Originally Posted by winnipegrev

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.