Originally Posted by
ryanjmah
Hello everyone! I am another newbie and have never posted to any kind of forum ever (hope I’m doing this correctly).
Welcome
I’m flying with my wife to ATH on Oct 7, 2022 (AC850) and looking to upgrade on the LHR leg from YYC as its our honeymoon.
Congratulations! My wife and I kicked off our honeymoon on the same flight on almost the same day of the year.
I purchased economy seats with aeroplan points. Bid Range is 1100 CAD to 2000CAD per person for a 8hr 40min flight so more than the suggested $100/hr. I assume this is a popular flight?
It's normally a route with a lot of paid business class traffic. The $100 an hour metric is one that a number of people look at because it's a round number, but value is in the eye of the beholder.
How much are you willing to spend, and how much did you originally pay for your Y tickets? There are some decent J fares to Europe on right now, and if you have any flexibility in your plans, you could potentially buy paid business class tickets for $3,500-4,000 round trip per person. I saw KL had one seat available on your dates for ~$3700, although changing to two pax blew it up, but you might find something as simple as shifting a day at one end or the other makes it work.
If you cancel your existing AC ticket and re-book on another airline, you can get a voucher with indefinite life, so the money you gave AC won't be totally wasted.
Looking at possibly upgrading our flight home from ATH to YYZ leg (AC 897) on Oct 16, 2022 and the YYZ to to YYC leg (AC155).
ATH-YYZ-YYC is certainly a long day of travel, but for what it's worth, most people prioritize upgrades on the eastbound legs, since those are the overnight flights when people usually want to sleep.
I am only an Aeroplan 25K status. What are the chances of upgrading any of these flights with cash and what would a reasonable amount be?
Your status doesn't really matter for bid upgrades, the key is what you're willing to pay. What's reasonable is really up to you, although if you'd actually contemplate something on the higher end of the range you quoted for the outbound, I'd strongly recommend just looking at booking paid J instead. But whether you should pay $80 an hour or $100 or $120, or whatever, that's your call.