Good Overview of IKK
 

Hi,

I will be a first time SE whenever AC decides to bump my status from E75K to SE (hopefully before the beginning of the benefit year).

I was wondering if there is a really good explanation of what IKK is, how to use it, where to access it, etc etc.

Thanks in advance.

Dana

It used to be that SE could have access to only unsold seat it the airplane - if no
reward seats were available, they would convert any seat ( Y or J) for use on the reward.

In recent years this has been watered down so that they will do this conversion
only if and when they want to, with no transparency for those of us on this side
of the counter.

Some believe that IKK in J class is related to the availability of R class - I am not
in that camp.

One thing that I have increasingly seen is that although many fare classes may be
available ( Y9 M9 B9....) AC will simply say the flight is oversold, and therefore
no IKK available in any class.

How to use it - simple. When you are doing a search for flights on AC, simply click
the button that says " show special access...". If using it for J class, you must be
flying, or fly at least one leg with the passenger if it is for someone else.

That's only for international flights. For domestic, you can book J class for others without traveling with them.

And, as IluvSQ points out, it's basically automatic when you're searching for reward flights. It's still the best SE benefit in my opinion.

And I am in the camp that thinks IKK space is related to R space. I'd say 95% of the time it's a 1:1 relationship.

For another data point, I tried to do a same day change once to a flight that was showing similar (Y9 B7 M5...), and they said it was oversold. It was speculated that since the next flight 90 minutes later was wide open, they were willing to oversell the first one and just bump people, if necessary. But the fact that it was technically oversold meant I couldn't do a SDC.

I thought I read a thread here that showed a pretty good correlation between IKK being available and their being Z+R space. So R isn't good enough. When Y is heavily oversold, I've seen things like J3 C0 D0 Z0 Y0 R3.

I think it may have been Dorian who showed that R and Z both have to be positive for IKK in the front cabin to be available.

Except if flight was oversold.

R class availability has never failed me.

Some say there has to be Z and R. Perhaps they are right. However, I have yet to see R available when Z is not.

I suspect the anecdotal evidence whereby some people have found no IKK but R available may have been flukes. Either miscommunication, with the agent checking the wrong flight/the wrong date; this has happened to me. Or perhaps some IT issue. As we often see for instance about upgrade availability. Sometimes showing some leg available with some connections but not other for example.

Or the person must be a close relative. Never a problem getting it for my wife even if traveling alone.

Dupe.

Would a close relative be mom and grandmother? I want to send them to rome in j but don't want go. Well can't go not don't want to

Negative. Very strictly your spouse and dependent children. Same rules as lounge access for family.

Congrats on gaining SE this year fellow YEG'er. This benefit is by far the best next to the Concierge service. While restricted now, IKK is still a solid perk. Now try not to fatten up our Concierges in 2014 ok. ;)

bottom line with IKK is that it's a shadow of what it used to be at least for J redemptions. I've had very little luck on international routing although for domestic it's a bit easier.

Obviously not as easy as it used to be.

However with a bit of creativity/flexibility plus lots of YQ, I have consistently managed to get my wife in J on the same itinerary I am traveling on.

So, better the castrated version than none at all by any means.

Yes. This 100% held true for >50 international reward searches for December and another 20+ searches for January.

In cases where Z>0 and R=0 no IKK was available.

There were 0% cases of Z=0 and R>0.

There were maybe 50% of Z>0 and R=0.

I found no correlation between Z# and R# when both were >0.

Is this based on anything more than a feeling?

I'm curious, did you find any cases where R > Z? Your survey matches my experience as far as IKK availability goes except I do remember at least two cases where R>0 and Z = 0. Y also equaled 0, so I suspect the flight was oversold but empty up front so they were willing to upgrade. I think J was 0 too, but I can't be sure. IKK wasn't available for those flights either. Another explanation is that there was a glitch in their reservation system, but that's a bit of a stretch, AC IT being so robust!