nancy1127

Has anyone had any luck upgrading from a B class fare on an Air Canada flight using Aeroplan points? I am trying for several flights, including one in October, and the only message I keep getting is that there is no inventory available. I have a hard time believing that there is no inventory, when one of the flights I am trying to upgrade on is from LHR to YYZ and there are currently only 2 passengers showing in business class. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.

superangrypenguin

Can you redeem a J fare via AE? I bet not....from what I recall, you need a seat in J that you could redeem in order for a Latitude upgrade. I may be way off base though. Anyone else want to chime in?

King Chung Huang

Yup, Star Alliance upgrades come from reward inventory. If you can redeem a classic reward on the flight, then it's also available for a *A upgrade using Aeroplan miles.

24left

Last week I called Aeroplan to inquire.

Answer was: Maybe
Agent said: "In theory the offer exists as part of the program called Star Alliance Upgrades"
But agent said they've "only seen a supervisor be able to process these requests twice"

Agent said "Supervisor has to put in the request and wait for a response
Even if you purchase the right class, agent said there is no guarantee"

eg. You could buy Y or B (Lat) and request to use miles to upgrade to PE or J

Agent then said "You'd be better of using your eUpgrades"
I said why bother
Agent said "AC is part of *A and it's a *A program"

IMHO, his words seem to be a warning "Kids, Don't try this at home"

Maybe a few others should call in and see what answers you get.

superangrypenguin

But what fare bucket would it come out of then? I'm genuinely curious

I'm pretty sure that agent had no idea what they were talking about. Logistically (IMO), that'd be a nightmare. Plus you'd have all the people who want to use eupgrades flip OUT at this policy

24left

I only provided the conversation.
I still suggest everyone try it. Call in and see what answer you get

superangrypenguin

I know I know I know I was just curious if others had the same experience as you and what fare class it showed their tickets as being as

ramsfan

I have succeeded in doing this 3times. On both ends go an Ethiopian airlines trip and 1 SQ leg SIN SYD. It's the same class as reward tickets as noted above, R bucket ? maybe -- as I recall.

It's very difficult to do. You have to make sure your ticket is in an upgradable class . What that is varies with airlines it you want to pay less than Y. This is fairly well spelled out in the AP site. You then have to make sure the ticket you buy is in that fare class. Some airlines show this easily others do not but it generally takes some digging on their site and you may need to call them-not fun. You can use the AP booking tool you use to redeem points for flights and see if you can get a business ticket on rewards so you know if you can upgrade, but that is not always accurate. If it says you can get a business reward you cannot really know that is true unless you go all the way to paying for it. But assuming its true, buy your ticket in a class eligible to upgrade and then try to do so on the AP site. If you cannot you are stuck with your ticket, unless it allows you to cancel. I have not found calling the SE desk helpful, although I am a fan of theirs on most things.

Their are other problems. If you change any of your itinerary the upgrade is cancelled even though the change was not relevant to the flight you upgraded. Trying to change the up graded flight is a problem too as that airline (SQ in my case ) told me it had to be AP. I was able to do a 3way call with SQ and AP that sorted it out, but I think I was lucky. A final problem can be your points. You may not get any as the system may see the ticket Being in reward class. It took a lot of effort to get EA and AP to sort that out.

So when this works it's great, but there are pitfalls.

Stranger

That may well be airline-dependent. I have succeded on BR. Never tried on AC because adding the miles on an already expensive B fare is usually not competitive, either with using credits, or with Aeroplan J rewards.

Only makes sense as an alternative to toasters. If you have so many miles you don't know what to burn them on.

24left

Lots and lots of detail - From Aeroplan

Use Your Miles Star Alliance Upgrade Awards

https://www4.aeroplan.com/saua/Guidelines.do

zonelad

is it possible to upgrade from Economy to Premium economy using points? I dont see this on the site... if so, what are the eligible booking classes?

nomadic.relief

I recall I upgraded to J relatively painlessly online for a TK flight booked as either B or Y (cannot recall), but I do know I had checked for R space first.