TheViperOne

Gabor is on speed dial from all mainstream media outlets. He’s the first call even before Omar and now Pablo.

rccardeployed

Mine was cancelled as well, booked a flight for next week it was too good to be true.

Smiley90

Gee I wonder why

hoipolloi

AC having a way of tracking these things is possible too.

kangarooflyer88

In fairness having worked with Gabor he seems to be about as above the board they come arguing only what is permissible under law. I doubt he will have much sympathy for sketchy discount codes randomly obtained which provide a 100% discount on the fare. Keep in mind too that passengers have to enter the sketchy code to get the fare to adjust down. This is much different from the bait and switch airlines do when they price their flights at an attractive price, then realize too many people are interested in the offer and revoke the deal and charge far more.

Air Passenger Protection, EU law and even Montreal Convention do not apply for industry insider tickets like the one you booked

Bohemian1

Zero ... umm ... 'sympathies' given.

Smiley90

Not even relevant here, since the ticket itself was cancelled, not the flight. Tickets booked with fraudulent payment are not protected by anything. Otherwise you're also correct though - this wasn't gonna work for many, many reasons.

kangarooflyer88

This story begs an important question: why hasn't Air Canada updated their online booking system so that when you enter these 100% off codes it is very clear that these codes are only intended to be used by authorized AC employees or partners and that any unauthorized use will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This could be a pop up that appears after you enter the code, and perhaps the booking flow could be updated so that the border of the webpage has a red border with wording Air Canada Internal Use Only. Perhaps they would also have to tick a checkbox during booking agreeing that they are an authorized AC employee or partner too. I think if people we warned that they would get prosecuted, they'd simply turn away from the great deal they saw on Reddit. I am not a lawyer, but I suspect giving opportunists this warning several times could be used as evidence that the passengers willfully defrauded the airline versus it being a discount code they spotted online. Perhaps this episode will force AC to consider this option.

You're absolutely right with regards to fraudulently issued tickets. I'm also pointing out that even if it was a legitimate ticket, the provisions of consumer protection don't apply to these industry insider tickets. That's the price you pay for getting 90% off a business class fare (i.e. ID90 fare).

canadiancow

Because these codes are regularly given out to people who would not consider themselves to be an "authorized AC employee or partner".

kangarooflyer88

Yes but those people are on Reddit and are not the intended audience of these codes. I would presume that Mystery Shoppers would be considered an authorized partner, along with AC employees that presumably have similar discount codes. Which begs the question, who would be neither an authorized AC employee or authorized AC partner that would qualify to use these codes? In any event, surely AC could afford to put some warnings in there for good measure to make it clear this isn't designed for general consumption.

-RooFlyer88

Smiley90

Oh I'm 100% sure the person who shared these codes knew fully well these weren't designed for general consumption.

SoroSuub1

This seems to be the only person who got cancelled posted anywhere, and that same user made the following post quoted below (they seem sort of spiteful at the people who got the "deal") - so I strongly doubt this is an actual email received but likely an attempt by that user at trolling (Awkward and poorly constructed phrasing "Indeed, you used without right a rebate code", generic greeting, no reference to ticket number or actual itinerary in body, no reference to reservation in title, and I highly doubt AC would be explaining in as much detail why it was cancelled, and it's not a "rebate code"). I'm normally SkyTeam so I don't know for sure, but an email from "Air Canada Support Desk" doesn't sound right either lol... which is corroborated by the fact that searching the exact phrasing "Air Canada Support Desk" doesn't show anything on Google (it should if it was standard phrasing on their email signatures - which should also have more contact information).

My money is on these tickets getting cancelled in the end, but intentionally spreading misinformation isn't cool.

canadiancow

Why do you think this is "mystery shopper" code?

As I said before, I'm aware of two other scenarios where 100% codes are issued, having been offered both, and flown one. I was neither a mystery shopper, an employee, or a partner.

mb4wong

I have no doubt that the original person sharing this code knew that it was not designed for general consumption, but I thought I'd add some narrative about how I heard about it. One of my FOTSG friends texted me minutes past midnight EST: "There's a promotion on Air Canada with flights to Tokyo for only $100 round trip!" I have no doubt that they thought this was a legitimate surprise promotion. I also have no doubt that this would not stand if AC wanted to action on it but I'm just saying that considering how little they fly (rarely once a year), they definitely weren't thinking through the legitimacy of the deal.

Obviously I guess I'll never find out, but I was just curious to see how this had spread and how far it had gone before expiring.

a1a1a1

Are you able to post your cancellation email?