Air Canada Bid Upgrade Program
 

A friend of mine mentioned that she received an e-mail stating she can submit a bid (auction?) for an upgrade to business class. The thing is that the URL in the e-mail that she is instructed to go to is not an Air Canada (according to her) domain URL.

Has anyone else heard about this?

I'm not in a position to check it out properly - only on mobile, so no web inspection tools at my disposal for the moment.

Did the email really originate at AC?

I'd be suspicious as I assume that bidding would require a credit card and other personal details.

I do not know. I am on my phone, she's not the most adept at determining these things and I have not had a chance to look at the smtp headers or the URL in the email.

Same.

I call phishing.

Why would AC cheapen the cabin?

A bid process. Great, since everyone's obviously fed up with R Games, might as well do something worse.

I think your friend is confusing something with the email promo.

It say "up to" but it's not bidding, and you have to call in too.

This makes total sense to me! Not surprised one bit and I believe it.

This year with the changes I've been seeing a ton of space in the J cabins while flying. Why not get people to tell you how much they are willing to pay extra to be up there and then decide if you want to take it or not? Great way for some extra revenue that's at your discretion to take or not.

As ffsim pointed out, R games and all.

I dunno! I won't be in a position to properly check out the e-mail and URL for another 10 hours or so - which I why posted here.

Totally makes sense from AC's perspective. J cabins are empty because people board their eupgrade credits, so this is a way for them to get extra revenue -- possibly more than an LMU -- out of those seats. Just sucks for anyone trying to use eupgrade credits.

I'd love to know what the email actually said. How it works, why the URL isn't AC's, etc. Who knows, maybe Sparse is right and OP's friend is confused.

Wow.

From June 14, 2015

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...-upgrades.html

It wouldn't surprise me if this were true.

The number of airlines which have implemented a "bidding for upgrade" system has exploded over the last two years. Pretty much much all the airlines use the IT platform developed by Plusgrade:

www.plusgrade.com

I had the opportunity to meet the founders during a conference last week and it's probably one of the most significant innovations in generating ancillary revenue in recent years.

Of course this would be bad news for frequent flyers, but let's see whether the news is true....

Depends. If the eUp system remains in place as-is and bidding simply replaces the LMU system, not necessarily bad news.

Unless bidding is not until T-15m and takes away R space.

Then all bets are off.

Surely, messing with R-space is something they'd neve- I'm sorry, I almost made it through that with a straight face.

Buckle up, buckaroos!

I haven't heard of AC implementing a bidding system for upgrades, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do launch such a program.

If bidding is implemented, does status still matter? For example, if an SE bid a J seat for 10 e-ups but a P25K bid for 11 e-ups, does P25K get the seat?

That's not leaving the eUp system as-is though.

If there's going to be bidding for upgrades, it's going to be bidding cash, not eUps.

So the bidding only replace LMU then? If so then it doesn't affect FFers too much IMO.

We don't know yet. It's possible that upgrade bidding would be paired with reductions to the eUp system.

I just said that if they don't change the eUp system, this doesn't affect us.

If they make a bunch of cutbacks to eUps, then yes, this is a big negative.

I expect that AC will adopt a bidding system within the next couple years. I do not know whether the premium that passengers pay for upgradeable fares, plus the add-on fee that some passengers pay when using eupgrades, plus the sale LMUs exceeds the premium that can be extracted from a simple open auction, but I have the suspicion that it might be.


With that reasoning, I also expect eupgrades to be eliminated. If frequent flyers are to be rewarded with anything similar, it is likely to be something along the lines of credits valued in dollars that can only be used towards bids in auctions. Again, just suspicion, but given the frequent changes to the eupgrade program and the number of Opups that I alone have received in the last two years, the eupgrade/LMU system is not presently optimized.

If AC does decide to introduce a bidding system, I guess the big question is going to be "who has priority for upgrades between waitlisted eUps and bids".
Hopefully AC won't destroy the eUp program furthermore with the bidding system.

Nothing novel or new. Simply another revenue opportunity if it's true. Jumping on an LX flight later today (revenue booking) and received at least 4 advance e-mails reminding me of the ability to bid for an upgrade. Bid range was CHF900 to CHF3600.

So, I had a chance to look at the e-mail and check out the website and it seems legit.

Once thing I did find out is that this upgrade bidding is in some sort of beta phase at the moment. That being said, I will not post the URL I have, since the URL and system may change once the bidding system changes from beta to production.

One of the things I noticed was that term "eligible flight" is mentioned. I am not sure what constitutes an eligible Air Canada flight, I guess that is still being determined. Maybe code-share on AC metal are not eligible, AC 014 code-share on other carriers are not (or maybe are) eligible for upgrade bidding(?).


You're pretty much on the money there Jasper2009, the upgrade site is indeed operated by Plusgrade.


I have no idea at this point.

