American Airlines thinks Canadian customers are stupid...

[papomaster]

I did a Montreal-Puerto Vallarta trip two weeks ago using American Airlines, and when during the returning trip the waitress gave us the in-flight menu, I was surprised to see the prices : you could pay in american or canadian dollars. I was even more astounded when I saw the price difference between the canadian and american fees, everything cost about 20-30% more in canadian! For example, a sandwich would cost 5 USD and 7 CDN! Insane, considering the exchange rates were 1 CDN for 0,97 USD at that time... Right now, the exchange rate is 1 CDN for....... 1,0064 USD!!!

AmAir thinks canadian customers are dumb

 

[mbriant]

More likely, they haven't updated their pricing to reflect the recent fluctuations. Often the wheels move slowly in huge companies. I've been on Air Canada flights in the past, when the U.S. dollar was considerably higher, and they were taking U.S. dollars at par, thereby ripping off Americans. Usually however, when American and Canadian citizens are on cross-border flights going either way, they are carrying both currencies anyway so there's no need to get ripped off ... just pay in whichever currency is most advantageous.

 

[Agent Kang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by papomaster /img/forum/go_quote.gif I did a Montreal-Puerto Vallarta trip two weeks ago using American Airlines, and when during the returning trip the waitress gave us the in-flight menu, I was surprised to see the prices : you could pay in american or canadian dollars. I was even more astounded when I saw the price difference between the canadian and american fees, everything cost about 20-30% more in canadian! For example, a sandwich would cost 5 USD and 7 CDN! Insane, considering the exchange rates were 1 CDN for 0,97 USD at that time... Right now, the exchange rate is 1 CDN for....... 1,0064 USD!!! AmAir thinks canadian customers are dumb

Menu prices have not been updated. Same reason why all retail prices are jacked up 20-30% north of the border.

 

[Konig]

is there any reason why large corporations react so slowly to forex rate changes?

 

[mbriant]

Quote:

is there any reason why large corporations react so slowly to forex rate changes?

Corporate bureaucracy caused by layers of management decision-makers combined in this particular case with the time and expense required to print and distribute new in-flight menus/catalogues/price lists. Also, when things are in rapid flux like the recent currency exchange rates have been, they don't want to commit to these re-printing and rate policy costs when there's a chance everything will change drastically again by the time they do print and distribute.

 

[braillediver]

The exchange rate was pretty stable for a long time so there was no need. Now that the rate is changing rapidly the next question would be how often would you reprint all the brochures? With the airlines on a tight margin the cost of reprinting on a regular basis would be a problem and they’d never be accurate anyways.

How long do you think it would take to correlate, print and distribute the brochures for a large corporation like that?


Mitch

 

[blessingx]

Before we go too far with the out-of-date menu theory, has anyone done any in-flight tests on national intelligence? Perhaps there is a disparity and this is a dumb tax.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

It is to their advantage to keep the old prices in effect. That is why they haven't changed.