Spring Sample Pass
 

There is a link on the front page of ac.com that says:

'Test-drive our Spring Sample Pass - available for purchase only until April 8, 2006'

When I try to click through, it gives a 404... any ideas?

Must be in the process of loading another flavor. I got:

The page you requested is not available.
It might have been moved, removed or had its name changed.
Please check the address (URL) you entered in your browser and try again.
Our home page or site map may also help you find further information.



La page demandée n'a pas été trouvée.
Celle-ci a peut-être été déplacée ou retirée, ou son nom a changé.
Veuillez vérifier l'adresse (URL) indiquée dans votre navigateur et essayer à nouveau.
Pour trouver l'information souhaitée, vous pouvez également consulter notre page d'accueil ou le plan de site.

Maybe a reduce number of credits, like 5, for East-West?

Oh god do w ehave to put up with MTaachi on another odyssey :p

IT or Marketing
 

Is Marketing jumping the gun, or is IT slow on the uptake?

It's really poor customer relations to have bad links on your website. I know that Marketing wants to move quickly to get deals out to the public but QC/QA is vital.

Of course you could argue that we should get a life rather than being on the AC website on a Friday night!

Cheers! :)

hmm..curiosity peaked.

This seems to have now disappeared from AC.com :confused:

-mike

Scared them off?? ;) :p :)

It looks like the roll out starts today. On the main page there is a big flashy link to the pass products and the new Spring Sample Pass. Some cheap fares for 4 flights, but they are Tango! :td:

Still, this thing could be a godsend for some people... if you need to fly between Whitehorse and Lethbridge, spending as little as $396+ for two roundtrips is a very good deal...

All credits must be used before June 11, 2006.

Here's the news release:


http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archiv.../13/c1464.html

The Revolution has Begun
 

Home delivered copies of the POST, GLOBE and STAR here in Toronto all have major ad spreads on the pass products, and all have Stick-It Note stuck to front page highlighting "The Revolution has now Begun...Get on Board. aircanada.com"

Same in the Gazette in Montreal.

Nice price for these passes but change fees bother me...passes should be hassle free; that's what you pay up front for.
As for being in Tango, if I was doing some particular business between say YEG/YMM or YYZ/YSB on tarmac to tarmac planes the Tango fare level would not bother me.

Apparently the AC marketing did not get my attention. Read the globe this morning and didn't see anything. Either that or I was stunned this morning ;) .

Passes look interesting but the tango fare and change fees do not give a good sample of the other pass products that are offerred. However, I am glad I won't be competing with these people for upgrades. That being said, pretty good value for four segements accross the country. IMO.

Are we going to Havana? Who thinks up this stuff?

Interesting. Well for YOW which has RJ service anyway and segments are only 500 miles to the US routes such as LGA and BOS, it gives these flight for about $340 RT on the 7 day vs $506 and up I priced for YYZ-LGA and YOW-LGA around $560...

Two words: yield erosion. ;)

Scoop up some traffic
 

Just scanned some of the new passes, and for someone that flies to cities that are included in some of the other pass products, and for someone that doesn't care about QM's, they can make sense. But, if you fly to a city well served by a Sun Pass for example, these aren't a great deal. As mentioned, the limits, fees, etc...,plus the 50% QM, make these a little bit dodgy for the experienced FF's found here on FT!

??? How can they offer spring sampler pass in Tango R fare for US Commuter when thos
 

??? How can they offer spring sampler pass in Tango R fare for US Commuter when those routes do not have Tango fare??? Checked LGA, EWR, BOS, ORD, IAD, LAS, LAX, SFO... Only T+

marketing guys at Marketel. same guys behind the Celine campaign.

I saw the deal this morning and booked it a 7 day pass for West-East Canada. I am leaving in 2 days for a lovely extended weekend in Montreal. I haven't decided yet what to do with my other 2 remaining coupons. $895 total including taxes etc. for 2 return trips from Northern Alberta to the east - definitely worth my money.

Cheers!

The front of each paper had the Post It note and there were at least a half dozen small ads on every subsequent inside page (lower right and left hand corners) laying out various pass options...of course no mention these particular ones are in TANGO class...but why bother with important details?

They are simply selling their alloted amount of Tango seats ahead of time...money up front in the bank and forces yields up on those who do not purchase the passes.

Yeah but Tango fare to the US would have almost no availablity (since AC sells mostly T+ due to competition). This makes the US/North American passes almost useless so they are really only offering 4 passes...

