Equipment Change with successful Bid Upgrade from PE to Biz
 

So I was booked on AC754 in Flex and then upgraded to PE given the small C$100 difference. 4 days before return leg I get bid offer, given it was a red-eye back with kids waiting at home, I decided to make minimum bid of C$220 and it cleared a couple of days before. Was able to do seat selection, etc.

Morning of flight, do check-in, no issues have my boarding pass in the app. Later in the morning get notification that flight is delayed due to pilot availability, maybe 30mins or so. Later in the day another 15mins added. Nothing else in the email to suggest anything funky, including no update to my boarding pass.

Just before boarding head to the gate from Centurion lounge and my name is called, figured it is for passport given I had entered Nexus details. They scan passport and am told no catering on the flight so here is $25 voucher to go get food because we are about to board. I look at them, it's almost 11pm, what is open and you just are calling up people to board now? Should've been the indication to ask more questions. They were quick to say you have a year to use the voucher so I let it go and go into boarding Zone 1.

Scan my boarding pass, and they are hitting something on the computer and told have a nice flight. Head down gate and am greeted onto an A321, so that's no flat bed, no direct aisle access, and no chance of getting off, asking for a refund and back to my original class (which also doesn't exist on the plane). I would never bid for a recliner seat, I was only willing to bid on this route because looking at the flight stats, it was so consistently 788.

To top it off, my boarding pass on my phone was still 4K, gate agent ignored computer or failed to print me new seat assignment, so I had to step aside for flight attendant to go get me a new boarding pass. They came back with a boarding pass with my name and a seat already occupied by someone else, so am told to just take another seat, its probably just a screw up.

Once I got back, I wrote to customer support saying, when plane left YYZ and you sent delay notification, you could've and should've informed of equipment change and let me re-route or change my flight or at the minimum refund my Bid Upgrade and my PE upfare. By blindsiding me, you get to claim you delivered class of service, knowing Rule 80(c) on the tariff would have given me more customer friendly options.

Long story short, they are telling me to go pound sand, I got business class and I should be happy.

How do you judge this?

I'm on your side. AC considers narrow-body J to be equivalent to PY in the context of Signature Class, as shown by how they marketed and sold the forward 7M8 cabin on intercontinental routes.

Given that there was no catering, what did you gain from being in J over PY?

Zone 1 boarding? Lounge access (which it sounds like you didn't even use)?

I'd try again with a very concise argument that the product difference between 788 PY and 321 J is virtually non-existent, and therefore, you want the bid amount back.

I was concise and tried to even further simply and they just kept throwing back the bid upgrade terms. My argument was actually on the basis of Rule 80 that putting aside class or whatever, I had options available when they changed equipment, but as a result of hiding the change and giving a very different product and experience they right thing would be to refund my upgrade fee.

The Bid Upgrade terms basically say if we slap a little head rest saying you are in business, that's it we've performed and your money is ours. And that is how they have been responding repeatedly.

I guess my next step is trying to write to corporate and filing some complaints with FAA and CTAA. Will look at getting some of the marketing materials as supporting a very different product/service.

TopGunner

I'm with canadiancow as well.

What you thought you paid for wasn't even close to what you got. BIG difference between transcon widebody mainline J Signature Service vs. narrowbody J.

In fact, AC explicitly charges an additional premium for J on mainline widebody transcon over mainline narrowbody transcon.

Another argument would be that the upgrade was only possible because it was to a pod. There is no mechanism to upgrade from PY to a narrow-body J seat.

Agree completely.

Unacceptable on the part of AC to basically tell you to pound sand. The product you were willing to bid for was not the product you ended up getting!

I would continue to send them emails until they give you appropriate compensation, whatever that may be!

Anyone got a good regular mail address, going to hit them with multiple demands.

Throwing 1,500miles as courtesy has just annoyed me more.

Are you missing a zero?
This sounds like a joke.

If you weren't ever going to fly them again I'd even consider a credit card chargeback as a remedy.

Paid for upgrade from NA recliner to lieflat, BOTH had award winning magical airplane food as part of advertised service offering.

Instead you got same caliber of seat as PY but no food. Just whatever calories were in the paper and BPA coating on the boarding pass and useless (at LAX due to lack of notice) meal voucher.

(that being said meal voucher could have been used for buy on board items, if SD chose to charge pax in J)