Monday, June 22, 2009

Fantasy Airfare Ads

Two years ago a law passed requiring airlines to advertise the full price of airfares. Unfortunately, it contained a provision to delay implementation, and this delay has continued to today. There seems to be little political will to enforce such a rule despite the fact that it is popular with Canadians.

I decided to try a little test. Air Canada has a listing of special offers, the first of which is a $295 flight from Montreal to Bogota. However, here is a full listing of all the charges that came up for this route after I chose the lowest costs I could find:

$314.99 outgoing flight
$314.99 return flight
-$15.00 receive no Aeroplan miles for outgoing flight
-$15.00 receive no Aeroplan miles return flight
$30.02 surcharge
$252.00 fuel surcharge
$31.00 airport improvement fee
$17.00 air traveler security charge
$11.18 JS
$1.55 GST
$36.88 Columbia domestic airport tax
$979.61 Total

So, $295 turned into $979.61, a 232% jump! If they just increased the $252 fuel surcharge a little and maybe added another surcharge or two, they could advertise flights for just $1.

It has reached the point where advertised prices for flights are just meaningless. It’s high time that airlines started advertising all-in prices.

2 comments:

  1. Curious that the government doesn't do anything about this type of deception. Interestingly, the Quebec gov't recently introduced legislation that prohibits some deceptive practices (like hiding freight/PDI charges in pricing for new cars). I guess the government believes that the interests of the travel companies are more important than providing honest pricing to consumers.

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  2. Here in Ottawa we are lucky enough to get an airport fee on top. WOOT!! I am so pleased to pay $400 for a $99 ticket.

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