On virtually most flights that anywhere AC flies, during the summer months, no D class award seats are available for Elite members, as per the Aeroplan agent, and as per the web site.
Question - is there anything one can do to be able to access such seats (perhaps in a manner that Y class seats are available to Elites, and Y and J class seats are available to SuperElitess?).Wait until a few days before the flight. If they expect some seats to go empty, they might open them up for you. They won't give them away if they think they can sell them.
The D class seats are available (there isn't a blackout), but they have to be booked several months in advance.We were discussing this a few days ago, and it still wasn't clear that you could request a D class booking if you had *no* D segments on the trip. There's no problem if at least one segment is D, then you're eligible for standby on the non-D segments with high priority.
Also, when I was making award reservations yesterday and asked about switching flights or standing by for D, I was advised to call very close to flight time to find out about availability.Academic is correct to note that you cannot get a D-class ticket with only W-class confirmed space. You must have D-class confirmed segments on your file, then the ticket will be issued on a D-class fare basis, even if the rest of the segments are only confirmed in Y. The appropriate number of miles for a D-class ticket will be withdrawn from your account. Otherwise, your standby approach won't work.There's no problem if at least one
segment is D, then you're eligible for standby on the non-D segments with high priority.
I remember that we can normally book D fare with W class seats if you are willing to take the risk. Granted, this info dated back to last year, so things could be different now.
Nonetheless, the problem quoted above is easy to solve for people living outside of Toronto. In the case of the original poster, he lives in Ottawa, what he needs to do is to get a Rapidair flight award connection between YOW-YYZ in D class very easily at almost 99.99% of chance of success and the rest can be W and stand by for D with no problem. No matter which destinations he's going where J is offered, almost all these flights have to connect via YYZ.
So wouldn't that solve the problem?Try the old dirty trick: If you don't mind end up in Economy if there is absolutely no J seats available, then choose a date where you see lots of J/C seats available (with an acceptable level of Y seats open). As you approach your departure date, use Elite's special privilege to force a W class (Y-award) seats by paying D class fare. That means the fare basis of your award will be D while the class booked is W. So you'll be paying the award level of D (Business-award) but seats confirmed in W class only. However, you will have the highest stand-by priority at the airport to get into any empty Business Class seats.
Alternatively, make a deal with a SE member on this board. He/she can book for you an award and you can arrange details on how to compensate him or how to trade your awards.Elite awards are a hoax for anyone that travels predominantly in J. Only non time-consuming etc way to deal with it is to ticket on some other flight, and show up and check-in for the one you want. You will likely be no-rec'd on, or put on priority standby based on your SE/E/P/A status.
I should say though: They are very good about opening up Y seats for Elites, but thats only good for people looking to travel in that class of service.#If you have any other info about this subject , Please add it free.# |
|
January 9, 2009 | kpbk.com | edit
