Flew SFO–YYC–YVR last Friday with eUpgrades, and both J cabins had more empty seats than I've tended to see in the past. It's hardly a significant sample size, but just saying...

3 of 4 J cabin flights this week were at 100% capacity.On 4th flight there were 7 of 9 seats occupied.

Would guess that as per always this depends on the route and flight number. YYZ-BOS, YYZ-LGA, YYZ-ORD have all been relatively empty on my recent flights. In contrast to your experience these are all routes that were packed pre-Christmas / pre-eupgrades and are now empty.

I think it has simply emphasized the routes that are 'haves' with a high demand for upgrades (more so than before) and routes that are 'have-nots' or 'nice-to-haves' with overall fewer upgrades.

Effectively, everyone is conserving for the really high value upgrade flights which are experiencing higher than previous levels of competition.

or more people have given up on the Frequent Flyer program? Or loads are down? Or lots of people have not figured out how to use e-upgrades..
I think i would guess the last one.

For sure i am finding upgrades easy since March 1?? but its only 9 days + 7 for upgrades so its not much of a sample.

Arguably that's not so great though.

In the past, it seemed the J cabin would be invariably full. These days, I also have noticed empty seats.

Two weeks ago, I was on the last YYZ-YYC flight of the day, an E90, and it seemed about half the cabin was empty.

Did AC4, NRT to YVR today and was surprised as to how empty J was. Don't fly much so no idea if that is normal. Just seemed a waste of a lot of pod seats. Coach was very close to full. Just missed todays earthquake in Japan by about 4 hours. That would have been neat (nobody was hurt).

<like>

Used an eUpgrade MUC-YYZ last Fri. As it was booked as LH codeshare, I couldn't upgrade until check-in.

Seems that there's no AC ground staff in MUC; LH agents at check-in and gate. Check-in agent in was ecstatic as I was her first eUpgrade, and was glad to be able to finally figure out how to do it. Unfortunately, it required several phone calls, much confusion, and finally I told that they'd figure it out at the gate. As I approached the gate, LH manager was on the phone with IT support, trying to work it out. Eventually got it sorted, and I flew my first TATL in J :D

Definitely some rough edges to be worked out, but I'm loving them so far!

I agree with points 1 & 2. Loads are down on AC period and many people have given up on AC AE program.

However, on point 3 I find it hard to believe for a few reasons.

1.) The program isn't that hard to use and very clear instructions were included in the packages. Assuming that the average frequent flyer is relatively bright I'm sure most were able to figure it out.

2.) You can still upgrade by calling in and the numbers are still on the card. While they prefer that you do it yourself the AC SE desk upgrades me on a regular basis when I'm not near my computer / internet.

3.) Traveller's have had a long time (4 months) to prepare for eupgrades -- it's not as though its a surprise.

4.) The overall impact to # of upgrades (at least on the routes that I fly) has been too visible to be from what I would call spurious factors (e.g., people don't know how to use the upgrades) and is more likely attributable to factors like fewer people are applying for upgrades because of credit conservation. For instance, YYZ-BOS went from 100% full J on nearly every flight I took for the last three months of the year to on average 4-5/9 seats filled on the past 6 flights that I've taken. I fly this route on AC 366,368,367,369 at least 8-10 times per month and pre-eupgrade it was nearly always full. Post-upgrade it has been consistently empty (little competition for upgrades, period).

My point here is simply that I suspect if we polled members of the program they are conserving upgrades for the higher value flights (or hoarding them as they determine how they can utilize upgrades). Hoarding behaviour is likely part of the problem as people have more upgrade options and are working through how best to maximize their person value from eupgrades.

Judging by the numbers of questions seen in this forum, even from very seasoned and knowledgeable FF, I would disagree.

It's not a surprise to those who were paying attention. My guess (no data for this) is that most FF are not really paying attention and assume that the eC are really just an electronic version of the old program. They'll only pay attention once they try to upgrade under the new system.

Remember, this forum is not representative of FF generally. It is dominated by a very small and generally better-informed subset of the FF community.

I have 35 credits and am a self funded leisure traveller.

I got my 5 qualifying segments this year before e-upgrades were eligible for use.

My credits may actually go to waste at personal choice as the only further AC travel I am planning is YVR-SCL and I may take a US SA carrier if it is cheaper.

So, that makes me a hoarder too. Albeit one that is less interested in AC.

Happy to take them off your hands :D

Actually though, couldn't you trade them in coupon connection (is that allowed)? Of course you'd only be able to specify two nominees, but if you put them all up for grabs or something and someone wanted to use them for a long haul (ie 17 credits per) tango plus . . .

I have been u'g on every single flight since the new system took effect so I'm loving it.

For every hoarder there is a spender!

Since I am routine based (i.e. same flights over and over feeling like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day), my strategy is the same as Z-man. Spend them, get more, repeat.

The system doesn't work!
 

I waitlisted on AC015 for March 12th last Saturday exactly 7 days before the flight. I then waitlisted my wife 4 minutes later. We are both SE's and both were on the same fare class. Today a number of upgrades came through including my wife. Mine didn't. When I call the Super Elite line they put me on hold for 35 minutes to try a figure out what happened. They said they couldn't explain it! I was hoping that they would realize their mistake and convert 1 more seat to R but they said I should stand by at the airport as there are 4 seats left. They also asked if I wanted to kick my wife out of her seat and take it. My response was if I kicked her out of her seat she would kick me out elsewhere!

How can you trust a system that seems to have glitches. How do I know that the other upgrades today were really ahead of me?