I'm going to Montreal, one of my favorite cities, in a couple of weeks. I booked my flight yesterday, but not with Porter Air, as the title of this post may suggest. I was going to fly Porter Airlines because they seemed to have an offer I couldn't refuse. Toronto - Montreal, round trip for $113 each way (fees and taxes included)! I went to the Porter website and clicked on the "Check out the savings from your departure city" box. This took me to a page with prices for 18 cities including Montreal, whose box indicated $113 including all taxes /fees. Naturally, I proceeded to book the flight, but when all was said and done the fare was almost $400! In comes the old reliable device - the telephone. I called Porter, and the friendly attendant told me that the special fares only applied to purchases 21 days out or more. Ok, I said, thanks, I guess that's fine print stuff (old school marketing hooks). So much for the special fare. I booked my flight with Air Canada using Aeroplan points - which miraculously had flights available in 2 weeks time (Aeroplan deserves a blog post on its own, but not today).
And this brings me to the point of this post. Do you think the modern North American consumer is happy with these special offers (from Airlines and others) when they realize that there's always a catch and many a time they end up not accessing the special fare? Do you think it's beneficial to the airline in the short, medium and long term in this age of transparency, instant communication and social media? Are these offers short term tactics for short term gain (market share, quarterly reports, passenger load factors, etc.)? And as a consumer, do these offers turn you off to the brand that uses when, after spending the time to try and take advantage of the offer, you realize it won't work for your needs?
Discuss.
2 comments:
Thanks for this post. Personally I really do not appreciate offers that are not clear. It's really a waste of one's time to assume that you have a deal only to be told after the fact that it does not apply.
I definitely agree with you. It is unacceptable to be charged for an amount you would not have bought, if the right price would have been initially clearly shown! Moreover, I don’t get why chronic laws are not applied for that huge problematic which, i am pretty convinced, affects numerous traveler s each year.
I flicked a bit through juridical documents and severe sentences are supposed to be imposed to airlines and travel agencies that misstate their fees. For example, when an airline company posts a special offer from Toronto to Varadero, for an all-inclusive at 307$ but taxes and administration fees are not included; the final cost for the package will be about 7074. So, the company must inevitably write that these specific additional costs are NOT included. That way, the customer will be able to figure out what will be the approximate REAL price at the end of his purchase, instead of buying a service according to a wrong price.
Because if you are hesitating to buy, between two packages from two different travel agencies; one more expensive offering a higher quality level and a cheaper package offering less quality facilities, maybe you will finally decide to buy the cheapest one and to accept having less comfort and security related to your purchase. If once your credit card has been swiped or electronically approved, you realise the package you bought is finally more expensive than the other one you almost bought, you will regret your purchase and you will be thinking about this robber company all your vacation long... what a sad story happening too often...This would be, in my opinion, a thief enterprise i would NEVER buy from again. –LYDIA M.
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