Help decoding fare buckets and upgrade question
 

Hi,

My wife and I are on the following flight:

Departs
Paris (CDG)
October 25
10:40 am Arrives
Montreal (YUL)
October 25
12:30 pm Notes
Cabin class: J9 C9 Y4 M2 B2 H0 V0 Q0 L0 N0
Airbus A330Airbus A330

Does this mean that there are only 4 seats available in economy? If so, does that mean op-upgrades are likely?

I am elite and my wife is prestige. We have 2 upgrade certs for the trip, but would folks suggest holding back to see if we can score an op-upgrade? Or are we better off playing it safe since it's two of us travelling. I have, after all, been saving these certs for this trip, but then again, would be nice to have them for another trip!

Thanks for any help anyone might have.

There are still over 30 empty seats showing on the seat map on itn so I'm not sure what the odds are you'll get an op-upgrade

Despite the empty seats, the flight could be in an oversold position but they are still willing to sell an econo seat. Depending on route and time of year, we know of overbooking by 120 and even more--not all those people have seat assignments and the airlines hope (and know correctly most of the time) that most will not be flying that day.

You stand a better chance of op upgrade than if you saw lots of low fare class seats available for sale still. It depends on status, timing, charm . . . :cool:

But you'd be surprised -- not everyone gets a seat assignment before the flight...

The "willing to sell" is a bit of a better indicator. I think the chances for the op-ug will be pretty good.

The other catch is probably to call in and confirm the upgrade and at the gate, they *may not* take the cert away from you because they would have "given" you the ug anyway because of the overflow in the back...

Empty seats on the chart likely mean connecting passengers off other carriers who have not done seat selection. As the flight is down to Y/B/M4, there is little inventory left to sell in the back. However, this may be a regular occurance on this flight, as AC has not zero'd out C, which tends to indicate they do not anticipate moving a lot of people up. J is also wide open so if they do, it will have very little impact on the premium cabin load. You can take your chance on an opup when you check in, and if it doesn't look likely to happen -- or you are not greeted with those wonder words "We've had to move you up to the front..." -- then get on the list. There are unlikely to be that many elites in line for at-gates as they are unlikely to be monitoring the load as you are, and will confirm at their appropriate window. However, if the C load starts to drop, it may be worth calling to confirm your two seats, if only to ensure you are seated together. Good luck.

So here is what happened.

I called 2 days before the flight was to leave and was told the flight was still oversold and there were still (at least) 9 spaces available for upgrades. So I decided not to confirm the upgrade and try my luck for an op-upgrade at check-in.

When we got to the airport, however, everything had changed. The flight was not oversold any longer. So we handed in our certs but there were no seats that could be confirmed. We got put on the upgrade list. I asked and learned there were now only 3 seats left up front. Don't know how that happened but of course it could have been anything: missed connections, changed routings, etc., etc. (For example: I did hear the guy a few spots ahead of us in line have his reward ticket standby clear.) So I spent a couple of pre-flight hours extremely annoyed with myself.

Eventually we did get the upgrades and were seated together in 1HK, so everything worked out.

The moral of the story (for me): I got greedy and got smacked around for it (but just a bit). From now on, if I want an upgrade and it's available, I will take it and consider myself lucky. If I am fortunate enough to get an op-upgrade that's great, but trying to angle for one ahead of time is just plain dumb.

Lesson learned.

Live and Learn. :D

Now live it up and enjoy your trip CDG! ;)