PB53x11

Don't you mean you can't spend your employer's $? Surely you can spend your own $. Whether it's worth it to you is of course another question.

PB53x11

Curious: you say "O is slim" - but aren't there often a few O pax trying to upgrade to J, and if they succeed, won't OP have a decent shot at O?

theBeachBoy

Yes exactly that.

$500 for GRU would be worth it to spend on my dine as the flight is brutal when you go direct to work on Monday noon, but for GVA not really.

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theBeachBoy

That is what happened last week I got to PY because a few went up to J

YVRtoYYZ

What economy fare class are you purchasing? Full Y/B-fares offer a lot more flexibility into available O / R / P-classes if those are available.

yyznomad

OP said:

mamau

You can count on me for leaving a seat in O fare open as I move on up to J.

thaddaeus

Being 75K, I always eUp to O on TATL flights since no payment needed.

2 for 2 this summer, I have then been upgraded to J at the gate.

yyznomad

To be clear, you intentionally eUp to O (because one cannot attempt to eUpgrade to both O and J simultaneously), and then you get opupped to J (because one cannot doubly eUpgrade to O and then again eUpgrade to J from the eUpgraded O). Correct?

theBeachBoy

How does that work?

You clear O upgrade through eUps, then you ask politely for J at counter or gate?

I only got once a free J upgrade from the counter and it's because I tried upgrading from the app (didn't see the difference between app and eUps website as I was on a very poor connection) and could not see what the charge would be if I got J, at the counter they couldn't find it so at one point they said f-it and put me in J free (was almost empty anyway)

The next time (same flight), I was not on any list, and the flight was oversold. They put me in O but bumped random Y class passengers in J and O (the couple just before me was split J and O and were not status or anything). I was kind of jealous that I didn't get J But I was glad someone got to experience it. In quite a lot of flying I had never been in J before. Once you start getting O and J seats, you really don't enjoy Y for long (esp. overnight) hauls.

yyznomad

It was most likely an op-up.

What was your base fare?

How did you know that this was done randomly?

yyznomad

@theBeachBoy

You need to look at this thread for some "reference".

Official Air Canada Upgrade Priority

There may be some outdated items, but the main gist is still there and applies.

theBeachBoy

I've never looked at fare (except flex, latitude etc) before. My only concern was change fees as I change flights often.
Now that I come here, it's always the first question asked so I always find myself going back to my eTicket
In that case (if I took the correct date) it was V (VHX4RCE)

It's a guess, not facts.. so likely wrong. as AC must have SOP for that. It was a young couple and they were very surprised to get upgraded. Maybe they had full Y tickets? In the end I was jealous but also happy for them as when I got J a few weeks earlier it was the first time ever in J (even though I travel a ton but company policy was always lowest fare so never got more than E35 once many years ago)
I will read that thread about how upgrades work, I'm in FF 101 course here I love all the knowledge in this forum.

theBeachBoy

Thanks for that link! I'll go to bed less stupid tonight(verbatim translation of Quebec french saying "j"vais me coucher moins niaiseux ŕ soir")

I didn't know E50 paying full Y would be below SE paying basic Y.

yyznomad

Not exactly.

It's E50 paying any PY trumps any SE paying any Y. Cabin wins.
SE paying any Y beats E50 paying any Y.