One of North America’s biggest airlines announced in a press release this week that it’s now serving free wine and beer to customers on all flights, even in economy class. That includes routes to Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
Montréal-based Air Canada adopted the policy last month, thus becoming “the only North American legacy carrier offering free alcohol in economy class on all flights,” an executive told Reuters.
But as the Points Guy reports, Toronto’s Porter Airlines begs to differ. In a cheeky social media post, Porter toasted its larger rival for “joining us again.”
“We’ve noticed you recently started offering free beer, wine & snacks everywhere we fly—just like Porter always has,” the post’s caption reads. “Cheers to joining us, as our passengers actually enjoy economy. It’s pretty nice up there.”
Be that as it may, the alcohol policy of Air Canada is significantly more generous than that of U.S.-based airlines, where alcohol is available for economy flyers on many domestic flights, but only for purchase. (On longer overseas routes, complimentary beer, wine, and spirits are still the norm aboard major carriers such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines).
In addition to the complimentary beer and wine, Air Canada is giving away an assortment of “Canadian-made snacks” for free as well.
Why is Air Canada making beer and wine complimentary on all flights?
“Food and beverage just tend to have a disproportionate impact on customer satisfaction, more than any other attribute of our products and services,” the Air Canada executive claimed to Reuters.
And the airline has certainly had some dissatisfied customers lately.
In August, 130,000 passengers were grounded when Air Canada’s flight attendants went briefly on strike, protesting low wages and “having to work without pay,” explains Toronto Life magazine.
Though the strike ended, the wage issue remains largely unresolved—raising the possibility of further disruption and suggesting the customer satisfaction deficit might be improved by doing something about the company’s employee satisfaction deficit.
As of this week, by the way, tens of thousands of passengers affected by the August strike say they still have not received refunds from Air Canada for canceled flights.
Free booze is nice and all—and many economy flyers will undoubtedly welcome the perk.
But charges for in-flight alcohol have been pretty low on the list of objections passengers have with regard to airlines’ many, many extra fees.
Near the top of that list would be the ever-growing fees for luggage and seat selection.
Late last year, as a matter of fact, Air Canada faced a huge wave of anger and criticism from customers and lawmakers when the airline announced that it would require some passengers to pay fees for carry-on bags.
Air Canada has no plans to cut baggage fees, though.
“That’s just not something that’s easily waived or given to everybody without having to have some impact on ticket price,” the Air Canada executive told Reuters.
So let us get this straight. Air Canada passengers are stuck with high baggage fees, disgruntled flight attendants, long waits for refunds, and possibly more problems to look forward to in the future?
Sounds like they could use a drink.
