AC Winter Schedule Change Thread
 

Thought it would be useful to have a single thread to track AC sched changes as some are impactful and AC has yet to update travellers. I got caught with one and have no idea what AC is thinking here.

AC930 YULMIA ....... Was 0840 departure, changed to 1650 departure.

Sure this will go over well with all the people connecting into cruises. I assumed this was the main intent of this Sat only service.

Can't imagine what use passengers will get from Sat only evening service into MIA on AC? Unless UA are building a late night South American bank exMIA no one's heard of?

Whatev. Cancel, refund and AA YULMIA 6am booking was super easy though.

It'll go over fine with those connecting to cruises departing on Sundays and Mondays.

Leaving nothing to chance, many cruisers opt for an overnight stay rather than chance unpredictable Winter weather conditions.

That is my plan each time I have a cruise.

Anybody who's ever been caught with a same day flight-cruise misconnection never forgets ;)

I have done many cruises ex FLL, MIA and TPA, all of them in winter. I would never fly AC to Florida. Reasons: a) rouge; b) risk of weather delays in YYZ or YUL; c) customs between flights. The odds are against an on time arrival.

From YVR it's much safer to use AA through DFW. UA through DEN or IAH is also possible.

Sure .... Great for those who don't have a Sat cruise departure AND those that would prefer to spend a winter day in Canada over Miami. Can't be 8 people in the country that might apply to.
Sat evening flights are typically low yielding junk. And the fares this new flight schedule is and will commands proves the point. Many airlines pull down flying Sat evening as it appeals to so few.
I'm sure AC did this due to fleet constraints. This was not to optimize revenue for this flight, that's for sure. Good for them, busines is business ... just hope passengers are made aware in time to make other plans if they want

The new departure time is timed for connections inbound from Europe. In addition, we have seen in the past few years equal demand for flights in the late afternoon in the morning. Also, as was mentioned, on the departure, many people are leaving a day early for their cruise - rather spend a night in Miami or Lauderdale than risk a misconnection in the winter.

1 weekly, Sat only YULMIA service was moved for inbound Europe? Really.
Demand for SAT late afternoon Cananda>Florida is the same as SAT morning? Your fares don't seem to reflect that, nor any airline in the market.
Is there a Saturday in AC's schedule where YYZ/YUL-Florida evening service is more expensive than the mornign flight. $200Tango fares are common southbound Saturday evenings for the same reason DL and other airlines reduce flying ... No one wants to travel then. They just do when they need low fares

Check your facts. Flight operates daily as of 17DEC.

Again, I'm not talking just about Saturdays. Sure, Saturday night flights are not as popular to North America destinations. During the week this is a very different story. There is a growing population in Canada that make multiple trips to homes in Florida over the winter, many them who are still working and can take advantage of a late departure. We have data to support this.

Overall, AC is not as big a player from YUL-MIA as AA, however the Europe-MIA market remains large in the winter, and with no direct service from cities like BRU and GVA, it made sense for us to pursue revenue opportunities to support our European network. Hopefully, is this proves successful, we can look at having multiple flight YUL-MIA. Look at the YUL-FLL operation - up to 6x daily.

Another fact I've checked (and felt) is AC changed the schedule of their Sat-only YULMIA service 1Nov-15Dec to an evening flight.
Lots of European upgauges into Miami for busy Winter season and not sure how useful a 4h35m connection in YUL will be for AC's passengers exBRU. But, as you say, you have the data and time will tell.
Will be interesting to see AC's Montreal-Miami schedule and equipment next year.

Aren't you cherry picking you choice of arrivals a little? The vast majority of European flight land at YUL between 14:00 and 16:00. GVA 14:15, CDG 14:25, ZRH 15:10, LHR 15:25, FCO 16:00 (ok that one is a little tight to make a 16:50).

So FRA 12:25 and BRU 12:15 are a little long for connections, the flight works well for flight listed above.

Not to nitpick, but flight actually operates D67 in Nov/Dec.

Look, I do honestly apologize on behalf of my employer for your flight being impacted by this schedule change - it's annoying as a customer when the flight you have chosen moves in time, gauge, or gets cancelled outright.

But as we expand our European network, we are trying to be creative to find ways to fill our European flights in winter. The YUL-MIA flight has bounced around from 3-5 weekly for the past few winters; this change, we are hoping, will generate enough volume to fill the flights daily throughout the winter, potentially even into the summer, and with hopefully additional winter frequencies in subsequent years. Time will tell if we're right. :)

Not cherry picking at all. If you read acYUL's note, AC are gunning for EU>Miami traffic via YUL that, otherwise does not have non-stop option. That's GVA and BRU as he points out.
No need for any apology. As I said, business is business and the cancellation call to AC was quick, friendly and efficient. Other viable daily southbound AM non-stop options in the market as you're well aware. No biggie.
Indeed.
If you can get EU>Miami passengers to accept longer trip duration and a connection through wintery Montreal with reasonable yields, all the power to you.
We shall see

I see YVR-EWR will now depart at 9:15 and return at 18:30.