Agincourt:

Indeed, it was a 737-400. And I too was surprised at the service level and the lack of seat pitch, give the generally good comments I had heard. By coincidence, I had a tape measure in my brief case, so I actually did measure the pitch -- 36" precisely.

Being a one time experience, I'm not ready to write them off. But I'll expect better the next time.

Empress:

You sound like me last year when I went YVR-HKG-BKK on black stickers. As a Gold, and being a popular route, the best I could do was standby at the aiport. I was holding my breath from the 72hr mark until boarding time, but I did get upgraded, on all segments.

One good thing -- CP holds a lot more "revenue" seats on international flights, than they do for domestic. (A revenue seat being one they hold, rather than upgrade, in hopes of selling it.) Because of this, there is a higher likelihood of getting an upgrade at the airport. Make sure your are early -- sometimes they will put you on the standby list even earlier than 2 hours. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)

But a "bad" thing as well, at least if you are trying to upgrade. CP's service improvements are apparently starting to pay off big time. Sales of J class tickets are way up. I just got an upgrade today at about the 68 hr mark, for a trip from Ottawa to Vancouver, via Toronto. The YYZ-YVR segment had no upgrade availability for any class of member, for any flight, this coming Saturday. I called to check this afternoon, and literally, as I was talking to the agent, a seat became available. Whew!!! That was close!

On the other hand, it's very good news for CP.

Regards,

Ken Hamer
P.S. I'm convinced. Forget the morning flights for YYZ-YVR or YVR-YYZ. Probably not a chance in hell of upgrading, lately.