Seating Benefits for Aeroplan Elite Status (2023 onwards)
 

Once again making things worse for SEs who buy high fares at the last minute.

Or arguably for anyone who buys high fares at the last minute.

FWIW, the POT article says "including Basic" for SE.

AC doesn't have the preferred seat sections that can accommodate this the way UA does.

There's what... a dozen preferred seats on most widebodies? The widebodies that operate numerous flights within North America...

How do other programs handle non-preferred seats for Elite members? With Aeroplan, unless you're SE you can't even do standard seat selection without a Flex fare. It would be nice to get basic seat selection on a Standard fare for E35k or E50K+.

Nah. It's unreasonable to expect that prime seats be left available just in case someone wants to book Y at the last minute.

Completely agree, a policy like UA's allowing bottom-tier elites free access to Preferred seats at check-in is fine when the aircraft is equipped with enough of those seats to accommodate it.

...then again, as a person who exceeds both 6 feet and 200 pounds, I've got more than that reason to wish AC would come to its senses and add rows of non-bulkhead Preferred seats to widebodies to match its competitors.

Depends on the airline. But AC has, for many many years, always wanted you to pay for things like this.

I definitely disagree.

It's one thing to sell them. It's another to give them away, preventing last-minute high-fare purchasers from being able to get one.

I've flown fares that earn the SQD for 50K in one PNR. I've flown dozens (hundreds?) of Latitude fares.

I definitely have higher expectations for "good seats" than someone barely squeaking into 50K should.

And my attitude about the benefit would probably be different if every 20% of all Y seats on all types were preferred seats.

I'm not too concerned about a 7M8. I don't really like the preferred section of the 223 (it's small and it's too far back).

But all the widebodies are useless. I've bought CO/LT fares many weeks in advance and been unable to select a single preferred seat. And those were situations where my status wasn't even necessary to get one. I was "paying" for it.

Agree that the widebodies are terrible wrt the preferred seats. If I'm flying a longhaul, then I'll almost certainly be in PY or J ... but 77X's and 78X's do pop up on short legs sometimes, certainly YYZ-YUL and more ... and it's super frustrating that the economy seat pitch available to me in a wide body is so much worse than the seat pitch available to me on a narrowbody.

As someone who buys last minute Lat fares more often than I should, it is really frustrating when there's nothing remotely available (and this happens now). I guess preferred seat availability is going to get a worse on domestic flights.

As a barely 35k member who is 6'1" tall, I also don't like this change. I would much rather have a 50% discount and be sure of my seat when I book than get it for free but have to race to check in exactly 24 hours in advance.

I started buying flex fares when I got 25k status, because then I could get the flexibility and not feel like I was breaking the bank to get a seat. (Plus more SQM 😀 ). Now I feel like I might just go back to buying standard unless I think I'll actually need flexibility.

Feels like a half hearted attempt to make amends after the re-qual blowback.

but it’s useless for most of us, who achieve status by never buying anything below flex Y.

in fact, it’s worst than useless, because now there will be even less availability of these seats.

This really doesnt help me very much. Unlike a lot of you high rollers, I am a 25K who flies mostly YYC-YYZ 5-6 times a year plus to OGG with the missus on a Comfort fare (which includes free preferred seats) via a Companion pass
and YVR once or twice a year and always in Y. If I want an exit row seat, which I always gladly buy when I book far in advance (and usually a basic fare but sometime Standard) Im not going to roll the dice and wait until checkin
to hope there will be an exit row seat available for free. To me this change is a non issue . Just a view from someone slightly higher up the ladder from a FOTSG. ;)

Just want to offer another perspective, giving preferred seats to elites is better than giving them to no status people who check in late.

For me, I don’t care about my Eastern Triangle flights, but I suspect I will have a hard time getting preferred seats unless I book early on TCON. This may push me to paying PY or J more often, or flying PD.

This seems like another case of Air Canada expertly grabbing at precisely the wrong end of the problem.

It appears to suck especially badly for 50K'ers who fly international on Flex Y fare. There is typically no Comfort fare offered, so now it would seem there's no way at all to grab a seat in row 18 while booking the flight, without resorting to Latitude.

