AC 33 change; appears to no longer start in YYZ
 

Not sure as of what date this effective but, AC 33 appears to no longer start in YYZ. There is a flight (still wide bodied) at the same time out of YYZ that connects to AC 33 in Vancouver. This “new flight” has a different #. SearchING YYZ-SYD flight details show a connection in YVR rather than a stop. I didn’t search a lot of dates but it is certainly true mid December.

When this route commenced there was a lot of marketing and PR about the flight being YYZ-SYD direct. Curious as to why the first leg is no longer 33.

Yes - just got a change itinerary email which perplexed me as the times were unchanged, until I noticed that AC34 (YVR-YYZ) is now AC106. Same 77L and seat selection.
And I see that AC 34 (SYD-YVR) now terminates there, and AC106 is the connecting (?same plane) onto YYZ.

Because it pissed people off to find out that their "direct" flight, which many uninitiated people assumed was non-stop, included a stop in YVR? While also creating logistical complications with eUps, seat selection, etc?

Could be that with AC's big push to attract traffic from the US, as well as the addition of MEL and BNE, they were seeing a lot less of the YVR-SYD seats being sold to people coming from YYZ.

Didn't they used to feed people on the domestic portion of this flight in Y, if they were continuing to SYD?

Or is It because the flights are so often delayed, people were missing the connecting flight and wondering wth, I was on the same flight number!

Remind me: Were you ever able to eupgrade from YYZ - SYD, or did you have two upgrade YYZ - YVR and YVR - SYD separately?

It was one upgrade YYZ-SYD and if you missed it due heavy YVR bound upgrades, it was IMPOSSIBLE to upgrade YVR-SYD even if R9 on that leg. Resolving that stupidity is the biggest enhancement of splitting the flights.

Your last point makes a lot of sense to me. Hadn’t considered that. Your first point also makes sense.

It wasn't all roses for those of us going e.g. YOW - YVR - SYD either. The shenanigans of having a separate upgrade list out of YVR but not knowing the number of J seats available because of upgrades of people going YYZ-SYD was rather unhelpful.

I'm very glad they are making AC33/34 just YVR/SYD.

Likely in no small part because Pearson airport has added Sydney to their list of destinations served, and the distinction between 'direct' and 'non stop' service is often confused, even by industry professionals. Following such logic, most large airports could claim service to all manner of places they don't actually fly to non-stop.

Yes they did, a free meal and snack from the on-board bistro.

I am assuming that if it is R9 for the YVR-SYD, waitlisted eupgrades would clear at the gate, right?

R&F

Yes, one would assume that, but you would have been waitlisted from YYZ, and that was it. Sorry, been there, done that-you could NOT be waitlisted ex YVR if originating in YYZ on 33.

AC has a new reservation system coming online in the fall. One of the things with the new system (at least to start) is that there will be no "thru" flights to make the system more easy to use, at least to start. You will see a big reduction in "thru-flights" in the interim, with them instead just having different flight numbers to make things easier for the system and agents.

Wow, end of an era in many ways.

I am nostalgic for little things, so not getting on 33 in Toronto will be a change for me in November

OK,I see. I usually do a YUL-YVR to catch AC33 at YVR, so this has not been a problem for me...