YBYL (You Board You Lose) on AC?
 

"YBYL" is an acronym often mentioned on the DL or AA forum (I can't recall which - maybe both).

Basically, it means if you're waiting for an upgrade, you need to wait at the gate. If you board the plane, and someone in a higher cabin no-shows, the seat is going to someone who hasn't boarded yet (or it stays empty).

On United, my experience has been that it's very common for the GA to come on board and hand out upgrades to people already seated in Y.

On AC, I suspect the answer to this is going to be "it depends how the GA feels", but I'm hoping we can get some anecdotes.

What does AC do?

Here's my most recent experience:

I was paid J YYZ-SFO, and the flight was overbooked. I VDB'd, but they couldn't pay me until they actually had more people at the gate than seats on the plane. Which meant by the time they offloaded me, there were 3 people at the gate who wanted to fly.

One of them got my J seat, even though there were ~20 people on the onload list, waiting for a seat in J. This person was a Tango GTE. I'd bet a round of beers that number 1 on the list was a Super Elite, and (s)he sat in Y.

The moral of my story is that if you want J, board last. But what has everyone else experienced?

Flying YVR-YYZ earlier this year, I was #1 on the list when I boarded (and they announced J was full). The gate agent later came on and upgraded me when there was a no-show.

this weekend, I followed the YBYL principle and at least one in our group waited to board until we knew J was full. OP was with us, so my reply is just to share this with other FTers.

The gate agents made this quite difficult. a polite "did J board full?" was met by stern replies of "we can't tell you that for privacy reasons".

Instead we had to gather that intel from others in our group who kept an eye on J seat occupancy.

"Privacy" my bass. More made up BS!
Which airport was this at?

Maybe this is a case of “I work for this airline and there’s this screen which has so many hidden nuances. Today I’m working for AC and tomorrow, well, I hope Betty who usually does UA shows up sick again. I could use those hours. Now, what’s going on with this manifest? And, where’s my coffee? OK, back to work. So, this guy is asking me about an upgrade on another flight that didn’t go through but he tried and then stopped and then started again? Gawd. Ok. Ummm. I’ll telll him ‘Privacy Reasons’”.

Sitting in glorious seat 12a on a CRJ, I had a flight attendant come back and hand me a 2a boarding pass. I'm sure some FOTSG got 12a.

So, the number of occupied seats in J in confidential, huh? Does that mean I should be closing my eyes when I walk in the J cabin to reach my Y seat? Otherwise I will somehow be breaching the privacy of.... who? AC? The J passengers? The GA who poorly did his/her job? Maybe AC should also start hiding seat maps from its website and app for confidentiality reasons and only display the available seats, not the taken ones. There you go! Problem solved!

Im sure you can remember the story of two FOTSG on an AE YULYYZ ticket standing by for an earlier flight and getting 2 J seats due to no show at the last second (flight was 100% full before T-15).

So I wouldn't be surprised if it's similar with AC re: YBYL, even more so with super full/busy/rushed flights.

I think AC should try to honour status on opups even if boarded. But on flights like rapidairs and quick commuters, I can definitely see an argument for not starting to play musical chair and all the issues that can stem from it at T-15m when you have a million other gates to handle.

I would definitely expect it on NRTYUL. But I wouldn't care enough about YULYYZ. I'd be disappointed, but I would rather push out on time.

Really? Really? *eye roll emoji*. As someone who helps implement privacy procedures, policies, etc for companies it really gets under my skin when people throw this around.

1) No, it has nothing to do with privacy and it is not sensitive information.

2) When you throw around the term "can't do this because of privacy" on things where it doesn't actually apply it reduces the credibility for when you ACTUALLY can't do something because of privacy.

This is one of my Pet Peev's, along with people saying they need admin access.

To answer the OP: My experience is from years ago because for the last few years I've always been in J when arriving at the airport. But from my experience years ago they would always come onboard and move me up if there was a no show.

At a little tiny outstation this past Sunday. YUL. I was with several other SE's for EYW, and was #1 on the J standby / upgrade list for a rapidair flight to YYZ.

Same gate agent cleared a married SE100k couple into split cabins without mentioning it. Spouse only saw the bad news as they walked on the plane. I'd like to THINK I'd have caught this before boarding so that we could decide to wait for our original J rapidair flight... but in the rush of boarding, changing gates, and standing by, I could see myself doing the same thing. it'd be great if the GA shared that little detail.

Contrast that to a YYZ agent months ago who looked mortified and was embarassed to tell me that the system could only clear one of my family into J and the others plus a few friends into PY.

I've been told by a GA that YBYL is the rule for any still-pending eUpgrade requests.

OTOH, I can think of at least two times in other situations that a GA has come on board to move me from Y to J. One was HKG-YYZ; the reason was unclear (overbooked in Y?). The other was on an E75 (BOS-YYZ, IIRC) when I was in 12C, and that seat was needed for a disabled passenger (broken leg or something) who was having a hard time getting into a regular Y seat.

I like the use of YBYL. I will start using this here at every turn where applicable. I don't frequent much of the other airline forums except for LH/M&M.

Only received one upgrade after boarding. I knew it was a possibility ahead of time for W&B as it was an E75 with 2 pax booked in J, and a full load in the back. Thankfully instead of moving FOTSG in 26F or wherever to J, they moved several status pax including myself who were in preferred seats to J, and moved the people in the back to our seats. Thats the way these situations should always be handled. What I don't understand is why the didn't see and resolve situation before boarding.

If it was truly for W&B, then your situation is rare since according to several past reports here on this forum (yes, N of low, but whatever). From the reports here, the "upgrades" to J have been non-status based.

I still like the You Board You Lose term.

I have never been upgraded after boarding on AC. I should note that I almost always fly with confirmed upgrades - usually the only time I'm on the waitlist is the YOW-YYZ segment. So if YBYL is in effect on Rapidair flights, that could be the reason.