777-300ER has 30 preferred seats. Dreamliner has 18.

My bad. 3 rows of how many? 2 rows of how many?

Compared to the 7M8 which is what... 1/4 or 1/3 of the cabin?

This policy works on UA because they have something like 1/3, minimum, on every aircraft. And it's only pretty recently that they started selling "Economy+ fares" (in the context of this discussion, similar to AC's Comfort or Latitude fares).

My issue isn't "lesser Elites shouldn't get free Preferred Seats", it's "AC doesn't have enough Preferred Seats for this". It's a zero-sum game. Giving them earlier to lower tiers means a later-buying higher-tier just can't get one. Or a last-minute CO/LT fare can no longer get what they're paying for.

3 rows of 10 on the 777 (30/398 economy seats) and 3 rows of 9 on the 787 (18/247 seats). About 7% in both cases. But it's "the front row of each economy cabin", not like, "the front few rows of the economy cabin". Bulkhead and exit rows, basically.

It most definitely isn't an actual "Economy Plus" experience like United. That's sort of what I mean when I say AC is doing this exactly wrong. E+ is a good solution for, well, "plus-size" people, and United acknowledges this by offering a one-time annual subscription to the cabin. That's just the life situation for some people, it's not necessarily a perk or privilege.

As a 50k who's over 6', if I'm sitting in Y I want to be in a preferred seat, so I'd much rather just have the 50% discount and have a greater chance at actually getting one of the seats. As Cow rightly points out, there just aren't enough preferred seats on the widebodies for this to work. Unless of course they want to remove a row of regular Y and use the space to make 7 or 8 rows of preferred seats, but somehow I don't see that happening!

Just caught this change b/c of that Globe & Mail article, not sure when this happened but for Preferred Seats availability has expanded:

• 25K / 35K - at check-in (Standard or Flex)
• 50K - at booking for Canada/US, check-in for all other itineraries (Standard or Flex)
• 75K - at booking for all itineraries (Standard or Flex)
• SE - at booking for all itineraries (all fares)

Devaluation if you wanted to get the 50% for 25k/35K at booking with Flex but otherwise a welcome change.

Announced and active last week. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35632983-post701.html

I'm SE and made an Aeroplan Flex booking for my parents (25K and no status) using my points. Do my preferred seat selection privileges apply to them?

I feel like years ago, it did, but perhaps that was an IT glitch or my memory failing.

Up until now I thought SE's got preferred seats on all bookings. This looks like SE's no longer get that benefit on Basic fares, which represents a devaluation.

​​​​​​They "fixed" the SE booking free preferred seats for non-status pax a few months back on reward bookings, but per this new policy they should get it at check-in since one is 25K

Got it. Thanks!

Any thoughts as to whether flights operated by Air Canada but marketed/booked through United (standard fare) might qualify for preferred seat selection upon check-in? The article mentions that codeshares are excluded but it's not specified whether these are AC-operated or non-AC-operated codeshares.
I can report back in a couple weeks if no one knows as of now :)

Edit: For anyone who might look this up in the future; it did not work online, but calling AC reservations got me and my companion preferred seating without any issues.

I booked some reward flights for my family, and paid flights for myself. Something I have done regularly. And then I normally call in to link the bookings and choose our seats.

As a SE 100K, I am able to select preferred seats for free, and they've always given my family the preferred seats as well if we wanted them. But I just called and they're telling me I would need to pay not only for the preferred seats for them, but even if I wanted to change their seats from the very back of the plane where they assigned them.

All the times I've had this done in the past was it just a courtesy? Is this just a hang up and call again thing?

There was discussion of this 6-8 months ago iirc. AC thinks of this as a loophole that’s been closed as I understand it.

Some SEs were getting their family free preferred seats even when not flying on the same plane, which may (or may not) have been motivation to close the loophole.

I would definitely HUCA and try another time...I've done this successfully as recently as 4 weeks ago. Maybe get the PNR's linked and then try to change seats in the booking online...the system should recognize your SE status.

up until early this year I was regularly able to select free seats (preferred or regular) at time of booking for family members flying on my AP points. This seemed to be a policy perk for SE.

