The art of pissing off customers
sduford on Mar 08 2007 at 4:11 pm | Filed under: Aviation, Rant, Travel
A few months ago Air Canada added a new feature to their on-line booking system. When you book a flight, you can select a check box to indicate that you will not have any checked baggage, and they give yo a $5 discount. Sounds great doesn’t it?
I always select that option because I normally never check baggage (I learned my lesson). But when I booked my flight to Seattle a couple of months ago I didn’t know think about the fact that I would need bag for my skiing clothes. I completely forgot about it, until I hit the check-in counter today. That’s when I was informed that it would cost me $50 to check my bag! Yes, that’s $50!!!
I complained vehemently but to no avail, so I asked to see a manager and demanded justification for this obscene charge. Their excuse was that it allows them to better plan their load and balance; my reply to that was that if it is that valuable to them to know ahead of time if will check a bag, then they should have offered me the $50 discount in the first place. I could understand a $10 or $15 admin charge plus the initial $5 discount for a maximum of $20, but $50 is just plain ridiculous. So i filed a formal complaint through the manager and plan to write a letter to the company’s ombudsman.
I’m sure they warn you somewhere in the fine print, but who has time to read all that? And to think I’m a “Super Elite” customer, the top frequent flyer status reserved for those who fly over 100,000 miles per year. I can just imagine how they treat their regular customer.
**Edit:Â I just found out that they charge $50 EACH WAY, so this little mistake will cost me $100!!!!
Easy big fella. I can see your blood pressure going up!
Right you are, my BP was pretty high there, I was furious. But then I had wonderful service on the flight and I am now relaxed. I still intend to raise hell at Air Canada though.
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