Annals of Error Messages

Received from the Air Canada website this morning:

Due to the extreme number of customers accessing Interactive Services at this time, Shop for Fares is not available. Please try again later. We apologize for this inconvenience.

While I realize that those in glass houses should not cast stones — I have written some “subtle” error message in my day — surely an airline trying to dig its way through a severe turndown should place a priority on having its servers being able to process requests?

Then there is the Expedia “bait and switch” system. “Wow,” I say to myself, “$203 return to Miami from Charlottetown.” I go through the process to book, only to have returned to me:

We were unable to use the original fare code and used the next available fare code instead (C$2,504.00 higher per adult).

Imagine if this happened at the grocery checkout!