No, they travel more like FF's.

They look for flights with open J class seats at time of departure and adjust their flights and routings accordingly. :)

And in Milton's case, I assume F? ;)

Taupo, I am glad you brought up the issue of upgrades. I thought it was all automated, that the system picks up status and booking classes and accordingly does the UG's. So currently the GA has to sift through her list and then decide who is gonna get the UG if the back is full ?

Why couldn't they participate by video conferencing from Montreal? (or even over a good speaker phone.)

I didn't know that - thanks for the correction.

And a large percentage of the times, you will it is staff.

I think in theory the system does select automatically, however as we all know in practice other things have been known to happen.
If I was to put myself in the GA's shoes for a minute, my line of thinking could go like this: I have a full Y cabin, oversold by 4 seats, have at least 4 seats in the J cabin, I have 4 people in front of me who don't have seats. I can print them BPs for the empty seats, then that part of my job is done. However if I was to follow the rules, I will have to go through my system, establish which pax are the highest fare class/tier, track them down, get their old BPs, print them new ones, then print BPs for the 4 who were stranded. The first option could be accomplished in 1 min, the latter could take 5-15 mins, especially if said premium pax are in the MLL. This does not make it right, but I can see taking the path of least resistance from time to time.
AC needs to find a way to make this as simple as possible for the GAs so the rules are followed, and they need to clearly understand that this is a very important matter to their loyal customers.

Or already boarded? That used to be the case when I flew with CP, I had to wait until all were boarded to see if I got an upgrade, and if I hadn't, I'd have lost out on the pre-boarding benefit of overhead-bin space.

That was for upgrades paid by stickers, but it would be true for an oversold situation and standing by for an upgrade.

=aw

The system is not entirely automatic. There are some basic steps.
1. A two digit code will give a list of all tier status people who are booked on the aircraft.
2. They can then transfer some to the stand-by list without losing their seats.
3. The stand-by list is automatically prioritized by status, fare and checkin time.
4. The agent can then work through the list or hit a button for mass onload.
5. The agents big fear with the mass onload is that at that time it does release and swap seats. If they select someone who is travelling with a companion on another PNR, then they have a real big mess on their hands. Their old seat next to their buddy is gone to someone else who may have boarded already.

Now it is fixable, but it takes time and concentration to sort things out and maybe drag someone off the airplane who has already settled in. All in all the procedure can work well if the agent has the desire and knowledge to do it that way.

Hopefully, you were joking and if not its not worth answering :rolleyes:

ExAC now why did you leave AC, we need people like you on the front lines. ^ ;)

What it means is an enhanced "Avenue" reward system is going to be introduced. When the 8% allocation of "Classic" awards has sold out, people will have the option of going after revenue seats as a reward seat. However, similar to rev tickets, reward tickets will have a sliding scale for "points" price.

To add to parnel's response to your post... it's much more valuable "in person" than from "afar". I don't want to assume what your line of work is, but in my line of work flying to meet people you will be working with 95% of the time on a long distance basis is priceless and there are several intangible benefits realized.

I guess if we were visiting Telus or Bell, this would be an appropriate way of meeting with company staff, but an airline sells the very notion that nothing can replace the experience of meeting face-to-face. Like YYZNomad, while we may do business with people around the world by phone and fax and email, there is something to be said about actually meeting our associates from time to time.

Beirut or not Beyrouth
 

Trying to mix english and french can sometimes get interesting results :) I am not 100% there yet I guess... Next time I'll use BEY :D