A343 to/from SYD
 

YVR/SYD will remain as A343 indefinitely instead of the planned 2 months. This will start on JUL01.

You can also take this as a sign that AC027/028 will most likely not be back unless AC033/034 really books up.

It'd be nice if AC wouldn't zero out the inventory on AC 33/34 YVR-HNL as have been trying to book clients there for Jan '04 for the past 6-8 weeks. Talked to rsvn, but as expected they have no idea when any seats will become available for that time.

With daily YVR/HNL flights planned for Jan, it makes sense for AC to close out AC033/034 and save the inventories for SYD customers. SYD pax brings in much more revenue than HNL pax.

I know that makes obvious sense to you and I Empress, but to the infrequent flyers, it doesn't at all. It comes down to the perception that AC doesn't want their business. And while it may be that from here there aren't too many other choices, clients will start taking those other choices and leave AC with nothing. Is that better?

usually a second flight yvr-hnl is added onto the winter schedule and people can book on that one. Usually it is in the computer by the end of August.

That one has been added into the CRS already.

Yeah, pax from YEG would like that second option lots as it would mean overnite in YVR at their expense on inbound. The second outbound flight also leaves YVR too early for pax to connect from YEG. The only decent option that fits is AC 33/34, which are still zeroed out.

Maybe I'll steer them towards AS/NW via SEA.

You should put them on AS/NW via SEA if the sched works. Customs/Immig in YEG will be MUCH better that doing the pick-up bags and wait forever shuffle at YVR. I'm sorry but I don't get it - why zero out the flights to HNL now? If they are empty, do they expect to sell them 100% to SYD??? If they are going to sell some to YVR then at least sell these now. Who knows, maybe you'll get enough sales to warrant an extra flight on some days. Still think they are dumb to axe YYZ-HNL.

The late Dec/Jan period is *very* heavy for SYD-Canada traffic - last year the 744 was put on the route to cater. Being summer down here, HNL holds little appeal, but the snowfields of western Canada do. There is also the long summer school vacation break at the same time.
The SYD route has been turned around by the AC sales team here from a junk high percentage of HNL traffic into a far better yielding through to YVR and beyond route. This only became apparent late last year, and with the recent change of offices in SYD (dumping the bad GSA they had) it can only stabilise or improve further. So much so, if you believe what they say down here, the SYD route is one of the very few producing very good, positive results in the entire network. Quite simply, yes it's possible that the flights will be carrying high 80's load factors on the through flight portion (SYD-YVR) over the period in discussion if last year's trend repeats. While the loss of YYZ was initially a bummer, it's been shown that the easterners just don't travel down here in great numbers and it was a junk HNL traffic route for the most part.
As the Aussie push into exploring Canada beyond the western provinces continues to gain momentum year on year, it should come back when the time is right.

No offence Al B BUT you praise AC in OZ for developing this route so well and I am just a bit curious why they are selling SYD to LHR for about the same price as a YYZ-HNL would sell for in December? I think they are filling many of the seats for peanuts and frankly they could do better selling some for Canada-HNL at HIGH fares this far out - instead, they will open these flights and sell $400 returns YVR-HNL closer to the date of the flights. Something seems wrong. Also, if they get 80% or better loads SYD-YVR then why not just do this non-stop? (unless of course they don't have capable a/c at present).

Altaflyer - there are lots of full fare J/Y passengers on this route. The number of pax flying HNL/SYD is also quite high. The last thing the rev management team wants to do is sell out YVR/HNL while HNL/SYD remains empty meaning people who wants to do YVR-SYD can't. It makes more sense to do it the other way around and sell any remaining YVR/HNL seats at a discounted rate since the demand for HNL flights are always there.

There was a segment on one of the Seattle TV stations yesterday about the horrendous line-ups at SeaTac, so I'm not sure it would be better to go through there than YVR. They're not as prepared to handle cruise traffic as YVR.

No need to clear security at Sea-Tac. Some AS/QX flights already use the S gates. And there's an airside bus between the S satellite and concourse C.

The best way to get from Canada to Sydney [or anywhere] is to avoid the USA entirely. What a bunch of horses rear-ends are US Immigration and security persons.

Well no-one flies Canada-Oz direct so that will not occur any time soon. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The only other 'possible' routing option is via Asia which is so indirect to not even bear commenting on.

And as an aside my average time waiting to clear customs/immigration in YVR is generally DOUBLE or TREBLE either LAX or SFO, so no idea what your comment means exAC.

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~ Glen ~

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