yyznomad

That's a pretty good LMU price from Tango for YVR SYD!
(just my opinion)

drvannostren

I think part of it has to be the load. They'll offer a LHR-YYC LMU for $3500 because maybe someone will pay it, but if not, they lose nothing.

But on that same flight with Y full or oversold, suddenly that LMU drops to $750 because no almost certainly someone will take it and right there that LMU pays for itself because AC doesn't have to spend potentially $800 or more to re-accommodate you. I'm not on expertflyer but I'd be interested if someone did the work to see LMU price vs T-24 (roughly) loads.

I look at it a bit differently, I'm admittedly not a revenue management specialist or anything, but to me, it seems more logical to try and sell all the J seats. Now obviously there has to be a price threshold, but I think it should be way lower. If there's 6 J seats open at T-24 offer them up to all elites first at say, 50% of what someone else pays. It's a benefit for the elites, AC doesn't pay out any extra miles and they still get money, the cost of catering and such would be way more than offset by the LMUs and it would give people a chance to upgrade when they're out of credits. Obviously they'd prefer to just sell the fares as Z or higher to being with, but when that doesn't happen, do you really lose anything by letting people buy up to J at a reasonable price?

Maserati

I thought the AC forum didn't have mods? Or am I just happily hallucinating....

yyznomad

Welcome (officially) to FT.

You seem like a long, long, long time lurker? This forum started having mods several years back... the fact that you know there were no mods before tells me you've been lurking for at least 10 to 12 years?

kauppias

Do the upgrades come with extra mileage earnings on AC ie change in booking class?

Edit: looks like thats a big NO, so this option at these prices is useless to me

pitz

Yes, eventually people, particularly the elites, will come to expect the significant discounting, rather than paying the revenue fares. Sometimes it is better to let a few seats go unsold (or given to employees, children, students, or other identifiable travellers who would statistically almost never purchase a J fare), than to erode the revenue basis of your product.

Now, if the opportunity to obtain such an upgrade at a low cost was completely random, then you might be onto something. But that would probably be accompanied by a lot of complaints as well. Perhaps for the elites, offering a steep discount on the number of eUpgrade credits required to upgrade on an oversold flight would be a superior tactic compared to the ad hoc system of op upgrades which is rife with inequity.

Its a lot like clothing, perfumes, ladies handbags, sparkling wines, etc. Many brands are only desirable on account of them being expensive and hence exclusive on account of their cost. If they start to show up in Wal-Mart, then the brand has likely lost the entirety of its cachet.

Queen B

Hello
Newbie here
in general are LMU cheaper if the plane is full?
we are flying AC YXY to YQB in a couple of weeks, and I was looking at pre-booking exit row seats for the yvr to yul portion @$63 a pop but all the good exit seats are already booked. and only a few regular seats are left.

I'm gambling on a good LMU rate...
is there a best time to check-in to get a good rate?

superangrypenguin

LMU's are hit and miss. Expect to pay at least $150/hour or so gate to gate time. (best educated guess). Sometimes it's way more too.

If you grab an exit row and then pay for a LMU, you should get a refund automatically. Sometimes people have had to call in though. But either way, you should get your money back.

Best time to check in is at T-24 hours. Based on what I read on here, either the LMU costs the same all the way until the flight closes or it goes up, or down...more so up rather than down though.

SparseFlyer

Think about it this way.

LMUs are sold to people who have a last minute change of mind and feel like flying business, and NOT to be sold to people who look for a discounted J fare.

So if you are waiting for a good LMU, you may very well find yourself SOL...

Cheapest safe way to fly business is to wait for sales or for P inventory to open up (IMHO).

Queen B

Thank you for the input,
When i do the online check-in I will post the offer in the other thread.
I only need the YVR to Yul upgraded, we'll see what happens.

ACfly

Am I reading this correctly? You are in PE and LMU to J is $2088 one way?

That's almost full fare.. I can see why you didnt upgrade...

Outrageous.

gabdusch

Yes, that is correct. Flight is J1 and they are selling that full fare 5718.00 online (one way ).

SparseFlyer

Probably has something to do with this:

CdnFlier

If the LMUs are going to be jacked up this much, the least they could let us do is to collect the miles of the class we end up in. So even if you were on T or an AE ticket, give you the AQMs as if you bought J. Hell, even the 50% bonus from a Flex fare would be something.

Can't see that really pushing people over the edge, but it couldn't hurt.

canadiancow

So I've said this before, but given the eUp changes, my opinion may be a little different.

In the past, when people were whining about LMUs being too high, I said "I'd be pissed if they were low enough that I never got an eUp."

However with cabins flying emptier, my opinion has changed.

But if AC doesn't want to cheapen the J cabin, it still doesn't make sense to offer a $69 Rapidair LMU (similar to what I've seen on UA SFO<->LAX), because it would encourage $100 Tango + $69 LMU instead of $500 business.

I'm not even sure what I want at this point