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Air Canada eUpgrades: How Much Are They Worth?
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Thanks for this very helpful article – it’s always helpful to quantify the value, especially as my Amex Aeroplan Reserve renewal date approaches. One question – I recently got a reminder of the fact that eups are only valid for travel during the year they were issued when I booked a latitude fare and ran into an error message when trying to apply eups since the flight is in Feb next year. When do the new eups for 2023 get posted to accounts, my recollection is that it was late December last year? Thanks!
Hi Dave! Yes, your eUpgrades need to be valid for the date of travel. If you’ve renewed your status for 2023, you’ll get new eUps in early January. Your eUps from this year (up to 50) will rollover with your Reserve card, but that won’t be until later on in January at the earliest.
This October 2022 update deserves a slow clap. Thanks for distilling all the data for us!
Thanks Leon!
Hi, I was wondering if I booked a flight to China, with a stop at Japan (not sure if required stop or I intentionally add stop), will eupgrade apply towards both segments or single segment? I ask because China would be over 5000 mile.
The eUpgrade will only apply to the Air Canada segment – they cannot be used for upgrades on partner airlines.
So if my wife and I wished to travel business class from Vancouver to Barcelona (to meet a cruise ship) would it be appropriate from a cost benefit anaysis to use our points to upgrade?
I haven’t used points to bid for an upgrade, but it’s definitely worth looking into for a long-haul flight!
So all new to this and aeroplan. Signed up for td card, do you get eups with that as well, or just the points. How do you earn eups. Thanks
Hi! I made a Aeroplan booking for YUL-YVR-AKL roundtrip. Premium Economy (Flexible) to go , and Premium Economy (Lowest) for the return. I’m Aeroplan 25K, I want to use EUpgrades to upgrade the first flight in Business, it shows availability in search result, but when I try to proceed on my ticket, it shows that I would be waitlisted. I cannot complete the process because I have to wait EUpgrades rollover (in march, I hope…). But why the waitlist for the upgrade, I tought it would confirm right away for Premium Flexible. Could it be because of the different fare option?
Sounds like a great use of eUpgrades! As long as you have eUpgrades that are valid for the date of travel, the eUpgrade will process even if it shows ‘Waitlisted’ when you go to confirm. As soon as you confirm, the eUpgrade will process, and you should get an e-mail letting you know. For the other Premium Economy (Lowest) flight, you’ll have to wait for the clearance window, but that shouldn’t affect the Premium Economy (Flexible) flight. Let us know how it goes!
Thanks for the reply. I have 20 eUpgrades expiring on Feb 28th 2021. I just got the Amex Aeroplan Reserve. Do you know when the eUpgrade rollover will apply?
It will happen automatically some time in March 🙂
Should I be worried my eupgrades didn’t rollover, or are other people in the same boat?
Hi Victoria. You aren’t the only one still waiting for your eUpgrades to rollover. But, since it is now April, I don’t think getting in touch with Air Canada is a bad idea. Let us know how it goes!
I received a reply from Air Canada on my inquiry and they said in order for my eupgrades that expired Feb 28 2021 to be rolled over I had to have signed up by Dec 2020 to qualify. I got my card in early Feb so I won’t see a rollover until end of 2022. My understanding was as long as I signed up before they expired they would roll over but I guess I interpreted wrong…
Hi Victoria. On a Zoom chat with Points, Miles, and Bling, the AC execs confirmed that people who applied for a premium card between January 1st and February 28th would be eligible for eUpgrade rollover. You’ll have to contact them directly or hopefully Aeroplan will be able to handle this request in the near future. So, some good news!
Hello T.J. What do you mean by “you can also instantly confirm the upgrade, as Latitude fares are not subject to clearance windows”. How do you go about getting it instantly? I’ve tried this with a flight from SYD. I was told by A.C. rep. that I needed to wait until a week before my flight in Nov, to can a confirmation. I decided to cancel rather than take a chance.
Hello. With Latitude fares, there isn’t a clearance window as there are with other fares. So, if there is eUpgrade space available, your request should confirm instantly. You can find eUpgrade space either on ExpertFlyer (searching for R fares) or on the Air Canada website.
Where exactly does it go from economy to business?
I see no option for selecting my business seat.
I stopped right before paying by credit card.
Yet I was not able to see any change in class.
Am I suppose to press something other than “Continue” ?
