I have just found something very wrong with the new e-upgrade system. While I don't mind that timing is now to the minute from time of departure (i.e. if 7 days, then upgrades can only be done EXACTLY at the same time as departure 7 days prior), what is VERY problematic is that on a multi-leg trip, even just conventional connections, the timing applies to every leg of the journey, meaning that you might need to call or log on three or four times over the course of a day or two depending on your routing. You would think that it would be from the start of the journey, as these would be legal one way routings. This will no doubt drive reservations staff as crazy as it willl drive us.

There have been several threads dealing with this issue already. While I sympathize, I have yet to hear a cogent argument to justify why someone flying, say, HKG-YVR-YWG should get somewhere near a 16-hour head start on upgrading the YVR-YWG segment versus someone who is only flying the YVR-YWG segment.

Or, more importantly, why should someone flying YWG-YVR-HKG get a head start on someone flying only YVR-HKG!

But someone flying YYZ-YVR-SYD on AC33 might get a headstart on someone flying YVR-SYD for that YVR-SYD segment.

Don't call in; there's no advantage anymore. Just do your upgrades online.

Could somebody write a screen scraping script to do the online upgrade automatically at the right time to the minute?

That's a little more complicated.

R space on the three different AC33 services:

YYZ-YVR nonstop
YYZ-SYD direct (with stop)
YVR-SYD nonstop

is of course correlated (there is a finite number of seats, after all) but is managed with some degree of independence, too. It is possible to have R0 on the YYZ-SYD direct when there is R space on both YYZ-YVR and YVR-SYD, for example. And the same goes for all other permutations.

Strictly speaking, a YYZ-SYD traveler will not get priority over a YVR-SYD traveller, since they are not on the same flight (they are merely on the same plane going to the same place.)

I went through this for a YYJ-YYZ-YHZ trip I am taking in 2 days.
I woke up early to upgrade. It let me upgrade YYJ-YYZ but said it could not upgrade YYZ-YHZ until departure time -4 days.

I feel that I have paid AC more money since I am flying 2000 miles more than the guy who paid to fly 1000 miles from YYZ-YHZ. I feel that I should be entitled to upgrade a little earlier than the YYZ guy. We are only talking about 6-8 hours.

The flight was R=1 at _4 days and 8 hours. R=0 at the 4 day mark (ironic) I am still waitlisted, R=0, J=1 for the flight. My fingers remain crossed.

Last Saturday I waitlisted myself for an upgrade. 4 minutes later I waitlisted my wife! 2 hours ago my wife was confirmed while I wasn't! We are both on S class fares on AC15 to HKG. I called and they can't explain it! They said everything is the same but the 4 minutes. I am a million miler but my wife isn't.

Well - what if someone was flying from YYZ-YHZ-LHR? You're assuming you have a larger flight, but that isn't always so. They could have paid much more for their ticket and should be able to upgrade at the same time as you for the YYZ-YHZ flight, don't you think?

Of course you do.

So you pretend that it is no big deal, and yet obviously that 6-8 hours made all the difference between getting the u/g and not.

So what should AC do when the customer flying LGA-YYZ-LHR pays less than the guy flying YYZ-LHR?

Ok, do I have this right? I can no longer upgrade a complete portion of my Itin at the same time?

I regularly fly yyt-yyz-yyc.

So I would have to check twice to request an e-upgrade? One at yyt-yyz -4 days and again at the yyz-yyc - 4 day mark?

So essentially, twice, 3 hours apart?

That can't be right....

You should be able to do it once - but you'd need to wait until 96 hours before the departure of your last flight - putting an upgrade for your first flight at risk if someone else grabs it.

Of course you can upgrade a complete portion at one time. You just have to wait until the last leg's departure is inside your upgrade window and then you can request upgrades on all of them all at once. Of course, you are taking the chance that by waiting an extra few hours, your first legs will get snapped up. Snoozin' = losin'.

Look, if I book a YVR-LHR non-stop for 18:15 departure, I can only u/g 4x24 ahead of 18:15 PT on a T+ fare. But if I routed it YVR-YYC-LHR instead, one of the eligible bookings has me leave YVR a full 7 hours before the YYC-LHR leg departs. There is no reason whatsoever that just because I did a 2-segment flight instead of non-stop, that I should get to upgrade the long leg 7 hours before any YYC-originating pax can.

That's an old way of gaming the system in which a YVR-originating pax can screw a YYC-originating pax out of a fair chance at an upgrade. It sucked when it was permissible, and any fair-minded person should be happy that this is no longer possible.