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Home  >  Air Canada  >  Any Thoughts On How To Use My Expiring Air Canada eUpgrades?
Air Canada

Any Thoughts On How To Use My Expiring Air Canada eUpgrades?

Matthew Klint Posted onDecember 17, 2022December 16, 2022 17 Comments

I am currently an Air Canada Aeroplan 75K member and have 40 eUpgrades left that expire in mid-January. It seems unlikely I will be able to use any of them, but want to make sure I am not missing anything obvious.

Should I Just Let My Air Canada eUpgrades Expire?

Air Canada has a fairly complex, yet intuitive, eUpgrade system. Elite members of Aeroplan are alloted a certain number of upgrades each year based on their status. One-way upgrades can run anywhere from 1 eUpgrade (when upgrading a shorthaul flight to premium economy) to as much as 26 (when upgrading from economy class to business class on a flight over 5,000 miles).

I am traveling to Germany before 20 eUpgrades expire on 15 January and 20 more on 16 January and I have not booked my ticket yet. But while that might have been the perfect solution, my family is traveling with me, I can only use the upgrades for myself, and I am not going to travel via Toronto or Montreal in economy class with my kids (since my wife would get the upgrade…) when I can travel nonstop on SWISS or potentially upgrade the whole family using PlusPoints on United Airlines.

And I won’t be back before that date so it is not like I can somehow take a quick mileage run when I return, as I did in January of this year.


> Read More: O Air Canada – One Day, Three Hubs, Four Flights, Six Lounges


Certainly, I have a couple of trips in mind.

I wanted to review Air Canada’s new Vancouver – Bangkok flight, with a flight time of 15 hours, 55 minutes traveling westbound, but there is no time for that. Plus, if I am going to fly out of Vancouver, I want to do it on a ticket that allows access to Air Canada’s Signature Suite.

So yeah…no time for even a trip to Toronto to review the Park Hyatt there Air Canada made clear it is not granting status or upgrade extensions this year.

It seems I am out of luck.

CONCLUSION

I let my American Airlines systemwide upgrades expire earlier this year then promptly needed them after. The same thing will probably occur here. But the mid-January expiration date makes it hard. Unless you see something or can suggest something that I have missed, it appears these will just expire.

image: Air Canada

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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17 Comments

  1. Sam Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 11:14 am

    You can use EUpgrades on companions on the same booking!

    • DMoney Reply
      December 19, 2022 at 3:16 pm

      You can also use them for a third guest, who doesn’t need to be on the same PNR, at the airport (that guest has to be traveling on the same flight). That process is far more complicated and and those upgrades don’t clear until boarding time, so not recommended if you need assurance that you’ll be sitting in upgraded cabin.

  2. Bob Jones Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 11:56 am

    How are you going to use United PlusPoints on Swiss?

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      December 17, 2022 at 12:50 pm

      I’d travel United if I could use PlusPoints.

  3. K A Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 1:33 pm

    Its too bad the program wont let you upgrade others. Id happily purchase a few over the holidays!

  4. Christian Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 3:53 pm

    Damn, mine are expiring too. Thanks for raising the subject. At least now I’ll know what happened to them.

  5. YULtide Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 4:03 pm

    It is not true that you can only use eUpgrade credits for yourself. You can use them to upgrade everyone on your itinerary. Your best option is often to book a Latitude fare (even with points) and upgrade immediately upon booking.

    The trouble here is that with only 40 credits left you don’t have enough to upgrade 4 pax trans-Atl, not that you can’t use them for others. There are certainly ways to use the credits, but not to Germany with your family.

    Since you’re interested in BKK and want to use the Signature Suite in YVR, why not book YVR-BKK in J and the return in O or Y and upgrade the return flight, as there is no Signature Suite in BKK to miss?

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      December 21, 2022 at 9:22 pm

      My understanding is that you cannot upgrade everyone on the same itinerary. Instead, you are limited to one companion and then one more at the airport (when the R space is likely gone). For my family of four, this does not work.

  6. Jody Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 4:13 pm

    Are there any premium Aeroplan credit cards in the US? In Canada, there are at least 2 premium cards (AMEX Aeroplan Reserve and TD Aeroplan Privilege) that allow you to roll-over up to 50 aeroplan e-upgrades to the following year, so you don’t lose them.

    • DMoney Reply
      December 19, 2022 at 3:09 pm

      Only if those eUpgrades were “earned” through the status that was “earned”. It won’t work for Matthew since he used status match to get his 75k status. Also, there is a third premium CC from – CIBC

    • DMoney Reply
      December 19, 2022 at 3:13 pm

      Also, the terms say that you should be a card holder as of Dec 15 to be eligible for those credits to roll-over (subject to my previous comment), so Matthew lost that option even before publishing this post.

      Second, an more important detail – even if your credits were eligible for roll-over, AC will let those credits expire at the current expiry date, and re-instate those at some point before March 31st. So, you can’t even use those credits right now for any bookings after Jan 15th of next year

  7. Zara Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 4:56 pm

    Hey Matt – send the E upgrade credits my way!!!

  8. Jetsetter Jason Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 5:54 pm

    Apply for the Aeroplan elite amex card and them they never expire

  9. Willem Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 6:30 pm

    Latitude bookings originating in Europe will likely be your best shot for a good price, and the security of upgrading at the time of booking

  10. Zab Reply
    December 17, 2022 at 7:03 pm

    Why not get a card that allows you to roll them over?

  11. Alison Reply
    December 18, 2022 at 6:09 pm

    Matthew, I am in exactly the same position you are! Hhmmm . . . I’ll stay tuned to the comments here for tips from my fellow readers. The end of the year comes so quickly.

  12. Jerry Reply
    December 19, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    I was excited to use my AC status this year, but ACs fares out of AUS and IAH were just consistently too high. I went to Nova Scotia a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t find anything that would work on AC (in Y) for under $700. I used AAdvantage miles, 7,500 each way, and all my upgrades cleared.

    I enjoyed taking a random mileage run to YYZ last fall, but it certainly turned out to be a waste of time.

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