Originally Posted by
D582
The amount of miles or reward type you paid Aeroplan is not relevant to NZ. Each FFP has its own rules for how it ‘prices’ rewards. What is relevant to NZ is the amount of settlement they will receive for transporting you. Each segment on a reward ticket stands on its own. You were confirmed in X class on the NZ segment, and when NZ submits the flight coupon to AC (as the issuing carrier), they will only be ‘paid’ for Economy class.
The only way you’re getting J in this scenario is if NZ opens I Class space and Aeroplan retickets you (and yes, this can happen within 24 hours of the flight, although sometimes challenging given Aeroplan’s limited call centre hours). If NZ gives you a courtesy upgrade, they are still only being ‘paid’ for Economy.
Am I looking at this from the wrong angle, or is the situation even worse than I thought? So you basically have an airline (NZ) hungry for revenue and trying to upsell a Y-couch seat when they fully understand that the customer has paid for a J mileage award. NZ was only "paid" Y for the flight segment by Aeroplan, the traveller asks if he can have J seats (there are lots available on the day of the flight), so all they had to do was release a couple of J seats into I inventory, then we get those seats for no extra charge, and NZ then gets "paid" for J rather than for Y. Everybody wins, no? Except for Aeroplan I guess, but there were prepared to pay SQ and NZ for J all the way to begin with so I am not sure they would have any issue with the situation.
Instead NZ tries to push a Y-couch seat which they would probably get less revenue for than the increase from Y to J (although I am not sure about this, I don't know how much they get paid).
I realize it might not be that straightforward to simply release an "i" seat the day of the flight, but if I was a customer-oriented business owner it seems that I would want my airline to do such things for passengers.
It was a 5-hour day flight so no big deal flying in Y (and we ended up having a row of 4 seats only for the 2 of us so it was comfortable), unlike some long-haul flights where I care more about J because I want to sleep. But I am bringing this up more for the purpose of the discussion rather than a complaint that I cannot get over with.