llbean

Ok I get a premium for flex...
But looking at YYZ-YVR

Tango is 293 and Flex $528! That is a $ 235 premium fee or an 80% increase for FLex..

For what? Slightly lower SDC fee and some points?


Come on Air Canada...Are you trying to force me away? I have been SE100k for years now but it seems like you want me to leave!

rankourabu

This is brilliant strategy from AC to get extra money from those on OPM, especially Flex contracted OPM, chasing status, wanting to upgrade, see some other benefit to this, etc, those customers will happily pay double.

Normal people will buy the cheapest fare.


ah the days when the AC faithful kept defending introduction of Tango by saying, hey its only ever going to be a $100 difference max!

yyznomad

Which fare class is the Tango and which fare class is the Flex?

Maybe it's the difference between a low Tango and a middle Flex (for example)?

Symmetre

Funny how the SE's always steadfastly defended AC as the airline chipped away at the E group and essentially drove them away.

And now that Calin has enjoyed a taste of the extra bonuses he earns by cutting benefits while raising prices, it's the once-loyal SE's who are feeling the burn and griping the most. I mean, scan the first 10 pages of this forum and it's clear to see that this thread is just one of many where an SE essentially says whoa man, what gives? In fact, the majority of threads are complaints of one kind or another.

Geez, who didn't see this coming?

Well, get used to it kids. With its incessant enhancements and price hikes, plus the inevitable rouging of every route in the timetable, your favourite airline is well on its way to becoming a Canadian version of Ryanair in every respect - except ticket pricing.

yyznomad

Uh ok...? My question still stands... if the price differential is between the highest Tango and the lowest Flex (for example), then I would agree with the tone of this thread that it is pretty crazy.

WR Cage

The $293 tango fare is a competitive response to WS, just as the flex fare is also a competitive response. I was able to recreate the tango vs flex price variance on July 7th YYZ-YVR on AC.com. Enter the same parameters on westjet.com and found that for comparable flights times, AC and WS are price matching each other.

With Westjet transitioning to the fare bucket approach, the difference between fare buckets will make less sense than when AC had fare bucket unto themselves. Also it was Westjet that introduced the concept of only offering seat sales on the lowest fare bucket (econo in WS terminology). WS also closes off lower fare buckets as the airplane sells out. In AC world, prior to introduction of WS fare buckets, the price difference between Tango and Flex was constant (with a few exceptions).Also AC traditionally maintained inventory in all three fare buckets right up until departure. Therefore the highest Tango bucket was priced higher than discounted latitude fare.

The old AC revenue mgmt approaches made it easy to tell if there was oversold flight; no Tango (on an otherwise route which featured Tango) meant the flight was slightly oversold in economy but seats available in business..... No Flex and Tango meant the flight oversold over all (there were not enough open J seats to cover the oversell in Y). Today there is no such methodology as AC will price match WS and vice versa.

Clipper801

Buy Tango and add a Preferred Seat, $9 Bob Voucher and On My Way - still cheaper than $235. Flex and Tango are the same Y seats.

Get an Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege card - that comes with Priority Check-in, Zone 2 boarding, one free checked bag, Priority security queue at some airports and Airport Angel lounge access.

Simple solution for not having SE status.

kwflyer

''Then they came for the SE's. And no one was left to speak for me...''

Truer words have not been more spoken this year ^^^

superangrypenguin

1) This requires an individual to make more than $200K. Not many people qualify.

Also.

Yes, Tango to Flex, in this case, and in many cases, is a "ridiculous diff in price". If Tango is, as many suspect, being priced to compete with WS, then great. Those using Concur can now at least fly AC, since AC and WS have similar pricing. Many biz travelers should now be REJOICING!. I'm curious if anyone has thought of that?

To the rest of us, who at least can still buy Flex for work - and our employers are paying for it, then AC should laugh all the way to the bank and charge that ridiculous price differential. If there is demand, AC should charge whatever they want. They are not a charity, and they are not a public service and they do not operate in a country that believes in communism.

If no one was buying Flex fares, then...yes, the charges are stupid. But people are.

Just like the MP thread talking about J. If people are paying for $5K in J, then so be it.

zorn

October 13:





The differential between two not-all-that-different economy class fare categories is the same. They even came up with the same misleading names for the more expensive of the two.

Are both airlines ridiculous? Is only one of them ridiculous? Are neither ridiculous? Is AC trying to chase away Super Elites? Is WS trying to chase away Golds?

Is it really true that the AC steadfast defender whores always said there would rarely be much difference? Were the WS steadfast defender whores saying the same thing? Is the fare differential due to Calin's bonus? Is it due to Gregg's bonus?

I'm confused about what I'm supposed to think about all this.

superangrypenguin

No, the AC system rewards you by way of AQS or AQM. The WS system as many, and i'm sure you know, is based on spend.

If one can book a Flex fare on WS, one can hit gold even easier. So one is also incentivized to book Flex on WS if possible - in fact, I'd say one is EVEN MORE incentivized to book Flex on WS b/c it's not about miles or segments, it's about pure $$$

Wpgjetse

This price difference is very normal. The $293 is a sale price. Take out the taxes, and your fare is close to $200. It looks like AC justed match Westjet's sale. Is Westjet is trying to fill planes, to increase loads for their 3rd quarter report?

ridefar

With a max $6k spend (unless that has changed) WS program isn't even a FF program. It is a "I think I am" FF program. An entirely different thing.

And none of any of this constitutes a rational defense of the fare difference between Tango and Flex. The only reason, as in singular, there is no other, is this: because they can.

There are no benefits sufficient to justify the difference to anybody other than somebody who wants status, the benefits that entails, and is relatively cost insensitive as long as it is a Y fare (ie. OPM). No amount of hand waiving will change that. You are paying $235 for a couple thousand AQMs. That is it. That is approximately $0.10 per mile. Think about that.

They may not be a charity or whatever else, but if I was responsible for corporate travel, I would tell AC to go "f" themselves, pay for Amex Platinum for my FF flyers, and have a policy of nothing but Tango. This strategy is going to backfire on them if they aren't careful.

superangrypenguin

Thanks for your reply. There are some benefits to WS gold - Zone 1 boarding, free changes in the "Rapidair equivalent" or w/e. One also gets more WS dollar for free flights.

The premise of your argument is that the benefits do not outweigh the costs. I'm not saying that corporate fliers usually fly WS, (although on our team it is), but I offer this food for thought.

When a corporate flier flies Tango or Lowest fare on WS or Flex on WS or AC, that money is charged to the corporation and reimbursed.

If one flies lowest fare as you mention, the flier would have to spend personal money to get some perks (the ones you mentioned), or the corporate flier can simply use company money (more) to get the same perks.

I dunno about you, but what would the usual corporate flier do? I think it's obvious...now in your case, you mention that you would pay for an AMEX Plat for your fliers - good on you!, but that's not usually the case...

monkai

I've always had a hard time trying to come up with an argument that would justify buying Flex over Tango at work, even if its a $50 difference. Lowest pricing policy means buying Tango mainly because Flex really isn't more flexible and doesn't provide additional benefits.