Air Canada Rouge ?

[Yowman]

12 minutes ago, mexico8 said:

We fly often with Rouge and it is not that bad.   For 3 hours it will be fine.  

 

 

And I've flown rouge once.  Never again.  I could not move once in my seat.  Far too little legroom.  For smaller people or for small children rouge is passible IMO

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, Yowman said:

 

 

And I've flown rouge once.  Never again.  I could not move once in my seat.  Far too little legroom.  For smaller people or for small children rouge is passible IMO

I am over 6ft , and over 250 lbs , no problems 😁

[mexico8]

3 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I am over 6ft , and over 250 lbs , no problems 😁

I am not a small person either and fly  Rouge every year to Puerto Vallarta and back with no issues at all.   I used to need a seat belt extender because of my size but I was fine on Rouge.   

[helovestrains]

We have booked premium economy seats on AC Rouge for our 6 hour flight in August.   Hoping the seats are worth the extra cost.  Either way, we'll be on vacation and that works for me.

[LHT28]

19 minutes ago, helovestrains said:

We have booked premium economy seats on AC Rouge for our 6 hour flight in August.   Hoping the seats are worth the extra cost.  Either way, we'll be on vacation and that works for me.

We have used the Premium seating in the past   & they were fine

 

[Yowman]

22 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

We have used the Premium seating in the past   & they were fine

 

 

Yes, premium seating on Rouge is okay

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I have noticed  the the smallest person usually complains the most about the size of the seat 😁

And usually they are the first to recline their seat and even leave like that even they go the wc 

[3CanadianBears]

Air Canada is notorious for over-booking, in our experience.  In fact, our son is currently on a long haul AC flight (booked by his employer), and 3 people were put on standby for the next flight due to overbooking.    

 

If you book/pay for a premium seat I do believe that would guarantee you a seat and if flying AC, I would certainly pay to have the guarantee of a seat. 

[Yowman]

5 minutes ago, 3CanadianBears said:

Air Canada is notorious for over-booking, in our experience.  In fact, our son is currently on a long haul AC flight (booked by his employer), and 3 people were put on standby for the next flight due to overbooking.    

 

If you book/pay for a premium seat I do believe that would guarantee you a seat and if flying AC, I would certainly pay to have the guarantee of a seat. 

 

As far as I'm aware AC does not overbook business class.  Not sure about Premium Economy.  In terms of overbooking they're no different from other airlines.  Most airlines overbook Economy

 

In terms of being bumped out of business class (on AC), it can happen because deadheading pilots need the seat (which is different from overbooking)

Edited June 30, 2023 by Yowman

[Yowman]

2 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I have noticed  the the smallest person usually complains the most about the size of the seat 😁

And usually they are the first to recline their seat and even leave like that even they go the wc 

 

I'm not small and out of the millions of miles I've flown on multiple airlines I can say I find standard Rouge to the most unbearable and uncomfortable of them all.  And I never recline my seat when flying the cheap seats, so I have something going for me 🙂

[3CanadianBears]

 

38 minutes ago, Yowman said:

 

As far as I'm aware AC does not overbook business class.  Not sure about Premium Economy.  In terms of overbooking they're no different from other airlines.  Most airlines overbook Economy

 

In terms of being bumped out of business class (on AC), it can happen because deadheading pilots need the seat (which is different from overbooking)

In my experience, WestJet does not overbook.  In fact they have a policy that they do not overbook.  Not sure about Porter - but I'm hearing a lot of good things about them and may give them a try. 

[dawnvip]

All airlines overbook, because they look at historical numbers of how many passengers miss/cancel their flights at the last minute. The difference is their oversold factor - some will use 1% of seats and others up to 10%! Add in the possibility of an earlier flight cancellation due to crew/maintenance/weather delays and you have a recipie for a lot of unhappy travellers.

 

I do think you are right about not overselling business class though. Part of the extra $$ paid for business includes the ability to cancel/reschedule at the last minute. Usually plenty of people looking for last minute upgrades to fill those seats too!

[Yowman]

17 hours ago, 3CanadianBears said:

 

In my experience, WestJet does not overbook.  In fact they have a policy that they do not overbook.  Not sure about Porter - but I'm hearing a lot of good things about them and may give them a try. 

 

You are correct, WestJet does not overbook:

 

WestJet Policy

 

Unfortunately they seem to be cutting back on service to eastern Canada - one flight per day now YOW-YYZ.  AC and Porter are better choices for eastern Canadians these days, especially as Porter has announced expansion to Victoria and Vancouver with their new E-Jets

Edited July 1, 2023 by Yowman

[Ex-Airbalancer]

It will be interesting to see the pricing once Porter starts flying to FLL 

you can forget about WestJet in Easter Canada , 

if you want to fly on Westjet to the EU from YYZ you have to fly to Calgary first 🤣

I wonder how many people will be dropping their WestJet CC 

 

[Yowman]

3 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

It will be interesting to see the pricing once Porter starts flying to FLL 

you can forget about WestJet in Easter Canada , 

if you want to fly on Westjet to the EU from YYZ you have to fly to Calgary first 🤣

I wonder how many people will be dropping their WestJet CC 

 

 

I'm dropping mine

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I wonder how many people will be dropping their WestJet CC 

Already have. 

