Why Pricing Gouging from Airlines Kept me from attending #CSR 4.0

I have grown up in poverty ever since my family had to give up the farm for me to get life saving medication 25 years ago. I was born with a rare genetic disease called Gaucher.

When I was diagnosed at the age of 5, doctors told my mother I probably only live to be 8 or 9. Thankfully around the age of 7 a IV treatment was discovered that could combat the effects of the disease.

But it cost over $250,000 a year, and I would need it as long as I wanted to live. My mother being a single parent dairy farmer in Oregon didn’t have health insurance or money like that, and the state would not help with cost of the medicine.

Healthcare laws at that time made having a pre-existing condition a guarantee that you would not get approved for health insurance. My mother desperate to get me the medicine I needed searched for ways from Mexico to Canada, and found a option that in you lived in Washington State below the poverty level and had a life threatening disease the state had to help you get medicine.

So my mom gave up the farm she had worked on since being a child herself, and moved her family to Vader WA to live in poverty so I could get medicine.

That was 25 years ago, healthcare laws changed with Obamacare making it illegal for health insurance companies to deny people based on pre-existing conditions. But that doesn’t make it affordable for someone with a pre-existing condition to get insurance.

Also once someone has been forced into poverty to get medicine it is not easy to get out of poverty, even if you are trying your best. Living in poverty is still a reality in my life despite my best effort and pursuit of happiness.

Since Obamacare made it possible for me to get medicine and have dreams for the future too, I have been working on a Startup to create media platforms that raise awareness and funding for Non-profits through Corporate Sponsorship.

WeThinkItMattersInc.com is a Cause Integrated Advertising Agency creating next generation marketing campaigns. Only with a WeThinkItMatters® campaign can a business know that 60% of every dollar spent will impact non-profits. And 30% go to consumers. When it comes to CSR, we offer best in class cause marketing SaaS.

After receiving a email about CSR 4.0 from Skytop Strategies I responded and shared my interest about the event and my wish to be able attend, but explained my current financial situation. I was surprised to get a response and was generously given a complimentary ticket ($1295 Value) to the CSR 4.0 Conference.

After receiving the free ticket I was excited and went right away to get plane tickets from Portland Oregon to San Francisco. Upon searching Google I was presented with ADs from airlines with fair prices from $99 to $149 round trip, but was disappointed to see the cost of round trip airfare for the dates I needed where $300 to $500 because they weren’t 21 days in advance.

I received my complementary ticket to CSR 4.0 seven days before the event so a 21 day advance booking wasn’t possible.

If airlines can offer a seat from PDX to SFO for $49 if booked 21 days in advance, that same seat doesn’t cost them more if booked later, the cost for the flight is same no matter when someone books their ticket.

I know that day I was trying to leave multiple flights from multiple airlines went from PDX to SFO with empty seats. It’s to bad that airlines couldn’t offer them at more affordable prices to people trying to travel on short notice, then having empty seats because of price gouging.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity in a lifetime to learn from the experts at CSR 4.0, and connect and share about WTIM.co with CSR and Sustainability leaders from businesses around the world, I thought maybe the Airlines might have a program to help entrepreneurs with travel.

So I went on LinkedIn to look for people in Corporate Social Responsibility positions at major airlines and sent the following invite to as many I found (14 people) with CSR type titles:

“Happy Tuesday (Persons Name) :). I am a low income entrepreneur working to start WeThinkItMatters.com. And was given a complementary ticket to CSR 4.0 happening in San Fran March 1st. But can’t afford the full ticket price from PDX to SFO and back. Can (Airlines Name) Airlines help me get to the conference?”

Out of all the messages sent out I only heard back from one person, Jacqueline Drumheller, Sustainability Manger at Alaska Airlines. She was helpful and shared about Alaska Airlines Corporate Giving.

This is a great program from Alaska Airlines, over the past five years Alaska Airlines has invested $45 million in cash or in-kind donations. In addition to corporate donations, their employees give back through matching gifts, volunteer time and food drives — impacting nonprofits with over $700,000 annually.

As great as all that is, I wasn’t asking for a donation and WeThinkItMatters Inc. is not a non-profit so this program from Alaska Airlines couldn’t help me, a entrepreneur on a bootstrap budget.

I shared my thoughts with Jacqueline about a program more focused on startups. It wouldn’t be necessarily “giving” to support entrepreneurship, but offering services maybe at lowest fares possible. For example if airline can offer a seat for a lower fare if booked 21 days in advance, but charge 4X more 7 days in advance, why not have a program that helps entrepreneurs trying to start businesses by offering them flights for the lowest fares possible no matter the time frame they are booked? This could be something that helped grow the economy by helping to get entrepreneurs to learning and business opportunities, and could improve an airlines relationships with new businesses and customers.

All I know is, I won’t be able to attend CSR 4.0 a conference focused on “Responsibility as a Driver of Company Performance” because airlines think it is good business to “Price Gouge” consumers.

I’m not going to able to take advantage of a complementary $1295 conference ticket, and am going to miss a chance to learn and network with leaders in an field I am trying to start a business because I couldn’t find an airline to sell me a plane ticket for a fair price.

Living in poverty trying to start a business has plenty of barriers. But I found it disappointing that I am going to miss a conference on (CSR) Corporate Social Responsibility because of a pricing scheme that makes people pay more for plane tickets because the airlines know when you need to travel short notice you are going to pay whatever it is to get there. If you can afford it!

Thank you to Skytop Strategies for the complementary ticket to CSR 4.0, I appreciate you trying to help make it possible for me to attend. Hope you have a great event!

:) If you reading this would like to help raise awareness and funding for non-profits through corporate sponsorship, please become a Member or Partner of WeThinkItMatters® Today.