FlyerTalk Forums

FlyerTalk Forums (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/index.php)
-   Air Canada | Aeroplan (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canada-aeroplan-375/)
-   -   Air Canada Bid Upgrade Program (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canada-aeroplan/1801355-air-canada-bid-upgrade-program.html)

Subu29 Jun 28, 2022 2:48 pm

AC 050 signature class availability
 
Can someone help me to check the upgrade availability to signature class on June 30 on AC 050 using cash bid?

ChrisA330 Jun 28, 2022 2:51 pm


Originally Posted by Subu29 (Post 34378381)
Can someone help me to check the upgrade availability to signature class on June 30 on AC 050 using cash bid?

There is no way to search for upgrade available for Bid Upgrades. That being said - the flight is quite full...there are only 2 Business Class seats, and no PY seats available for sale.

I would be surprised if a Bid Upgrade is successful.

Alkhang Jun 30, 2022 7:23 am

Yyz to ATH full economy but business is not
 
Hello everyone! Sorry I am another newbie and have never posted to any kind of forum ever (hope I’m doing this correctly). Patience is greatly appreciated! I’m flying with my husband and son to ATH July 29 (2022). I purchased economy seats with aeroplan points and can see through seat selection (have not done yet) that there are very few economy seats left. I have put in the minimum bid offer (cash $785 each) for business class upgrade. Should I just pay for my seat selection now with my economy tickets so I can have the 3 of us sit together as my bid request most likely won’t be accepted? Or should I up my chances of business class upgrade with a higher cash bid? My son and I always check that there is a “bag” available when we get seated as we do not fly very well. 🤢 Thank you so much for any responses!

TheViperOne Jun 30, 2022 7:34 am

AC 896 YYZ 7:10p → ATH 11:40a
J7 C7 D6 Z3 P0 R0 O0 E0 A0 N0 Y9 B9 M9 U9 H8 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 F0

Showing J7 right now but you’re still a month away from departure. Plenty of time for people to snatch up those seats. If sitting together in certain part of the plane is important to you I’d lock in seats right now. There’s no guarantee there will be business seats left in a month or that your bid is enough

Alkhang Jun 30, 2022 8:11 am


Originally Posted by TheViperOne (Post 34383614)
AC 896 YYZ 7:10p → ATH 11:40a
J7 C7 D6 Z3 P0 R0 O0 E0 A0 N0 Y9 B9 M9 U9 H8 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 F0

Showing J7 right now but you’re still a month away from departure. Plenty of time for people to snatch up those seats. If sitting together in certain part of the plane is important to you I’d lock in seats right now. There’s no guarantee there will be business seats left in a month or that your bid is enough


ahh I c. I’m not sure what the letters with numbers mean (will need to read more on this site) but thank you for taking the time to check for me and providing guidance!! Really appreciate it. I’ll need to let my husband know as he’s the one pushing to upgrade. My son and I just need a gravol and bag! Thank you!

Alkhang Jun 30, 2022 8:16 am


Originally Posted by TheViperOne (Post 34383614)
AC 896 YYZ 7:10p → ATH 11:40a
J7 C7 D6 Z3 P0 R0 O0 E0 A0 N0 Y9 B9 M9 U9 H8 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 F0

Showing J7 right now but you’re still a month away from departure. Plenty of time for people to snatch up those seats. If sitting together in certain part of the plane is important to you I’d lock in seats right now. There’s no guarantee there will be business seats left in a month or that your bid is enough

Sorry, but does that mean the likelihood of my flight back (ATH to YYZ) August 13 is the same? I should lock in my economy seat selection? Sorry I just realized I hadn’t asked about my return flight. Also when I chose the Upgrade Bid option for returning flight, I had a notice that the minimum bid was discounted. Is that a good or bad indicator that my bid would be accepted? Thank you so much for any feedback!

