Originally Posted by
foothills county flier
Upgrades are big for international flights. My 2 trips to Europe this year, the benefits were $11.5K and $8K on the upgrades. My 2 flights to YYZ and 1 to YUL had a upgrade benefit of $7.5K. Plus, my 35 Western Canadian flights had a benefit of $8Kish. That's not counting drinks, baggage and lounge(mostly more drinks/usually don't eat the food), etc.
The marginal cost to AC for an eUpgrade is $0. By the time AC put my butt in 11A on CDG-YYZ on Friday they had:
- Tried to sell a ticket for that seat
- Offered bid upgrades to anyone flying for weeks ahead of time
- Offered LMUs to everyone at check in
When none of that worked to sell out the J cabin then I got the seat at the gate. After the plane is already catered. Whether I flew in J not on that plane didn't cost AC a cent. They even tossed in for free a surly FA who got into an argument with another pax just after boarding and then decided to take it out on everyone else on the port side of J for the rest of the flight.