Waitlisted question
 

Hi all.

First post, so forgive me if I ask a newbie question. I am currently a E status and have a ticket for YYZ - HKG on Saturday (05/28/11) flight 015. I logged on AC site this morning at 10am to see if I could upgrade my flight. It tells me that I am waitlisted.

Ok, fine by me. I make a mock search on AC site to see how many seat are available and counted 14 seats open.

Here is my question; Does AC keep a certain amount open just in case someone buys a seat OR is there 14 SE ahead of me? How does it work?

I have flown this route many time in the past and I have noticed that exec is always full. I guess I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope my ACLotto number comes up.

Thanks.

On this route and also the YVR-HKG and return flights they allocate so many R Class seats and usually SE's grab them 7 days out. Whatever is left over is at the 4 day window as you did earlier this morning. Depending on how full the flight is and also the historical for that flight on the previous Sat's the Route Controller determines how many more seats to release prior to departure if any. My experience is on these flights is that they do sometimes confirm you a day or 2 ahead of departure or it clears only at the gate if all SE's have been accomodated then it would then go to E's as yourself.
Good luck in securing the upgrade on Sat May 28/11!^

Thanks for the quick response.

If the SE grabs them, as you say, shouldn't AC website show less available seats? That's the part that confuses me.

Thanks again.

I think what EZESE is saying is that the SE upgrades would have been grabbed by now, and the remaining seats are up for grabs usually by E's such as yourself.. which you are waitlisted..

Good luck and welcome to FT!

Please bear in mind that if you are looking at the Seat Map for that flight it is NOT indicative of the true figures of available seats as many people for example could not be ticketed as of yet and holding a reservation and are not techincally permitted to select there seats until there tickets are paid for.
Also the Route Controller could be also adding additional R Class at anytime prior to the day of departure.

....Exactly!^ the only other scenario is that an SE decides to waitlist sameday of the flight for an upgrade where as he would be accomodated first above you as an E.

Not necessarily. There could only have been 3 R class and 10 SEs waitlisted and in which case 3 would clear and still 7 ahead of the Es. Or there could have been no R available at 7 days and all SEs are on the WL. Not all SEs request their upgrades 7 days prior.

That's a good point too Andrew...I am one of those SE's that doesn't request my upgrades sometimes 7 days out. Hey speaking of Upgrades 7 days outs can you explain as to why on AC#033 next Tuesday May 31st there is no R Class available YYZ-SYD or YVR-SYD although it's showing 9's across as available?:confused:

As an SE, this year to date I have attempted to upgrade seven intercontinental flights at +/- the seven day window. Of those seven, two cleared immediately (and those were to/from NRT post-Tsunami when J was very empty). Four cleared at the gate and one remains pending this Saturday, but I expect it too will clear at the gate.

Bottom line - my experience is that AC tends to zero out R space before the seven day window unless the J cabin has tons of availability, so re-read Andrew's post. I'll be willing to bet there are a good number of SE's waitlisted for your flight.

Revenue management is the short answer. J demand comes in close and allocated R class have been taken already. I think most here would agree that we have been doing a much better job clearing your upgrades prior to departure unless the flight in question is really full or close to full in J.

OK thank you for the heads up and reply...I appreciate it.
As to the clearing of upgrades prior to departure, I can tell you that on the HKG routes it's been hit and miss since most of the times the loads are always overbooked therefore I don't expect the R Class to clear but only at the gate.
I've only ever had a waitlist once clear in advance prior to departure on this route in the past 12 roundtrips that I have taken in the past 2.5 months.

That's why I seldom use AC to go to HKG unless I can secure R seats when I buy B fares.