taupo

How do you “try” to operational upgrade?

canadiancow

Staff will get opups before revenue pax.

Then it's done by cabin, status, fare.

So if you're sure there are no staff flying non-J, and you have high status in PY, then... sure I guess?

But why? Are you short of eUps?

liligood

Yes, I don’t want to burn all eup as there may still be a few trips before the end of the year

Staff is prioritized, I don’t know about this. Is the staff you are referring here those who are on both standby list and upgrade list? I thought they would upgrade people first before taking those who are on standby.

*edit: I think their will be fairly limited eupgrade pax as, for most, the route requires an add-on fee.

canadiancow

Staff who are on the J list will obviously be processed as normal.

Staff who are only eligible for Y will receive an op-up before a revenue pax does. That could be someone who is only on the Y list, or it could be someone who's flying for work and only eligible for Y (if there even is anyone not eligible for J on work travel).

liligood

Thank you very much! I’ll make my own judgement.

yvr76

Unless something has changed AC is happy to let J go out with empty seats if they've processed all e-upgrades (op-ups for weight/balance, Y being oversold not withstanding). Not sure if "trying to op-up" is a winning strategy, especially if you're going for an International route.

billdokes

Yes, that seems to be true. I've advocated before that AC should OPUP based on status PAX in Y before leaving with empty J seats but I was shouted down quite loudly by other members of this forum. I still think it would be a nice 'surprise and delight' thing for AC to do as it would happen quite infrequently based on the e-UP lists I see every flight, but I'm pretty sure, even if you ask, and they have empty J seats you will be asked to take your originally assigned seat.

Changeup2000

Unless AC does it automatically on their system, I would not trust the gate agent to be able to consistently process any comp OP.

C-FMWQ

This is correct. There are 100% people not "eligible" for J on work travel in the AC network. "Eligible" is a bit of a weird term here as it isn't a strict eligibility but more, "you don't get a seat in J until that's the last option to get you where you need to go".

RZR

I know 2 people who were on the same flight, cheap y fares to lisbon and were upgraded. no status .
Just lucky.

certainly must have been other clients more deserving .. with anytype of status or certainly higher fare

warrens

Last flight I was on, the eUpgrade list was completely empty and there were still a couple of lie-flats left right up in row 1. An older Indian couple was brought in from the back. They didn't speak much English but clearly they were in total shock.... pretty sure they had ever been in Signature before. Call me an old sap but that was the absolute highlight of the flight for me.

But at the same time, yeah, how were they chosen? The doors were already closed so it couldn't have been a gate LMU or whatever.

liligood

I am not sure I understand the logic behind. Does this mean eupgrade > op-up (weight/oversold reason, for higher status, higher fare class) > standby staff, ie, who appear on both standby list and upgrade list? Because they attempt to minimize # of revenue pax who doesn’t get a seat?

canadiancow

No. Barring a situation where PY is oversold than more than the PY->J regrade-eligible pax (I've never seen this happen on AC), it means:

1. The list is processed
2. If a lower cabin is still overbooked, that cabin is upgraded based on:
a. Staff (actually as I write this I'm not 100% sure, especially in relation to "cabin" - it's possible "staff" just becomes the "highest status" for op ups, so rev in PY would get J before staff in Y - but I'm not sure)
b. Cabin
c. Status
d. Fare

That's if PDM does it.

If more needs to happen later (i.e. Y is overbooked by 1 but J has a no-show), after PDM runs, it's done manually by the GA, and they are probably going to do whatever's most expedient. As an example, when I was trying to volunteer on YYZ-SFO once, I was booked in J. There were two seats (mine in J and a "no show" in Y) that had not boarded, and no one else was at the gate, but they were waiting for the "no show" and their companion. When those two showed up, I got my VDB compensation, and one of those no-status Y pax got my J seat.

flyingcrooked

I have to say, I’d love it if AC had a policy to fill empty J seats with the oldest passengers in Y. That would be cool imo.

liligood

Hey canadiancow, thanks for this detailed explanation, this clears up a lot of questions in my mind!