My understanding is that in the 10 years between privatization and the CP "merger" AC made money in 5 years and lost money in 5, and that the losses exceeded the profits.

Nobody's been asking for e-upgrades, and assorted other functionality on the AC website?

Hi Simon, I think we should save our time and stop taking the bait of some member. If you do a search and look at the post history of the member you quoted, you'll see he takes pleasure in picking on every single detail just to bash AC. Obviously adding another booking class for J is not easy and it involves tremedous cost in reprogramming (waitlist and algorithms). I just don't think we should bother wasting our time answering because we are just feeding the troll. I would have been glad to answer if it was someone else asking. Some people just not worth our time.

That's what I thought too.

Sure, those have been asked, among a dozen other things.

However, the topic referenced was an additional fare class for business class fares.

There is no valid explanation (at least not yet) for an inability to add additional booking class, especially given the domestic fare classes added.

Also, something to keep in mind is: is the problem with the message or the messenger? It's perfectly fine to disagree with the message, but to slander the messenger because of the message... seems rather sentimental.

My last post stands.

I thoght that if you took the last 100 years of all airlines profit and loss it would come out negative. Yet there is always one more fool looking to 'invest' in an airline.

Wait, how many airlines in the world actually let you book a flight by a specific fare code? None that I know of (even in expert mode).

For now, I'd be happy to see an expert mode like United where you can book by segments and the fare engine will calculate the total fare.

Oh really.

Adding domestic Y fares don't have to worry about waitlists and upgrading from other fares and so on.

This was explained not two posts ago.

Anyway, if you can't see this and Empress is right that there is baiting going on, it seems like a moot issue to explain it again and again.

Yep. There's at least one. US Airways makes it super easy. www.usairways.com

US Airways uses Sabre. It was Sabre who developed that interface on US Airways' website (that's why it looks exactly the same as Travelocity). So obviously US Airways does not have to develop it on their own.

What upgrading? Keep C class for upgrades, add another booking class for discounted business class. AC only has two cabins, nothing to upgrade from discounted business.

And what's so hard about waitlisting?

If anything, adding domestic Y fares is harder to implement in terms of an upgrade. Of course, AC got around that problem by not allowing any of the new booking classes to be upgradeable.

Bait continues...

Wow, didn't mean to stir up a hornet's nest with my posts! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif Guess I should have known better...

I'm still a newbie to AC so I don't know all the intricacies of AP benefits. (For instance, I didn't know that Prestige ability to UG from H or higher was new this year.) So, I'll defer to those with more experience (Empress!) on how well the current UG scheme works. My post was just me thinking out loud (and probably using too many brain cells to think about AC when I should have been focusing on work instead! ;p ) about a "what if" scenario, namely what if UG at time of booking were allowed by AP? If my post ruffled some feathers, then I apologize. (Don't beat up on the newbie, please! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif )

Just a few quick comments...

1. If a limited form of upgrading at time of booking was allowed, the majority of UGs would still by time-threshold and that -- along with the other benefits SEs enjoy -- would still (IMHO) allow for sufficient differentiation of tiers.

2. If AC allowed UG at time of booking, it would not necessarily mean that people would stop buying full J. After all, P and E members have a limited number of UG certs...this would be one check on the number of UGs (immediate or otherwise) a person could get each year.

3. As I said in my original posts, the intent of my proposal is not for AC to lose $. If there are paxs willing to pay J or full Y for flights to {wherever}, then by all means sell it to them! The fact that P/E can only upgrade from full Y to Europe doesn't bother me, it just means that I personally will never make use of this benefit and would use my SWUs for Asia instead.

4. Much of this goes back to personal beliefs about what's fair or unfair. Should a person who pays more always get an UG before others? Should a person who books far in advance have some sort of advantage when it comes to UGs? I don't think there is any one correct answer to such questions. (We may know what's best in terms of ACs bottom line, but not in terms of what's fair.) I think that reasonable people will sometimes disagree about what's fair or unfair -- that's normal. So, of course people will disagree about what the "best" UG system would be. Let's just try not to get too personal with our critiques and rebuttals! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

My 2 cents... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cool.gif

ml

Well bacK to the point, UA has improved its program, AC? Empress has mentioned that we need no improvements in Upgrades, we hope to see improvements to instant KK, is that enough?
lets hope this forum is a discussion that will help AC.... see it needs to change.
Just giving KK, is not enough of a change, with the competition improving UG´.
IMHO http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by why fly (edited Nov 24, 2003).]


[This message has been edited by why fly (edited Nov 25, 2003).]