Air Canada VENT!!

[drag n' fly]

Ok I really felt one bouquet for AC was one too many so I had to give my AC vent for the day.

I have a good AC credit I need to use up. I was waiting for a seat sale....and it happened and it was supposed to last until September 17. The price was right I was ready to book this morning.

I go to call AC this morning to book our return flights home and I notice an email in our inbox. Good News!!! The seat sale has been extended to the 24th. I am thinking they must be having trouble filling up the plane may be the price will still dip a bit. I go to the AC website and guess what??? My seats I was going to book this morning doubled overnight. How can you extend a seat sale but double the cost overnight?? So I phone AC.This was the final nail in the coffin. Since there are no direct flights to Calgary for my dates they have a layover in Denver which was fine by me......but since there is a layover they wanted me to pay the change fee twice since it was not a direct flight. I calmly said........am I being punked???

Unfortunately this was AC at it's finest

 

[starrzone]

Giving this link to my airline-crazy best friend who lives and breathes travel and airplanes and who has worked with AC for many years. I'll post his reply.

 

[drag n' fly]

Giving this link to my airline-crazy best friend who lives and breathes travel and airplanes and who has worked with AC for many years. I'll post his reply.

It will be interesting to read the response.

I have a few choice four letter words for AC right now!

Ps. LOVE is not one of them

 

[dvcdisney]

I can understand why some people do like AC. However, I haven't dealt with them in almost 3 years. We have chosen other airlines.

Unfortunately, the last time we had contact with AC was when we were in MCO and was told that the flight is going to be delayed for 2 hours due to weather in our destination. Understandable, this was not the problem. When my husband spoke to someone at the counter about our connecting flight (since it was the last one for the night) and his concern that now with the delay we will only have 20 min to board the connecting flight. He asked if they would normally wait a few minutes for the connecting passengers since the weather was the factor. They were rather short with him and told him that that would be against the policy and they have not and will not do that.... Okay. Understandable again, frustrating, but understandable since there are other passengers there who wouldn't appreciate waiting. We didn't like her attitude, but the answer was expected. We met a few others in our same situation.

But when we arrived, the flight attendant announced that they are asking for all passengers to remain seated until the 2 passengers who have a connecting flight (apparently their AC flight was waiting for them) to disboard. Well, you can imagine the frustration in all of our minds. And it just kept going downhill from there....exceptionally rude customer service.

I feel this is also AC at it's finest.

 

[calgarygary]

Ok I really felt one bouquet for AC was one too many so I had to give my AC vent for the day.

I have a good AC credit I need to use up. I was waiting for a seat sale....and it happened and it was supposed to last until September 17. The price was right I was ready to book this morning.

I go to call AC this morning to book our return flights home and I notice an email in our inbox. Good News!!! The seat sale has been extended to the 24th. I am thinking they must be having trouble filling up the plane may be the price will still dip a bit. I go to the AC website and guess what??? My seats I was going to book this morning doubled overnight. How can you extend a seat sale but double the cost overnight?? So I phone AC.This was the final nail in the coffin. Since there are no direct flights to Calgary for my dates they have a layover in Denver which was fine by me......but since there is a layover they wanted me to pay the change fee twice since it was not a direct flight. I calmly said........am I being punked???

Unfortunately this was AC at it's finest

Determining the pricing of a seat is some foreign (maybe alien) science that boggles the mind. In my experience, you can find ridiculous rates switching to reasonable rates at the blink of an eye. We are flying to Nassau in Dec. and initially could not find a satisfactory rate with any airline. So when WJ finally showed a decent rate for our trip down (but over $700pp for the return flight) we booked our trip down. Just days after booking our flight down, WJ reduced their prices again so we rebooked, at a penalty, a direct flight. However, we patiently waited to see if the return flight would be reduced. For more than one month, WJ was more than triple its competition so we finally gave up when Continental put their NAS to YYC on sale. I wrote WJ for an explanation as to why they were more than triple the competition's price but only received a form letter response. The day after my email was sent, WJ reduced their NAS to YYC fare but was well over $100pp above the competition which adds up for a family of 6. Does it mean I will not fly WJ in the future? - no, I fly any airline that is competitively priced.

 

[seashoreCM]

I have a good AC credit I need to use up. I was waiting for a seat sale....and it happened and it was supposed to last until September 17. The price was right I was ready to book this morning.

I go to call AC this morning to book our return flights home and I notice an email in our inbox. Good News!!! The seat sale has been extended to the 24th. I am thinking they must be having trouble filling up the plane may be the price will still dip a bit. I go to the AC website and guess what??? My seats I was going to book this morning doubled overnight. How can you extend a seat sale but double the cost overnight??1

Are you sure that there were any seats for that seat sale on the particular flight you were booking?

Also someone else could have snapped up the remaining seats before you started to book. Although a seat sale may run through such and such a date, individual flights will drop out of the sale one at a time as the sale seat allotments get taken.

Finally, if you shopped around and saw such and such a price, that could have been for one remaining seat in the allotment. If you book two seats, the system quotes the next higher price.

 

[disneymath]

Are you sure that there were any seats for that seat sale on the particular flight you were booking?

Also someone else could have snapped up the remaining seats before you started to book. Although a seat sale may run through such and such a date, individual flights will drop out of the sale one at a time as the sale seat allotments get taken.

Finally, if you shopped around and saw such and such a price, that could have been for one remaining seat in the allotment. If you book two seats, the system quotes the next higher price.

