aquanine

Speaking of 15-hr transpacific routes...

At T-40, bid upgrade accepted AC7 YVR-HKG 820 CAD (range was 800-1700 CAD) from PY Award (58k miles + $7) lowest to Signature Class (J). Pretty much a guarantee because Hong Kong requires 7 days quarantine hotel and those are bloody impossible to book, so the only people booking YVR-HKG last minute are those that are connecting somewhere. I had seen 12 open seats in J beforehand (and at least J9 C9 D8 Z7 by fare bucket thread). Took 1K on the 787-9. 15h40m flight, so ~$60CAD/hr.

Honestly I was tempted for a Last Minute purchase upgrade to save a few hundred, but for such a long flight I'd feel like an idiot if I didn't get offered it at check-in. Ironically now my PY Award has no PY in it, only mixed Y (SFO-YVR, selected a preferred seat for free?) and J.

commaspace

That's a robbery. I'm salty bc their transcon NA flights pricing is terrible. Wish more of these airlines J are pod-config instead of the typical NA domestic "first-class" config.

RatherBeFlying

I have made repeated efforts (trying different UK credit cards) to buy an "Instant Upgrade" for my upcoming flight from LHR to YVR - but in all cases the payment is declined. My card issuers say that this is due to the website's failure to implement the correct 3D Secure protocols and there is nothing they will do to allow me to complete payment. Since the Instant Upgrade from plusgrade is only available online I cannot get any help with the transaction from the call centre. Can anyone suggest a solution - or am I doomed to travel in economy?

vancouver25k

Can you buy a gift card then use that to upgrade?

commaspace

I don't think it accept anything but a credit card, not even AC's own travel voucher.

iYassin

Hi everyone!

I'm new to FT so please forgive any rookie mistakes

I'm travelling FRA-BOS on AC on August 6th, 2022 (AC845 FRA-YUL, AC750 YUL-BOS). My employer booked it so I could only get Economy class, but I would like to upgrade to Premium Economy or Business now. So from what I'm seeing, for AC845, bids are between 680€ and 1300€ for Business or between 230€ and 570€ for Premium Eco. Instant Upgrade to Business is 1225€ but I don't want to spend that much. For AC750, bids are 135€ to 355€ for Business, although if possible I'd actually rather not upgrade that leg, doesn't seem worth it for me.
So for FRA-YUL, EF shows 12 free seats in Business (although all with a handicapped symbol) and 4 free in Premium Eco. I'd be happy spending 400€ for Premium Eco, which would get me in the "even better" range, or 700€ for Business, which has no indicator.

I wanted to ask what you would recommend - go with a rather high bid for Premium Eco, or nearly the lowest possible for Business since half the seats are still unoccupied?
Or would you rather wait for a last minute upgrade during check-in, or even at the airport? Is it possible to say what the price range on these usually is?
And is it actually possible to only upgrade FRA-YUL, but not YUL-BOS? Or does that reduce my chance of a successful bid, or is even not possible at all?

Thanks a lot in advance, I'd appreciate your help a lot!

TechnoTourist

Since you have Expert Flyer, do an availability search and look for the number of available seats in J (for business) and O (for PY) instead of looking at the seat map. Seat maps are not an accurate representation of availability as not everyone will select a seat when booking.

No issue doing each leg separately, I would not pay to upgrade YUL-BOS, especially if I could just pay for a preferred seat.

iYassin

Thanks a lot for your reply then I won't bother for YUL-BOS, I got myself a preferred seat now on the AC website.

Thanks for the hint with seat maps! So for FRA-YUL, Expert Flyer shows the following: J5 C4 D2 Z2 P0 R0 O0 E0 A0 N0 Y0 B0 M0 U0 H0 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0
From that I understand there's 13 seats left in Business, from that there are 5 in J (is that what they use for upgrades?), and nothing in PY at all? So no point in bidding for PY, but only for J?

Would you then bid something for Business or try your luck with the last minute upgrade?

commaspace

J is full fare business. R is the allocation for e-upgrade. The other ones are discounted business.

General rule $100/hr for business seat is considered to be worth it. If you decide PY, I would pick the right side (H,K) and not the left. AC for some reason let Y use PY lavatory so there'll be a queue of riffs raffs from Y using the toilet on the left. The one on the right side is curtained off. But it looks like full-house in PY already. You can check seatmap on ExpertFlyer and see if most seat are occupied.

If you are keen to fly J, I would pay the fare different/ instant upgrade for FRA-YUL, an 8 hr flight, and secure a pod. YUL-BOS isn't worth it's only an hour flight. Bid upgrade is a lottery process, there is no guaranteed. If you are keen to roll the dice, I would still pay for a preferred seat in Y first so at least I have a decent Y seat (row 18 on the dreamliner) if upgrade request isn't accepted.

iYassin

Thanks for the explanation! According to the seat plan there's still 4 seats free in PY, but @TechnoTourist mentioned people might not have selected a seat yet. So I guess PY is full? Too bad

Unfortunately row 18 is already full, too €1200 for the instant upgrade is really too much though, I guess then I'll take my chance in the bid upgrade and bid €700 or so. Or would anyone advise waiting for LMU?

commaspace

Can probably bid and hope it go through. If unsuccessful, inquire about LMU at check-in.

frmerbrit

I have successfully bid on an upgrade on an AC flight before. I had actually called AMEX to tell them that within the next 48 hrs a charge might be coming through, and gave the amount.... and the charge was declined by Amex because it came through under a name other than Air Canada. It may well be that they use a third party domain but of course proceed with caution! I wish I could remember what name it was as I have another bid in on a flight in September and would love to avoid this happening again!

canadiancow

Plusgrade

iYassin

Same just happened to me. Will try my luck with the LMU now...

navigator4309

Offering another data point: I'm new to Air Canada long-haul in/out of Australia but booked a trip that includes SYD-YVR-SYD later this month as the fare in PY was less than what Qantas wanted in Y.

I'd then bid on an upgrade to J for $1,500 CAD, which I later found on this thread matches up quite nicely to the $100/hour benchmark.

Today I noticed an instant upgrade available for $1,700 CAD for the SYD-YVR and figured I'd just do it. The original bid may have been successful in the end, but worth it to me to pay just a touch more for the peace of mind to know I have it and look forward to over the next week, as well as grab one of the last window seats.

As an aside, I see what a few of you mean about the less impressive pricing on domestic and trans-border flights: for my next sector, YVR-DEN on a 737, they wanted $500 CAD for the instant upgrade. I'll stick to my exit row. 😉

Will report back on the return YVR-SYD sector in a few weeks.