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Purchasing (Cash/Award) AC Premium Economy on UA ticket stock (016)

Purchasing (Cash/Award) AC Premium Economy on UA ticket stock (016)

Old Oct 20, 2014, 5:44 am
  #1  
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Question Purchasing (Cash/Award) AC Premium Economy on UA ticket stock (016)

Hello,

Long-time lurker, first time poster.

I am planning to purchase tickets on UA RT CMH-CPH for early next year and the return flights appear to be on AC metal. I have the benefit of E+ on the outbound UA flights but want to pay to upgrade to AC's Premium Economy for the return CPH-YYZ leg. It appears that the cheapest fare will ticket in class S.

Once I purchase the ticket and get my AC PCN number would it be possible to contact AC to pay the additional amount to upgrade to Prem Econ? Is there a better way to accomplish this?

Thanks in advance!!!!

Jimbo
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 8:14 am
  #2  
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First of all, Welcome to FT!

As far as I know, you can not buy premium economy on any carrier through UA. Since they don't sell it themselves, their system really just isn't set up for it.

AC will be unable to let you buy up to their premium economy in advance. For one thing, they will not have control of the ticket until the day of the flight (and the flight on AC), so wouldn't be able to make any changes.

Even if they could make changes, with the ticket on UAs stock, they wouldn't be able to tie any purchases to the ticket. Its the same reason why, if you buy a ticket through UA that books into Tango class on AC, even AC will not be able to let you buy a seat selection or any other of the other ancilliary items (pre-buy bob, etc.), or allow you to purchase one of the seats closer to the front that cost more.

If you want to buy into premium economy at time of ticketing, unless there's some other way around I don't know of, you'll need to buy the ticket with AC. Alternatively, if seats are still available on the day of, you may get an offer to buy up, but of course, not guaranteed that there will even be seats in that cabin at that time.

And just want to correct your terminology - I believe you are referring to AC PNR in your last paragraph.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 9:10 am
  #3  
 
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Just a heads up on AC PE.

It's only available on "Rouge" (which is actually business, but the product itself is more like PE) and on the AC mainline 777 and 787, neither of which seem to fly to CPH (at least for the search I did in Feb). So that may answer your query there.

Furthermore, AC doesn't treat it's PE like UA treats E+. It's not an upgrade or a seat selection thing. AC has "preferred seats" for that type of distinction. The legroom is the same, but the row is more desirable or it's bulkhead/exit row. That you can do prior or day of (if any of the seats are still available), though you'll have to pay as it's not free for *G.

PE at AC is like a 3rd tier. Econ, Econ (with a preferred seat), Premium Econ and Business. So it's something that has to be bought when buying the ticket and it increases the fare a lot. I'm not sure what booking class it shows up as, but you'd have to book directly into that class then pick your seat from the 2-3 rows of PE accordingly.

Tl;dr...no you can't just pay-up to PE at Air Canada. You can only pay-up to a preferred seat. You may be offered a last minute upgrade to buy into PE/J (not sure if they do em for PE) but IMO those are usually insanely expensive for what you get and I'm not sure how often they're offered since we have so many people using their current upgrade instruments to bump up.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 9:26 am
  #4  
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Originally Posted by drvannostren
Just a heads up on AC PE.

It's only available on "Rouge" (which is actually business, but the product itself is more like PE) and on the AC mainline 777 and 787, neither of which seem to fly to CPH (at least for the search I did in Feb). So that may answer your query there.

Furthermore, AC doesn't treat it's PE like UA treats E+. It's not an upgrade or a seat selection thing. AC has "preferred seats" for that type of distinction. The legroom is the same, but the row is more desirable or it's bulkhead/exit row. That you can do prior or day of (if any of the seats are still available), though you'll have to pay as it's not free for *G.

PE at AC is like a 3rd tier. Econ, Econ (with a preferred seat), Premium Econ and Business. So it's something that has to be bought when buying the ticket and it increases the fare a lot. I'm not sure what booking class it shows up as, but you'd have to book directly into that class then pick your seat from the 2-3 rows of PE accordingly.
According to AC's website, PE will in fact be available from YYZ-CPH beginning at the end of October through Dec. 31. It is a traditional PE product, with a larger seat and other amenities. AC Premium Economy.

But that doesn't change the fact that you probably can't get it on a ticket purchased through UA.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 9:51 am
  #5  
 
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You can't purchase it on a ticket purchased through united.com but you might be able to purchase it by ringing up United and asking them. United.com will only show you the flights as United codeshare segments using United fares but they have the ability to sell tickets with segments on any IATA airline using any published fares, not only flights that have United codeshares. An agent on the phone might be willing to price your ticket using an AC fare in a PE fare class.

You should still get your EQD as the ticket will still be on United stock. In theory United shouldn't care as I believe the route is included in the TATL joint venture so they should get the same money in the end.

Whether they're actually willing to do that will depend on their policies.

Incidentally you might be surprised at the price of AC PE. As the other poster mentioned it's treated as a whole other class and is closer to the price of discount business than economy. I've never flown it so I can't answer whether it's worth it and in any case that's a personal decision.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 10:26 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by drvannostren
Just a heads up on AC PE.

It's only available on "Rouge" (which is actually business, but the product itself is more like PE) and on the AC mainline 777 and 787, neither of which seem to fly to CPH (at least for the search I did in Feb). So that may answer your query there.