I'll bet there is lots of US destination Tango availability with those passes

For people like me, who have to battle the 'WJ is lowest, AC must be higher' misconception, the best part of this Sale is to see AC rounding out the pass lineup in an affordable way. The 30 credit T+ corp passes are nice for some, but with a 90 day window they just don't work for us. And given that my last 3 r/t's from YYC->YYZ/YOW averaged $262.43 each direction all-in (inc some change fees) for T+, I'll never be able to justify the 'standard pass' at $519/credit (albeit M-class) over the 'other carrier' rates :(

Canada East-West for $836 - that's $209 each way for R-class availability
IMHO a nice value for the average traveller ^ but for us mileage fiends, that lack of status is a big drawback :td: Ahhh well, it's getting there.

It's just too bad they don't have a 'for a few dollars more' option to go Tango Plus ;)

Nope. Checked in aircanada.com on purchased tickets and no Tango at all
Mar 16-26
YOW-LGA no T. Tues, Wed, Sat has $183 Tango+ Fare
LGA-YOW no T. Tues, Wed, Sat has $183 Tango+ Fare
YOW-BOS no T. Tues, Wed, Sat has $207 Tango+ Fare
BOS-YOW no T. Tues, Wed, Sat has $207 Tango+ Fare
YOW-EWR/EWR YOW no T.
Only YOW-ORD does have a lot of T.

So for the North American Commuters Tango pass only 1 out of 4 YOW - US route has T.

Who?

Yes, if you book with a little notice (and sometimes without notice), YYC-YOW for example is around $260 for T+ so a lot of us cannot justify to our company or customers to paid 2x for an upgradable ticket on the East-West Pass.. Would be nice if AC fills out the line up with a T+ pass like they have for the Small business one.. I don't mind getting Tango and non EQM for a 500 miles segment but the 1700-2500 ones starts to hurt :(

Checked YYZ-LGA for 3 random weeks in March, April and May. T+ and up only... No T....

Did I see right that on the North America pass you can fly to Hawaii? That's a good deal from Toronto, right?

The fact that AC does not sell a Tango fare to the USA does NOT mean there are no R class seats in the inventory. There most certainly are such seats loaded.

Also, I believe that HI is excluded.

If you bought a pass today and wanted to fly to NYC on Friday here's the availability of R class on the direct flights:

[KVS Availability Tool 2.0.3/Gold - Sabre: ITN/AXP]
Given that it is March break return on Sunday is not quite as good, but if you're willing to wait until Monday it's wide open:

[KVS Availability Tool 2.0.3/Gold - Sabre: ITN/AXP]
The best Tango Plus on this route today for those days is a total of $990.73. The pass would have already paid for itself and you don't even have to do the remaining flights.

Excludes Hawaii, Mexico, Alaska.

Campaign also includes retro-looking TV ads which premiered tonight on CTV.

I am not concerned with the Tango fare. On a 500-mile ticket they can keep their goddam status miles. I have no intention of accumulating over 35K status miles with AC this year anyway.

My problem is the same as Snoopyo's. How am I supposed to find out whether there will be availability for routes that I typically fly? These are YUL-EWR and YUL-DCA. As Snoopyo notes there are no Tango fares available on these routes. Am I supposed to buy the pass and then find out if I can get flights for the days I want? What if I can't? At that point I wouldn't want the pass. But of course it is non-refundable. Am I just SOL?

Am I really expected blindly to pay money for 4 tickets without even knowing if I can have the dates I want for the first two?! This seems even worse than Priceline.

Just check an availabilty tool like KVS that displays class availability. Agree that this should be simplified by AC as 99.99% of the travelling public wouldn't have a clue how to check something like that.

But I think as in some flight passes in the past, valid connections are not comming up even when there are class for that day/flights since not all routings are available on the pass.. Not sure if it is by intention or the bug in the pass parnel wrote in one post.

NewToCanada, you can get a refund I believe within 24 hours (Andrew can perhaps confirm that). Thus I think those that purchases passes should check within that time frame to see if the number of flights / options are acceptable. Also write down the expiration dates since I only realized that the weekend pass I purchased last Dec expires in 2 weekends last Sat. I thought it was valid till end of Sept same as the other Sun Pass I purchased. I think AC IT should also display the expiration date on the main pass screen...

WestonC,

Since you are the only one who has purchased a Sample Pass so far, could you do us a favour and check availability for say March 30 (2 week advance on a Thursday)
YYZ-YVR
YYC-YOW

Thanks,

If anyone purchased a North American version of the Spring Sample pass, would appreciate some posting on the availability of sample routes.

Thanks,