I have had a bit of luck calling the concierge desk, but not always. Given that my kids universities are only short-haul flights away it is less of an issue.

A couple years ago I couldn't get anyone at the airport (or on the phone, including concierge) to give a friend of mine a preferred seat on a flight that I was in J. They basically told me that if I wanted him to have a free preferred seat, I should have spent less money on my ticket to be on his PNR.

I definitely got the impression that the official policy was "same PNR".

Well, the website did not care, maybe because it was my AP points. Kids regularly travelled alone on my points and I almost always choose the cheapest reward ticket. I was always able to select any seat in Y at no cost.

THAT was a bug that they fixed a while back.

Is there a wiki or webpage somewhere that describes what extra legroom (if any) is available on preferred seats on different aircraft? The AC site only seems to say "up to 4 inches", which presumably includes 0 inches in some cases. Aerolopa doesn't seem to have much data either for many planes.

Every aircraft type has a dedicated thread with information on seats and other interior info. To the extent FT has any of that info, that's where it would be.

I booked a domestic AC journey using Etihad Guest miles and I'm not getting free preferred seat selection (just free selection of regular seats) before check-in, even if I'm 50K and had AC add my Aeroplan number to the booking

50k benefit is for standard and flex fares in NA. Did the reward book into the basic fare category?

This unfortunately normal. Your seat selection benefits don't work when you book an AC ticket with another airline. I have had a couple of UA ticketed itineraries with AC segments and you can't even select a standard seat since the fare mapped as standard and not flex. I've had success calling AC and getting the agent to "waive" the fee but this is not guaranteed.

It's possible there's a problem with OAL bookings, but I don't see why it would be driven by mapping to Standard - the 50K benefit is available when "travelling on a Flex or Standard fare within Canada or between Canada and the U.S. (available at check-in only for all other itineraries)".

Free Seat Selection for Super Elite Travel Companions on Separate Reservations
 

I often book separate itineraries for me and my family, travelling together on the same flights but on separate reservations. I book a paid fare; and use points for my family.

As a SE 100k, the concierge used to be able to reserve seats together at no charge for my family, regardless of the points fare they're traveling on (e.g. even standard rewards).

I have recently been told this no longer possible/permitted. It wasn't clear whether it is possible but not permitted, or whether it was not possible due to a system block or something.

Has anyone else received the same answer when making this request?

seat benefits on separate PNRs was never a stated benefit. Nor is priority boarding, baggage priority, etc.

​​​​​​I recently had concierge unwilling to even select seating for me (SE) and two elite companions. On the SAME pnr--in J. Because: it's an AEROPLAN ticket not AC revenue, and only Aeroplan can change or select seats. They wouldn't even humor me and try.

As expert7700 points out, it's not a published benefit.

If you HUCA or try again some other time, you may find one of the "better" concierges.

I've ran into this challenge in the past where one concierge wouldn't do it, but another would. In my cases, it was simply for one other companion on a different PNR but same flight.
It's funny how AC will budge on arguable "bigger" ticket items for SEs, but not do this one ask. A little goodwill goes a long way.

(they were probably given a memo recently about penny-pinching due to everyone and their dogwalker being bestowed 75K)

Tangental question - what happens if you book everyone on the same PNR and then split your family afterwards? I recently booked a Basic Y fare YVR-YYC, got free preferred seats for all 3 of us. If I split myself off to upfare to Flex would they still be entitled to preferred seats? Or would the system boot them out?

I recently booked YYZ - MEX on a Flex fare and as a 50k I thought I would be able to select preferred seats for free?
Is MEX not considered NA for the purposes of below? (copied from 1st post)

Complimentary Preferred Seat Benefits for Elite Members:
Aeroplan 25K and Aeroplan 35K: Members can select Preferred Seats at no cost during check-in for all flights, excluding Basic fares.
Aeroplan 50K: For flights within North America, members can choose their seats at any time. For all other flights, they can select seats during check-in, again excluding Basic fares.