TheViperOne Jun 30, 2022 8:16 am


Originally Posted by Alkhang (Post 34383695)
ahh I c. I’m not sure what the letters with numbers mean (will need to read more on this site) but thank you for taking the time to check for me and providing guidance!! Really appreciate it. I’ll need to let my husband know as he’s the one pushing to upgrade. My son and I just need a gravol and bag! Thank you!

J7 means as of now there are only 7 seats in business available. As you draw closer to your travel date, these seats obviously can be sold, people can use Eupgrades, etc so the number will likely go down.

Your success on a bid upgrade often depends on how many seats are available right before departure (24hrs ish) so it’s impossible to say this far out if you’ll get upgraded. If it stays at J7 there’s a half decent chance but I doubt it will stay at that. Plus you’re looking to upgrade 3 people not just one.

In short, impossible to say. To be safe I’d bite the bullet on the seat fees to make sure you’re sitting together and just chalk it up as a loss if you get upgraded. You could phone in and ask they refund the seat selection fees but they’re not required to. You may get a nice agent.

TheViperOne Jun 30, 2022 8:20 am


Originally Posted by Alkhang (Post 34383713)
Sorry, but does that mean the likelihood of my flight back (ATH to YYZ) August 13 is the same? I should lock in my economy seat selection? Sorry I just realized I hadn’t asked about my return flight. Also when I chose the Upgrade Bid option for returning flight, I had a notice that the minimum bid was discounted. Is that a good or bad indicator that my bid would be accepted? Thank you so much for any feedback!

AC 897 ATH 12:45p → YYZ 4:30p
J9 C9 D9 Z7 P0 R0 O3 E0 A0 N0 Y9 B0 M0 U0 H0 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 F0


Looks like more business seats available as of now on your return flight but as I said before bids aren’t accepted or rejected until 24 hours before flight. So you won’t know until last minute if they’re accepted or not.

Impossible to say if your min bid is enough. General rule of thumb on this sub for transatlantic flights is typically $100/hr of flight typically is worth it. If I remember correctly from my flights to athens it’s around a 10 hour flight. I went from Montreal so maybe a little longer for you out of YYZ.

drmoon Jul 3, 2022 6:11 pm

Newbie here and I need help! I've for the first time made a bid for upgrade to premium economy on AC 862 YVR - LHR. I did check the seats on Expert Flyer and there are maybe 3-4 seats available. my bid was $600/passenger (there's 3 of us). what are the chances it'll go through? and should I purchase the few remaining exit row seats just in case? thnxx

ChrisA330 Jul 3, 2022 7:32 pm


Originally Posted by drmoon (Post 34393796)
Newbie here and I need help! I've for the first time made a bid for upgrade to premium economy on AC 862 YVR - LHR. I did check the seats on Expert Flyer and there are maybe 3-4 seats available. my bid was $600/passenger (there's 3 of us). what are the chances it'll go through? and should I purchase the few remaining exit row seats just in case? thnxx

Theres no way to know. Maybe others have bid $800, or perhaps others only bid $400, or maybe the remaining PY seats get booked. If you want to be guaranteed the seat, up fare rather then bid.

mikeycg Jul 4, 2022 4:06 pm

Hi,
I am new to the site and have been trying to learn the codes and how things work with AC.

I am on flight 848 on July 10 and found this info from expert flyer:
Business - E-Upgrades R 0
Business - NA - Upgrade from O/Y/B Z 6
Business - Partner Awards & Upgrades I No
Coach - Partner Award X No
848
YYC 07/10/22 5:40 PM
FRA 07/11/22 10:55 AM
789
Daily 84% / 63m

Can someone please help me understand the upgrade info? I am wondering what the chances are with a bid upgrade at this point, but don't know how to interpret the numbers.

Thanks!

