Nov 4, 2014, 11:58 pm
Last edit by: tcook052
http://www.aircanada.com/en/news/141104.html
Removal of Premium Economy on North America
Due to the limited amount of aircraft flying within North America featuring a Premium Economy cabin, effective November 3 1014, Premium Economy will no longer be available on flights within North America, operated on our three-cabin 777-300 or 787 aircraft. These seats will now be sold as Preferred seats.
In line with our Preferred seat product, earphones, meals, snacks and alcoholic beverages are available for purchase from our Air Canada Café.
Customers who have purchased a Premium Economy fare prior to November 3 will be contacted by Air Canada.
Premium Economy continues to be available international flights
Removal of Premium Economy on North America
Due to the limited amount of aircraft flying within North America featuring a Premium Economy cabin, effective November 3 1014, Premium Economy will no longer be available on flights within North America, operated on our three-cabin 777-300 or 787 aircraft. These seats will now be sold as Preferred seats.
In line with our Preferred seat product, earphones, meals, snacks and alcoholic beverages are available for purchase from our Air Canada Café.
Customers who have purchased a Premium Economy fare prior to November 3 will be contacted by Air Canada.
Premium Economy continues to be available international flights
Removal of Premium Economy on North America eff. 3 Nov
Oct 30, 2014, 10:20 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: YVR
Programs: AC*SE MM, Marriott Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 4,604
Removal of Premium Economy on North America eff. 3 Nov
Looking at YVR YYZ and usually there are 3 aircraft with PY now (two 77P and one 788). However, on any date after Nov. 15 they're simply not available. I called into reservations and the agent wasn't able to price out the fare class (E or N) manually either.
I noticed this a while back, but figured that AC just wanted to keep PY closed to give them flexibility to swap aircraft. But we're 2 weeks out now, you'd think they'd want those seats sold.
I noticed this a while back, but figured that AC just wanted to keep PY closed to give them flexibility to swap aircraft. But we're 2 weeks out now, you'd think they'd want those seats sold.
Oct 30, 2014, 10:37 pm
#2
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Looking at YVR YYZ and usually there are 3 aircraft with PY now (two 77P and one 788). However, on any date after Nov. 15 they're simply not available. I called into reservations and the agent wasn't able to price out the fare class (E or N) manually either.
I noticed this a while back, but figured that AC just wanted to keep PY closed to give them flexibility to swap aircraft. But we're 2 weeks out now, you'd think they'd want those seats sold.
I noticed this a while back, but figured that AC just wanted to keep PY closed to give them flexibility to swap aircraft. But we're 2 weeks out now, you'd think they'd want those seats sold.
I posted the other day on another thread about YYZ-YVR, mid-week in January (not exactly high season) and I compared all fare levels, noting that PY was only available for the 3 flights BUT only in Flexible O.
Only AC knows what they are doing, but somewhere someone else posted that the initial PY lowest fares were to get pax interested and try it out. Maybe AC thinks the experimental phase is over and now if "you want it, put a ring on it"
UPDATE: I was curious. just looked at every week from mid-november to end of January and even though the 77W is on the sched, there are NO PY seats showing at all now (versus the other day where they were there but only in Flexible)
The only thing showing is Biz Lowest & Bix Flexible.
Last edited by 24left; Oct 30, 2014 at 10:57 pm
Oct 30, 2014, 11:29 pm
#4
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC
Programs: Aeroplan 35K, Hertz Gold
Posts: 1,289
I booked in O last week YVR-YYZ-YVR for December, then when I needed to cancel last night the system was treating it as non-refundable. I called reservations and they were seeing the same. I went on ac.com to make a dummy booking on the same flight and noticed that no premium econ was being sold on the route anymore. The reservations agent had to manually refund me the ticket. Btw, the lowest premium econ fare one way was about $100 more than Flex.
Oct 31, 2014, 12:33 am
#5
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Posts: 6,222
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.666 Mobile Safari/534.8+)
Air Canada will make a fortune when all those people who want PY instead spring for full J.
Air Canada will make a fortune when all those people who want PY instead spring for full J.
Oct 31, 2014, 6:43 am
#7
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Ontario, CAN
Posts: 5,813
Gee, if only there were some people who could clear this up in 1 sentence to save pages of speculation.
Sure some captive wounded animal around here would jump in right after to let us all know how adversely they will be affected by whatever prompted the change and how AC doesn't get it
Sure some captive wounded animal around here would jump in right after to let us all know how adversely they will be affected by whatever prompted the change and how AC doesn't get it
Oct 31, 2014, 6:46 am
#8
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Gee, if only there were some people who could clear this up in 1 sentence to save pages of speculation.
