muskoka

Gold medal savings announced today by e-mail from Aeroplan to celebrate our Olympic medals. On both $$ and points purchases.
Travel from Sep 15- Mar 15 Book by Aug 10. I was looking at fares for a YYZ-YYC flight Sep 29- today's pricing exactly
the same as yesterday before the "sale" announced. Also looked at YYC-OGG flights on multiple dates Nov,
Jan, March. Exactly same pricing as yesterday . I cant comment on points redemption- I didnt look at that yesterday. This folly is getting really tiresome. They keep doing it over & over again to us. I wish they would stop it.

24left

@muskoka
Have you ever looked at grocery store flyers? I see the words "new lower prices" more often than I look out the window. Pharmacy-type stores are the worst as week after week and for most items, it's "save up to 20% on selected" whatever. Well, if you buy a certain product often enough, you have a good idea of the price, not including the variables called "market elasticity" or "Covid - let's get people flying".

So for a real world example, I've run out of the flavours of chocolate chips I use for baking....because I also use them as cardio offsets for snacking. I know I could get the PC Decadent semi-sweet 350gm on sale for under $3.00. But right now, all brands including Chipits are in the $3.50+ range. The questions are: Do I need to bake or snack right now? Can I wait for a better prices? (And no I'm not buying the 1kg bag just to get the "frequency" discount" )

Looking at some weird routing like YYZ-YVR, I know what I'm willing to pay for a specific fare. Back when AC was mildly desperate to get people flying and had the 20% sale, some of us bought tickets.

More people are flying now. Planes are full-er. AC really only needs some mild motivational message.

Many here ignore these offers when there is not specific discount % code on the web page. But we're the universe of FT and in theory, know a bit more than gen pop.

So, it's possible people will be motivated. I'm not the only one who also dislikes the layout of AC's "supposed sale" pages with random routes, random dates and what are essentially the Basic Economy or Standard Fares.

No one is forcing anyone to buy any of this, the over-priced chocolate chips or the non-sale AC fares.

As always, YMMV
.

Adam Smith

But it sure smells like false advertising if they say there's a sale when there's not.

24left

I disagree based on how I explained things in my post above. @tomvancouver and I and others were vocal in the past when AC had what seemed like bait-and-switch with fares that were higher with a code than before the code was posted on AC's site. Took a while to figure out but aside from big red flashing lights "Look here, we have a sale", it's always in the details (like some codes not applying to some fares).

So, Look here, we have a sale.





And I'll go back to my example I mentioned above - that weird AC route YYZ-YVR.

Right here, in the Canada section. AC shows a random departure date of Dec 1 with a fare of $128.
(BTW, what I find misleading is the fares are one-way but that's a whole other conversation going back years)





Moving along, I go back to AC's main page and look at YYZ-YVR for a random date in September, since I have no intention of clicking Book Now for Dec 1.

Oh look, that low (lowest) $128 fare is showing across the top for a range of dates.





Now using Sept 29 as the random date, AC does offer $128 as the lowest fare on certain flights. So technically, AC has shown at least one flight at $128







Now, if you select one of those flights with the $128 fare offering, you will see it's the Standard fare which we all know is the most restrictive.

But it's still $128 and available for purchase.





We can all debate the word "sale" as AC uses it, but I'm sure their legal department has checked the wording and it meets some consumer rule somewhere.

IMHO, the issue with any fare offered by any airline at any time with or without the word "sale" attached, is the vast number of people who book and pay and never, ever read the rules or restrictions.

Like most people, I've bought all different types of fares AC offers. But then I read these pages and know what I've agreed to.


Says right here "economy Standard"



The summary windows for Changes, Cancellations etc






And the "See complete fare rules" page







I apologize for the long post because of the screen shots but if this post helps even ONE SINGLE PERSON new to the forum, to understand what they are buying, then the discussion and screen shots are worth it. IMHO
.

muskoka

24left I understand the gist of your argument and the chocolate chip example, and I appreciate all the screenshots to illustrate your point. Its all a bit convoluted, and I think thats why someone like me
doesnt really have the time or interest in looking at all the fare buckets and price points searching for an actual sale price on a flight. You mention drugstores and grocery stores with their flyers.
I cant really speak for grocery (my wife is the one who knows her prices) but I will respond re drug store "sales" as I have worked for (and was an owner)
at SDM for 40 years now. In our world, its either in the flyer and on sale or its not. The flyer starts, the merchandisers put the talkers up, the computers
change the retail, and the item is on sale. No middle ground, no grey area. Never have I seen in an SDM flyer "new Lower Prices on all products
from Sep 15 to Mar 15." and then we jack the prices by 15% If an item is "on sale" you dont have to go searching for a special "sale shelf" in the back corner of the store to find it.
I still maintain this is sneaky advertising bordering on "false" and it pisses me off as a loyal AC customer of many years. I am often an AC apologist when I read some of the complaints
on this board, but this ongoing trickery causes me not to trust them. One of our company slogans back in the day at SDM was that customers could "trust and depend" on our stores
for service and honesty. I know a lot of people dont like & dont trust Big Pharma or Big grocery, but at least a sale is a sale. Unfortunately stuff like this by AC doesnt fit that mold. My take may sound a bit simplistic, and Im sure the AC lawyers have approved it but it just smells bad.

