Originally Posted by
canadiancow
In aggregate... maybe?
On certain flights, definitely.
But a lot of flights go out with empty J seats. A lot of flights go out with non-revs filling empties that no rev pax wanted. Operational upgrades, while not "super common", are also not that rare.
I would not be surprised if the total number of annual seats that go out either:
1. empty, or
2. filled by a non-rev who would have been below a no-status pax using eUps from someone else, or
3. filled by an operational upgrade due to an oversale, with no "entitled" pax on the list
exceeds the total number of eUpgrade requests.
You're looking at this too narrowly; 80%+ of the seats on AC flights are in Y. But who wouldn't want to sit in J, or at least PY, if given the chance? Your statement is based on the world as it is, where AC has artificially constrained the appearance of demand with eUpgrades.
I question that "a lot of flights go out with empty J seats". Since AC runs hundreds of fights a day, it may be a large absolute number, but my own experience sees under 10% of flights leave with empty seats in J.
Regardless, almost everyone would like to be in J, and if AC had CPUs like UA/DL/AA, surely there would (almost) never be an empty J seat. But AC has chosen to ration upgrades via the eUp system. And while different people will have different preferences, it shouldn't at all be a surprise that upgrades are hard to come by on certain routes.