[Skip this intro section if you just want to get straight in to to the overview of LMUs - the intro primarily provides context for those who have been on FT a while and want to know the purpose of this thread]
Intro, a.k.a. "What is this thread for?"
Having heard feedback from the AC FT community about diminishing the number of mega-threads on the board, this thread is meant to serve as a consolidation of and replacement for our two very long-running LMU threads:
- LMU (Last Minute Upgrades) fare discussion & questions
- Post your LMUs (Last Minute Upgrades) here.
In the past, there was an attempt to distinguish (i) general questions and discussion of LMUs from (ii) data points on LMU pricing. In practice, this separation was impossible to maintain. Members would often post general questions in the data thread and data points in the general discussion thread. The moderators would try to move posts back and forth as needed, but (a) this was a lot of work, and (b) the discussion of general questions and specific data points was often pretty intertwined.
So for 2022, let's try a new approach. We'll kill the mega-threads and start fresh, but see how it goes combining the data points with the more general discussion. Post anything and everything LMU-related here - a basic question about how LMUs work, what you were offered an LMU for on a recent flight.
What is a last-minute upgrade (LMU)?
When AC has unsold seats in the business class (J) cabin or premium economy (PY) cabin, when check-in opens for a flight, it
may (but is not guaranteed to) offer customers the opportunity to purchase them in exchange for a cash payment.
AC only sells LMUs for flight it operates, e.g. if your first leg is with AC and the second with Lufthansa, AC will not be able to sell you an LMU for the Lufthansa flight (although LH might). Conversely, other airlines can't sell you LMUs for a flight operated by AC.
What do I get with an LMU? What don't I get?
The AC website has
a detailed explanation of the benefits of purchasing an LMU.
In summary, you
will get most of the benefits of J or Y,
at the airport and on the plane, including:
- Priority security
- Priority boarding
- Lounge access (MLLs only; applies only to J LMUs)
- Sitting in the J/PY cabin (obviously!)
- J/PY meals and beverages
You
won't get any of the other benefits of buying a business class ticket, such as:
- Earning status miles or Aeroplan points at the business class rate (you will earn miles based on your original ticket)
- Free same-day change or standby
Who gets offered LMUs?
Pretty much anyone who's not confirmed in the highest cabin on a flight can be offered an LMU.
Will LMUs definitely be offered on my flight?
NO. A flight could be sold out in premium cabins. Or it could be close to sold out and AC wants to keep the seats for (a) last-minute ticket sales, (b) elites already on the waitlist for eUpgrades, (c) a variety of other reasons. Or AC might not want to offer you an LMU based on the ticket you purchased.
Do LMUs have a fixed price?
NO. LMU pricing is dynamic. It varies based on the route, the load on that specific flight, and what you paid for your ticket - you might see different LMU pricing for different people on the same flight, or from flight to flight throughout the same day on the same route, or on the same flight/day of the week in different weeks.
Then how are they priced?
The unhelpful, but most correct, answer is that AC sets LMU prices to maximize profitability. A short flight with a lot of open premium seats on a route with little business travel will likely have LMUs for sale cheaper than a long-haul flight with very few unsold seats on a route with a lot of business traffic.
So,
in general, you should expect to pay a lot more for an LMU on YYZ-LHR (transatlantic route with lots of business travel) than on YYC-LAS (much shorter route with mostly leisure passengers). But that doesn't mean that AC hasn't, at some point, offered a YYC-LAS LMU for $899 and a YYZ-LHR LMU for $799.