I would concur that the direct YYZ-CPH flight is the easiest to get an upgrade on. Otherwise I would go with LHR. Avoid FRA, it's probably the hardest EU destination to get an upgrade on. I'm quite surprised by the other comment about CDG -- I thought that was a pretty J heavy destination actually but I have no first-hand experience with it.
Since you're booking on short notice I would look for a flight that has R space *now*. Then book and request the upgrade and it should clear immediately. The easiest route to do this on is LHR because there are just so many flights. I reread your post and realized you're booking today but not flying until next month. If you can justify the extra expense for an M fare then you might consider waiting since M fares rarely fill up and then you can do this but if the budget matters then this isn't an option.
As a side-note I would recommend flying YYZ-CPH anyways since it's easier to deal with connections early. When you land from the long flight you always just want to go to the hotel and rest. Dealing with another connection after a long flight is a pain.
Originally Posted by
jfishma
1) Outbound: I can either fly Air Canada Tango Plus (S class) (to London or Frankfurt) and try to get an eUpgrade 4 days before or I can fly Lufthansa to Munich and try to use miles for a *A upgrade. Any thoughts on the chances?
You can't do a *A upgrade without spending a lot more money (in which case you should just wait until four days before and pay for an M fare). If you're willing to break the terms of the program you can trade your eupgrade credits for a UA 1K's SWU in paper form and do a standby upgrade on LH to MUC. This is an easy route to get an LH upgrade on but it's still standby so there's no guarantee.
2) Aircanada.com does not have a desirable return flight home for me, but expedia is showing a flight that looks much better. So, if I buy my ticket on expedia, with the outbound as an air canada flight (S class still), will I still be eligible to use my eUpgrade credits? Yes, right? As long as I use my aeroplan number?
Yes
3) I also saw a slightly cheaper fare if I technically booked the whole trip as a Lufthansa trip even though the outbound leg is operated by Air Canada. If I book it as a Lufthansa flight but it's operated by AC, will I be eligible to use eUpgrade credits?
In the past you could use them on a codeshare but
only at the airport. You couldn't request the upgrade at the 4-day window. I'm not sure what the current status is as everything changed with eupgrades.
Okay, thanks. All thoughts welcome. Is there anything that being *A Gold gets me in these cases?
Well yes. If you're into trying all the benefits of AC*E you might consider booking a longer connection than necessary in LHR and using both the arrivals and T1 *A lounge.There's no good reason to use both -- notably they both have showers and the *A lounge has better food. But just for kicks...
2) Use the Senator lounge in FRA or MUC on your connection as well as YYZ if you're there.
3) Use the SAS lounge in CPH on your return -- make sure to allow a few minutes for passport control. Usually it's minimal but it does occasionally turn into a few minutes delay.
4) check three bags containing 32kg of bricks, just to maximize your baggage allowance. j/k...
Originally Posted by
Jasper2009
Only if you buy a Latitude fare you can upgrade at time of booking (assuming there´s availability indicated by a blue box)
And to emphasize this point, I wouldn't even put much weight in flights that have R space today (== blue box). Definitely not when comparing flights to different destinations. AC seems to control R space 7+ days out completely independently from R space <7 days out, treating Latitude and non-Latitude tickets entirely separately.
You have better odds on a LHR flight that's Z9R0 than a FRA flight that's Z9R9 imho. Z9R0 to London means there are lots of seats that for mysterious reasons that only make sense to AC they will only release at the airport. Whereas if there's R space to FRA it'll probably be gone by the time you fly and any seats they release will probably go to SEs who will be ahead of you.