djoseph

You wouldn't be able to do it before 24H anyways unless you had someone go above the rules to do it. With YHZ being contracted customer service that's highly unlikely so you aren't missing out by not going out. I'd suggest trying at YHZ when you arrive to fly out. Not much you can do.

Halifax718

Thanks for the advice, appreciate it!

Fingers x'd that I'm offered something at check in, since I'm leaving from Halifax in the morning I'll be able to check into the reservation around 35 hours before the Toronto>London leg!

goldenpup

We also bought PE tickets using a companion voucher YLW to LGW via YYC. We could bid for an upgrade and put in a high bid, higher end of "good". Seemed to be several seats available in business. We were also declined. Frustratingly we had issues checking in on line as I wanted to see if we could upgrade then but for some reason there were glitches in our booking, Westjet respond quickly to Twitter DMs and after a few minutes and doing "something" twice, I could check in but it was too late for an upgrade. We thought the reason we were declined was the companion voucher but couldn't understand why it was offered. I also wonder if status has an influence, my OH was silver, but will be gold for our next trip, we will see if it makes a difference.

Halifax718

So it seems to be an issue when a companion voucher is used. Too bad I can't find it in print anywhere, only your experience and from 2 different agents on the phone.

Hopefully I'll get an offer to upgrade when I go to check in, if not so be it. I'm only frustrated with the fact that we were prepared to bid the max, it allowed us to, and we were denied.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

goldenpup

We looked as well and couldn't see anything, good luck at check in, I hope you are successful!

Halifax718

Hey folks, just thought that I'd update for those following. Received check-in email this morning (24 hours before start of FIRST leg of trip YHZ-YYZ). Clicked the [Upgrade Seats] button, and it let me choose 2 seats in business class (PODS).

Went through the rest of the check-in and was charged $738 at the end of the check in. At $369 a seat it only cost $19 more than min bid. I still don't know why they didn't accept my max bid of $650, so that remains a mystery.
In the end, it works out that I paid a little less, however I think I would have preferred to know that our bid was accepted 4 days ago

Thanks for the opinions and advice on this one, if nothing else, I've learned that its buyer beware when you are travelling on a companion voucher and attempt to upgrade to business.

Cheers!

pastorash

Thank you all, put in a minimum bid on a quiet YYZ-YQR route and it was accepted. The number of people in Premium went from 1 to 2, so obviously mine was the only bid.

mike88m

This is for complimentary upgrade as an elite member. You cannot get a free 2 cabin upgrade as gold/platinum. For J on trasncon, elites must book into PY. And only on single pax PNR.

YEGTigger

We have a direct flight from YYC to CUN tomorrow on the 787. We were in premium and we had used a companion voucher for the trip. We put in the minimum bid for an upgrade from Premium to Business (pods) at $505. Not accepted. Today at check in, the upgrade was offered at $399. Grabbed it and saved $212 between the two of us. I'll take it, but I would rather have had the confirmation to the seat (and a better seat selection) earlier, but I'll still take the Pod for a 5 hour flight at a lower cost.

smilee

YEGTiger I don't know why it didn't take your minimum bid for the upgrade on the 787. My understanding from reading this thread is that when you are on a companion voucher, that the bid from premium to J doesn't seem to take hold.Halifax718 had a similar experience just a few days ago. Perhaps someone else can chime on if they have had success with bidding while on a companion voucher from Premium to Business.

arf04

We did not have success on a bid upgrade from PE to business on YYC-LGW recently. We were on a companion fare. We bid above the minimum by about $120 with the thinking being that in the end we were quite interested in upgrading. I did note in the days leading up to the flight that there were two empty seats showing in business class, and also two showing for sale. The one way price for those seats on the website was around $3800. I assume that one reason to reject a bid is to keep seats open for sale and thus to generate more revenue. Of course, it is possible that the companion fare simply eliminated us from a successful bid upgrade. However, the two seats remained up filled and for sale right up to check in time, so I assume nobody else had a successful bid either. At check in, however, we were offered business class seats for $448 per person, so a decent savings in the end for us.

sdophoto

Strange I received the email to bid to upgrade for my flight next Saturday. When I check there are no premium seats available for purchase on that flight. Why would I receive the upgrade email? Is it because maybe it is available on my return flight in 3 weeks?

pastorash

Does anyone know if you paid for seat selection in economy and have a successful bid upgrade to premium do you get refunded your money for the seat selection in economy?

V1213

I'm onboard WS656 in Business right now, after a successful bid upgrade from Premium booked using a companion voucher. I bid $10 above minimum and was awarded about 5 days ahead of the flight.

Note that my companion was unable to get their boarding pass online for this leg (although the prior connecting leg checked-in normally), so we had to collect their boarding pass at the lounge in Calgary. The system apparently had some issue as a result of the upgrade (I assume it couldn't handle that the companion base fare was $0?), requiring the lounge staff to make a few calls to get it sorted while we lounged.

My check-in was normal, and I received boarding passes for both legs online. Very weird having problems with just one of the passengers for one of the legs when we're traveling together on the same [companion voucher] booking.

pastorash

I'm anxiously watching this as we have PE booked from YYZ to LGW and are hoping to upgrade to Business. We are also on a companion voucher and plan to bid on the seats closer to the date.