… registering my disgust throughout the world.
Air Canada: Treat yourself to a little more legroom
Do you find yourself looking for a little extra space when you fly? Well, look no further. When you travel with us, you now have the option of selecting a Preferred seat, which offers more in-flight legroom. Preferred seat selection is available starting at $14 CAD per one-way flight, including connections, from your departure to your destination city, and is complimentary for Super Elite, Elite and Prestige customers travelling on specific fares.
In plain English, Air Canada is now charging for bulkhead and exit row seating. WestJet has been doing this for a while, but they’re offering those seats up for $15 (plus $10 at time of booking). Bulkhead, and the first few rows of economy, used to be selectable only at time of booking for customers with status; now, unless you’re traveling in the right fare category, you can’t book them without paying.
This is really irritating. United does the same thing, calling it Economy Plus, but the difference is that it’s actually worth it — hell is a Y seat on a 757-200, and E+ makes it better. You get ~4″ extra of legroom, which doesn’t sound like a lot but actually turns out to be quite nice. (Lovely Wife and I now have a policy of always, but always, buying the E+ upgrade on UAL flights.) Here, you’re not actually getting anything better — Air Canada is just charging more for the seats that those of us who fly a lot know about as being “premium.” The product isn’t different at all.
What’s most frustrating is what they’re doing with their status passengers. Used to be, as an Air Canada Elite member, I could book basically any seat on the plane; now, unless I’m traveling on a Latitude fare (read: expensive economy) or am willing to pay, I’m out of luck. But, of course, if I’m traveling on a Latitude fare, I might as well use my upgrade certificates, so why would I pay? And there’s nothing to say that passengers who don’t pay for the preferred seating, and who aren’t paying for the priviledge of picking seats at time of booking (read: people traveling on the cheapest of the cheap fares) won’t find themselves in the preferred seats if no one is willing to pay (this happens on UAL from time to time, and the cheap end up in the expensive seats).
In the end, I suspect that I will suck it up and just cope. Like many of the other changes that have come with flying lately I have, mostly, just come to accept that there is little I can do. I can’t threaten to change airlines, so I guess I’m just going to have to whine about it and pay the stupid fees. It’s not all bad; I personally think Air Canada’s Y product is probably the best in North America so it’s not like this is a horrible fate to befall anyone, but I was starting to get used to row 12…