Originally Posted by
flamengo
I just checked. 12 since August. Couldn't be bothered to go further back in my emails. And I am not flying crazy amounts-- just 100k. About 8 were for flights to BOS, and ORD (multiple changes in some cases), and also for FRA, MXP. One for YUL. Am I just getting unlucky? And most times, the changes are not very significant-- that's why the 24 hour change took me by surprise! They're frequent enough to become irritating...
I think that, ideally, if the J seat is supre important, I would just book flex-J. If I can't, then I guess I have to deal with the risks myself by either monitoring the schedule with more attention, or whichever way I could find.
Compared to my experience though, you might just be unlucky. I did about 20+ segments (ish) with AC last year and only once got a schedule change but since they were P fares I had no problem with COS. No wide to narrow changes either. So 5% chance of schedule change and 0% chance of downguage from my perspective.
HOWEVER, I do get a LOT of "schedule change" emails, but most of them are things like "Arrival changed from 8:30 to 8:24", or "Arrival gate changed from A49 to A48". Did you double check if those emails were just that? Not that it would make your situation any more comfortable, but you know...