YULforever

And in a shocking turn of events, you and I are on exactly the same page.

YEGTigger

I've got a booking made today to LAS in L class that's showing as Tango when I look the reservation up online. I phoned in to confirm that it is still a FLEX fare and the agent confirmed that, but it will be interesting to see if I have to make a manual upgrade request as well.

canadiancow

So again, while I sympathize with those flying internationally (and I'm sure I will for work within the next year), if these changes had been made 12 months ago, nothing would have changed for me. Most of my flights are on transborder routes where W is the lowest fare. I've been booked into W, V, Q, and M.

But I that was this year. I don't know what next year will bring for me, and these changes just make me too nervous to commit to Altitude for another year. Every little change keeps pushing me to United. I'll still fly AC next year, just to use my upgrades, but after that, I doubt it.

hastuk

I just checked my November flight on Manage My Bookings. AC IT has managed to downgrade it to a Tango fare (with no letter) already. I will be making a few calls to ensure that the fare is upgradeable. I am sooo glad that I will be *Gold with A3 by the end of January. Air Canada can do you know what!

Yul_voyager

It already happened.
YUL-CDG cheapest Flex was 100$ more than Tango before, now it is 500$ (same price as PE). It is probably the same thing on all European destinations.

Polar Man

I am so glad that I dropped this AC loyalty game 2 years ago it just keeps getting worst

agjil

I can't believe this just happened.
Wasn't introducing co-pays for upgrades enough?
Something's seriously wrong with AC.
Are they going to move more and more fare classes from flex to tango every year?
After next year, I will be moving to UA or AA myself too.
I hate the fact that I accumulated most of my miles this year to AC already.

margarita girl

Yes, it's a fantastic benefit. And don't forget, one way fares at half the price of a round trip ticket. I've booked several "insurance" award tickets in case something goes wrong with my revenue ticket. And you can make all your changes online, so you don't even have to bother an agent.

In my short time with UA, I'm finding that the regular UA agents are far more empowered than AC's concierges. They won't get a memo having to justify their actions the next day after upgrading someone. If your flight gets delayed or cancelled, you can ask the UA agent to put you in a higher fare class (Y) to put you at the top of the upgrade list.

YEG USER

OK, here I go with my (possibly really) dumb question.

What does this actually matter? IMHO what really matters is the fare code basis, not the booking class. There has traditionally been a lot of overlap between Tango and Flex fares (low end Flex fares could be significantly cheaper than high end Tango fares), its just that AC.com only ever shows the cheapest available in both fare classes.

AC could publish various M fares on a specific city pair ranging from $1 to $1 million (i.e MXXXTP for $1, MYYYTP for $1000, MZZZTP for $1000000) with various advance purchase, length of stay, etc. requirements. Assuming (and this is a big assumption) that the price point of a Flex ticket stays approximately the same as it currently is, what difference does it make what fare bucket it falls into?

The reason I'm scratching my head about all of this is I don't understand why AC doesn't just simplify their fare structure and standardize all Tango/Flex fare buckets across the board (within NA and internationally) to reduce some confusion.

Frorose

Don't tango fares only get 25% AQM points? That would significantly diminish their already decreasing benefits to frequent flyers.

Jasper2009

The reason why this is a major enhancement is that there is a fare class hierarchy, e.g. S < W < V < Q < H < U < M < B < Y.

When searching fares with the same parameters (i.e. dates, minimum stay, maximum stay, advance purchase requirement, stopovers, Sat night rule etc.) the fares will be sorted according to this hierarchy 99.9% of the time.

You can definitely find examples where a K fare may be more expensive than an S fare, but in nearly every single case the parameters of the K fare will be more generous, so you´d be comparing apples with oranges.

When using the same parameters, V fares on TATL routes are usually $300-$500 more expensive than S fares, so essentially you now have to pay an extra $300-$500 for a given flight to get exactly the same benefits (100% miles, chance to upgrade) as you did previously.

zorn

It matters because it seems likely that the cost to purchase fares with 100% miles and upgradeability will increase, for upgrade credits that were earned without the expectation of this likely cost increase.

It also matters because of the likelihood of glitches with existing booking w/r/t to their upgradeability and miles earning that will probably be resolved but not without effort and/or stress.

As an aside, I think AC could use a subforum to which all posts mentioning AC haters and AC apologists can be sent to die.

Clipper801

And of course, the lack of advance notice and the effective date of the change with about 3¼ months to Dec. 31.

Those planning to travel between now and the end of December to take them pass the qualification threshold will likely have to spend a few dollars more unless they have already ticketed or settle with Tango and forget about the status for 2014!

BarrieTravelGuy

And get 150% miles + 1.5 segments for the Y/B bucket

So glad I made the change to United at the beginning of this year - just when you think they can't do anything else to tick off people they manage to do it again. And to make the press release look like it's all sunshine and puppies! LOL

Clipper801

What AC is saying..... We don't charge SE for co-pay to eUpgrade. However, they have to pay more for upgradeable Flex fare. So, it's the same meat but a different sauce.

AC wins regardless whether you get your eUpgrade or not. You have paid a more expensive base fare to play the aerolotto game.