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Air Canada’s Shameful Price Gouge

I’m finally back near the beach. Travelling to Canada and being (almost) completely responsible for 2 kids can be a real drag on one’s blog-writing.

We’re thinking of travelling from Canada to London in July without kids. Here’s something for Air Canada to feel medium brand shame about; look at the direct flights from Ottawa to London:

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Then look at the direct flights from Toronto to London:

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And same thing for Montreal to London

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Did you notice Air Canada’s Medium Brand Shame: Lufthansa charges about $70 less than Canada’s “favourite” airline for people to fly on the same Air Canada codeshare flights.

Now for the Deep Brand Shame:

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People in Buffalo, New York (only an hour or so drive from Toronto) can fly to Ottawa, Toronto, or Montreal and take the same Air Canada flights from any of those cities to London, for $957. Air Canada charges Canadians 56% more than they charge Americans to fly on the same flights.

Monopolistic pricing behaviour is easily exposed by quick internet searches, and does nothing for customer trust. I will do everything I can to avoid paying them more than they deserve, but there lies my problem. The only thing worse than paying Air Canada more than they deserve, is having to deal with US Border Patrol lines / lineups / queues / officers / fingerprints / double suitcase scanners, etc.

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