The advantage of doing a bid upgrade is you might confirm your upgrade in advance. You haven't mentioned your status, but if it goes down to the gate, if you're, say, a 25K on a Flex fare, your odds of clearing the eUp to J probably aren't good. If you're SEMM in PY, the chances would be much better.

If you're successful with the bid upgrade at T-48, you'll be confirmed in J and not hoping to win AeroLotto. But you will have paid cash for the upgrade as opposed to eUps.

No need to cancel your bid upgrade, if you place one and it's not successful. The bid upgrades run at (roughly) T-48, and you'll either be successful or not. Bid upgrades don't go on the waitlist, they either happen or they don't.

OK, that makes sense, for the record, I'm 35K on a Comfort Y fare, so my odds don't sound that great.

Thanks for your help!

Sorry, another question.

I'm currently on a Comfort fare. If I get a successful e-up to PY, and I also place a bid for business and am successful, will the e-credits be returned that I used for PY? I'm 35K is that matters.

I was holding a e-up request and bid upgrade at the same time.

I noticed that when my e-up to PY was cleared that AC automatically cancelled my bid upgrade to Business. Does this mean you can't hold both at the same time?

I went back to the bid upgrade and made another bid, its T-40 now and no notification yet. I thought that notification was given at T-48?

The fact you were holding both at the same time belies that question.

What it suggests is that if you clear an eUp into any cabin, your bid up will be cancelled.

Please read some of the recent posts in this thread for other similar experiences.

Hi,

I am new to Flyer Talk / AC so please bare with me.

Hoping someone might be able to help me with my question.

I put in an upgrade bid a few weeks ago for
DUB - YYZ
Aug 04
AC801

At the time I put in a bid for £505 (CAD $775) which was in the 'Even Better' section on the scale. I went today to check (10 days before my flight) to see if I could do instant upgrade and it wasn't available, but on my sisters booking reference it was available for £905 (CAD$ 1405) for instant upgrade.
Does this mean that my chances with my original bid are slim, even though it was in the 'Even Better' section?

Many Thanks

The reality is, no one except for those inside AC know. This is basically a blind auction, and how AC manages this program and determines who gets an instant upgrade and who doesn't, isn't published anywhere. So any answers would be speculation.

The fact that the site said your bid was 'Even Better' should be taken with a grain of salt. It's highly unlikely that it's taking the # of people who have bid for an upgrade (and the respective amounts) into consideration. There could be 20 people that bid double what you did, or there could be no one else...it's anybody's guess.

Thanks, I'll keep my fingers cross but won't hold my breath then!

AC Bid Upgrade and Blocked Seats?
 

Hey [MENTION=10103317]Maanz84[/MENTION]! I'm in a similar situation. Flight YUL-ATH on Wednesday and flight currently shows:
J4 C4 D4 Z0 P0 R0 O2 E0 A0 N0 Y9 B9 M9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T5 L0 K0 F0

I understand this means there are 4 business class seats available. However, when I go into the seat maps, there are 6 seats marked as "blocked" in business class and none of them are available. Does this mean I have 0 chance at winning the bid upgrade? I bid for 2 people and really hoping to win it to surprise my spouse.

When I look at the facts of your scenario, it showed J4 (4 business class tickets available) but you mentioned there were 11 blocked seats and you still got the upgrade. Please confirm.

Also... when I first put in my bid, I had the option of an "instant upgrade". For some reason, this option is no longer available - is this a sign it is already full? I want to have the time to put a bid in Premium Economy if I have no chance at business class..

Adam Smith I'm taking the flight from YUL - ATH on Wednesday and the flight shows J4. However, the seat maps shows all blocked seats in business class, does this mean I have 0 chance at winning my bid? I'm asking as I would put in a bid for premium economy instead which still has 2 seats. I'm hoping to upgrade both myself and my spouse.

Also, if the instant upgrade option is no longer available, does this necessarily mean business class if full? I'm basically bidding the price of the instant upgrade and trying to maximize my chances here, as I don't even see an option to just pay and switch my flight to business (which I would have done at this point to guarantee the spots).

Any advice you may have is greatly appreciated!!

See post #1297 above.

It's down to J2 now. If you want to fly in Business, assuming you booked with Air Canada, you can call and ask to upfare your ticket to business. It's the only way to guarantee business.

UPDATE: my offer got accepted T-55 hours from flight departure time. I guess this means that blocked seats in EF are still available for AC bid upgrades!

The bid upgrade quality meter (good, bad , etc.) isn't based on current bids. It's based on historical data of that route with different mixes of metals and who knows how often the data is refreshed.

If you want to fly J you should buy J because who knows what kind of J seat is left. Always buy outright to guarantee a seat and a decent seat.

Frankly though, AC's pricing is a joke. They're charging the same amount for a 5 hours lie flat J YYZ-YVR that some airlines charge for 15-hr transpacific routes.

eh right now with the crazy summer travel picking up maybe --- but AC's J pricing has been really good this whole year. Lots of crazy sales, sometimes only $100 or $200 more than Flex Y. Bid upgrades have been on sale and it's around $120-$500 for all Canadian flights on the lowish end. That's not too bad. The lowest I've ever seen bid upgrades for 1 hour flights in Canada was $100, and that was almost 10 years ago. so pricing hasn't dramatically increased. I've seen as low as $350 for transcon lie flat J and LMUs can be even cheaper. There's a reason I haven't been booking flex Y much as J is only a few bucks more, and it's going to help me hit SE for the first time in my life

I've seen YVR-YYZ go for $950 R/T in paid J this year. same with YYC-YYZ. Thats an insane deal as I paid over $1k to fly from PHX-YYZ one way in Y recently. I also Doubt you can fly 15 hours transpac J for anything under $2500 ex Canada/US nowadays...

I fly a lot of UA nowadays and lie flat domestic "F" flights are crazy expensive out here. I paid $600 USD one way for mid con, non premium service ORD-LAX recently. My upcoming EWR-LAX wants $1100 to upgrade from Y one way lol