[3CanadianBears]

9 hours ago, Yowman said:

 

I'm dropping mine

Keeping mine for now.  We have family in Alberta and will take advantage of the $119.00 companion fare annually.  Used the 2022 voucher for our flight to Vancouver in May (still a direct flight from Ottawa), great to fly at that price.  

[Dismomx5]

On 7/1/2023 at 9:32 AM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

It will be interesting to see the pricing once Porter starts flying to FLL 

you can forget about WestJet in Easter Canada , 

if you want to fly on Westjet to the EU from YYZ you have to fly to Calgary first 🤣

I wonder how many people will be dropping their WestJet CC 

 

Since I fly from a small southwestern Ontario market that gets one flight outbound to Toronto in the morning and a late night (10:30 p.m) inbound flight home, I'll be cancelling mine. I was hoping that I might get one more free flight after I paid the last time, but nothing has shown up. I was surprised. It's always been there within a month of the annual fees being paid. I have flown this year, but on a flight that was booked last year with a companion fare.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

On 6/30/2023 at 3:50 PM, 3CanadianBears said:

 

In my experience, WestJet does not overbook.  In fact they have a policy that they do not overbook.  Not sure about Porter - but I'm hearing a lot of good things about them and may give them a try. 

Porter will over book , was at Toronto and they had announcements ask people to fly another day with an offer of $600 

[mexico8]

Has anyone had any experience with booking Economy or Premium Economy and bidding for a Business class seat before the departure?

 

Also, anyone pay at the departure desk to upgrade from Economy or Premium Economy to Business Class?   We are going to book a flight from Chile in November  with Air Canada (only 2 flights needed to fly to Ottawa) and the cost difference between the flights is quite a bit.  Wondering if we should try to upgrade closer to the flight time or at the airport on day of flight?   Any comments appreciated on the best way to get a Business class seat for less than the going rate of $4,000 each (Canadian $).

[LHT28]

41 minutes ago, mexico8 said:

Has anyone had any experience with booking Economy or Premium Economy and bidding for a Business class seat before the departure?

 

Also, anyone pay at the departure desk to upgrade from Economy or Premium Economy to Business Class?   We are going to book a flight from Chile in November  with Air Canada (only 2 flights needed to fly to Ottawa) and the cost difference between the flights is quite a bit.  Wondering if we should try to upgrade closer to the flight time or at the airport on day of flight?   Any comments appreciated on the best way to get a Business class seat for less than the going rate of $4,000 each (Canadian $).

I have bid  for BIZ class a few years back on Rouge   

closer to the  date   maybe a month out

I just keep checking what seats were available   then when they start to fill up  make a bid

Make sure you do not overbid   or you may as well just book  now

 

We did get  the upsell but  no seats together   this was from Florida  so maybe  Chile  would be  harder to get the upsell

Also watch   the  sales  sometimes they offer a cheaper price  for non refundable BIZ 

 

We did R/T  AMS   & took the lie flat seats  it was not cheap even for non refundable  but well worth it to us old folks

YMMV

[mexico8]

40 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I have bid  for BIZ class a few years back on Rouge   

closer to the  date   maybe a month out

I just keep checking what seats were available   then when they start to fill up  make a bid

Make sure you do not overbid   or you may as well just book  now

 

We did get  the upsell but  no seats together   this was from Florida  so maybe  Chile  would be  harder to get the upsell

Also watch   the  sales  sometimes they offer a cheaper price  for non refundable BIZ 

 

We did R/T  AMS   & took the lie flat seats  it was not cheap even for non refundable  but well worth it to us old folks

YMMV

Thank you.  Hoping we can get something in Business for less than $4,000!     Will keep watching those seats.

[LHT28]

Just now, mexico8 said:

Thank you.  Hoping we can get something in Business for less than $4,000!     Will keep watching those seats.

good luck

Worse case  ask at check in

[Ex-Airbalancer]

11 minutes ago, mexico8 said:

Thank you.  Hoping we can get something in Business for less than $4,000!     Will keep watching those seats.

At $4000 each  for a seat , that is more than our 16 16 night cruise Argentina from Lisbon 😱

[Yowman]

Anecdotal, I know, but my upcoming flights in J on AC are almost sold out a few months in advance.  Given today's load factors and the number of elite AC flyers out there I'm not sure I'd count on an upgrade.

 

Best of luck to those who want to bid on one though