yvr76

Per the April Altitude report:

Upgraded windows for North America:
- 14 days for S100K
- 10 days for Elite
- 4 days for P25K

Reduced add-ons for Elite (M fare only!):
- Europe : $250
- Asia : $375

The upgraded windows are a nice touch, but the M fare restriction makes the reduced add-on useless, as it's likely going to cost you more than $250 just to get an M fare class. You're better off buying Latitude and doing an instant upgrade.

http://www.aircanada.com/en/offers/a...e/upgrade.html

Academic

This is a marketing ploy that provides little or no benefit to anyone. Moving everything back by a week only means that you have slightly more peace of mind. There may be some additional J space available at T-14, but as long as AC controls R, this offer is meaningless. And I see the co-pay reduction as an offer to beat you with a cat o'4.5 tails rather than the recently introduced 9.

Diabeetus

+1. The R space is the issue. Upgrades still won't clear until T-48 to Gate. And since everyone's window is wider, there is no overall difference.

Agreed on M vs Latitude.

I honestly do not see where the benefit is.

ffsim

Solid points. Pushing the window back makes absolutely no difference.... but it sure looks good from a marketing perspective

canadiancow

So last year when M fares got a larger window, everyone complained, because it only benefited flight pass users.

Now they do something for everyone, and everyone complains .

How many people will realize their upgrade window is longer? I bet this will help FTers.

maradori

Not sure what you mean by complaining, everyone above just stated things matter-of-fact. If revenue management keeps R zeroed out until the end, our upgrades will only get processed at the end. It's not like the 14d expanded window means our upgrades will clear sooner

.... or will it

But I do agree with you a bit. Only those who care enough about the program (i.e. read FT or actually, um, read the altitude report emails) will benefit from being ahead on the list

cooleddie

I'd rather have this promo on all flights and not just north american...

SEMM

So would I, but let's not get greedy and ahead of ourselves here...something is better than nothing!

Diabeetus

The other benefit is:

If there is R space left, then a quick E35 can get upgrade before the E50/75's can (window = 10 days for all 3).

canadiancow

The M fare 14 day window worked out well for me last summer. My E35K upgrades all cleared at booking, well before the Super Elites

No, the benefit is that an E35K can upgrade at 10 days before the S100K at 7 days who doesn't realize there's a promotion on.

maradori

Emphasis added. Is this my cue to start complaining about how those pesky underlings are getting upgraded ahead of SOUPER EHLEET me?

Nitehawk

It's hard enough for me to book 7 days out. grrr.

margarita girl

When the summer promo was launched 2-3 yrs ago, it required a reduced number of credits to upgrade. Now that was a real benefit!

kwflyer

On my recent YUL-CUN flight, the R space went from R5 to R1 right at the T-48 hour mark; no doubt P25K's looking to pull the trigger at the earliest opportunity.

Further Andrew Yiu lamented in previous posts about many Elites staying up late at night and waiting for the upgrade window to open up and calling in.

I bet this is one perk that Altitude members actually pay attention to. Especially on Medium/Long haul flights.

I find the extended summer upgrade window for E35's and E50's to be a letdown and devaluation (for the E50/75k's) . One of the things I was looking forward to having that extra day to confirm my upgrades on my summer trans cons, when last year, I was getting leap frogged by the E50k's. Now I will be competing with the trigger happy E35's at the same time with other E50k's

BlueMilk

As an E35 who travels on M flight passes...

Nice job AC!