Why a 25% discount on airfare cost a Montreal couple more — thanks to

When Air Canada announced a 25 per cent discount on base fares earlier this month, Dan Pomerantz and Melanie Lyman-Abramovitch thought they were in for a deal. 

Just 15 hours prior to the announcement, the Montreal couple had booked an Air Canada return flight from Montreal to Chicago for July. Because they were still within the 24-hour free cancellation window, they decided to cancel their original tickets and rebook to take advantage of the new sale. 

“I was like, ‘Oh, this is great,'” said Lyman-Abramovitch. “We’ll get 25 per cent off. Fantastic.”

However, even with the 25 per cent discount applied, the couple’s rebooked tickets were slightly more expensive than their original booking.

“I was pretty angry. I was very unimpressed,” said Lyman-Abramovitch. “It felt very deceptive, like the sale wasn’t really a sale at all.”

Air Canada disagrees. 

The airline said the couple got an undisclosed 20 per cent discount on their original booking — a discount that did not show up on their original receipt. 

The couple’s rebooked tickets, with the steeper 25 per cent discount, still cost $5.71 more. Air Canada attributed the price difference to dynamic pricing — a widespread industry practice where base fares fluctuate in real time based on factors like projected and current demand.

The couple’s experience is a cautionary tale for anyone trying to capitalize on an airfare discount promotion; when dynamic pricing is at play, the sale can spike demand, ultimately driving up the base fare that’s being discounted.

“They’re selling you on the discount. That’s where people get stuck in terms of understanding what’s the actual price,” said John Gradek, co-ordinator of the aviation management program at McGill University in Montreal. 

“The percentage discount can stay the same, but the price of the base fare will go up.”

As more businesses adopt dynamic pricing to boost profits, some industry experts are calling for greater transparency, so customers can determine if an advertised sale — based on a fluctuating base price — is a genuine deal. 

“How you base a sale has morphed into something today that is incomprehensible to the traveling public,” said Gradek. “It is the Wild West.”

Dynamic pricing’s ‘black box’

Canada’s Competition Bureau is currently scrutinizing the rise of algorithmic pricing — the automated technology driving dynamic pricing strategies. In a 2025 report, the enforcement agency noted that the practice “is gaining momentum … in sectors from hospitality to concert tickets to ridesharing.”

As such, the Bureau recently held public consultations on the emerging trend. It noted that some respondents expressed concern that pricing algorithms operate as a “black box,” making it difficult to understand or challenge a set price.

Pomerantz and Lyman-Abramovitch said they were blindsided twice: first, by…