Clipper801

Sometimes even if you are booked in J on AC, it's impossible to reserve a seat in advance. Personal experience: Booked NH code-share operated by AC (NRT-YYZ), AC would not allow me to reserve a seat in advance due to NH booking, even with AC PNR on hand.

AC introduced J bidding and LMU. They probably want to reserve a higher no. of J seats for this purpose until the last minute before clearing the eUpgrade. There may be other factors such as deadheading crew that may show up at the last minute unannounced such as the recent UA case, potential misconnection due to other later arriving flights, etc. Once your eUpgrade is confirmed but later downgraded back to Y, it's my understanding that AC has to pay you compensation.

Those who really want to fly in J would have bought a J ticket. That's another topic. On Canada-USA transborder routes, if AC would match the P (or equivalent discount J fares) of many American airlines, I am sure that its cabins will be a lot fuller. I just bought a J ticket for MIA-YYZ for January 2018 on AA for about C$450 all-in one way. It is nearly half the price of what ACr demanded for that same week on the same route on Premier Rouge. Both are direct non-stop.

24left

I think "those who want to fly in J..." vary dramatically by route.

There are at least a couple of us who would not pay cash or upgrade credits for even a domestic or TB transcon. I know what I get on those flights and I have my own determination of the value proposition.

Also, there are those who would prefer to use their upgrades for longer routes or for travel with spouse/partner, whatever.

As for paying for J on TB, I'm perfectly happy paying AA $725 CAD RT for J on the non-stop YYZ-MIA (which is the rate I'm seeing from now on out for a number of months).

AC rouge, OTOH, sits at $1,321.

For those who want to accumulate AC miles towards whatever their goal is (AQM, MM), feel free to pay the $1,321.

My guess is AC has determined that there are just enough people will to pay for the front of the rouge bus to MIA, for e.g. either with cash or upgrades, that they do not see AA non-stop - or others with one-stop - as viable competition.

jc94

Y Lat or Y economy?

Lat comes from P right so this is perhaps G (cow booked G??!)

canadiancow

For a minute I thought you meant "cabin", to which I would have said "Yes, that's why I'm posting in this thread "

Haha I know right?

Actually V. There was a $105 CAD (base fare) published for SFO-YYJ in V class. It only lasted a few days.

I was seriously considering booking another airline, or using miles, until that showed up.

SparseFlyer

Y lat lol

I guess I should've been more precice, but yeah was wondering too.

It should come out of Z though, IIRC.

And for the record, Iv'e seen it clear out of D1Z0R0 for another FTer. But maybe that was some weird thing going on with the way AC manages inventory now. FP booking on ACr.

canadiancow

I was somewhat impressed by this upgrade clearing though. It's down to J4, so the flight is not wide open.

I also know there are three SEs booked on the flight in X on a J reward ticket, so that will be fun at the gate

SparseFlyer

I don't remember posting in this thread. What's going on.

Cow, is that a do flight? Id be curious to see the result lol

jc94

Why is the fact that it cleared a surprise though? You requested it, got waitlisted, on V no less (so still low flex, but above G/W or is low flex low flex regardless of QVWG) and then when R space was opened they moved you into it.

Unless there were other SE who requested it before you, or SEMM+ ... why is that a surprise? Now for me sure, I'd be surprised that no-one else with a higher status beat me to the waitlist... the times I have been waitlisted (only perhaps 2-3 times), I did not get an upgrade, but that's because I'm a lowly non-snowflake

If there are three X on J's at the gate, and J=4, they'll all be fine. If J is 2, one is outta luck, clearly. They'll determine that by any MM status, then check-in time one assumes as fare class is the same. If I was one of those SE's, I'd be checking in at t-24 if the AC website actually allows it.

In terms of fare, if it was due out to Z (isn't that like P and D?) then this is the wrong thread. eUps definitely shouldn't come out of D, unless you are in IRROPs and an agent manages to book you into whatever is still open ignoring any potential incorrect AQM adjustments.

canadiancow

It's returning from YYJ after a do. I mean I guess with 4 FTers booked, it's technically a do flight now.

It's a surprise because it was J5, and it's still 9 days out. Clearly RM knows better than I do how many seats they'd typically sell between now and then, and I'm certainly grateful, but if you'd asked me to bet $5 on either clearing before the gate or clearing at the gate, I would have picked the latter.

Yep, I'm aware. It was just a comment on what I know about the flight. They're willing to split up if necessary (one PNR), so it will all work out. Though if I'm alone in J, that would be less fun

jc94

You seem to be implying that RM knows more than you, and that AC IT is doing something that you consider logical. Which of these seem likely to you?

You could always give up your J seat to someone in need and sit in Y.

Just to confirm, please apply the required emoticons to both the above

Oh, and I gave up betting when Mr. Peever had his 2017 package delivered.

InTheAirGuy

Can I ask a question? Given that AC tends to fail at anything it does with IT (don't get me going on the new iPhone app, which is useless...), why is there this mysterious aura around RM, that they are demigods of analytics, with deep insights that allow them to max things..... there just seems to be this belief that they are omnipotent.

I figure they are generally as IT incompetent as the rest of the IT infrastructure, and that if 2% of the IT skills on this board could have at it, we'd see a dramatic improvement in all things RM related at the same time that R-games would not have to be a game.

canadiancow

I don't think RM are amazing, but they know more than I do about expected loads.

jc94

I don't believe I've ever posted my thoughts about RM which I assume is Resource Management or something. Not prior to my post above that is.

But regardless of how omnipotent they are, presumably they are not pushing placards of people around and are instead using computer systems written by the same IT teams that gave us everything else.

While I don't want to veer too sharply into the challenges that Air Canada Information Technology may experience, this does seem to be of particular relevance to this thread because it makes us consider if the fault lies with the team, or with the tools that team has at their disposal.

I was once told a bad workman blames his tools. 30 minutes later the same guy found the system (a science experiment) wasn't working and blamed the equipment. He got angry when I quoted him back at himself.

A good workman that can't do the job because of his tools, is correct to blame those tools.

canadiancow

I was told relatively recently (I'm pretty sure it was 2017) that waitlisted upgrades are cleared manually, and there's no automated process to do it.

So it wouldn't be anything written by AC IT

jc94

Just like AQD eh.

Thing is, they may clear them manually... but presumably they do this after looking at expected loads. And while I don't want to bet on anything as recently posted... I would wager a small amount the details for this as being shown on some sort of computer generated display. Probably a 17" CRT.

I don't know. It's the R games. Anyone else thinking of the Hunger games right now? Losers to into Y. Or Rouge.