Originally Posted by
canadiancow
Have you read the title of this thread? If Elites who pay a reasonable Flex fare, then eUp to J, cheapen J, then what do employees who don't pay a reasonable Flex fare do?
I have no issues with employees getting the seats after eUps, which is how I believe it works now (if you want to talk about priority, that's another discussion). However, I have issues with them telling us we can't sit there "for free" anymore, meanwhile putting more employees there, earning far less revenue than a Flex/Latitude fare.
Exactly.
From the pure FF standpoint, putting an employee in J is pure negative to the experience.
1. The seat could go to an upgrade (fine, you've said you don't like that)
2. The seat could go empty, giving someone on a paid business fare a better flying experience (this applies equally well to upgrades)
You want to know what's less likely to make me pay for J than thinking I can get it on an upgrade? Filling the cabin with employees.
I think it has been made clear that by 'cheapen' they were referring to the likelihood of purchasing a seat in the J cabin itself vs Y - people are less likely to pay for something they can get for free (status and Flex fares aren't free, but hopefully you get the point). Not that SEs/Es are so socially unacceptable that their presence causes those around them to have a lesser experience.
Employees have limited space available J passes per year, and except for high management and perhaps senior Captains I doubt AC employees are the demographic who would/even could be purchasing J anyway. Giving limited-allotment space available J as part of an employee's compensation package can't be hurting AC's bottom line as those people surely wouldn't be buying P/Z/D/C/J anyways.
The only absolute cull going on is that of total J seats. 321s, 787s, and especially whenever 333s get retired and replaced by 788s (333s and 788s seem to be scheduled interchangeably on CPH/ZRH... I find that interesting/telling). I think AC realizes they may not convince many of us to buy J by reducing eUps, but they will invest in those seats left after retrofit to give a better experience to the lucky few upgraders and mostly paid biz cabin, and squeeze the Y cabin to fit 20% more tango pax to make up for the lost revenue of Flex purchasers.