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Airline Geek Stuff Part I
So we had some upgrade certificates to use for our flight back to
Toronto on Monday (which we couldn?t use on the way over here because
the flight was fully booked).
This is how it works. Everyone who has upgrade certificates (and
there?s more people than you would think) can call the Air Canada
reservation?s desk and ask to be upgraded on a specific flight.
When you can call depends on your status with the airline. So for
example, Super Elites (I wish) can call 7 days in advance and use their
certificates to guarantee an upgrade, Elite members (that?s us) can
call 4 days in advance and Prestige members (silver) can call 2 days in
advance. Basically the sooner you call, the higher the chances of
there being seats available. So what you find is that on Thursday
morning all the Elite passengers who have upgrade certificates are
trying to call the office and book those precious seats for Monday's
flights (bearing in mind you can only upgrade into first class if there
are seats available there ? so everyone is vying for the spare seats).
Now here?s why I love the internet. The UK office doesn?t open
until 9.30am when everyone in the UK tries to call in? but this got me
thinking? it becomes Thursday at lots of different times around the
world. Take Hong Kong for example. They are 8 hours ahead
of GMT so at 12.30am UK time it?s 8.30am in Hong Kong? coincidently
that?s the time that the Hong Kong branch opens at. So using Skype
I called Hong Kong this morning and got our upgrades booked hours
before the UK branch opened, thus beating the queues. I love the
internet!
Originally published on 2005-11-03 22:49:38 by Alyn Jones
Last edited on 2005-11-04 10:03:33 by Alyn Jones
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Visitor Comments:
Left by Andy B on 2005-11-04 09:45:29 #
Not sure whether to congratulate you on your ingenuity (impressive as it is) or pray for you.
Left by Alyn on 2005-11-04 09:52:27 #
Hey! Do both!
Actually on the ingenuity front I was thinking that I undershot. I could have called Australia or New Zealand to glean those extra precious hours...
Left by Andy B on 2005-11-04 15:19:06 #
Sad to say I had actually thought of the antipodean connection. Does that make me as ingenious/sad as you?
Left by shannon on 2005-11-05 04:09:31 #
i'm impressed. seriously.
you smarty-pants (that's 2-yr-old talk for 'geek').
Left by Adele myfanwe blog fan Richards on 2005-11-05 17:47:56 #
heh heh heh....we have to use TIME ITSELF to beat Air Canada at their own game....
(when I say we...obviously I mean you...love your style Jones!)
Left by Adele myfanwe blog fan Richards on 2005-11-05 17:50:52 #
By the way, now being in new zealand, i could end up writing a comment on your blog before you've even written it. how about that for prophetic time travelly clever stuff boyo??
P.s who is sarah who is coming to/is in NZ?
xx
Left by Gary Morgan on 2005-11-05 22:02:16 #
That Adele, would be the fantastic and most beautiful, Sarah Johns, who is from NZ (Wellington) but has been spending most of this year in USA. If you would like me to hook you up, just drop us an email... Hope all is well with you!
Left by Andrew Gaz on 2005-11-04 04:53:34 #
wow Alyn, you get some serious geek-respect from me
;-)