Originally Posted by industry_killer

As a former AC employee I can confirm you have no idea what the costs are or in general what you are talking about. In fact the only thing that is correct in that entire statement is the no YQ.

Originally Posted by ffsim

Except when said devaluation is justified in large part by having to curtail the number of people sitting in J who did not say J prices for their seat... I certainly can't say it has "no bearing" on the discussion.

Originally Posted by industry_killer

Amazing so many people on this board harp about AC employees sitting in J using a company perk, such as a B1. It is almost like no one here has any such perks at their given place of employment. Bringing AC employee travel benefits into this discussion has no bearing on the devaluation of the FFP.

Originally Posted by SFO777

Disagree. The biggest contributor to any "cheapening" of any airline's premium class is filling it with employees.

If AC wants to sell J seats, lower the price differential between and Y and J. Duh.

Originally Posted by purelywasted

I wonder if many SE's have woken up to the idea that "they have no cloths"

Originally Posted by yqtyyz

As someone pointed upthread, how many posts in the SQ, TG, CX sections ask about upgrades and the replies are posted by fellow FTers in such a manner? Softer words probably could have been used, but hey, FTers have been less than civil as well.

I've sent PMs to Ben L. and he's been nothing but kind, and has told me as much as he's allowed to.

So to both Bens, please continue to post here on FT. I may or may not be able to maintain SE status, but the engagement has certainly been informative and welcomed.

Originally Posted by purelywasted

I wonder if many SE's have woken up to the idea that "they have no cloths"

Originally Posted by Ben Smith

Your comments and tone are not constructive to a discussion with AC. If you don't want us to participate on here then just say so. All of us at AC will stop replying or discussing anything with you personally on a public forum effective now. A few months ago Ben Lipsey (who we met off this site before he joined AC) personally convinced me to have AC officially rejoin the conversation on FT in the open transparent manner that you have seen take place over the last few months. We choose to post under our real names and therefore the conversation can be challenging at times. We fully expect to hear both positive and negative posts about how we run our business and the reason we participate here is to share some of our thinking and hear opinions from our customers on what improvements and/or changes they would like to see. We have listened to many of the various suggestions from this board and over the past few months when appropriate have instituted several ideas that came directly from FT members.
Air Canada has consistently produced a lower profit margin than our NA peers. Although over the last few years we have made big strides in improving our bottom line even in 2013 WS AA DL all outperformed us from an EBITDAR perspective. Our current model which includes many things needs to better adapt to our marketplace in order for us to improve our financial position and reach higher overall margins. We are a service business and in order to strive and succeed we need to significantly improve in many customer facing areas of our business. When it came time to decide on what type of product to put on our new 787s as well as our new fleet of 737MAX aircraft we needed to choose how best to position ourselves to improve our service while also expanding our margins. Having best-in-class J seats and lower than average premium revenues (which is what we currently have on many routes) is not a sustainable strategy. We don't expect all of our J customers to be paying full J fares all the time but we do need the average fare to improve to justify the investments we are making. We have experimented with lower quality J products and you will now see us move toward a more uniform product across our fleet. We did not expect to get this changeover 100pct correct and are open to tweaks where they make sense. We are more than happy to take comments and views from our customers but I'm not prepared to have you bully one of our most dedicated employees on a public site. If you have an issue with Ben L personally please PM me directly.

Originally Posted by industry_killer

Amazing so many people on this board harp about AC employees sitting in J using a company perk, such as a B1. It is almost like no one here has any such perks at their given place of employment. Bringing AC employee travel benefits into this discussion has no bearing on the devaluation of the FFP.

Originally Posted by industry_killer

Amazing so many people on this board harp about AC employees sitting in J using a company perk, such as a B1. It is almost like no one here has any such perks at their given place of employment. Bringing AC employee travel benefits into this discussion has no bearing on the devaluation of the FFP.

Originally Posted by krugon

Mr Smith;

What you are seeing is emotional reaction to a poorly thought out implementation of changes to your loyalty program. The logic for the changes might be sound but the execution nothing sort of a public relations disaster. Customers put in mileage on AC with a reasonable expectation of a certain set of benefits only to be disappointed after crossing the finish line. The comments being posted reflect this disappointment and have little to do with Air Canada's participation in this forum or not. If you don't like the backlash, do something positive about it rather than prattle on about how lucky we are to have official AC representation on this forum. Your participation gives you the opportunity to present the company's point of view, do damage control and conduct a little market research for a lot less than an IPSOs-Reid survey. You want a well mannered conversation, start treating the other side of the loyalty game with a little respect at the end of the year.

Originally Posted by WildcatYXU

Going off on a tangent; I wonder if AC employees pay tax on such perks.

Originally Posted by jsfrSuperElite

You must be one of the lucky ones, I've sent as well a PM to Ben L a few days ago and I an still waiting for an answer...