For many years, Air Canada had what people thought was a relatively fair system – if passengers purchased economy seats and didn’t choose a seat (for a fee), the airline would automatically designate a seat for them. Then, when they checked in for their flight, passengers could change their seats, for free.
PC: Air Canada
Sudden plot change!
However, Bloomberg reports that on April 24th, Air Canada began a new rule for some of its economy passengers. Instead of being able to change their seat for free, lower-tier (Basic or Standard Economy, specifically) passengers who hadn’t purchased a seat in advance would have to pay a fee (either online or in person) if they wanted a different seat from what the airline assigned them, before boarding. Here’s what the new rules looked like:
PC: Air Canada via Prince of Travel
The problem was that the airline gave passengers and/or their travel agents 2 weeks notice. And, of course, many were going from a free option to one that could cost upwards of $14 to $90 CAD (roughly $10 to $66 USD) per seat, per segment of flight. Needless to say, they were NOT HAPPY, and took to social media to let Air Canada know. From a thread on Reddit:
- the market is open. Canada and its airports charge ludicrous fees and taxes (the highest in the world in some cases) which is a large reason why air travel is so expensive here. — SnooPiffler
- Just nickel-and-diming us for everything they can these days. Canadian companies are just shameless. — chronocapybara
- Maybe they should just get the basics right before they find new and inventive ways to charge us more money. — RoyallyOakie
- I honestly wouldn’t mind this if the base fares weren’t ludicrous. Most of their peer airlines that have similar fees have lower headline fares. Like I feel my $500 base fare is enough, and those Air Canada executives can literally go f**k themselves right off a cliff. Make Air Travel Great Again — MetalMoneky
Air Canada backs down
Two days after the began implementing the new fees, Air Canada suspended the policy.
For now.
From Bloomberg:
“With the limited time the amended policy was in place there was very little customer feedback. Instead the decision to pause was based on our own operational considerations,” said spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick in an email.
“The pause will let us better support our employees so as to ensure a smooth rollout in the future, which will ultimately benefit of our customers.”
The company will announce “next steps … at the appropriate time,” he added.
Of course, many other airlines already charge for this kind of service. Just as Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant (to say nothing of “basic economy-type faires on low cost and legacy carriers) do so in the U.S., so does Flair, Porter, West Jet, etc. in The Great White North. These ancillary fees make airlines a ton of money, and it’s little wonder Air Canada wanted a piece of that pie.
But for the moment, Air Canada’s seating rules are back to the way they had been for years.
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