Originally Posted by
klparrot
How would the list fill up 6–8 months out? Upgrades would still cost credits; not everyone would request an upgrade. The same number of people would request upgrades as do now, except they could request it at time of purchase, and it would be processed automatically when their window opens.
The overall effect would be the same as if, under the current system, all the T+ pax who wanted to upgrade tried to do it as soon as their window opened, and the tiebreaker for who would get the upgrades (since they'd all be requested at the same time) is ticket purchase date. I think ticket purchase date is much fairer than "whoever has Internet handy and a few minutes free at a certain moment" (which is the current system).
The list could absolutely fill up 6-8 months before. Think of routes like YYZ-HKG or YVR-SYD where you have a lot of people wanting to upgrade, and not a lot of upgrade opportunities. Also, say just prior to the SE window, there was R3. That would mean that 3 SE who bought a cheap K or L ticket 6 months ago and requested an upgrade then will get upgraded over the one who bought their M ticket yesterday. Why would AC even want to do that from a financial perspective? Now yes, under the current system, the first 3 SE to request and get their upgrade could be the ones who bought their cheap tickets a while ago, but at least the SE who bought their (expensive) M ticket yesterday has an equal opportunity for the upgrade.
Originally Posted by
hjohnson
This means I'd probably never get upgraded on a lot of routes, as most of my travel is last minute, so I whole-heartedly disagree with using purchase date as a deciding mechanism. The 7 day window levels the playing field between everyone who could potentially upgrade.
+1. Exactly my point.