Oh Air Canada, you so sneaky
by MaxPower
Air Canada is making its pricing more transparent by including fuel surcharges directly into the price of a ticket for all North American travel.This initiative, brought on partly by a decrease in fuel prices, will provide customers with simple, transparent fares that consistently match the lowest in the airline industry.
This is yet another example of Air Canada's commitment to providing the best products and services to meet its customers' needs.
Air Canada announced today that in response to decreasing fuel prices the airline is eliminating all second checked-bag charges implemented this spring and incorporating fuel surcharges into its advertised base fares on North American flights.(AC will) Incorporate into its advertised prices the one-way, add-on fuel surcharge that currently ranges between $20 and $60 on domestic and U.S. transborder flights. Starting September 18, 2008, Air Canada will adjust its published fares to include the total cost of fuel in its advertised base fares
Let's recap. Oil prices go up, jet fuel prices go up. Air Canada raises its "fuel surcharge", and in April 08 levies a $25 charge for the second bag and then on June 17, reduces capacity in response to high fuel prices.
Back in April, I stated that I was "realigning" my feelings towards Air Canada due to the fact that they were charging $25 for one bag yet gave you a credit of $3 if you didn't check a bag.
So on the surface these changes appear good, to someone, like myself, who has not taken kindly to Air Canada's current suite of service offerings. However, after a little think about it I have come up with a couple of issues.
1) The dropping of the second bag fee is good. No question. However I try to never check bags, so it doesn't really impact me.
2) Why is Air Canada, choosing right now to roll the fuel surcharge into the base fare? Anyone who has looked at air fares over the past couple of years in Canada has seen an advertisement like "$199 to New York" and then in the fine print "Not including $60 per direction fuel surcharge". I have been looking for the cost of fuel to be included in the base fare because, basically, fuel is not exactly an optional service. Kind of need it. Fares should be inclusive of fuel. However, when fuel prices were going up, it was in AC's best interest to show them as a separate line item - "look see how cheap our fares are? It is just that damn fuel which is so expensive". However right now in a period of declining fuel prices it is in AC's best interest to obfuscate how much fuel costs as a percentage of the fare. It makes it easier for AC to not reduce fares because as a consumer you can't tell how much the fuel cost has gone down. Essentially these "surcharges" are now an element of the base fare (which, really, they should have been since the beginning).
What I am really interested in is how Air Canada reacts to the inevitable increase in fuel costs again. And obviously that will happen. Will AC split out the "fuel surcharge" again? Or will they even more deviously add another "fuel surcharge" in a year or so when people forget about this one being rolled in?
I applaud AC for giving one fare without these ridiculous surcharges, it will make determining actual prices easier for all consumers, but I don't think anyone would blame me for thinking that a company which charges people to help them out when their plane gets canceled wouldn't stoop to some fuel surcharge chicanery.
Oh and headphones are now going to cost you $3 on a flight. But bring your own, theirs really suck.