No I Class Availability - what to do?
 

I am flying YYZ-YVR-LAX-LAS on Sept 10 on Tango + fare, A class. I can request an upgrade with SSWU as of midnight tonight. I have been watching I class availability on the YYZ-YVR segment over the last few days. As of last night, there was still one seat, and this morning it is gone!

I am not sure how to read the other fare classes, but this is what it shows:
J4 C1 Z0 Y9 M9 U9 B9 H9 K9 V9 N9 Q0 L0 A0 I0

When I look on the seat chart on ac.com I see that there are still 6 empty biz class seats out of 30. I assume I can still go on standby for biz class, but what is likelihood that a seat will open up? There is an earlier flight with I4 availability. Will they let me change flights without a change fee so I can get the upgrade?

Any other thoughts?

Hi MG. To answer your first question about the J4 - I0 info you posted. J4 indicates AC is still selling 4 seats in the J (full fare business) fare bucket, C1 1 seat in the discount J-Class (C) bucket, and Z0 is no more discount J-Class in the Z bucket. Y9 through N9 indicates that they are still selling 9 or more seats in those respective Y-Class fare buckets. Looks to me like economy isn't oversold yet (IMHO).

Now onto the 2nd question. Looking at the seat chart on ac.com doesn't mean much if anything. 6 empty seats out of 30 says something but may not say anything. If they are 100% certain (which they won't be until the last minute) that your flight will be operated by a 30J configured aircraft, 6 empty seats would indicate that 4 (based on the J4 info you provided) of them are still available for sale, and 2 of them have been purchased/taken but not actually had the seat numbers assigned.

The 3rd question... what is the likelihood of an I-class seat opening? Depends. The bigger question is... if one opens up... how many people are infront of you in the queue for an upgrade. Could be none, could be 4, you never can tell. If I (being a SE member) bought an economy ticket right now for your flight and then wait-listed for upgrade, I'd step in front of you in the queue.

The 4th question... will AC let you change flights to secure the upgrade without a fee? NO. If you could come up with some quality excuse/reason as to why it would benefit them then maybe, but the planets would have to align in your favour to get them to allow a change just to get the upgrade. Then again like my mom always said... never hurts to ask. Right now the answer is no, so what do you have to lose but the time it takes to ask.

What is the flight in question and perhaps we can shed some more insight.

I had a look at the KVS availability for the 10th and am guessing you're on AC1163. The one additional thing that may or may not play in your favour is... They are currently only offering 25 seats total capacity on that aircraft. So... if the aircraft actually ends up as a 30/182 or 30/173 configuration then 5 more business seats will open up at the last minute. BUT if AC1163 ends up being a reconfig B763 then the capacity is only 24J so 1 seat will magically disappear at the last minute.

Good Luck!

Good luck!

AC1163 Bingo! You win an all expense paid trip to Moosonee! :D

Thanks for taking the time to write all this out.

AC only sells 24 J seats on the international 763s since aircraft can change at the last minute and a 30-seat version could end up being a 24/25-seat one. (25 seats is the 2-2-1/1-2-2 five row, 24 seats is the XM'd 1-1-1 version) So if it turns out to be a 6-row non-XM'd aircraft, you might get one of the extra 5 seats at the gate.

The change fee is $40.

What are you waiting for?

My understanding was that I class is irrelevant for NA flights? As a matter of fact, the Amex ITN tool does not display I class for AC flights within Canada. The first time I saw this, I did some research on this forum and ended up concluding that with a SWU or NA upgrade cert, you can upgrade any time with a Latitude fare as long as there is J availability (which I did a couple of times, but maybe I was just lucky). Is it different when you use a SSWU?
I guess I am missing something as you actually saw details concerning I availability...:confused:

You've been lucky.

I class definitely matters for domestic/transborder flights. You can really only upgrade in advance with I>0.

There are many sources for I class availability. I use the KVS availability tool. A decent online option is: http://publicbackup.com/shared/flyertalk/availability/

This is interesting. Following suggestions in other threads, I was using the Amex ITN tool , and even though the search interface is exactly the same, the output is quite different! The Amex tool displays I availability for transcontinental flights, but not for flights in NA. I will definitely move to this one, or even better invest in the KVS tool.

Plus fare difference, if any.

Looks like the earlier flight is wide open and has the same fare basis for A class.
There's always the $150 same day airport change option - not particularly useful in this instance.

It's the tradeoff of getting up that much earlier in the day.

Btw, I once canoed to Moosonne from Mattice and found it rather interesting compared to the rat race of downtown Toronto - good poutine!

FWIW, Monday morning flight to YVR from YYZ, I would expect quite a few SEs on business who might jump ahead - always a crapshoot!

Good luck

Are you sure you are looking at the right flight? I just checked AC1133 for Sept 10 which departs at 6:30 a.m. and even though it was showing I4 this morning, it is now: J4 C0 Z0 Y9 M9 U9 B9 H9 K9 V9 N9 Q0 L0 A0 I0

So no point in getting up earlier!

I didn't want to risk changing my flight until midnight anyhow when I could confirm my upgrade, and now I'm sure glad I didn't!

Looks like I'll be toughing it out in the back. Oh well, I'm in 12A, so could be worse!

BTW, for future reference, please explain what you mean by "same fare basis for A class". I got a really cheap fare for this ticket, $388 A/I. Wouldn't I have to pay more to change flights plus the change fee?

Thanks to all the people who have posted.

If you bought your T+ at $100, the T+ fare on the flight that you want to change is now selling at $120, you will have to pay $120 - $100 = $20 "Fare Difference" + $40 change fee. If the fare is the same, then no fare difference.

Same day change is $50 flat fee, no fare difference but so long as there is space available for sale in T+ for that flight, regardless of the price. If no T+ seat, gate waitlisting is not permitted though. That's my understanding and also personal experience.

As for upgrade chances, don't forget those travelling on Passes and eligible for upgrade to J at the 24 hours window!

Is there any way to find out which plane will be used on AC1163 for tomorrow morning, i.e. 25 or 30 seats in biz class, or will it be a surprise when I get to the airport?

As of now - 24J - XM 763.

They changed it! Guess that's why the seatmap is no longer available.

Thanks for the help.