Sure some captive wounded animal around here would jump in right after to let us all know how adversely they will be affected by whatever prompted the change and how AC doesn't get it
Sure some captive wounded animal around here would jump in right after to let us all know how adversely they will be affected by whatever prompted the change and how AC doesn't get it
LOLOLOL
(could you have at least warned me before I drank my coffee)
Oct 31, 2014, 6:58 am
#9
Formerly known as tireman77
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 5,514
Gee, if only there were some people who could clear this up in 1 sentence to save pages of speculation.
Sure some captive wounded animal around here would jump in right after to let us all know how adversely they will be affected by whatever prompted the change and how AC doesn't get it
Sure some captive wounded animal around here would jump in right after to let us all know how adversely they will be affected by whatever prompted the change and how AC doesn't get it
This is much better!!!
(In case you missed it, please read with sarcasm).
Oct 31, 2014, 7:01 am
#10
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We can always call the CBC and ask them to speculate.
Oct 31, 2014, 9:27 am
#11
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YYZ
Posts: 72
I have several domestic PY trips (YVR-YYZ and back) booked between November and January in N class, where these flights currently cannot be booked in PY. For what it's worth, I've checked my bookings and I am still correctly seated in the Premium Economy seats I originally selected.
Oct 31, 2014, 4:15 pm
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: YVR
Programs: AC*SE MM, Marriott Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 4,604
Tweeted to @ACAltitude and got this response:
So it's obviously intentional. Maybe they were losing J revenue by pax opting to choose PY instead? Unfortunate, because I had convinced several friends and colleagues travelling on business to opt for PY instead of WestJet or Tango + preferred seats. They're certainly not going to pay for J.
Why leave flights with either 21 seats (788) or 24 seats (77P) unused, with the exception of op-ups?
Air Canada Altitude @ACAltitude 9m9 minutes ago
@yvr76 Hello, this is not a glitch. /cc
@yvr76 Hello, this is not a glitch. /cc
Why leave flights with either 21 seats (788) or 24 seats (77P) unused, with the exception of op-ups?
Oct 31, 2014, 6:21 pm
#13
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Vancouver, BC
Programs: Aeroplan 35K, Hertz Gold
Posts: 1,289
So it's obviously intentional. Maybe they were losing J revenue by pax opting to choose PY instead? Unfortunate, because I had convinced several friends and colleagues travelling on business to opt for PY instead of WestJet or Tango + preferred seats. They're certainly not going to pay for J.
Why leave flights with either 21 seats (788) or 24 seats (77P) unused, with the exception of op-ups?
Why leave flights with either 21 seats (788) or 24 seats (77P) unused, with the exception of op-ups?
Oct 31, 2014, 6:22 pm
#14
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
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Posts: 44,323
Tweeted to @ACAltitude and got this response:
So it's obviously intentional. Maybe they were losing J revenue by pax opting to choose PY instead? Unfortunate, because I had convinced several friends and colleagues travelling on business to opt for PY instead of WestJet or Tango + preferred seats. They're certainly not going to pay for J.
Why leave flights with either 21 seats (788) or 24 seats (77P) unused, with the exception of op-ups?
So it's obviously intentional. Maybe they were losing J revenue by pax opting to choose PY instead? Unfortunate, because I had convinced several friends and colleagues travelling on business to opt for PY instead of WestJet or Tango + preferred seats. They're certainly not going to pay for J.
Why leave flights with either 21 seats (788) or 24 seats (77P) unused, with the exception of op-ups?
Whereas for something like YVR-YYZ, if there's an issue, they can swap in one or more aircraft to replace the 77P/788 pretty easily, and dealing with people who have paid for O in those situations might be messy.
Nov 1, 2014, 4:14 pm
#15
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YYZ
Posts: 72
My bet is that domestic PY is not being sold after November 15 because they are preparing for eUpgrades to PY and/or Aeroplan PY redemptions to launch. AC states in their FAQ that they are targeting launch date of late 2014, so this fits.
Probably a system/IT issue rather than a capacity issue. No reason to not sell an O fare for $1100+ in order to make room for upgrades, or because of fears of delays/equipment swaps. In a delay, just put domestic O fares (there aren't many) into the next available J cabin and everyone should be happy.
Probably a system/IT issue rather than a capacity issue. No reason to not sell an O fare for $1100+ in order to make room for upgrades, or because of fears of delays/equipment swaps. In a delay, just put domestic O fares (there aren't many) into the next available J cabin and everyone should be happy.