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Upgrade Priority of AC Employees vs. Status Passengers

Upgrade Priority of AC Employees vs. Status Passengers

Old May 2, 2013, 9:40 am
  #1  
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Upgrade Priority of AC Employees vs. Status Passengers

I was traveling on business to HKG last week and looking at the seats remaining in J class the morning of the flight I thought I had a good chance of getting an upgrade due to me SE status. However when I arrived at the gate and spoke to the agent she said that all remaining seats in J had been assigned to AC employees flying with their family members.

It seems to me like paying status passengers should have priority here. So was this just a case of a gate agent playing favorites or is there an official policy for this? This is my first year as a SE, so I'm still a little confused as to the whole upgrade procedure.
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Old May 2, 2013, 9:55 am
  #2  
 
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ML*1 - Revenue customers and guest of AC who are upgraded
ML*2 Revenue and guest standbys
ML*3 Positive space pass holders who are upgraded or downgraded
ML*4 Positive space (confirmed) pass holders
ML*5 Space available pass holders

I would assume that ML*1 trumps ML*3??

Please have someone correct me if I'm wrong but i would assume OP should be prioritized first over ML*3 passengers...
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Old May 2, 2013, 10:05 am
  #3  
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Normally the only AC employees who should be able to jump ahead of you are Captains and even then it needs to be related to a flight they have or will be operating.

Two other things could have happened:
  • The "AC Employees and their families" were senior management and they pulled their unofficial management trump card
  • They were "friends" of somebody with access to the upgrade list and were inappropriately moved to the head of the upgrade queue

By all means provide details to AC and ask them why this happened. It would be interesting to see if/how they respond.
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Old May 2, 2013, 10:40 am
  #4  
 
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The most important factor here being, did you have the proper credits or fare category to entitle you to an upgrade?? On those occasion's when Customers have questioned this on-board, it was determined that 99.9% of the time despite status, the above was absent. I can only speak from experience, but employees who are upgraded into J are done so if they bear the proper eligibility/priority, and after the entitlements of revenue Customers are looked after.
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Old May 2, 2013, 10:46 am
  #5  
 
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Except after the door closes and the SD goes back and moves friends up to replace no shows in J.

Usually a rarity but happened to me TWICE last month while on the standby list. Grrr.
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Old May 2, 2013, 10:47 am
  #6  
 
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Originally Posted by YTZHomeBase
(...) she said that all remaining seats in J had been assigned to AC employees flying with their family members.
Did she really say exactly that ?
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Old May 2, 2013, 10:58 am
  #7  
 
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Originally Posted by ACYYZ/SD
The most important factor here being, did you have the proper credits or fare category to entitle you to an upgrade?? On those occasion's when Customers have questioned this on-board, it was determined that 99.9% of the time despite status, the above was absent. I can only speak from experience, but employees who are upgraded into J are done so if they bear the proper eligibility/priority, and after the entitlements of revenue Customers are looked after.
^^

Where is the FT like post feature?
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Old May 2, 2013, 11:10 am
  #8  
 
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Originally Posted by ACYYZ/SD
The most important factor here being, did you have the proper credits or fare category to entitle you to an upgrade?? On those occasion's when Customers have questioned this on-board, it was determined that 99.9% of the time despite status, the above was absent. I can only speak from experience, but employees who are upgraded into J are done so if they bear the proper eligibility/priority, and after the entitlements of revenue Customers are looked after.
I think you are probably right, however the optics are still bad. When you have customers who have paid in some way to get on to the flight (even if it is by way of an award ticket) and they have status, certainly SE100K status, then it really looks like AC prefers to take care of its own employees rather than revenue-generating customers. So while it may make sense, I do think it looks bad and causes hard feelings.
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Old May 2, 2013, 11:17 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by supatight80
ML*1 - Revenue customers and guest of AC who are upgraded
ML*2 Revenue and guest standbys
ML*3 Positive space pass holders who are upgraded or downgraded
ML*4 Positive space (confirmed) pass holders
ML*5 Space available pass holders

I would assume that ML*1 trumps ML*3??

Please have someone correct me if I'm wrong but i would assume OP should be prioritized first over ML*3 passengers...
Don't employees normally fly standby and would thus be ML*5?

Originally Posted by ACYYZ/SD
The most important factor here being, did you have the proper credits or fare category to entitle you to an upgrade?? On those occasion's when Customers have questioned this on-board, it was determined that 99.9% of the time despite status, the above was absent. I can only speak from experience, but employees who are upgraded into J are done so if they bear the proper eligibility/priority, and after the entitlements of revenue Customers are looked after.
The ticket was purchased as a Flex fare, so I believe it is upgrade eligible.

