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Considering UA award 12.5 K points redemption ORD-PHX-YVR, question on AC CR900?

Considering UA award 12.5 K points redemption ORD-PHX-YVR, question on AC CR900?

Old Sep 1, 2019, 8:17 pm
  #1  
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Considering UA award 12.5 K points redemption ORD-PHX-YVR, question on AC CR900?

I am considering the points redemption to fly into Vancouver the day before a cruise to Alaska next Summer. The flight would be on 7//31/20. The Cruise departs on 8/1/20. The itinerary involves UA 725 on a 737-800, a 3 hour 21 minute layover in Phoenix, and then AC 8229 on a Canadair regional jet 900.

My main concern is how comfortable is the AC equipment. Seat guru states the seat pitch is 34 inches, which has been ok in my past experiences pretty good when I do economy plus. Since there are no middles on this flight I could deal with window or aisle but prefer aisle. How hard is it to select a seat on AC jazz air flights?

I understand that in taking a 7 day cruise I will be taking a suitcase that needs to be checked for this itinerary.

Thank you
Steve Weagant is offline  
Old Sep 1, 2019, 8:23 pm
  #2  
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As a question about AC equipment and seat selection, will move this to the AC forum.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator
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Old Sep 1, 2019, 9:02 pm
  #3  
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Thank you WineCountry UA

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
As a question about AC equipment and seat selection, will move this to the AC forum.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

I was not sure how to do this since it was a combination of United miles, United equipment, and air Canada equipment.
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Old Sep 1, 2019, 11:26 pm
  #4  
 
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As far as the seat pitch, AC reconfigured the aircraft recently so the standard seat pitch is now 31" rather than the previous 34". There are some Preferred Seats (similar to Economy Plus), which still have the 34" pitch.

As far as selecting seats with AC on a UA award ticket, it can be a bit more of a hassle, but on a UA award ticket a few weeks ago I was actually able to select seats online on the AC segments. As far as the preferred seats, not sure if you can purchase those in advance on a 016 ticket stock reward ticket, but if you can't do it in advance, you could still buy preferred seats at check-in if there's any available.
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Old Sep 2, 2019, 1:15 am
  #5  
 
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I quite like the CR9s, they're not spacious, but no one's are. If the 12A seat still exists, pay for it. For a long time it was the best Econ seat in the fleet, a solo seat in economy, beautiful.

Beyond that it's just tight, but what other options do you have? PHX-YVR isn't a long flight, so unless you're really big or need extra legroom due to leg issues or something there's not really any reason NOT to opt for this flight. AC is also currently flying ORD-YVR on CR9s, I can't say I've ever flown one THAT far, but I did have one booked and was excited to see how it holds up.

I will offer this, I'd much rather fly AC CRJ than United, now I don't get free E+ seats, so that hurts the experience for me. But AC CR9s have AVOD in the seats, and I covet that. Even if I've seen everything, I always prefer watching at the built in angle rather than trying to prop up my iPad and crane my neck downward etc. I've taken a few flights that are conducive to hanging your iPad via the smart cover and some seats that have built in plastic holders that can be opened and close to fit the size of the device. But my personal preference is always built in AVOD. So while I'm not judging this based on the value of the points being used or anything, since often US-CAN flights are very cheap, I wouldn't hesitate to take this flight.
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Old Sep 2, 2019, 1:28 am
  #6  
 
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The biggest problem of the 900 is lack of overhead space and no gate check; if you don’t have significant carryon it will be ok. The 2x2 iin non preferred seating isn’t as good as E+ but for a few hours won’t be horrible. Finding any decent route on United for 12.5k will make it hard to chase other options.
yyzgigi is offline  
Old Sep 2, 2019, 6:01 am
  #7  
 
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You're right about the overhead. It's a bit of a pain.

Maybe the most frequent of flyers can figure out AC's system, but I've flown everything in the fleet from multiple airports and I've seen the guys at work, for the life of me I can't figure out skycheck and non-skycheck.

I was quite surprised when I had a YYZ-YQG flight and was told there was no skycheck. I asked the FA about it and she basically said, people were just bringing too many carry-ons and too heavy, so they kinda just decided to have people check them. But I've also flown AC into YUL (I'm pretty sure it was YUL) where they put all the skychecks into an dumbwaiter kinda deal and sent them into an area of the bridge.

Having worked Horizon flights, I can say that the sky checks are a bit of a pain, but it makes perfect sense on the passenger end. Forcing people to just check all their stuff at the gate seems like a waste of time for very little benefit to me. It also just seems like sometimes, they do the whole skycheck thing and sometimes they don't and act as if no one in the system does it.

All that said, I don't usually check bags but in this situation it wouldn't bother me that much. Offloading a CRJ doesn't take very long. It's not like checking a bag on an A319 where you could be bag 1/200 rather than 1/50.
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Old Sep 2, 2019, 6:58 am
  #8  
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Thank you for the feed back.

I definitely would be checking my bag from Chicago to Vancouver. Im assuming that that this is possible. Is it possible to pay for the better seats like I pay for economy plus on United when using United Miles?
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Old Sep 2, 2019, 11:12 am
  #9  
 
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Originally Posted by Steve Weagant
I definitely would be checking my bag from Chicago to Vancouver. Im assuming that that this is possible. Is it possible to pay for the better seats like I pay for economy plus on United when using United Miles?
1. Yes.
2. Yes, but on a UA award ticket maybe only at check-in? Not 100% sure. If you can get the AC locator you can try and do it on-line perhaps.
RatherBeInYOW is offline  
Old Sep 4, 2019, 7:34 pm
  #10  
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I booked it. Thank you.

I appreciate the assistance. Though not perfect for some, this connection appears to be hassle free. Plus Ill get to check out terminal 4 at PHX.
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Old Sep 4, 2019, 9:17 pm
  #11  
 
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Originally Posted by RatherBeInYOW
1. Yes.
2. Yes, but on a UA award ticket maybe only at check-in? Not 100% sure. If you can get the AC locator you can try and do it on-line perhaps.
AC locator should be available on UA.com and the app after booking. Then Google "Air Canada ACO" (easier than finding it on AC.com) and select seats (or buy one) there.
Santander is offline  

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