Glad that you are still with us, thought it might be work related as I have been bathing lately :D !

Sorry for dragging this OT, back to the topic !

The answer is: NOT true. FYI there were six AC staff in J.

Kind of makes you feel wanted, eh?

At least AC is consistent. ;)

dbyyz, if that happened to me I would be pissed too.

At the LEAST, did you get reassigned to an aisle or window in Y?

I'm not arguing that it would be great if AC had done this, but given what we know about the rules, why would anyone have expected them to?

OP did not have upgrade certs. In order to go from the economy cabin to the front cabin, unless it is an op-up due to overbooking in the back, unless you are very very lucky (or SH or parnel, it would seem :) ) the rules say you need a cert.

Simon

I have actually had a great experience with AC when they upgraded me to J just becasue I was SE on a Long Haul flight YYZ-LHR. No upgrades certificates or anything, so i WOULD have said true hehe

I did not expect an U/G. I know what the rules are. But I do know that people on lesser fares (Latitude) get upgraded automatically without an U/G certificate. If AC were interested in treating its loyal and high-revneue customers better, this would not have happened, and the responses on this thread confirm this. I am just very dissappointed in AC. If there was a choice in full-service domestic carriers I would walk in a dime store minute.

Plain Latitude fares, or a Latitude pass ? The former, I agree, should not happen over a full Y Freedom pax. The latter is a function of that particular (new) brand of "loyalty" that the passes entail.

I think we've been through the discussion that it would be great if AC did any fare upgrades for its high-level customers (E/SE or full Y), however clearly this is a different model than the one (passes) they are choosing to follow. Time will tell if the US model is sustainable -- I certainly like it too when I'm doing it on DL or UA. We shall see.

This issue was raised at the AC visit on 14JAN in YUL. Montie Brewer himself said the model was NOT sustainable and would be going the way of the Dodo bird when the US carriers were done with this current, or the next imminent, round of restructuring.

So he said, OK. But is this gospel, or could it just be your everyday spin as usual?

(Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly, or let ourselves be manipulated by smooth talkers too easily.)

Like you said : "So he said, OK".

What an experienced airline executive has to say on a subject might be construed as being pertinent to the debate ?

I think you'll see a narrowing of the fare gap between Full 'Y' and 'J' so those who do not have travel police in their companies might be able to justify the lift to J from a Flex 'Y' fare.

I was just checking a flight YYZ-MEX and the difference between Y and J is only a couple of hundred bucks return, so there may be a real opportunity to avoid Upgrade Loto and still escape the clutches of the travel police..... Now if AC could only call it Executive Economy or Super Economy etc. etc. to avoid the alarms set off by Business Class!!!

DF

Might. On the other hand, it potentially also makes for a nice excuse. To the extent that AC is a monopoly, at least in many of their markets, they don't really need to care too much about their FFs anymore, or so they may think.

It's not really their job to be candid. It's sales. Make it sound like they are. And the better ones may be quite convincing.

Sorry, but I have a hard time trusting anything I hear from AC. Trust is hard to win and easy to lose. And way too much of what we hear from them is such obvious spin, at least from Aeroplan. Just look at the disingenuous way they handled the announcement of the 2005 program.

As they say, hope for the best but prepare yourself for the worst. I would hate to have to commute in the US. For sure, not there yet. But if things continue getting worse, who knows. I don't believe US FF programs will deteriorate all that much, at least as long as the market remains competitive. Ultimately that's the real issue; the day AC absorbed CP, the writing was on the wall.

I don't understand how AC can justify the fare difference between Latitude and Freedom fares. At more than a 500 dollar difference one way between YYZ - YVR, how many people do they really think are going to purchase Freedom fares? Is priority checkin and MLL access for that one flight really worth it? If you're springing for that, why not pay a bit more and get a comfy seat on the plane as well. The only advantage I see it having for status members is maybe for P's b/c with it they get MLL access and a confirmed upgrade at booking. On most domestic routes E's and up don't have too much difficulty upgrading, as long as they're a bit flexible on flight times. I really don't see freedom fares having much demand from either status members or non status members. At least lower their price and make it so pax can justify the price jump from latitude fares.