Originally Posted by NordsFan
Did she really say exactly that ?
I am likely paraphrasing, but yes.



So to summarize all the posts here the normal approach for AC is to upgrade all passengers with status using upgrade Credits before employee travel. What about status passengers who are not using credits vs. employee travel?
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Old May 2, 2013, 11:18 am
  #10  
 
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Originally Posted by NordsFan
Did she really say exactly that ?
I wouldn't be surprised

I was told by a gate agent in TPA that "as far as she was concerned AC employees came ahead of status pax" (yes that boldly, pretty much verbatim in fact). I could post her name but won't. She had no problem letting us two know it either.

So who knows. That's one of the biggest issues i hear now even from SE's that they are not getting upgraded nearly as much.

That is also why i am no longer a AC status holder......there is lots of choice out there
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Old May 2, 2013, 11:24 am
  #11  
 
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Originally Posted by YTZHomeBase
What about status passengers who are not using credits vs. employee travel?
If you are not using a upgrade instrument, you are a highly valued SE economy class passenger.

There are certain circumstances where operational upgrades may be required, and you would get some consideration under those circumstances. It would appear those circumstances were not present on that particular day.
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Old May 2, 2013, 11:39 am
  #12  
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Originally Posted by YTZHomeBase
So to summarize all the posts here the normal approach for AC is to upgrade all passengers with status using upgrade Credits before employee travel. What about status passengers who are not using credits vs. employee travel?
I think I (and likely many other posters here) misinterpreted your first post where you said "I thought I had a good chance of getting an upgrade due to me SE status" to be referring to an upgrade using eUpgrades. It now appears that what you were hoping for was a "free upgrade, or what we tend to call an op-up.

Air Canada is not in the habit of providing "free" upgrades to its customers (even SE's) unless there is a compelling reason to do so - i.e. Economy is overbooked and they have to make space. In such situations as a SE, you'd be at or near the top of the list and before employees.

If Y is not overbooked and there is space available in J it will either go out empty or be made available to staff and their family.

Personally I have no problem with that.
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Old May 2, 2013, 11:50 am
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by YTZHomeBase

I am likely paraphrasing, but yes.
What the agent actually said is of some importance, as I fail to see what an AC employee would have to gain by being so explicit in giving an explanation to a status/rev pax about why they could not be accomodated in J....wouldn't such a statement be an admission that the agent hadn't applied correct protocol for UG priority, thus exposing herself to an audit of her management of the flight if someone lodged a complaint ?

It does not bother me one little bit to see airline employees using their travel benefits if protocol was followed. I have sat in the back many times because I was out of certs/eCredits, ineligible fare, reward ticket, etc. and it never crossed my mind to check out who was sitting in J "instead" of me....

I have also shown up at the gate on the run from a late inbound flight after boarding was complete and having been offloaded. The two AC cons who had been assigned our Y seats were pulled off the plane at the very last minute and we boarded just as doors closed. The gate agent and concierge did it on their own with no prompting from me and said, "you are SE, the seats are your first. We crossed paths with the cons on the bridge as they came back up to the gate and they smiled and said "Them's the breaks".
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Old May 2, 2013, 12:00 pm
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Dupe post
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Old May 2, 2013, 12:04 pm
  #15  
 
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Originally Posted by NordsFan
What the agent actually said is of some importance, as I fail to see what an AC employee would have to gain by being so explicit in giving an explanation to a status/rev pax about why they could not be accomodated in J....wouldn't such a statement be an admission that the agent hadn't applied correct protocol for UG priority, thus exposing herself to an audit of her management of the flight if someone lodged a complaint ?

It does not bother me one little bit to see airline employees using their travel benefits if protocol was followed. I have sat in the back many times because I was out of certs/eCredits, ineligible fare, reward ticket, etc. and it never crossed my mind to check out who was sitting in J "instead" of me....

I have also shown up at the gate on the run from a late inbound flight after boarding was complete and having been offloaded. The two AC cons who had been assigned our Y seats were pulled off the plane at the very last minute and we boarded just as doors closed. The gate agent and concierge did it on their own with no prompting from me and said, "you are SE, the seats are your first. We crossed paths with the cons on the bridge as they came back up to the gate and they smiled and said "Them's the breaks".
To your first point, I never minimize any concern that is expressed here on FT or while on board an aircraft. Not saying that this was or wasn't the case, but AC operates in a variety of locales with outsourced handling staff, and through my discussions with Customers, things can periodically be lost in translation. On those few occasions over the years where it's been determined that a customer has been seated inappropriately, I will make every effort where possible to correct the situation. I also most recently had a non-revenue customer who was re-seated from J/C to accommodate a status Customer who had arrived even after the boarding process was complete.
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