Wow, you really do get what you pay for

[pelmet]

I really do enjoy using my zed fare tickets on AC. Has saved me tens of thousands of dollars with all the flying I have done. But every once in a while things just don't work in your favour. Oh well, that is part of the game. So what to do when stuck in Europe and having to buy a ticket back to Canada. The flight tomorrow is way oversold(which should be illegal of course) so why not try a different airline just for fun. How about WOW Airlines with a 65 minute stop in Iceland and then continuing on to Canada(where I will use my remaining zed ticket on AC).

And what is the price you ask? 865 dollars including tax for a next day flight. According to the website, one carry-on and one suitcase is included for the comfy fare ticket I paid for. But wait, just before hitting the pay button, I figure that I should check out the AC fare just in case it is better. Don't want to be foolish and not check out the alternatives. And the AC price is(drum roll....wait for it......here it is...…..) only a few dollars above 4,800 as the cheapest fare.


I know......I am a cheap bastard that is degrading the pilot pay world by going on the less expensive fare route. Thank goodness we now have the long haul low cost carriers arriving. Norwegian, WOW, etc. Otherwise, the mainline fares would probably be even higher.

[Hangry]

It should be illegal to oversell so you’ll have room using zed fares? Of course.

[Zaibatsu]

Isn’t overselling when they sell more tickets than seats?

[FL007]

It should be illegal to oversell so you’ll have room using zed fares? Of course.

Not so he'll have more money than seats, if I bought a full fare I may be bumped.

Should a hockey arena of 18k be able to sell 20k tickets?

[Speedalive]

I understand why AC does it, but they really have to stop overselling, or at least they have to reduce the amount of seats they oversell. I recall almost daily emails from Mr. Smith about wanting to become a 5 star airline when I worked one of those summer temporary CSSA positions a year ago. I don't think overselling planes is going to help with that image. All it really does is put front line staff in awkward positions trying to explain to passengers that they're not going to be able to sit in the plane they paid to be flying on. It quickly becomes an absolute nightmare as well when irops kick in and flights that were already oversold are cancelled.

[tsgas]

Overselling at airlines is similar to buying and selling of insurance. Insurance companies sell you a policy which is calculated on the odds of a risk/reward ratio. Airlines oversell because there is a percentage of pax that miss flts due to health problems, traffic jams driving to the airport, problems with immigration etc.

[FL007]

Overselling at airlines is similar to buying and selling of insurance. Insurance companies sell you a policy which is calculated on the odds of a risk/reward ratio. Airlines oversell because there is a percentage of pax that miss flts due to health problems, traffic jams driving to the airport, problems with immigration etc.

Every business has a risk of customers not showing up due to traffic jams, health problems, etc.

[rookiepilot]

I'm waiting on the next United type incident. Only a matter of time.

[digits_]

Overselling at airlines is similar to buying and selling of insurance. Insurance companies sell you a policy which is calculated on the odds of a risk/reward ratio. Airlines oversell because there is a percentage of pax that miss flts due to health problems, traffic jams driving to the airport, problems with immigration etc.

Every business has a risk of customers not showing up due to traffic jams, health problems, etc.

Yeah, and those non showing customers all have paid in advance for their seats. No risk to the airline whatsoever. In fact, I think they might even save the money on airport taxes, if customers don't claim them back.

A restaurant for example does have risk when customers with a reservation don't show up, they haven't paid in advance and he has an unpaid table in his room.

[pelmet]

It should be illegal to oversell so you’ll have room using zed fares? Of course.

There's an idea.

Actually, I only mentioned that in passing. The main point in the post was about what a rip-off AC is to the paying pax. More than five times as expensive as the single stop flight on WOW airlines. And guess what? When AC gave me their steal of a deal 4800 dollar ticket price, there was a footnote that extra baggage charges "May apply". Well Thank you very much to them for letting me know that I need to cover the cost of carrying my bag on their lovely fare.

Try WOW.

[digits_]

It should be illegal to oversell so you’ll have room using zed fares? Of course.

There's an idea.

Actually, I only mentioned that in passing. The main point in the post was about what a rip-off AC is to the paying pax. More than five times as expensive as the single stop flight on WOW airlines. And guess what? When AC gave me their steal of a deal 4800 dollar ticket price, there was a footnote that extra baggage charges "May apply". Well Thank you very much to them for letting me know that I need to cover the cost of carrying my bag on their lovely fare.

Try WOW.

Did you check the return fare for AC? It would probably have been less than 1800 CAD. It's especially the one way trips from europe that all companies rip you off. Cheaper to just throw away a ticket.

[FL007]

Overselling at airlines is similar to buying and selling of insurance. Insurance companies sell you a policy which is calculated on the odds of a risk/reward ratio. Airlines oversell because there is a percentage of pax that miss flts due to health problems, traffic jams driving to the airport, problems with immigration etc.

Every business has a risk of customers not showing up due to traffic jams, health problems, etc.