I was thinking the same thing. When searching for flights for our August trip back in May 2009, I came across the "executive first deal" and was able to get our flight down to MCO (in "first class") for $399 pp. Of course I snapped it up as the regular TANGO fare for the same flight was $384pp. Immediately after booking online, I went back in and reentered our dates and the same flights came up only now the "first class seats" were going for $1150pp. Apparently AC seat sales are like WDW discounts ... limited seats/rooms. (We weren't about to get the discount on our flight home either.)

 

[drag n' fly]

You both could very well be correct! However that doesn't expalin those exact same flights dropping back down 50% this morning

 

[disneymath]

You both could very well be correct! However that doesn't expalin those exact same flights dropping back down 50% this morning

Now that seems typical Air Canada to me! (I still remember our "cancelled flight" that we were never notified about and which was still avaiable for online booking 3 hours before take-off when it was apparently cancelled months before our flight date.)

 

[dvcdisney]

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was very upset with them because she had booked, months ago, a direct roundtrip flights to orlando on a Friday in March which AC changed to a Thursday (I believe) flight. She was not notified of this change, even up to this point. She didn't realized that they would change flights without notification. I told her to call and see if she can change it. I'm not clear if she was changed because the flight is no longer available or they just decided to move her (which, by the way, happened to a friend of mine a few years back).

Unfortunately, she couldn't keep the flight because she couldn't leave the day before. So she scrambled around and booked a direct westjet flight instead on saturday. She, too, had a few upsetting situations with them, especially their customer service. I asked her why she didn't just book with Westjet in the first place. She said that she really wanted the friday flights, but realized now that maybe she should just stick with Westjet. AC was never her first choice, and now it's at the bottom of the list.

 

[ccudmore]

Airlines use a pricing system called "Dynamic Pricing" where they analyze data about who buys tickets when and then come up with a mathematical model the determines the prices at various times during the sales cycle. It's all based on supply and demand. They try to determine when the demand will be highest for those willing to pay the most (i.e. least flexible dates) and then match that time period with the higher prices. With this new pricing model prices will change many times (both up and down) during the time that tickets are for sale for the flight.

This type of pricing system is expanding beyond the airline industry. A number of professional sports teams are now starting to experiment with this type of pricing models.

 

[drag n' fly]

When I booke flights this morning, I told them I was taking a vacation because their rollercoaster pricing darn near drove me to the loony bin

 

[ccudmore]

It's not just AC who does this. I booked a flight to Orlando yesterday on WestJet. A week ago it was $109, then it went down to $89 (the price I jumped in at) and today it's $169.

 

[TagsMissy]

It's just how the airline industry is; and like someone else said like Disney only a certain number of seats or rooms for Disney are avail for deals...

 

[drag n' fly]

Well at least I didn't have to sell my first born to get home.

I have mixed emotions about this trip. It is our last disney trip (just me and ds6). The other three are staying home. We are selling DVC and will head back for Universal in 2011 for our 10th anniversary.... I will come back down at some point down the road

 

[calgarygary]

Well at least I didn't have to sell my first born to get home.

I have mixed emotions about this trip. It is our last disney trip (just me and ds6). The other three are staying home. We are selling DVC and will head back for Universal in 2011 for our 10th anniversary.... I will come back down at some point down the road

sorry to see you are selling your ts. I know there are many posts here on DVC sales but you might also want to visit TUG to view their how to sell timeshares thread. With how cheap cruising and all inclusives have become, it is becoming more difficult for us to justify Orlando trips.

 

[drag n' fly]

sorry to see you are selling your ts. I know there are many posts here on DVC sales but you might also want to visit TUG to view their how to sell timeshares thread. With how cheap cruising and all inclusives have become, it is becoming more difficult for us to justify Orlando trips.

It's no secret how you feel about DVC

Honestly without going into too much detail....we feel the same as you do

 

[calgarygary]

It's no secret how you feel about DVC

Honestly without going into too much detail....we feel the same as you do

drag n' fly, I actually like DVC - are you surprised? I was very disappointed when they left II and I wouldn't have the chance to exchange in. I just believe that for many, they can accomplish more trips to WDW within their budgets by buying a quality ts offsite and will post that reminder when I see enquiries. When people have the $, and budget is not a concern, then DVC, is a great way to go. I also always encourage people to visit TUG to get a great ts education before making such a long term commitment.

 

[drag n' fly]

drag n' fly, I actually like DVC - are you surprised? I was very disappointed when they left II and I wouldn't have the chance to exchange in. I just believe that for many, they can accomplish more trips to WDW within their budgets by buying a quality ts offsite and will post that reminder when I see enquiries. When people have the $, and budget is not a concern, then DVC, is a great way to go. I also always encourage people to visit TUG to get a great ts education before making such a long term commitment.

Actually I am surprised...age must have softened you

I did not feel I was getting my money's worth...that's all I'm sayin

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

When it comes to Air Canada I will never get why Aeroplan let us make reservations using my dad's points for December 2008 for our flight from Toronto - Orlando, only to find out we never had confirmed seats on the 10:15 AM flight. Now I do realize Aeroplan seats are different when it comes to making reservations with because only so many seats are available on points, however if they had no more left in Economy Class on points shouldn't that have come up on their website, because there was no message saying seats are sold out and etc. Yes it was our fault for not realizing we only had seats for our flight back home from Tampa - Toronto when looking at our confirmation, because had we seen that we would have called Aeroplan right away and tried to fix everything. Still why would we have agreed to standby for that flight or why would anyone agree to making a reservation like that?

Anyway from now on we will be flying WestJet whenever possible and pre-paying in advance for our seats, which is what we did for our flights with them for this December.