Air Canada has long been the leader in finding things to sell that were not previously offered at all, and it appears they’ve done it again. Now, you can earn some cash by volunteering in advance to be bumped if they need your seat closer to departure. I like the idea a lot, but I do have to wonder if the execution could have been done better.

Unfortunately, it’s not a very straightforward process. Air Canada says that to take advantage of the opportunity, you have to go to the Optiontown website. Apparently, they’re the ones taking the risk here. Once there, you put in your confirmation number and last name and they prepare your offer.

Only parties of 1 or 2 people traveling on Tango or Tango Plus (the cheapest) fares are eligible on flights within Canada or between Canada and the US. Even those people may not be offered the option on every flight. When you enter your information, you get to decide how flexible you are. If you give them a wider range of availability (up to three days), you can earn more than if you just have a few hours of leeway. Once you pick your time range, they give you specific flights within that range from which to choose. At that point, you pick the actual flight that you would be willing to take as an alternate to your original, if they need you.

Finally, you get to choose how far in advance you need to know your plans, either 2 or 4 days prior to departure. If you give them 2 days, they’ll pay you more than if you need 4 days. More flexibility means more money for you.

So how much can you get? They’ll give you up to $7 (USD or CAD) just for signing up. Then if they actually opt to switch you to the new flight, they’ll give you up to $50 more each way. It’s not as much as you could get if you were bumped at the airport, but that makes sense. They’re giving you much more advance notice and they even let you pick your alternative.

This seems like a win-win to me. For Air Canada, they can gain flexibility. If they want to overbook as the flight gets closer, they know how many options they have to move people around. And it will ultimately cost them less to bump people in both monetary and emotional costs. For passengers, they can earn a little extra cash and pick the flight to which they’d want to switch.

My only complaint is that it’s a very complicated system, and you won’t know how much you could make until you actually go through the motions of signing up. That’s a lot of hassle for something that you may not opt to accept if the payment isn’t high enough. But still, it’s better than nothing. Let me know if anyone has the chance to give it a try.

American Airlines Gets Closer to A La Carte Pricing
American has talked about moving closer to a true a la carte pricing system like Air Canada. This is a big win for airlines and their customers.

Airlines May Weather Financial Crisis Well
Demand may be going down but so are fuel prices, and that could make for some good news for airlines. Quarterly earnings are right around the corner.

Are Delta’s Turboprop Moves an Ominous Sign for Memphis?
Word is out that Delta plans to shift some of Northwest’s turboprop flying into its Atlanta hub. Does this mean that Memphis will be shrinking?

Delta Reports Quarterly Loss But Outlook is Positive
It’s earnings season, and Delta kicked it off with a $26 million loss ex special items. These aren’t bad results, and the outlook is actually pretty positive.

American Sees Third Quarter Loss, Warns of Challenges
American reported a loss this quarter, but the outlook was thought to be improving. CEO Gerard Arpey, however, cautioned about challenges ahead.

Two Important Things to Know About Continental and Southwest Earnings
Hurricane Ike and fuel hedges? These two things matter a lot when reviewing Continental and Southwest’s earning reports.

Boeing Strike May Be Good News for Airlines
Maybe that headline is a bit of an overstatement, but the month-long Boeing strike isn’t all bad news for airlines. In fact, some may be happy with it.

Lufthansa’s Social Networking Effort
Lufthansa has launched its own social network. I’d be surprised if anyone used it. Keep reading to see why.

TSA’s Useless Photo ID Rules
As usual, TSA photo ID rules are full of holes. What are they focusing on now and why is it a problem?

Delta, Air Canada Among Carriers Weighing Benefit of Paint Stripping
There’s always been a debate about whether the fuel savings from going with bare metal can outweigh the corrosion protection from paint. The answer may be changing.

Republic May Be Looking to Start a Hawaiian Airline
Republic Airways appears to be sniffing around the Hawaiian market, plotting to jump into the fray. Why is this better than Mesa’s efforts?

Midway’s Privatization Could Mean Changes for Airlines
Chicago has privatized Midway Airport as part of a federal test program. There’s no doubt that airports and airlines will be watching closely to see what happens.

Those of you who live in Canada got a nice dose of gold star-worthy airline goodness yesterday when Air Canada announced it was rolling back some fees and other airlines followed with reductions of their own. Fuel prices are down, so it’s always nice to see an airline actually repeal something that it had previously said was put in place because of high fuel prices. Something tells me we won’t see that happening here in the US very often, if at all.

Let’s get a little more specific here. Air Canada announced that it would stop charging the $25 second bag fee that it put into place in May due to high fuel costs. It was also announced that the fuel surcharges would be rolled into the base fare going forward. Lastly, the airline said that excess bag fees would be simplified to be a flat $75 per piece for oversized or overweight (or both) and $100 per excess bag (which would not require additional payment if it was oversize or overweight). This is a reduction from the current $100 fee for each limit that is violated. (This is confusing. Get the details here.)

If that wasn’t enough to make the Canadians happy, WestJet (and Porter) decided to one-up Air Canada by eliminating their fuel surcharges altogether. WestJet said it best . . . “WestJet eliminates fuel surcharge – because we said we would.”

Well, how’s that for a round of good news? I have to say that it’s rare we see several airlines actually keep their word here. I know that some airlines institute these baggage fees because they want to change their business model to a more a la carte-style. That’s fine, and I wouldn’t expect those to change. But for those airlines that make changes while blaming high fuel prices, they really should act responsibly and reduce those fees when oil prices come back down. Unfortunately, most of them won’t, but kudos are certainly due to the Canadians.

Looks like Air Canada’s commuter, Jazz, has decided to take life vests off its planes. This will save a little over 50 lbs per plane, and you know the story from here. (Less weight = less fuel, blah blah) As usual, some people are up in arms suggesting that passenger safety is at stake. Come on, really?

Who can tell me the last time those life vests actually came in handy? I seem to recall a hijacked plane crashing into the Atlantic off the West African coast awhile ago. Since it was a controlled descent into the ocean (ran out of fuel when the hijackers wouldn’t let them fill up), there were survivors. Maybe they got some use out of those things.

But let’s be honest. For the most part, if a plane goes into the ocean, there’s not much left of it or anyone onboard. Back in the day, those flying boats could easily ditch into the ocean and wait for rescue. But now with planes flying faster and higher, the results aren’t usually so ideal. Then again, planes are forced to ditch far less often (almost never) than they did back in the old days.

Even if you think life vests are valuable, most domestic aircraft don’t have them. You know the ones – they have the “seat cushion that can be used as a flotation device.” Jazz has just decided to move two routes a bit closer to land so that the life vests aren’t required at all. Doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. I’d probably make the same decision.