Lots of I space to HKG these days
 

Mulling over how best to utilize my 4 remaining SSWU and I noticed lots of I space (I9) for AC flights YYZ-HKG in February (both direct and via Vancouver). I'm used to seeing I < 2 and often I = 0 months out on this route.

I guess the economy is taking a harsh toll on business travel between NA and Asia. On the plus side, for those who haven't abandoned AC yet due to the IKK changes, upgrades should be easy to secure.

SG

I think the fact that AC’s significant increase of the “U” fare on this route has something to do with it too. “U” used to be about C$2,500 all-in and many bought “U” instead of playing aerolotto. I used to be one of them. Most of the time, with some advance planning, I can always find "U" availability on this route (outside the upgrade window). “U” is now >C$5,000 at <5% difference with the discount business class fare. AC has pushed this group to either downgrade to play aerolotto, or upgrade to buy discount business class. In the latter case, many have gone to business class of other Star Alliance or One World airlines at much cheaper and better than buying AC “U” to use SWU. I am one of them.

A sign of the times- I guess....

Travelling this weekend to NRT on AC001- the flight seems pretty full according to Seatcounter, though there are still 4 J seat left. It will be interesting to see the loads on flights over the next few months.

Y, M, U on the HKG run doesn't make much sense anymore. But flying to somewhere else via HKG (such as BKK or SIN) does still seems to work.

Otherwise I agree that buying a discounted business fare with another airline makes better sense then trying to buy Latitude. I do think this explains the availability of I space on AC's HKG run.

I don't think flying to BKK on a U fare makes sense, it still costs about $3,600 from YVR, when it was just over $2,000 it did make sense :D.

AC has put the price if U and M up to much. get discounted Business class on another airline ;) save money ^

I've never flown to Asian, so didn't realize U/M class was over $5000 return. That's a bit much, isn't it?
You said it used to bed $2200 return? Are there destinations that are still roughly $2200 return in U/M class that is long haul? like europe or SA?

Well, I can help to answer one of your questions. Around 2004 or 2005, M class was priced at around $400 (RT) above the price of a Q class fare. IIRC, it was an extra $100 for each higher class of fare from Q to V to H to B to M. Back then, Q was selling for around $1400/1500. I never understood them completely though the "M" fare was not truly an "M" fare but an "upsell" of an H fare for about $200 extra.

I paid $2K YOW-HKG-YVR-YOW in December. This past Tuesday was the 4 days out for a SSWU cert upgrade and I had to 'settle' for non-window pods. Sigh... (It was really funny because the agent started the sentence with "I'm sorry" and my heart sank and when I realized I was only giving up a window I was dancing around the house!)

This is only the first two legs of an itinerary that includes two overnights in a row, so we are thrilled that all legs are now in J (the second itinerary is a RTW in J.)

I was really surprised to have no difficulty with the upgrade. Hope the economy is still depressed so I'll be able upgrade on the way back in April!

Not regarding upgrade spaces, but just plugged in some dates for this month and YYZ-HKG rt is selling for under $5,000 CDN before taxes & fuel, etc in Z class. Wow I have never seen prices for this route for under $7,000 CDN. Gotta be the sorry global economy for them to take such actions.

Could someone explain why a flight thru HKG to Singapore is $4100 and a flight to HKG on the same plane is $5400,(lattitude plus) makes no sense.

This has been asked time and time and time again on this forum, usually people ask why it is cheaper to fly somewhere int'l on AC from the US via Canada, than Canada direct.

Airline ticket prices have nothing (or at least very little) to do with the actual cost to the airline of getting you from point A to point B; it is all based on supply/demand. From what I can tell, you need to look at the number of competitors (and their prices) for the specific origin and destination involved, and not concern yourself with specific transit points (I believe that this is why many fares have HIP checks in case of stopover). Canada-HKG and Canada-SIN apparently have fairly different price points as those markets are different.

Demand, sure.

But in our near-monopoly/duopoly situation, on many routes, supply is totally managed. A market it is not. More like, AC grabs as much as they can. Adapts offer so as to make sure it's somewhat below demand.