How to Upgrade on Air Canada
A wise man once said...Like most airlines it is possible to buy an economy class ticket with Air Canada, but end up being seated in business class.
On March 1, 2011, Air Canada introduced eUpgrades to replace the old paper upgrade certificates, which this FAQ thread was originally written for. For posterity, those details have been preserved in small grey letters. Some other ways of upgrading still exist and I'll leave them untouched. At the time of the changeover to eUpgrades I did not have any AC status. As of this last and final edit of this post, no other Flyertalk has chosen to rewrite a definitive guide to upgrading on Air Canada. You can still find many threads about eUpgrades, and perhaps after people get used to them a new Upgrade info master thread will be born. The content of this post was accurate as of March 2, 2011, but is not guaranteed to be accurate at any time after that date.
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It is a common myth that LMUP availability comes from the same inventory as top tier upgrades. This was never true, as confirmed by Air Canada on FT when the program was first rolled out.
For an example of how the upgrade request and clearing process might have worked for a hypothetical flight under the old upgrade certificate system, please see the following thread: Upgrade Waitlist Worked Example |
Great work Zorn. ^ Looking good so far and thank you for all the efforts.
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Well done zorn!
I think this deserves to be stickied. Thank you. |
Well done! A very useful discussion. You might want to mention that upgrades may not always materialize the way one might expect. See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=783215
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Originally Posted by zorn
(Post 9303731)
[I][*]Upgrade with cash or miles
It is not possible to upgrade using frequent flyer miles. Air Canada does not participate in the Star Alliance milage upgrade scheme. It is not possible to upgrade using cash at check-in. If you want to upgrade using cash, you should visit the ticket desk to pay the fare difference to business class. [/list] When upgrading these type of fare with cash, the corporate discount cannot be applied to the new fare (which is the executive class fare) if you call AC directly. In order to keep the corporate discount, the rebooking and exchanging of the ticket must be done through your corporate travel agent (who may be reluctant in doing so). Let's say you have an economy class ticket for which the published fare is $600 (and your company paid $540 after corporate discount), and the business class fare is $3200 ($2880 if issued by corporate travel agent). If you call AC and ask for an upgrade with cash, you will be charged ($3200-540) plus the change fee on the original ticket. If you call your corporate travel agent to upgrade with cash (which they may not want to do), you will be charged ($2880-$540) plus change fee on the original ticket. (Note: In both cases, you will be using your original e-ticket receipt to claim your expenses on your expense report. Alternatively, you could just give up with the upgrading and buy your own Executive class tickets and try claiming them as non-reimbursed employment expenses on your tax return [I think you'll need to fill out a T2200 and get your employer to sign]). |
Thanks, Zorn.
^ Excellent how to upgrade FAQ. |
I recently had a round trip flight from YYZ to MCO. I was booked on my Latitude Flight Pass and my fiancee was booked using Aeroplan points. When I got to the gate I asked if I would use my upgrade certs (I am prestige). She said I couldnt because they cannot upgrade AP flights. I said OK and walked away. She came running after me saying they could do complimentary upgrades. Ended up flying Executive class there and same thing happened on the way home.
I dont expect it every flight but it was nice. I will be asking at the desk for every leg of my RT YYZ-YVR-HNL in Sept. Maybe we'll get lucky again! |
Nice job...
...effort appreciated. ^
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zorn--an excellent post. Obviously, having spare time suits you!! On a lighter note--here is additional info" or you can get on FT on the upgrade thread and request another FTer to upgrade you!!!:D"
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One question about upgrading at the airport (this is my first year with SSWU and when using SWU I've always chosen flights that I can upgrade when booking).
What happens when you are on a connecting flight? In my case it is YYZ-YUL-CDG (I know my chances are slim, but...) Okay, so let's say that I couldn't confirm at the 4 day window. I go to check in on line (which is 24 hours from the 2nd flight, right? This is what happened when I had YYZ-YVR-HNL return). If I can upgrade both legs at this point, well and good. If I cannot upgrade both legs at this time, and but I can go on the waitlist, this is also okay. What happens, however, if I cannot get on the list. Can I get on the list for YUL-CDG when I check in at YYZ? Do I ask the check-in agent to do so? The MLL agent? The gate agent? If I have to wait until YUL, I'll be way down on the list of check-in times. Obviously, if I've not cleared while still in YYZ I won't take the YYZ-YUL upgrate - I'm not wasting a SSWU on that (and I don't have the fare for a NAU). Thanks! |
With the YVR-SYD flights on the new 777-300ERs, how difficult is it to get an upgrade from economy to "executive first", as there is no "business class" on this flight?
will a SSWU Cert do? with my ticket i will attempting a midnight call 4 days prior... |
Originally Posted by ds7777
(Post 9318207)
With the YVR-SYD flights on the new 777-300ERs, how difficult is it to get an upgrade from economy to "executive first", as there is no "business class" on this flight?
will a SSWU Cert do? with my ticket i will attempting a midnight call 4 days prior... When I first wrote it all out, I explicitly put in "Executive" and "Executive First", but it got cumbersome, so I just put in a generic "business class" because it reads easier that way. So to answer your question, Air Canada flights have two generic classes: economy and business. The marketing terms include "Economy", "Executive", and "Executive First". So there is "business class" on your flight. AC calls it "Executive First". |
Great! thanks for your reply...
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Complimentary Upgrades
Hi everyone,
After reading everything posted above about upgrades, I thought I would add one more thing that will help you be taken seriously when inquiring about upgrades at check-in. As an AC agent, I find that the one thing that annoys me the most (and this happens numerous times on a daily basis, so please excuse me if I sound bitter or without a sense of humor here) is when while I'm checking in passengers, someone in the party will say jokingly (but in all seriousness), "Oh, and go ahead and feel free to just move us up into first class". And then winks at me conspiratorially. I don't know if I can explain just how irritating this is, but it puts the agent in a bind. If I force a laugh, it is perceived as sarcastic, but if I ask how the customer would like to pay for it, he feels insulted. (A passenger actually complained to my supervisor about this, which made no sense whatsoever. It's a perfectly legitimate question.) We're not allowed to give out complimentary upgrades unless there is a request from AC Management or if we're dealing with a over-sold aircraft. And even then, passengers who we'll move up to Executive Class first are those SE/E who are wait listed with U/G certs. If there are no U/G certs wait listed, then we'll start complimentary upgrading SE & E passengers based on their priority. I hope this helps all of you. Best thing I can say is that when inquiring about an upgrade, be serious (don't wink! haha!) and don't make it appear as though you're looking for a freebie (even though you are!).:D |
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