via YYZ or YVR than we can buy locally.

I'm afraid you are wasting your time complaining.

No guarantees but if your letter to AC is polite and not of a threatening nature you just might be lucky and get a discount code for future travel.

theseatbelt

lol since here

http://www.flightnetwork.com/price-drop-protection/

Oh I've once had a flight price drop on a lowest fare business class ticket by $650 on a TATL flight. The cancellation fee on cancelling the lowest fare business class ticket was $600. So knowing that the price dropped and that I am presented an opportunity to optimize/change my date without paying more, and saving $50, I phoned AC to cancel the old ticket, pay the $600 penalty (which is to be deducted from my refund), and issue a new ticket, with some minor date/time changes, all while saving $50. The agent said the cancellation was to be processed the next day by the cancellation dept.

When they cancelled the old ticket and issued me a refund the next day, I got a nice surprise. They forgot to take off the $600 cancellation fee.

Perhaps it was either a IT glitch or perhaps my flight itinerary changed without me knowing and hence I was eligible to get a cancellation but I was NOT planning to follow up or raise an issue. I was very happy to save $650 overall

tcook052

Published airfares do not come with a lowest price guarantee regardless of what one OTA is offering.

OP, I believe the term is caveat emptor.

tyberius

Technically this is correct.

If I go to a store and jeans are on sale for 25%, I can't be upset if I go back next week and they are now 40% off. It means the first sale was not as effective as they need.

The buyer has to decide at any point if the fare makes sense to them.

That said, they are not super innocent and have done things like jack up fares before a promo then offer the promo. Or advertise a promo which is almost completely unbookable.

The net lesson to the OP is to ignore the word "promo". It is marketing handwaving to hypnotize you into buying something. You can only look at the price and determine if it is acceptable to you or not. If you want to wait you play the game of it going up or down and take the risk vs. locking in a price.

Unless you find a website that has a best price guarantee. Which is pretty rate. I know of yapta.com ... any others out there? Don't know of any that work with AC.

Bonaventure

This is a very silly rant.

acysb87

Wait till there is an a/c switch,flight is delayed,luggage gets lost......

There are so many things that can go wrong in life, best laid plans aside. Being "furious" and "angry" at AC will likely get you high blood pressure

tcook052 is correct in his thoughts of "caveat emptor"

Try to enjoy your upcoming Shanghai trip.

why fly

its never hurts to complain. The complaints facilitate change.
Anything to make Air Canada a more responsible company, is good.

Ben Lipsey

I fail to see how this makes us irresponsible...? Or why this would necessitate a change? Like many have said, and as with any other business, we are free to set and discount our prices as we wish. If the sale was originally set to expire, please rest assured it was meant to do just that - we do not engage in pressure sales tactics. If we later decided to extend that sale, we have the prerogative to do so, and quite frankly I must admit I'm a little surprised to hear negative feedback for offering lower prices. Then again, given this the Air Canada board, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised after all

OP I'm sorry you feel irritated with us, but in this case there's not much I can advise other than evaluating the pros and cons of cancelling and rebooking at a lower price. If you booked within the last 24 hours you are able to cancel for free.

gcashin

The thread title "False Advertising" is a bit misleading and unnecessarily dramatic. As with anything, you take a risk when you buy. The price may go up, or may go down. Generally the odds are in your favour when you book early during a sale, but things change.

I booked bus class tickets to South Africa back in March for later this year for a special occasion, thinking that it was a good price at the time. Unfortunate that with the most recent sale, it went down to $900 below the prior sale price, so I could have saved $900/ticket ($1800 total). I'm pretty annoyed that I could have saved a lot by waiting, but I bought on an earlier sale and it ended up cost me.

You win some, you lose some. But it's not "False Advertising" unless they advertised it as the lowest price of the year, or something to that effect.

Triley

And that is exactly why I refuse to book any airfare unless it is through them.

loosegoose

There was a time back several years ago when gaming AC was the sport of the day. Exploiting weaknesses in the system to get additional miles, cheating on upgrades,etc. When those windows closed due to better leakage control by AC a new class of whiners was born who thought AC was unethical,etc. Don't you know you are supposed to give your product away and always be at the mercy of certain customers? I like where things are now as both a shareholder and a good customer.

Jagboi

I don't think it was false advertising in that you were able to purchase a flight for the advertised price, correct?

I think we all know that airline seat prices are much more fluid and changing than almost any other thing we routinely buy, with the possible exception of gasoline.

If you fill the tank in your car today and the price goes down next week it's just a fact of life, do you feel cheated? What if the price goes up, do you go back to the gas station and offer to pay the difference between what you bought gas at last week and the new higher price?

TemboOne

Well Ben, no matter what you do you can't keep all the people happy all the time.

One of the things op failed to acknowledge is that by booking early he got first dibs at the limited PE seats available. Sometimes we may buy early regardless because we want a specific seat on a specific day and the "best" seats such as 18AB on the 77Ws tend to go very early.

Dated SALE prices are just that. Many times we may pay a sale price and see the price drop later. With merchandise buying early gives us a choice of colours and sizes not always available later.

With Air Canada's sales we are buying early at a good price to have the best overall selection of flights, seats and dates. In effect we are buying peace of mind at what we accept as being a fair price.

If the sale is repeated at the same or lower price it's just the luck of the game as AC is responding to market forces.

In retail phrases such as "further reductions" are common and acceptable.

There is no reason why a ticket sale price may not also be further reduced!