pointing out the obvious

Air Canada just announced that it has heard the voice of the consumer and allows you save money on tickets by foregoing your ability to cancel a ticket for $7… umm, but my tickets are about $500, which means I’m saving 1%.

I can also choose to not accumulate aeroplan miles for an additional $3 savings, or commit to not checking
baggage for $5.

Money is money, but this seems so ridiculous to me. We are talking about 1-2% of a fare. It’s money, but very insignificant when you consider taxes on a flight are upwards of $150, and they charge $5 for a sandwhich. So, for giving up my opportunity to cancel, I get a sandwhich. Awesome.
Isn’t there some other way of offering savings to the consumer for flights? Isn’t there sponsorship or advertising revenue they can get out of having someone stuck in a seat for a predetermined period of time? There must be something… it’s almost like the ultimate user group.

Maybe taste tests - offer snacks that are new to the market?

How about product trials - if I could try a pair of those bose noise cancelling headphones, maybe I’d buy a pair?

What about product placement - have the bathrooms sponsored by bodyshop or kiehls?

Reading materials - enroute is great, but allow other magazines to buy their way onto the flight?

There must be other options..

My upgrade certificates say I need to book latitude in order to upgrade. So I book latitude, call air canada, tell them I have a coupon to upgrade and carry on with my life.

When I get to the check-in counter, I surrender my ticket and air canada aeroplan upgrade certificate (silver) to be used with my latitude fare. The employee checks my reservation and indicates that I cannot actually use this upgrade certificate because my fare booking class doesn’t match, so I must use my last blue upgrade certificate (saved for cheap flights) to be upgraded.

I fold and use the last blue upgrade certificate but cannot believe how silly this scenario is. I book latitude, so I can use my latitude upgrade certificate, but am told at the gate that I can’t use it because the little letters (that make sense only to employees) don’t match what exist on the certificate.. although the ‘pretty names’ match -> latitude = latitude.

This is terrible customer service. I’ve ranted about airlines before, but this one really gets me.

Myspace should be distributing music - shake it up and get the music to the people. Whether it’s for sale or not is up for discussion, but it makes sense to bring something to the table that the existing community likely wants. It also gives huge exposure to bands who would otherwise be pushing their content through less travelled channels. Bands who don’t already have a myspace page (most do or should) will soon.

Interestingly enough, it allows bands associated with Snocap (which appears to be an online indie label) to sell music to this audience for whatever price they want. Hmmm.

The music industry is facinating..

You can read further details of the myspace music moves here.