dpakman91

I found some great economy fares from BOS to NRT via both YUL and YYZ next June. I checked expertflyer and basically all show R, P, and Z upgrades.

Now my question: How do these upgrades work on Air Canada? Can I, like with AA, buy an economy ticket, call to verify upgrade availability, and then pay X dollars or X dollar + Y miles to secure those upgrades to business?

Adam Smith

Not sure you understand the system here. Z and P are not upgrades, they're revenue fare buckets. R is the bucket for eUpgrades (awarded to those with status in AC's FFP).

Most fares require R space to upgrade, but R space is not a sufficient condition for an upgrade - eUpgrades have restrictions on when an upgrade can be requested

Not sure you understand the system here. Z and P are not upgrades, they're revenue fare buckets. R is the bucket for eUpgrades (awarded to those with status in AC's FFP).

Most fares require R space to upgrade, but R space is not a sufficient condition for an upgrade - eUpgrades have restrictions on when an upgrade can be requested (i.e. not before a certain amount of time before a flight).

Latitude fares (fully flexible economy) can upgrade if R=0 but P>0 for international fares or Z>0 for domestic/trans-border.

In any case, this is likely moot as you need to have elite status with AC Altitude to have any eUpgrades (or you have to have a friend with SE status who will nominate you).

If you have no status with AC, your options to sit in business are:

• Buy a business class fare (revenue or with points from a *A FFP)
• Buy a Latitude (Y/B fare classes) ticket and use Star Alliance Upgrade Award - this requires availability of space in the I booking class and for you to have the miles from a *A FFP
• Bid on an upgrade (there's a whole thread on it here), with successful bids decided a couple of days before the flight
• Purchase a last-minute upgrade ("LMU") at check-in

​​​​​​The latter two options are dependent on space being available at that time.

vernonc

Adam summarized it well.
If the fares are so cheap, your options are :
1) Call and pay the fare diff to P fare.
2) Bid on an upgrade
3) LMU at T-24 when you checkin.
Option 3 is likely to be the cheapest but not guaranteed that there will be space.
Option 1 is guaranteed and immediate.
Option 2 assumes there is space which appears so in this case and that your bid is successful but you can increase your bid.

Adam Smith

Technically an option, but it sounds like OP has not yet purchased the ticket, in which case this is just a waste of time vs just purchasing a P fare online.

dpakman91

thanks so much, I am indeed new to AC and expertflyer. Appreciate these clarifications!

So that I understand, latitude fair is a flexible/full economy ticket, which is a requirement in order to be able to do a *A upgrade? What is necessary in order to get a *A upgrade?

24left

Here is the Star Alliance Upgrade Awards page

http://www.staralliance.com/en/upgrade-awards

Which, when you select Aeroplan for example takes you to this page

https://www.aeroplan.com/saua/Upgrade.do

Adam Smith

The links 24L provided are useful.

In addition, you should know that SAUAs require space in I booking class. On EF, you have to search from that separately from searching for revenue bookings. It's under the award search.

Keep in mind that the Y/B fares you need to use a SAUA (which AC sells as "Latitude") are much more expensive than the cheapest economy fares. It's frequently possible to buy a business class fare for cheaper than a Latitude fare, especially if space is available in P.

Also, even if there is I space and a Y/B fare is cheaper than buying a business class ticket, consider whether you might be better off to just redeem frequent flyer miles for the ticket.

For example, would you rather spend $2500 for a Latitude fare PLUS 50K miles to upgrade or just use 150K miles for a business class reward?