No!

I think they scrawl it all over the BP in case pax raises a stink onboard and starts flashing the BP at crew going "SEE? I'm in Classe Affaires and my Affaires with Foods is important!" or some other silly rant... one look at the "proof" (bp) would neutralize that argument quickly midair.

And, I've actually been denied a meal when this is the case, which is fair enough. It was clearly communicated at the gate, and I (in those cases) was offered the option to keep my blue voucher/coupon thingy. Very professional back then.


AWESOME! Money trumps all! This is how it should be... no more LMU dartboard pricing strategy.


Why would this affect compups on FPs? If they "clear" the bid upgrades at T-48h (if this is true) there's no need to eliminate compups. But that's fine, just buy the fares you need when you know you need them. FPs are really just a discount program for bulk buying, a liability easier for AC to measure than say, Altitude. ;)

I also received an e-mail offering me to bid. E-Mail received Dec 1, for YYZ-YUL flight Dec 12

Low bid was $120 up to $250.

I'm in M class, flight pass. Logged in and confirmed an upgrade using 2 credits after receiving the e-mail, without problem. There was still 6 J seats available at time of me confirming my u/g

Why would they bother putting a cap...

Colour me surprised.

Thanks for the confirmed ETag, much appreciated! ^^

I'm curious about this too.

Probably prevents real (or imagined) accidental clicks.

If you can only bid $250, you're not going to have someone claiming "There is no way in hell I would have agreed to pay $2500 for YVR-YYC."

Pretty tough to make that work in a way that doesn't severely annoy the FP holders. Get rid of a benefit that was advertised at time of purchase and is good for up to 15 months? Don't officially torpedo it but introduce bidding in a way that effectively removes the benefit and the smart FP holder is just as miffed. They would pretty much have to wait until T-24 hours to accept bids or there would be heck to pay with some high spend flyers.

One other thought: I bet they would generate a lot more revenue by applying bidding to preferred seats and PY. My gut says those bids levels are too high for the marginal benefit. Just my feeling.

It might not make sense from an economic efficiency perspective, but at this stage it is probably being driven by a business case. Bidding on upgrades is a relatively new practice, so passengers would probably want some idea of the range of pricing given that they have no market experience. I expect that eventually the caps would rise or disappear altogether.


This assumes, however, that it remains a single sealed bid option. Is it possible that a day later AC solicits revised bids with higher caps.

Agreed. Rather than pissing off revenue-generating FFs by messing with eUp or FP upgrades, AC could be gaining revenues on preferred seats or PY seats that would otherwise go to Tangoers for free.

Pretty frustrating experience today. Submit my eupgrade request for a YYZ-YVR flight 10 days from now, and am waitlisted (E50k on a low-flex fare). Not more than 20 minutes later, get an e-mail telling me I can bid for an upgrade on this same flight. The kicker is that none of the text in the e-mail which was supposed to be a link actually worked -- it's purely text. The e-mail also contains a number of typos, including a full sentence that reads only "For the full terms and conditions of AC Bid Upgrade, please ." There is no link to any terms and conditions and the sentence just ends there.

Pretty frustrating to receive this e-mail immediately after trying to use eUpgrades. I get why AC is implementing this -- gotta derive more blood from the stone -- but it just seems pretty crass to send out the e-mail immediately after I submitted my eupgrade request.

Also, I guess this is a data point for anyone wondering how far out they'll send out a bid invite e-mail -- T-10 days here.

Example of AC Bid Upgrade from DCA to YOW
 

As mentioned by others, it appears that the bidding requests are being sent T-10 days. Here is an example of one that I received for a family member travelling from the US back home for the holidays.

It certainly will be interesting to see if a person who bids $1 more on a Tango fare beats out the Flex fare bidder who already gave AC hundreds of dollars extra. If so, it will certainly change the way the game is played.