Just tried some sample booking over the net to some European cities FOR THIS SUMMER AND I ACTUALLY GOT SOME DATES. What's going on here ?? Empress please explain in layman's terms.

We can perhaps understand your amazement, but could you at least explain a bit more. Like were these award bookings? When in the summer were they for? What class of service? What destinations in Europe? From where in Canada?

computer screwup AC will correct on Monday and no free seats will be available.

Ahem, they are not free anymore - at least not as of July 1. They are reward seats.

Sorry I should have explanied it better. I tried booking using my points 2 reward seats one month from now to Rome, Londen and Madrid from YYZ. The only one that wasn't working right was Cophengen. I got decent dates for 3 of the 4 cities. Is This avability due to fact people are NOT flying ?, AC is opening up more seats ?, or just that their web system is working not properly ??

Or maybe you have a horseshoe up your... No one has taken those seats probably -- so you should probably grab them while you can!

There seems to be quite a lot of availibility right now. YVR-SYD is essentially wide open (at least in W) for most of July.

Of course flights are wide open to SYD in July. It's the middle of bloody winter down here then. Temperatures can dip below 20deg C !!!!!

MCM.

I do hope you guys will be able to tough it out - I know its hard

In fairness to AC, if the flights are wide open this is different from years past when availability was non-existent year round.

And August is wide open going back. For some reason the usual flood of northern hemisphere customers heading south in July and then back in August isn't happening this year. Then again, the A340 was only put on the route at relatively late notice (yet again), so that would have helped with the seat situation. Anyone that had tried earlier to get seats and couldn't already booked to go elsewhere.
Could also be one reason why the fabulous fare from SYD-LHR is being offered over Jul and Aug.

No AC messed this destination up, remeber when they flew to YYZ Melbourne and YYZ to HNL.. Oh at christmas I bought tickets for $999. Now AC does not fly YYZ to HNL so expect flights to Sydney to be wide open soon and expect them to cancel service within the year Sometimes AC is brain dead. Like anyone from the east wants to go via YYZ YVR then HNL then SYD???
Guess they just gave up all those customers.

Having given this a bit of thought perhaps this is the problem:

- I agree with whyfly that axing the YYZ-HNL sector must leave more seats open from HNL-SYD than was the case before as YVR origin pax are split between HNL and SYD.

- AC is probably being slaughtered on the YVR-HNL flights by Aloha and other competitors.

- this combination would leave more open seats all the way from YVR-SYD.

- even if there is *A connecting traffic at HNL to feed into SYD this will be marginal and would have been there anyways when a 763 used to arrive from YYZ to feed into SYD service.

- AC has surely lost all high revenue Business travel from YYZ to AA/QF as the latter requires but a single stopping point, that being LAX (or even UA with only the transcon operated by AC).

- it would appear to verge on insanity for AC to offer those el cheapo fares ex-OZ to LHR tying up seats on a trans-pacific and a trans-atlantic sector and doling out countless frequent flyer miles in the process.

- I fear AC has indeed screwed up both the Hawaii and the Pacific markets, both of which CP managed quite well with its own services to HNL and QF codeshare to SYD ex. HNL.

I expect AC to code share with UA from LAX for YYZ passengers. Although this might be a codeshare already with NZ.
Unless AC plan was to do YVR-SYD nonstop with the new A340 500 but I doubt it. I think those planes were going to do YYZ-HKG.