I think it's more that "self-congratulating profitable airline don't see a need for providing basic services" as long as cheapening the product seemingly makes customers happier. If they would find out customers take their business elsewhere they would surely improve service... But it seems no matter how badly they are treated, they keep coming back anyway. So where is the incentive for airlines to provide better service? But no, it's not that I like it. Seems just to be reality. Plus, it's clear that the FT demographics don't fit in that category.

Sure. Except there's a blatant basic error.

Using a service =/= happy with the service. Ask the telecoms with their similar marginally competitive market. AC doesn't bother improving service because it has an unnatural level of market/pricing power. More akin to a 1970s third world aviation market than anything we see in the US, UK, EU or Australia (or other first world or even third world jurisdictions today).

People need to get to where they need to get to, and the governments active role in curtailing supply and shaping traffic flow means "choice" becomes an illusion fairly quickly. AC knows that. Even you know that. Whether it conforms with whatever argument you're trying to push is an entirely different matter.

Agreed.

Can we consider something like basic customer service during irops to be unbundled when it never existed in the first place?

Can’t you see the rub there? If this was a competitive market and there were choices, then yes, customers would certainly be taking their business away from AC given the way they operate. I haven’t experienced any other airline that standard procedure is to basically abandon its major hub during IRROPS because it’s past 10pm, tell paying customers to use the phone, knowing full well it’s too busy to even get put on hold. Then ensure the first announcement on every flight is about how award winning they are 🤔

If you want to fly from YQX, YVO, YQU, etc etc etc anywhere not one of the top 7 or 8 airports in the country to basically anywhere outside Canada, you have few options. You can try to tag together some sort of Westjet/Delta/Skyteam partner ridiculous combination with 4 transfers in 3 countries taking 33 hours or you can drive a thousand kilometres (plus boat rides for some of us) to get to a place with even minimal competition which is directly reflected in pricing, or you can take the one price offered by AC for the only sensible itinerary possible. AC knows this and that’s why it’s often $1500 to fly for eg. YYT-YYZ-XYZ when the same YYZ-XYZ is $500. Or same flight as USA-YYZ-XYZ is $250. I’m all for market economics but with limited competition it’s just ridiculous. I don’t know the answer but I’m not obtuse enough to think it’s all hunky dory.

AC has us Canadians outside Toronto and other large cities held by the Cajohnes and it’s laughable when people who live in hub cities with actual other carriers try to tell a large portion of the population to just “take our business elsewhere”.

Competition in the airline business? Dream on. Alas, the competition mantra is way overdone. Whenever it's a few large players against te millions of us, classical market theory is dead, no matter what ideological BS they serve you. There is competition in the barber, hairdresser, plumber business. Not in the cell phone, airline, even auromobile markets One of the key assumptions of classical theory is that the entry cost is zero. Please reread Adam Smith (not our, the 18th century one) and the classics.

If people can’t fly on a competitor, and they really can’t stand AC, they will cut their travels, which not only hurts AC but more importantly Canada. AC and government can keep the competitors out as they wish, until no major foreign airlines care to compete with AC or operate in Canada.

I have cut back my NA travel significantly and I haven’t used AC for international travels for more than 2 years. I am glad that I live in YYZ so I have options, but if I don’t then I will either move or change my lifestyle. In no way am I willing to tolerate this level of service.

I was simply responding to your post that suggested Canadians are “happy” to keep going back to AC so why would they change, which for this Canadian and many people he knows is not true would certainly welcome a choice. You spent time blaming Canadians for not choosing the competition, then state well there is no competition of course. So which is it?

No, really I blame people who blindly shop for "the lowest fare." Not just blindly but stupidly without doing their homework, without looking at what they get or not. And BTW, it's not the major airlines which wished it that way, for a long term they lost at the game and they were late to join. And no, it's not specifically or even particularly Canadians either. Or being inconsistent by buying cheap and being surprised when they find what they got is actually cheap.

I’ll agree there, many people make assumptions they’ll get full service for basement prices, yes. But then again the airlines purposely confuse with their various brands and categories and restrictions and fare rules and fare classes. The average consumer can’t be expected to sort every detail of every fare, so a regulating body setting some basement of services that must be included, or at least clear wording about what is or isn’t included. Such as things like having someone available to rebook you at the airlines largest hub during disruption periods when they know the terminal is full of confused, Unhelped passengers and their phone lines are completely overwhelmed. Again these are just random thoughts not suggesting this as policy per se.

my problem isn’t so much that these problems exist. It’s that they have existed for a long time and there is no attempt to correct because it eats into profits. In an uncompetitive environment, it’s exactly when something needs to be done to protect the gouging of consumers. There is obviously no real appetite for this in Canada since Ac is in Quebec and we can’t upset them or never get elected so here we are.