Hopper, Montreal startup, that provides travel deals, is in hot water this week due to their faulty PR campaign that landed them in trouble with both Westjet and Air Canada.
Hopper advertising PR campaign claimed (still claims?) that it will provide you, the user, with “secret fares” on its app at discounts of up to 35% off regular fares. They said that you can save up to $500.
Westjet and Air Canada denied that claim, saying that prices given to Hopper are the same prices they give to all their partner providers.
Severing Ties
Westjet said that are not happy with this false advertising and will no longer be working with Hopper:
“What WestJet is providing Hopper is the same fares and discounts our other partners have access to. This is a standard and long-standing practice in the commercial aviation industry. WestJet has always offered our guests low fares and we will continue to do do so through all of our selling channels.”
“Due to the confusion this has created in the marketplace, WestJet is severing ties with Hopper.”
WestJet said that even though it will cut parner ties with Hopper, Hopper still can access their published fares.
Air Canada said that they do not provide any special prices to Hopper that their other partners do not have access to. Air Canada has severed ties with Hopper as well.
Duncan Bureau, Air Canada’s VP of sales said:
“For someone to say that we have a secret fare and that it applies to all of our network is totally incorrect, it doesn’t happen.”
ACTA non-profit, membership-based organization representing the retail travel sector of Canada’s tourism industry, commended Air Canada and Westjet for severing ties with Hopper.
ACTA commends @AirCanada and @WestJet for cutting ties with Hopper after secret fares comments – https://t.co/ga3SSxhT62
— ACTA (@ACTACanada) May 4, 2018
Hopper Not Backing Down
Hopper continued with their claim that they have access to “secret fares” with various airlines and have new ones like Air China and Turkish joining soon.
Hopper was not backing down , saying they have done nothing wrong. The email below was sent from Hopper spokeswoman Brianna Schneider to Huffpost to clarify:
“Airlines offer distinct fares to specific types of agencies, in our case online travel agencies, and they are marketed under a range of different brand names. We are currently contacting relevant parties to clear up any confusion.”
