Originally Posted by
canadiancow
UA is much better at releasing wide open cabins as I space than AC is.
I've seen AC flights that were J20 R0 I0 and wanted 200k points for a J seat. So instead they collected $0.50 from all the non-revs who filled the cabin.
I am legitimately "concerned" that I won't qualify for SE this year. Not worried about myself, mind you. Just concerned that Aeroplan is getting to a point that I'm just struggling to do anything other than spend my points on partners. Sure, I have FPs, and I'll fly AC to Canada. But we're at the point where I can regularly book LH F for less than AC J, with the result of the J cabins flying with empty seats.
I have no issue with dynamic pricing per se, but I'm not spending 200k points to fly one-way to Europe when I am 100% sure there will be an empty seat beside me.
I have a friend who just spent 400k round-trip to fly SFO-Europe-SFO in July. I'm waitlisted on a cash Latitude fare. I think the most likely outcome is that we both cancel and book LH F for 260k round-trip. Or UA J for whatever that costs.
I don't know how their accounting works, but I can't imagine forgoing the 400k points and cost of my $ fare, and instead getting a combined 520k redeemed (on LH F) is better for their bottom line.
Originally Posted by
tth6133
I don't like dynamic award pricing in general, but AC's dynamic award pricing model (so far only on its own metal) is really, really screwed up. If AC applies the same model to awards on its partners' metals (starting in a few weeks on some of its partners), it'd make UA's recent drastic devaluations look mild. Currently, Aeroplan points are perceived to be significantly more valuable than UA miles. That perception will surely change if Aeroplan uses its current pricing model to dynamically price awards on UA metal.
I agree that UA is still pretty reliable at releasing wide open space especially close to departure, and the fact that AC doesn't do this is at least somewhat tied to how its dynamic pricing is more aligned with cash fares than UA's is (AC's dynamic is much more variable than UA's which essentially charges saver then 170k then 200k then 250k then 450k for J redemptions for example). I would still argue that if you book in advance and are somewhat flexible it's easier to get I space on AC than UA. Paradoxically, this is also a reason why even though AC's J cabins are 2/3 the size of UA's, it's not really harder to clear upgrades long-haul outside of peak season than the latter.