Furthermore, AC doesn't treat it's PE like UA treats E+. It's not an upgrade or a seat selection thing. AC has "preferred seats" for that type of distinction. The legroom is the same, but the row is more desirable or it's bulkhead/exit row. That you can do prior or day of (if any of the seats are still available), though you'll have to pay as it's not free for *G.

PE at AC is like a 3rd tier. Econ, Econ (with a preferred seat), Premium Econ and Business. So it's something that has to be bought when buying the ticket and it increases the fare a lot. I'm not sure what booking class it shows up as, but you'd have to book directly into that class then pick your seat from the 2-3 rows of PE accordingly.

Tl;dr...no you can't just pay-up to PE at Air Canada. You can only pay-up to a preferred seat. You may be offered a last minute upgrade to buy into PE/J (not sure if they do em for PE) but IMO those are usually insanely expensive for what you get and I'm not sure how often they're offered since we have so many people using their current upgrade instruments to bump up.
This is not correct - Premium Economy on AC is a distinct cabin on select 777 and 787 aircraft, and only available on the limited routes these aircraft fly.

The Rouge product is completely different when it comes to preferred seating, ie larger seats, more legroom, which is not the same Premium Economy product.

There is no upgrade path from UA - it needs to be bought outright, generally on ac.com or through a travel agent.
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Old Oct 22, 2014, 1:58 pm
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Not exactly sure this is a comparable situation, but I recently purchased an AC ticket from UA for a flight in November from Halifax to Montreal.

I noticed that my seats were not assigned and I call AC to try to confirm them. After speaking with the AC agent, I had to call UA and get my AC record number (which was distinctly different than the UA one), provide it to the AC agent, at which point the AC agent was able to charge me $26 to assign seats for me and my fiance.

I would assume you could use the same strategy since you are willing to pay for seating.

Let us know how it goes.

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Last edited by Davesays1; Oct 22, 2014 at 1:59 pm Reason: added footer
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Old Oct 22, 2014, 2:27 pm
  #8  
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Originally Posted by Davesays1
Not exactly sure this is a comparable situation, but I recently purchased an AC ticket from UA for a flight in November from Halifax to Montreal.

I noticed that my seats were not assigned and I call AC to try to confirm them. After speaking with the AC agent, I had to call UA and get my AC record number (which was distinctly different than the UA one), provide it to the AC agent, at which point the AC agent was able to charge me $26 to assign seats for me and my fiance.

I would assume you could use the same strategy since you are willing to pay for seating.

Let us know how it goes.

Follow me on Twitter @Davesays1
This won't work in the OP's situation if they are buying a coach ticket and trying to get a seat in Premium Economy (not the Rouge product) - PE is a separate booking class and would need a re-issue of the ticket.
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 11:02 am
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OP-Not trying to hijack your original thread

Recently booked United Award travel with a segment on AC, and they are telling me that there system will not allow me to purchase preferred seating because it was booked through United on points. I have spoken with a few CSR from AC and they are all saying the same thing. Anybody have this problem or know of a work around?
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 12:28 pm
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Originally Posted by navynuke
OP-Not trying to hijack your original thread

Recently booked United Award travel with a segment on AC, and they are telling me that there system will not allow me to purchase preferred seating because it was booked through United on points. I have spoken with a few CSR from AC and they are all saying the same thing. Anybody have this problem or know of a work around?
No workaround. Doesn't matter if it's an award ticket or bought with cash. Also doesn't matter if it's bought from UA or another non-AC carrier. I had a paid flight on AC last year bought through LH, and despite several HUACAs and a message to their Twitter account, no matter what I was given the same response. There was no way for AC to sell me the seat upgrade.
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 12:54 pm
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Originally Posted by navynuke
OP-Not trying to hijack your original thread

Recently booked United Award travel with a segment on AC, and they are telling me that there system will not allow me to purchase preferred seating because it was booked through United on points. I have spoken with a few CSR from AC and they are all saying the same thing. Anybody have this problem or know of a work around?
This is probably a better question for the AC forum - sounds like it is a limitation on their end.

Might be able to buy up at the airport
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 2:05 pm
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Originally Posted by navynuke
OP-Not trying to hijack your original thread

Recently booked United Award travel with a segment on AC, and they are telling me that there system will not allow me to purchase preferred seating because it was booked through United on points. I have spoken with a few CSR from AC and they are all saying the same thing. Anybody have this problem or know of a work around?
It isn't just AC that won't let you buy up to their version of Economy Comfort if you are on an award ticket booked through United. If anybody knows a United partner airline that will allow this, please post it.
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 2:49 pm
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Originally Posted by navynuke
OP-Not trying to hijack your original thread

Recently booked United Award travel with a segment on AC, and they are telling me that there system will not allow me to purchase preferred seating because it was booked through United on points. I have spoken with a few CSR from AC and they are all saying the same thing. Anybody have this problem or know of a work around?
Maybe I got lucky, or got the one incredible agent in AC's employ, but I did this exact thing a couple weeks ago, and I have the seat assignments to prove it. UA award booking CPH>YYZ on AC coming up in July, and we're now in preferred seating after paying the $75/seat upcharge. After the transaction took place I went to the AC website and our seat assignments had indeed been changed to the exit row.

So I'm proof that it's possible. May not be easy though.
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Old May 18, 2015, 2:17 pm
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Booking Premium Economy on Air Canada

Is there any way to book a Premium Economy seat on Air Canada through the united.com website?
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Old May 18, 2015, 2:23 pm
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Originally Posted by nycityny
Is there any way to book a Premium Economy seat on Air Canada through the united.com website?
Nope.
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