JordanYVR

Looks great!

Not surprising that it is a bit quiet on NYE. I took a look at AC3 today and it was 0/30 in J!

Plumber

For anyone wondering how many people per INTL flight are invited to the Signature Suite, I was able to glean some information from a visit there a while ago.

The day I flew, there were 20 AC INTL flights eligible for SS access, with total capacity of 660 seats. I got that capacity number from the AC App for each flight that was listed that day on the Departures screen..... ie how many J cabin seats were showing as available for each flight.

Of those 20 flights, 580 of the 660 J cabin seats were already occupied, again according to the AC App. I was on one of the earlier flights of the day, so only a handful of actual loads were available (the remainder subject to increasing loads as the day went on). Of course, most AC flights will leave with a full (or nearly full) J cabin as upgrades are processed, but those are not eligible for SS access anyways.

On the day I was there, the number that the SS was given in the morning was that a potential 515 visitors could come into the SS. That means that 89% of the already occupied seats in J Cabin were eligible for access- which in turn should mean that 89% of those seats were paid J cabin, as opposed to AP seats, upgraded seats or bid-upgrade seats. I though this was an impressive number for AC.

There were 5 flights that all Passengers currently in the J Cabin had access to the SS. Further, there was an additional 7 flights where the percentage of those with SS access was >90%. In other words, 12 out of 20 of the AC flights that day had eligibility of 90% or more for SS.

The lowest eligibility was for a flight that the App showed left with 20 J-Cabin passengers out of a capacity of 30.....with only 9 of those eligible for SS (45%) ...ie meaning 11 of the 20 were not paid J cabin.

Four flights were showing in the App as already fully booked in J cabin (Ie no upgrades or LMUs available)....But only one flight was already full in J AND had 100% eligibility for SS.

Interesting statistics, albeit a small sample size.

freakfor747

yyznomad

@freakfor747

No, sorry.

You have access to the YYZ International MLL, at least.

Atlantico

I'm booked on AC ZRH-YYZ-HAV, last segment is AC code but operated by Air Canada Rouge, Class is J.
Are AC operated by Air Canada Rouge flights to HAV eligible to enter the lounge?

24left

As @yyznomad wrote:
​​​​​​​

As per the Air Canada website:

*Air Canada Signature Class customers travelling on an Air Canada-operated flight (to Europe, Asia and South America) originally booked and ticketed in the following booking classes will be eligible for access to the Air Canada Signature Suite: J, C, D, Z, P. All bookings in R (including, but not limited to, eUpgrades, Last-Minute Upgrades, AC Bid Upgrades) and I (including, but not limited to, Aeroplan® Fixed Mileage Flight Rewards® for travel on Air Canada flights or Star Alliance® member airlines, Star Alliance Upgrade Awards), as well as bookings made during irregular operations where the customer was not originally booked and confirmed in one of the eligible booking classes, will be excluded. Eligible customers may not invite guests. Access to the Air Canada Signature Suite is not available to customers travelling on promotional tickets or employees.


https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...ure-suite.html

WaytoomuchEurope

canadiancow

Eh I don't know about that.

I think flying UA 8550 on a P fare could be confusing enough to warrant a question, even though it definitely gets you in.

24left

Well, I would say this....

Some people who ask, have not read the wiki or looked at the AC website page. Some did not look at the AC app which shows lounge access per trip per flight - and yes, there are errors as we have seen upthread, but it's a start. Some don't know it's on the app.

I would give credit to those who ask on AC FT - especially if they are not "locals" and are flying AC on another ticket stock or it's not their regular carrier. However, I think AC could do a far better job "communicating".

I showed ACstaff my paper and digital BPs from other airlines, where the lounge invitation is on the front or back. Those airlines have also let me know which lounges I may use.

If pax check in at a counter (e.g. with luggage), then AC has the opportunity to have their staff let the pax know which lounge they can enter for that flight.

OTOH, when pax go straight to security with the own BPs, some may indeed not know which lounge for reasons I wrote above.

On some of my recent visits to the Suite, I have seen a number of people show up with J tickets to sun destinations, J tickets on another *A airline, Y tickets but demand entry because they are "SEs, AC's top tier".

Others are just bullies and rude. I saw one guy get all "cranky" because he tried to get it but did not have the right ticket. He turned and left. Some have been much less pleasant to the concierges at the entry desks.

WaytoomuchEurope

RangerNS

Something can be confusing without being ambiguous.

It is confusing to me why AC treats (once they got entitled) miles/eUps/OpUps differently then paid customers. Marriott treats me as good (if not better!) on points then paying cash; I don't know about other airlines, it seems the UA Polaris rules are quite different then the SSL. Not that they need to be the same, but it doesn't lead to a straight forward and obvious conclusion for the casual, or even experienced, traveler.

canadiancow

For New year's, I considered going the upgrade route. However, I wanted to sit in J. It turns out I would have cleared, but I'm not sure if my companion would have (E75K at the time), and the savings weren't worth the risk.

The SS was nice to have, but the cost difference in tickets would have more than paid for the same food and drinks.

I think it's mostly due to space. Opups would never happen early enough to get into the lounge.

They would also need to adjust bid and LMU prices a bit.

But I'm not convinced they'd have a monetary issue with something like an upgraded SE, if the SS had more space.

MQS007

A 3 mm SEI know was travelling on a full paid J with his partner who is E50 and travelling with him on points in biz and when he asked the Concierge at check in if there were any exceptions to the guest / points policy for the SS he was politely told no. So if he/she does not get it in no one should.

Having said that I have on a couple of occasions enjoyed Laufthans' first class terminal in Frankfort when travelling on Aeroplan points in their first class and was treated exactly the same as a revenue customer, but then again they have more than enough space between all of their lounges and it is my understanding that their equivalents of SE are entitled to use that terminal regardless of fair category

24left

This debate of who "should" be allowed into the Signature Suite has been going on since the start of this thread.

It really doesn't matter if anyone thinks they should get in for whatever reason. It doesn't matter if UA Polaris or LH F lounges let people in on awards tickets in J or F, respectively.

AC made a decision based on their own criteria of which pax would be allowed entry. AC also has a space that is significantly smaller than either the SFO or ORD Polaris, the LH F FRA FCT or FCL, even SQ's The Private Room.

I flew on an Aeroplan ticket and my options were the AC MLL or the PP/AX lounge.

Anyway, it just wasn't pretty watching the nonsense of people whining about not getting in. Human nature being what it is, some who showed up there really were confused, although I'm not sure why. Others clearly intended to try and get in because they thought their qualifications should based on how long the tape measure is.

24left