expert7700

My PNR next week has wide open R space but only 3 of 6 segments confirmed. Similar system glitch was mentioned when me and a few FTers recently had drinks.

Their reply is a doozie:

Thank you for contacting the Air Canada Concierge desk concerning your recent Eupgrade request in booking XXXYYY

I see the original ticket was book in Premium Economy Lowest. In order to be eligible for the immediate upgradable promotion, the ticket must be booked in a Latitude or Premium Economy Flex fare. All others fares are subject to clearance window according to your status: 14days prior to departure and can go up all the way to the departure gate on the day of travel.

Within 48h of the departure of your flights, if "R" class / upgradable class of service is still available, we are allowed to contact directly our department and request to have it confirmed. I will recommend you to contact us again, on the 24thof April, if it's not been confirmed on your reservation.

Thank you for your continuous loyalty

Warmest regards​​​​​

canadiancow

Wait... your flight is in 8 days. The upgrade clearance window for international is 7...

The first uncleared one will clear in 2.5 hours.

expert7700

oh ":";$;

that explains 2 of the legs

I am a fotsg...

canadiancow

Your other 4 are all in J already. System working as expected

expert7700

You would make a great concierge. I needed someone to tell me don't worry you aren't 7 days out. Concierge email and reservation agent who removed and requested saying they were baffled both seemed to indicate they overlooked that part.

Quoting latitude flight pass (call within 48 hrs) still seems marginally worthy of the thread post.
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canadiancow

Eh, she said if R was still available, which is not the Y FP rule. I think she was getting at something else that I don't want to discuss on FT

But I am shocked at how bad the email was. First, "you're not within your 7 day clearance window for international flights" would have ended the conversation. But second, "starting at 14 days", but not mentioning that it varies based on market, is really confusing. Especially since concierges only deal with SEs, so they don't even need to know the whole chart - just one column (or row? I can't recall which axis is status).

And if the "stuck in HN" issue and "HL but R is open and it won't clear" issue weren't so prevalent, everyone's first guess would have been "window", not "broken system".

yyznomad

I was told (again) by another SD that, before covid-times, AC never provided kits out on NA SS daytime flights.
Perhaps they were referring to "international kits", but they never clarified that.

Nitehawk

Not at the airport, but with the call center...

So I have a 3 segment trip on a latitude flight pass (within North America). The complimentary upgrade failed, so I call reservations.

Agent: "Sorry there's only space available for the complimentary upgrade on the 3rd segment."

Me: "But the flight is J7, what do you mean there's no space?"

this goes back and forth for awhile.

Me "Fine, complimentary upgrade the 3rd segment, I'll complain at the airport."

Agent: "While we were talking there's now no space on the 3rd segment either. So there is no space available for the complimentary upgrade on this booking."

Me: "Ok, thanks. *presses end button*"

Then I check again, and both segments with a J cabin have positive J space (J7 and J2), both on EF and available to purchase via the AC app... Now I have to waste some concierge time.

canadiancow

HUCA. Airport cannot help with that.

Have you tried both the app and website? Sometimes one works when the other doesn't.

Nitehawk

Tried both the FP app and the website. Now I emailed the central concierge office, we'll see what they say. Hopefully my J2 doesn't vanish before they sort it out. Anyway the agent was trying to tell me that complimentary upgrade space is not equal to J space, that it comes from another magical bucket.

EDIT: Just got an new ticket PDF showing J on both segments. Thanks concierge! Not sure what would happen if I wasn't SE, just trying to use a product that is supposed to work electronically.

yyznomad

SMH. Just pathetic. (the part before the added edit)

Adam Smith

Here's a good one. Some of you may remember a fun story from the YUL Dom MLL a few months ago, involving a rather grouchy lounge agent.

Well, he was back at the desk tonight, and I wondered whether this might lead to anything interesting. He was only slightly annoyed at me for asking for a new BP after my eUp cleared.

My flight to YYC, originally scheduled for 18:50, posted a delay to 19:15 many hours before departure. As we got closer to departure time, given the inbound arrived (late) at 18:23 on a TB flight, this was a rather suspect estimate, even though 220s can turn pretty quickly.

At 18:54, the MLL screen didn't show boarding, and there had been no text/e-mail notification. In this situation, I go to the front desk and ask the agents to check whether boarding has started. Despite knowing Mr. "Not Running A Restaurant" is not the friendliest guy, I figured I'd rather not get stuck at the gate for 30 minutes. The following conversation ensued (I think this is pretty close to verbatim):

Adam: Can you please tell me whether the Calgary flight has started boarding yet?
NRAR: [immediately hostile] What time is it supposed to leave?
Adam: 7:15 [PM]
NRAR: You've missed it! Why are you in the lounge?!?
Adam: The gate doesn't close until 15 minutes before departure, and I think it might be further delayed
NRAR: You only have 4 minutes to get to the gate, they're going to take you off the flight
Adam: If they've started boarding, I can go now and make it on time. But do you know whether they've started boarding?
NRAR: [looking at his watch] Yes, since a long time ago!
Adam: I know they should have, but the inbound was late, could you please check whether they've actually started boarding?
NRAR: They definitely have! [finally looking it up] Oh, wait, they haven't boarded anyone... Last passenger off the inbound at 18:40... Why haven't they added a delay?

Anyway, after that, he was much friendlier and apologetic for his earlier aggression. Claimed it was because he had two passengers miss flights yesterday for dawdling in the lounge. And he did eventually make an announcement that they had started boarding.

But just classic with this guy.

Final result: flight departed at 19:32. I left the lounge when he made the announcement and got to the gate before they did final boarding call.

TechnoTourist

AC 495 needed a plane swap causing a bunch of people to misconnect. Got rebooked by an agent and she was convinced she had reapplied my eUp correctly because it said J.

Had to pull out a seat map for a 7M8 and show her that row 12 clearly wasn't J no matter what the BP said.

yyznomad

Weird... so did you get a J seat in the end?
Zone 1 non-SE in Y. Interesting. Or maybe not.

TechnoTourist

Yes, she got me 3A after some more effort.