Originally Posted by
Ellice
The one I find the most interesting, as an elite, is the guaranteed confirmation of RUs on request for EP1s. Not surprising RUs don’t clear for anyone else. Not gonna get sucked in to buying NZ cash fares any more in the hope that RUs clear. NZ are probably holding that upgrade space for EP1s even when there’s other RU requests. They used to clear a lot more regularly than they do now. RU vouchers not worth much to anyone but EP1s. It’s not really going to cut it any more getting a special ‘hello’ from the flight crew, if RUs are never going to clear.
There's no upgrade space to 'hold' per se. The benefit allows an EP1 member to take the last seat in PE/BP if they wish with their RUs. Don't forget, when availability is single digits in PE/BP there will not be any R/A class released anyway... If there's no R/A class available for an EP1, NZ will overbook it for them. I have no problem with the benefit considering how much these people spend and how few EP1s there are. EP1 has been around since about 2014/2015 (with the RU benefit being there as well) and I've never had an issue getting an RU pre-confirmed.
The reason for RUs not clearing as often post-Covid is that NZ can pretty much sell every seat in the cabin so there's little incentive to release R class. I know for a fact that their revenue management greatly dislike the EP1 RU benefit (even pre-Covid) because of how much potential revenue is lost...
Take for example, AKL-JFK on 6 April 2023:
- Economy = $1374
- Business = $8454
If there is no R class available and an EP1 wants a Y-BP upgrade, NZ will overbook R class for them. This is going to cost the airline $7080 in lost potential revenue...