Briefly, here’s what to do:
1) check for eUpgrade availability on the search results page on the AC website (Sort and Filter on the Aeroplan results,
2) If eUograde space is available, complete a Latitude booking (it’s fully refundable)
3) in the email that’s sent to you, there is a link for eUpgrade. Follow that link
4) select the flight you’d like to upgrade.
5) confirm eUpgrade, select seats.
Incredibly clear explanation T.J. Thank your for this and the comments on “waitlisted” from 2 weeks ago !
Big thank you. I always thought the emails where just a confirmation. Never went beyond that.
I was planning on using eUps to upgrade my wife and two kids on a flight from Japan… but found out that I can only use them for myself… as I understand it. Even if bought on my account. This is an annoying limitation… unless I got that wrong.
The person with status needs to be on the booking to use eUpgrades. If you are a Super Elite, you can nominate someone to use your eUps on any booking. So, if you are travelling together, you can use them for one other person on the booking, and maybe one more can be requested at the airport.
Great post. I think e-upgrades on awards are a great feature in the new program.
A few notes having booked a dozen or so domestic flights in the new program. I often just comapre the Eco Latitude to Lowest Biz to determine e-up value at a glance.
Occasionally its worth looking at Premium Eco if booking last minute within your clearance window.
Unlike in your examples, I find the Lowest Biz is very often inflated so i think the valuation for domestic will be higher in practice.
Especially the flaghsip routes YYZ/YUL-YYC/YVR. Most of the time the biz lowest seems to be at least 20k more points, sometimes even 100k more when forcing a connection through YYZ from a secondary city at an ideal time of day.
Basically rather than going for the cheapest, I often choose my route first (to ensure wide-body), then my departure/connection/arrival times. So when routing and timing are prioritized, the pricing J pricinc is usually sky high resulting in excellent e-up value.
Lastly, can you guys please consider using a table that is zoom-able so we can choose how much we can view from a mobile device? There is much scrolling up down and side to side in order to see eveything, and no zoom in or out ability.
Thanks for your efforts, keep up the good work 👍
Great points, Mike! Thanks for sharing.
There are indeed many instances of the points cost of business class domestic flights being sky high where you can get excellent eUpgrade value. I’m looking at flights between Toronto and Vancouver later this year and the Latitude + eUp combination would be worth $129 per eUp to J. I’m also happy in PY on that route, though 🙂
I’ve noted your zoomable table request and will discuss it with the team.
Hi TJ,
For YYZ-YVR, why is your cash cost of premium economy (lowest) only $120.00? Is there a mistake here?
My mistake when transcribing the table. Thanks for catching that.
Hi TJ
Very interesting article! Would you consider making your spreadsheet available for calculating effective values of eupgrades under different circumstances?
@Ron,
Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15CpJjJFTv6fHnvYDYx0pU9G2wSY_Wiq9bSgR2Vc8BiU/edit?usp=sharing
I’ll be very honest, my spreadsheet is mostly done with manual calculations. But, I think it would be easy to design an eUp value formula. Stay tuned.
Thanks for posting the DPs. By my calculations, which were more domestic. One used eupgrade is worth around $30. But for practical use, you wouldn’t want to pay money to use the upgrade and you most likely won’t use all the eupgrades. So I value them more like $20. In other words, if you have lots of AP you may not even use the eupgrade option.
Good points. I also found that the value per eUp tended to be lower with domestic bookings. There are, though, pockets of really good value, especially for last minute flights or when the J cost is inflated (assuming eUp space is available).
Yup and thank you T.J. keep it coming with the reporting. 👍
Hi T.J.,
Thanks for this informative post about eupgrade. It looks more and more likely that your later October Australia trip will be cancelled due to the boarder restrictions. To me, making booking during the pandemic has been painful. Every time I book a trip, I know there’s a big chance of cancelling it because of border restrictions. The amount of joy and excitement of booking a trip, and the amount of disappointment and sadness of cancelling the trip, is it worth the effort? I think you know what I mean.
Anyways, great useful post.
Thanks for reading and commenting! I agree with you wholeheartedly – most (if not all) of my speculative trips for 2021 will likely be cancelled. Which is awful. But, I look at it as always having something to look forward to. If the borders open up, we will have beat the rush. But if they remain closed, with free cancellations there’s no cash (or points) lost.