Yes, it is a cash based bidding for the upgrade, credit card information is required when placing a bid.

I would imagine that the first qualifier for "eligible" would be a J cabin. How far in advance of the flight, did your friend receive this offer?

Any Game Theory or collusion strategies to reduce the cost of scoring an upgrade through this bidding system ?

I'm on a LH flight YYZ-FRA in 2 weeks in Premium Economy. I can bid on a business class upgrade for a minimum bid of $520 USD each way. The options are min $520 - max $710 bid. Per flight.

I'm not a frequent flyer by comparison, but I've seen this several times - less here in NA though - just my observation.

That's a pretty tight band.

They should make it $0-$inf with an internal reserve price.

Then we could watch all the sad bottom feeders board the plane sad and angry cause they bid too low.

I wonder if AC can do something similar to the set-up LH has.


LH FT had this thread which started November 18, 2014

Interesting posts re LH bidding process - and there's even an option to change the currency

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...-longhaul.html


Also worth a peek is LH's own site and their Upgrade options

On the main Upgrade options page, you can choose which class, length of flight, and what type of upgrade - Fixed Price, Offer, or Miles

http://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/Upgrade-options


Then, if you want to "Upgrade to Business Class on long-haul flights"

It actually has a chart with the cost range per destination

http://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/Upgra...lass-long-haul


Very interesting.

Based on personal experience and online forum reports, the minimum asking bid is almost always accepted at a certain 5 * middle east airline.

You have me intrigued. If the minimum bid is always accepted, it is essentially an LMU and I assume some seats get no bid. The LH model is a single sealed bid auction. For maximum economic efficiency, I would want a no-minimum, no maximum, all empty J seats are sold arrangement.


Actually, as I type, I realize that the auction might only be 'sealed' vis-à-vis the other bidders. The airline could very well know how hot the bidding is in the 72 hour window and adjust the retail price of the J seats accordingly. Admittedly, I have not read the fine print to find out if a third party 'seals' these bids.

For maximum economic efficiency, confirmed J passengers should also be able to enter a bid to sell their seat at the last minute. :D

Potential Pareto Improvement identified but still not Pareto Efficient :p

Won't happen.

There is an incremental cost of moving you from Y to J (they may have to cater an extra meal, you will likely consume more beverages, etc.), which would set some floor on it, though it would likely be around $50.

However, the bigger issue is that if you know you can always buy Tango and bid $50 and win, you'll stop buying Flex/PY+eUp or J. And this is what would result in a much higher floor.

They could do interesting things like not ranking bid. Who should get the seat? Latitude bidding $500 or Tango bidding $501? Though I'm not convinced they're clever enough to implement this in a sensible manner.

[QUOTE=canadiancow;27464243]Won't happen.

There is an incremental cost of moving you from Y to J (they may have to cater an extra meal, you will likely consume more beverages, etc.), which would set some floor on it, though it would likely be around $50.

QUOTE]



Yes. I think I added too much personal-experience bias to this quick thought as I tend to only fly at peak travel times when Y is oversold and that incremental cost is incurred as a result of op-ups. I know that some of those op-ups are awarded based on status, but I suspect that a few have gone to the lingering no-status GTEs. In either of those cases, the incremental cost is borne by AC, not the passenger, in exchange for the opportunity to oversell Y without actually leaving any confirmed passenger behind. With an auction, the winning bidder pays at least some of that cost.

From the economic efficiency side, I am not thinking that a the R games should be played concurrently with the auction. However, in respect of the fact that some people will pay more to better position themselves for the R games, I would suggest that higher fare classes could come with a fixed amount of non-transferable bid money.I.e., A flex fare comes with $200 bid money, but if the flex buyer does not add $51 cash, he will lose to a Tango bidder's $251 bid. The R games already has a similar risk. I buy a flex fare, but cannot use my eUps because a Tango flyer took an LMU while R=0.

You know a lot for someone with 2078 miles to your name.

I was thinking the same thing.

Well in my case it is mode rather than total.

Do you usually take AC156? Or you prefer the day time flights?

If AC implements a no-floor bidding system for its J cabin, it would remove the incentives (for me at least) to buy Flex/Latitude/PE fares, and I fly more than the average SE. Think about how much money they would lose from people like me.

I am of the opinion that the minimum should be set at a level where the bidder wonders why s/he didn't just buy J in the first place.

I usually take one of the overnight flights.


The unknown demand function here is whether passengers like you and I who are regularly paying a premium to buy Flex or higher so that they can play the R games and maintain status would pay or more less of a premium in accepted bids if they bought tango and really did not want to stay in Y. Would you buy a $500 flex fare over a $250 tango fare if it gave you $250 of bid money (which may or may not be enough)?


But why give any bid money to someone who has to pay flex or higher because nothing else is available when they book? In that case, it is only to encourage them not to use another airline.