Originally Posted by
YYZFlyboy
Thanks to people constantly bragging about this benefit AC has sorted it out. [...] That's what happens when you taunt AC with a unintended benefit - you loose it.
Originally Posted by
flyingcrooked
I'd be surprised if the zero'ing out of R-space has anything to do with ex-Europe latitude fares.
post blog, ergo propter blog.
Originally Posted by
flyingcrooked
No R space seems to be opening even at the clearance windows, and I'm seeing many flights go to the gate with half of J available for gate upgrades. Not sure what that's about.
I'd assume redemption latitude fares were a driver, given how much they have been promoted on blogs and how many more customers they're accessible to.
Maybe some of the better-known blogs were asked to push the idea of latitude-fares-as-discount-business, I'd personally find that surprising.
Originally Posted by
flyingcrooked
But that would explain zeroing out R far in advance, but not the fact AC isn't pushing anything into R at the clearance windows (on any flights/routes I've checked in recent weeks at least). I can't really see what the reason for that is.
The simplest explanation here would be that AC management decided it wanted fewer J seats to go to eUpgrades 6 months in advance, keeping them open to generate more income. Costs them next to nothing to eUp somebody at the gate.
Originally Posted by
flyingcrooked
It's plausible they want to make non-R/hidden bucket upgrade space available to ex-Canada latitude fares, and not ex-Europe ones, and I can hardly blame them. I am usually out $1900 for a latitude return ex-UK, but ex-EU it seems $1400-$1500 is common. That's just unreasonably cheap for all the benefits of latitude plus instant upgrade months in advance.
They've also hinted a few different ways that "super-secret double-probation eUp space" is determined at least in part by how much somebody spent on their ticket. It would be consistent with this logic for the cheap ex-EU Lat fares not to meet that metric.
All of this said, if AC are going to start intentionally (rather than accidentally) coding Latitude fares into more than Y and B, it sure would be nice if they'd communicate what this means for Latitude eUpgrades.
A "Lat-M" fare with no ability to eUp before the window opens, becomes less and less distinguishable from a Comfort fare.