24left

@muskoka
I appreciate your reply. I see the world somewhat differently and that is due to my own personal experiences and especially the industry I work in.

I used the chocolate chip example in my first reply because that was a simple analogy on pricing and whether there was a need to buy at the prices currently offered.

I understand you may not have been interested in my post with the screen shots or maybe you thought it was hard to follow my logic. Most people can relate to an image to explain something rather than a sentence or paragraph of words and that was an important component of the work in my business.

As I wrote earlier, you're not the only one who views these "sales" as deceptive or misleading of whatever word one wants to use. I don't care enough to get annoyed at AC for how they choose to communicate their prices or value proposition. Each of us decides if we want to buy what they are selling, or not.

****

I was looking around the site for some different examples. It seems that at least until Sept., AC has what they are calling a "sale" and "reduced pricing" on PY and J for a limited number of flights. It wasn't long ago that there were even lower fares, like $599 in J, one way YYZ-YVR.

But this message is more clear on the offering than the Gold Medal stuff.

At the top of the page, they clearly state the limited time offer for this Business Class sale.

And then, you can see there are flights at that price.





Also, they are still doing the same thing with PY.

I'm always amused at the wording "Reduced Prices" when it comes to airline fares. It's not like they are bananas and will go bad before tomorrow.

Bartolo

@muskoka — The “sale” AE fare are the same or more as they were before the sale. At least for transborder on the routes I’m following.

Sopwith

As a quasi-“loyal” AC customer since the demise of CP/CAIL I learned many years ago that AC could not be trusted on any account. It’s just not there. The only reason I’ve been loyal frequent is because in many of my travel cases there’s been no reasonable alternative.

The big problem in this 21st century is that loyalty and trust don’t sell tickets. Getting people to believe you’re ten cents cheaper than the other airline does. If that has to be done by hook or by crook, so be it.

EdmFlyBoi

I must admit I’ve kind of given up on the AC approach to pricing in terms of trying to get a bargain. Sometimes you genuinely do - such as the recently available Latitude fares - but has others have mentioned, the discount codes, which I seem to have collected with COVID, may give you a higher price when used due to the fares they can be used for (not “sale” fares).

I do use Google flights, and other tools, to try to obtain better pricing, but I’ve long ago given up on AC’s approach to sales and the appearance of a good deal.

yyzgigi

Well I did prefer a more desperate AC when it came to sales pricing the verbiage does not say that every fare is on sale. I am never going to purchase a standard fare so most of these special fares don’t move the needle for me. For some looking for a cheap flight from Toronto to Moncton the lowest fare is provably lower than it was before the sale on flights with lowest fare class availability. There will likely be another sale that follows for another reason.

tracon

"Gold medal savings"

In Olympic terms this doesn't make the "qualifying" standard as a sale.
And certainly doesn't make the podium.

Symmetre

It's still pretty greasy, regardless.

24left

I posting this for those that might be interested in things AC recently had on their website. BTW, if you're reading and expecting a 50% off promo code, you might want to skip this post. If you're happy with the $1.00 fares you were able to purchase from AC, this post isn't for you.

On August 11, AC had a 15% promo code on their site for specific Canadian Economy fares - Standard, Flex and Latitude. For their own reasons, they did not include Comfort. Offer was basically for one day. This was the code.





On August 13th, AC had one for U.S. destinations. And you can see the code.






Then they had a "Save $50" on some ticket to Europe. It might not motivate most people but it may be worth something to someone.

Most days it was a variety of "encouragement" promos and listings of destinations, with no code.


Right now, this is on AC's site. And there is a code. And as with the previous ones above, they have short shelf-life as we call it.





I find these to be interesting and I think they are really more of AC testing to see what generates a response, and if so, what the quantities might be. And AC also gets to see who among their Aeroplan members and non-members is buying which type of tickets.....and using which credit cards to purchase.


BTW, we all know the 15% is off the Base Fares. All other fixed costs remain the same. So, if you all have your handy AC slide rule or AC abacus nearby, you'll see that on some Canadian routes, it's really about 12%. And for those of you who care about SQD, well......





The thing is, many would consider this to be a great Flex Fare YYZ-YVR RT.

You can choose to complain that AC's isn't offering any sales. What you may actually mean is that they aren't offering you anything you want to buy.

YMMV