Jack Poole Plaza is expected to be packed Friday morning with up to 500 people lugging suitcases and filled with anticipation as an Air France promotion takes over the square.
The event is the latest one where an airline or travel agency has a contest where the winner gets a free flight for two to an exotic destination but must leave the same day.
After someone from Air France calls the winner’s name at 11 a.m. on September 9, the winner and his or her partner will be whisked to Vancouver International Airport by minivan in time to make the airline’s 2 p.m. non-stop flight to Paris.
In addition to two roundtrip, economy air fares for a four-day excursion, the winner will get a four-night stay at the 5-star Hotel Napoleon, which is half a block from the Arc de Triomphe. The winning couple will also get limousine rides between Charles de Gaulle Airport and the hotel.
The result of these kind of contests is undoubtedly joy for the winner but also many people being disappointed after having taken the time to clear their calendars to be able to go just in case they had won.
“This type of contest is more risky. We don’t know how many people will show up but we will have more interaction with the participants,” Air France-KLM Canada marketing and e-commerce manager Julie Laporte told Business in Vancouver.
“We do a lot of regular contests and we will continue to do them.”
The Air France event comes a few months after a similar promotion that Flight Centre Canada hosted to mark the launch of non-stop Air Canada flights between Vancouver and Flight Centre’s global headquarters of Brisbane, Australia.
That June 1 contest similarly announced the winner at 11 a.m. although the inaugural Air Canada flight to Brisbane did not leave until that evening.
Leonard Campbell, who was one of the people who went to the travel agency's store at Howe and Dunsmuir streets for the draw, won the flight. It included an eight-day stay in Queensland, including hotels and car rental, travelling from Brisbane up the coast to Airlie Beach.
Air France first ran this kind of contest in 2013 in Toronto after the airline came up with the idea in conjunction with a marketing agency.
About 550 people turned up in Toronto with the requisite “boarding passes” that are provided after contestants register online for the contest.
In May, the airline repeated the promotion only this time it was in Montreal.
About 10,000 people registered online for the “boarding passes” and about 1,500 people turned up in person to see if they had won the trip.
Registration for the Vancouver contest ended August 31.
