Analysis of 2002 Changes

Flyer Al, yes a $50 increase to YUL is steep, but the reasoning for going their is different than MIA. MIA is a vacation.

Unfortunately I regularly spend 15 hours a day driving, so YUL is close, but I too would pay for a MIA flight as it is many days in the car, or in my my light aircraft.

What routing and line do you fly YYZ -MIA?

IMHO the majority of AC's best customers do not buy their own tickets out of their own salary and therefore, applying the 80/20 rule, the issue of upgradeable fares is not huge.

• 100% of FF know about lounges
• <10% of FF have a clue how they can save money by optimizing the use of upgrades and appropriate fare basis

Couple points...

* First of all, why do people have to buy lowest upgradeable fare? That's most likely because you can't afford paying full J or you are forced by your company to buy the lowest fare. So you really think they won't notice a $200 increase on EACH ticket? [remember $200 is only one example, in some city pairs, it's a lot more than that.] The fare rules is exactly the same in most cases for V and H so there's really no reason from a company's standpoint to allow an employee to fly H simply because they want to upgrade.

We are trying to see whether AC will be successful in these changes and I am having a hard time how they will succeed.

My first choice is always AA because I love doing their non-stop - especially on the new 737-800s.

But if I can get a cheaper fare from BUF, I will take US to either FLL or MIA. Sometimes it's cheaper doing it that way. (Like right now there's a USD$140 web fare on US BUF-MIA).

I won't pay more than CAD$300 (incl. tx) for a ticket to South Florida.

[This message has been edited by FlyerAl (edited 01-15-2002).]

So maybe no one will notice the V to H...but sure as hell they will notice the upgrade window of 72 hours vs. time of booking!!

Dorian

I agree wholeheartedly.

I would just love to know how you do that. I would switch from AC to AA in a heartbeat for this routing if I could get a fare that low. I'd happily sit in coach.

You just have to keep looking for the good deals. I paid CAD$260 with tax to fly YYZ-MIA last April (on AA). I paid CAD$265 with tax to fly BUF-FLL in July (on US). I paid CAD$300 with tax to fly YYZ-FLL, returning MIA-YYZ on AA in December. I was upgraded on all of these trips with my status.

Right now there's a great fare on US for BUF-MIA (USD$114 with tax) for travel until Feb 14. I'm thinking of taking advantage of it.

[This message has been edited by FlyerAl (edited 01-16-2002).]

FlyerAl, if you could find a deal like this for me I would gladly pay you a generous commission. I want to do the outbound trip either tomorrow afternoon or late Friday morning. Open return, but sometime around Feb 1.

AB !

ACORD...

I notice "everything" as my travel is 100% self paid out of income. There's no write offs here I think the bizz traveller is also the same as me however in some ways....or their controllers are. Our company notices fares and routings.....and I assume they exercise the same purchasing judgement I do with my own dollars.

As for most FF members not knowing about benefits...I agree with you here...some of the ones I have met in various lounges were just happy to collect points and didn't care about the other picture...in fact the only reason they were in the lounge is because the gate agent told them were it was. But I think the dollar side of it has always been watched somewhat.



[This message has been edited by Carioca Canuck (edited 01-16-2002).]

I think this is very true and will be the issue noticed by most high yield SEs.
For Elites the loss of no capacity control will be the main issue - there will be many thousands of high yield Es out there no longer able to get reward tickets when they want them.

This is very accurate. My employer books in J for > 5hr and Y < 5hr. The Y will be booked as the lowest available at time of booking. I can't ask them buy H so I can use my private upgrade certs if V is available.

Anyways, the Elite guest thing (if confirmed) is a bigger kick in the *** - I often travel with non-(AC)-status colleagues who are senior to me. I can't possibly leave them at the gate while I go hang out at the lounge, and $20 for a few minutes is not worthwhile.

The USD$87.25 + tax fare requires a 7-day advance purchase. If you could hold off until next Wednesday? As for the return, you should know open return is not allowed on these kinds of fares but you could always use Feb. 1 as a return date and if you change your mind later on, just pay the $100 change fee or try to get it waived. You'd still be saving plenty of $$$.

[This message has been edited by FlyerAl (edited 01-16-2002).]

USD$87.25?? Are you kidding? Tell me more.