Preferred seating for *Golds?
 

Title says it all really. AC reservations told me that the first few rows of Y are for Aeroplan Prestige/E/SE only.

Other *A carriers with similar seating policies extend this benefit to *Golds. I know that the AC seats are just regular hospitality seats with no extra legroom etc, but am nonetheless curious to know what the policy is?

By the way, I was absolutely astounded at my first call to AC Reservations UK today. A very polite lady informed me that the only fare she could offer me to Calgary from London, travelling 5 months from now and staying for 12 days, was the full Y fare (over GBP2000)! Given that aircanada.ca was offering the same flights and dates for GBP701, and expedia.co.uk was selling them for GBP430, I found this unbelieveable. I did politely ask whether a cheaper fare might be available but was told categorically no.

She then asked whether I would like the seats placed on hold while I thought about whethe to buy at that fare, but that she could not guarantee the fare would not increase (!).

Also sounded suspiciously like I was talking to someone in a far distant land(line was very crackly!) - have AC outsourced their call centres?

Yes, front few rows of Y are *G seating, as you say their is not extra leg room. I have read comments on this forum, that the leg room is less than the regular Y. I think the "Sticky" thread about the best seats will answer all your seating questions for you.

If you do a search, you will find a recent discussion about call centres' and whether or not they are outsourced.

Yeah, it's called India. :(

House, YGPM.

Hmm. Managed to get speaking with an equally polite Canadian Reservations agent, who told me that "preferred seating is only available at the airport".

Given that I'll likely be angling for exit rows at the airport anyway, I guess I'll have to stick with what I've got...

Maybe the first few rows really are only for AC status members and not *G... That's too bad. :(