Yeah, and those non showing customers all have paid in advance for their seats. No risk to the airline whatsoever. In fact, I think they might even save the money on airport taxes, if customers don't claim them back.

A restaurant for example does have risk when customers with a reservation don't show up, they haven't paid in advance and he has an unpaid table in his room.

Exactly!

[av8ts]

Even better than making overselling illegal world be to allow it, however nobody is forced to give up their seat. The airline should have to keep upping the compensation until somebody volunteers to give up their seat. Eventually someone will for the right price.

[montado]

Is the practice of overselling not driven by the consumer? Lowest fare, how do you do this? You keep seats as full as possible trying best to always have every seat full. Sometimes you calculate wrong and have empty seats, other times you are wrong the other way and have to compensate some passengers you bump to later flights.

I bet airlines would not care if it was legislated to them and all their competitors that you can't oversell. All that would happen is competition would remain fair, and passengers would have to pay for the loss of revenues from miss connections. So who knows, probably a surge of 20 percent more pre fare as a guess? Yeah, try to tell passengers that it will cost 20 percent more to fly and they will never Over sell a flight. The only curveball is you can still be bumped off flights due to cancelation or equipment changes. I'm sure all are thrilled!

[rookiepilot]

Even better than making overselling illegal world be to allow it, however nobody is forced to give up their seat. The airline should have to keep upping the compensation until somebody volunteers to give up their seat. Eventually someone will for the right price.

Perfect. Make It an auction process.

[pelmet]

It should be illegal to oversell so you’ll have room using zed fares? Of course.

There's an idea.

Actually, I only mentioned that in passing. The main point in the post was about what a rip-off AC is to the paying pax. More than five times as expensive as the single stop flight on WOW airlines. And guess what? When AC gave me their steal of a deal 4800 dollar ticket price, there was a footnote that extra baggage charges "May apply". Well Thank you very much to them for letting me know that I need to cover the cost of carrying my bag on their lovely fare.

Try WOW.

Did you check the return fare for AC? It would probably have been less than 1800 CAD. It's especially the one way trips from europe that all companies rip you off. Cheaper to just throw away a ticket.

All companies rip off? Not WOW. And they had some advance fare purchases showing for about 125 dollars or so if I remember correctly.

Fly WOW. No wonder ALPA is trying to get rid of companies like Norwegian.

But I will accept your statement about the 1800 dollar return which I was able to find. About twice as much as WOW and that doesn't include AC's baggage fees. And not everyone who needs a ticket now, or some taxpayer funded government bureaucracy is going to know about or use a cheaper return ticket.

[digits_]

There's an idea.

Actually, I only mentioned that in passing. The main point in the post was about what a rip-off AC is to the paying pax. More than five times as expensive as the single stop flight on WOW airlines. And guess what? When AC gave me their steal of a deal 4800 dollar ticket price, there was a footnote that extra baggage charges "May apply". Well Thank you very much to them for letting me know that I need to cover the cost of carrying my bag on their lovely fare.

Try WOW.

Did you check the return fare for AC? It would probably have been less than 1800 CAD. It's especially the one way trips from europe that all companies rip you off. Cheaper to just throw away a ticket.

All companies rip off? Not WOW. And they had some advance fare purchases showing for about 125 dollars or so if I remember correctly.

Fly WOW. No wonder ALPA is trying to get rid of companies like Norwegian.

But I will accept your statement about the 1800 dollar return which I was able to find. About twice as much as WOW and that doesn't include AC's baggage fees. And not everyone who needs a ticket now, or some taxpayer funded government bureaucracy is going to know about or use a cheaper return ticket.

My point was that 1800 return is about 900 one way. So if you bought a return ticket with WOW or one with AC, it would have worked out to about the same cost. WOW allowed you to buy a one way ticket for the "normal" rate instead of the infloated "one way in a rush business man"-rate AC offered. Just to put things in perspective. Don't agree with that at all, I think it is pretty repulsive AC and other carriers act like that, so kudos to WOW.

WOW doesn't really offer a super cheap fare, so it is sustainable, it's just the other carriers that overcharge in such situations.

[NotDirty!]

You said yourself that AC was oversold... so if they are going to sell a ticket on an oversold flight, they are gong to make sure that it is worth their while to possibly have to bump a passenger and handle that mess.

[JasonE]

I was less than impressed with AC the last time I flew with them. And to boot - my return flight from Germany was handled by Lufthansa. They have a lower baggage allowance that ended up with me wearing a sweater and 2 jackets with every pocked filled to get my bag down to 40 lbs (AC is 50 lbs for international). I simply walked around the corner and overstuffed it all into my backpack that ended up weighing over 40 lbs!

[Lightchop]

I've ZED fared from Can to Europe and back numerous times including flights within Europe. Often in biz class.. I've never had problems other than the odd bump here and there but the idea is you should have a back up, or the three. You can't really complain about loads when your get fares for so little, there's always a downside to any perk. You can't get something for nothing.