Question: what happened to eUpgrade waitlisting?

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Feb 12, 2020, 8:28 pm

nashif

Original Poster

Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: YUL

Programs: AC SE

Posts: 11

what happened to eUpgrade waitlisting?

Trying to upgrade from PE to business (YYZ-TLV) and just getting "unavailable" and no option to be added to waiting list. Have not seen this before, I was always able to add myself to the list and get cleared (or not) later. Called AC and the agent said there is no space left when in fact the flight has plenty of space in J. Anyone else seeing this issue? Would concierge be able to help with this?

Feb 12, 2020, 10:22 pm

YEG USER

Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: YEG

Posts: 3,925

When is your flight? If your flight is already under airport control you might be out of luck as airports are under a different system (temporarily) since the Amadeus conversion.

Feb 13, 2020, 12:16 am

Adam Smith

Moderator, Air Canada; FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Feb 2015

Location: YYC

Programs: AC SE MM, FB Plat, WS Plat, BA Silver, DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, Accor Silver

Posts: 16,767

Is your eUpgrade window open yet?

Feb 13, 2020, 4:51 am

EdmFlyBoi

Join Date: Nov 2018

Location: Vancouver

Programs: AC SE100K 1MM, FB Platinum, Bonvoy Platinum Elite, IHG Gold Elite, Hilton Gold

Posts: 1,603

Quote:

Originally Posted by nashif

The new system indicates it is unavailable prior to the window opening. This is a change from the old system. Once the window is open it will allow you to add yourself to the waitlist. If you are within the 36 hour window, you can contact the concierge if you are super elite. Keep in mind that advance upgrade space on international flights are booked into R space (P if the fare booked is O/Y/B). If this space is gone then you will be waitlisted which may or may not clear based on the number of advance bookings into the other business fare classes and the time to the flight. It is not as simple as you suggest - that you can obtain an upgrade if there appears to be J class available - this isn't the case.

zappy312 likes this.

Feb 13, 2020, 9:21 am

nashif

Original Poster

Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: YUL

Programs: AC SE

Posts: 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Smith

Is your eUpgrade window open yet?

yeah, flight is next week and I am within the 7 day eUpgrade window.

Feb 13, 2020, 9:39 am

Plumber

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: YOW

Programs: AC-SE100K, AC-3MM, Marriott- LT Titanium, SPG RIP

Posts: 2,958

Quote:

Originally Posted by nashif

yeah, flight is next week and I am within the 7 day eUpgrade window.

Is there R space? Which date is the flight?

Feb 13, 2020, 9:59 am

RatherBeInYOW

Join Date: Sep 2011

Location: Ideally YOW, but probably not

Programs: AC SE*MM

Posts: 1,826

Quote:

Originally Posted by nashif

yeah, flight is next week and I am within the 7 day eUpgrade window.

Last time I was in the 7 day window and it wouldn't let me waitlist either; that was this week. I had to email the concierge and they cleared me in to R space.

Feb 13, 2020, 10:05 am

Plumber

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: YOW

Programs: AC-SE100K, AC-3MM, Marriott- LT Titanium, SPG RIP

Posts: 2,958

Quote:

Originally Posted by RatherBeInYOW

Last time I was in the 7 day window and it wouldn't let me waitlist either; that was this week. I had to email the concierge and they cleared me in to R space.

I can see that R=0 on AC80 in the next week.... and PE looks mostly full.

I would still contact the Concierge as suggested by RatherBeInYOW as they are often proactively clearing SE upgrade requests to avoid them having issues the day of the flight.

Feb 13, 2020, 10:48 am

2078 Miler

Join Date: Sep 2016

Programs: Aeroplan

Posts: 57

I also was surprised to find that I could not even request a waitlisted upgrade on a YVR-YYZ flight (+120). The first time that I have never had waitlist as an option. At the same time, I was still able to make a waitlisted upgrade request for the return flight (+192).

Feb 13, 2020, 4:41 pm

#10

padawanflyer

Join Date: Aug 2015

Location: YVR

Programs: AC E75K

Posts: 94

Call in! I found this several weeks ago, there appeared to be no valid reason why the upgrade for my flights were showing 'not available', so I called in and the agent checked, found no reason for the upgrade to be blocked, and then she manually added me to the waitlist. She blamed the new system, said sometimes it just doesn't work correctly. So after you've confirmed that there is no valid reason, e.g. are you actually in the upgrade window etc.., just call in. For me it was worth it since I actually ended up getting the upgrades the next week.