Adam Smith Jul 5, 2022 7:46 am


Originally Posted by mikeycg (Post 34396522)
I am new to the site

Welcome :)


Can someone please help me understand the upgrade info? I am wondering what the chances are with a bid upgrade at this point, but don't know how to interpret the numbers.
None of the info in EF's upgrades section is really relevant to whether a bid upgrade will be successful. AC accepts (or doesn't) bid upgrades at T-48 hours before the flight (usually, although I think a few have reported occasional discrepancies). Their willingness to accept upgrades at that point depends on how many seats they've sold in the cabin by then. What EF is showing you there is what's currently available in the R fare bucket (for eUpgrades), the I fare bucket (partner reward tickets) and the Z fare bucket (which no longer has anything to do with upgrades - and never had anything to do with upgrades on a TATL flight - and should be removed from their site). Knowing that there are 6 seats for sale in Z is better than knowing there are 0 seats in Z, but there could be 6 unsold seats in the cabin or 30.

If you were to check the regular availability and see the whole spread of what AC is selling on that flight (currently J6 C6 D6 Z6 P0 R0), it might give you a slightly better idea, but it's still of limited predictive value, even only 5 days out. J6 is better than J0, obviously, but J9 would be better. Of course, even if it were J9, the true availability could be 9 or it could be 30.

Ultimately, there's going to be some correlation between J space and your odds of winning the bid upgrade, but your result is dependent on how many seats AC sells between now and clearing bid ups, how many seats it thinks it can sell after T-48 (they don't clear bid ups in to every available seat), how many people are waitlisted for eUps that AC might want to upgrade ahead of bid ups, how many people have bid more than you on the eUp, and a few other factors. So the correlation is going to be somewhat weak.

mikeycg Jul 5, 2022 9:13 am

thanks so much!


Originally Posted by Adam Smith (Post 34398230)
Welcome :)



None of the info in EF's upgrades section is really relevant to whether a bid upgrade will be successful. AC accepts (or doesn't) bid upgrades at T-48 hours before the flight (usually, although I think a few have reported occasional discrepancies). Their willingness to accept upgrades at that point depends on how many seats they've sold in the cabin by then. What EF is showing you there is what's currently available in the R fare bucket (for eUpgrades), the I fare bucket (partner reward tickets) and the Z fare bucket (which no longer has anything to do with upgrades - and never had anything to do with upgrades on a TATL flight - and should be removed from their site). Knowing that there are 6 seats for sale in Z is better than knowing there are 0 seats in Z, but there could be 6 unsold seats in the cabin or 30.

If you were to check the regular availability and see the whole spread of what AC is selling on that flight (currently J6 C6 D6 Z6 P0 R0), it might give you a slightly better idea, but it's still of limited predictive value, even only 5 days out. J6 is better than J0, obviously, but J9 would be better. Of course, even if it were J9, the true availability could be 9 or it could be 30.

Ultimately, there's going to be some correlation between J space and your odds of winning the bid upgrade, but your result is dependent on how many seats AC sells between now and clearing bid ups, how many seats it thinks it can sell after T-48 (they don't clear bid ups in to every available seat), how many people are waitlisted for eUps that AC might want to upgrade ahead of bid ups, how many people have bid more than you on the eUp, and a few other factors. So the correlation is going to be somewhat weak.


sokolov Jul 5, 2022 3:27 pm

During my most recent online check-in, Air Canada offered me to pay for upgrades for each sector. Two sectors to business, one to Economy+. (No bidding, straight purchase.)

Would such an upgrade to Business during checkin also include the increased checked luggage allowance that usually comes with business class?

I know from A3 that upgrading a single sector in a multi sector itinerary provides for more checked luggage allowance for the entire trip. Is that how AC handles it as well?

Is this form of buying an upgrade different from successfully bidding for an upgrade as it pertains to checked baggage allowance?
TNX

Sean Douglas Jul 14, 2022 8:48 am

e-upgrade and bid upgrade at same time?
 
I'm waitlisted for a flight YVR-YUL and am waitlisted for business class, T-7 days, R=0, J=8.

I noticed that it looks like I can also do a bid upgrade as well, with an instant option.

Is there any advantage to do the bid upgrade, while still waitlisted with the e-up request and cancel the big upgrade if unsuccessful?


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 2:30 am.


This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.