yul36

This is what you get when the leadership of the airline is only thinking of becoming a low cost carrier, more low cost options. My flight back from NRT was a case in point. Every Y seat was selected 48hours out, except for those
in the front only bookable during olci, by TT and Lat. Only a handful of those were selected. 14 people got upgrades, and the back went out full.
Watching the fare classes on line on KVS I would venture to guess that the vast majority of the flight was flying tango, and watching the mix at the gate my guess is that 1/4 were connections from Asia, non Asians were about half the flight, and most of J.

My take is that in the new low cost head space AC has made a marketing decision regarding elite tiers, and that it's they don't care any more and we are a grudging though for now necessary expense. If it were not for their participation in Star, my guess is the program would be gone very quickly. If I were a straight dollars and cents guy I would do the same. Low Cost is about minimal service and fighting it out on price alone.

That said the flights in J were very good, but Y was vastly different. It must be hard running essentially two different airlines on the same plane. One that provides service and a comfortable seat, vs one that is bare bones just a few meters away. I am all for AC doing an e+ or Delta comfort plus model. Delta offers a very good e+ product over the Pacific, lots of room, and hardly any middles were booked. A few went at the gate so they must be blocking them, until airport check in. Flight was well worth the extra $$ for the service, they also throw free booze ( DL charges in Y ) and movies into the price. I did not notice if Y+ gets the same food as reg Y.