Air Canada eUpgrades: How Does Waitlist Ranking Work?

If you’re unable to confirm an eUpgrade prior to your flight, you’ll be placed on a waitlist for an upgrade at the gate.

For everyone who’s waitlisted, a list is created that shows the priority ranking for the upgrade request, which is eventually cleared at the gate.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at how the eUpgrade waitlist rankings are established. 

1. Cabin Class of Original Booking

When determining the priority rankings for waitlisted eUpgrade requests, the most important factor is the original cabin class the ticket was purchased in. 

Anyone who purchases a Premium Economy seat to begin with will have priority ranking over all tickets booked on Economy fares. 

Therefore, if you have a lower status and you want to have the best odds at snagging an upgrade on a hotly contested route, such as morning flights between Toronto and Vancouver or on flights to London, your only hope is by booking into the Premium Economy cabin to begin with.

For example, a passenger with 25K status who books in the Premium Economy cabin to begin with will be ranked higher on the eUpgrade waitlist than a Super Elite booked in economy.

Furthermore, it doesn’t matter if you book a premium economy flight with Aeroplan points or cash – you’ll still be waitlisted higher than anyone who used points or cash to book in economy.

On the eUpgrade waitlist screen, you can get a sense of which passengers are waitlisted from premium economy by comparing the list of names in the business class and premium economy sections.

If a name appears twice, then they’ve almost certainly booked into economy to begin with, and you’ll be ranked higher than them. However, anyone whose name appears only on the business class waitlist is likely looking for an upgrade from premium economy.

If they’re ranked higher than you, then there are other factors at play, which are outlined below.

2. Aeroplan Elite Status and Credit Cards

The next factor that determines your position in the waitlist is a combination of your Aeroplan Elite Status and whether or not you hold a co-branded Aeroplan credit card.  

Each status tier follows the same ranking order, which is outlined below.

Those with higher statuses have priority on the waitlist over those with lower statuses, and those with a co-branded credit card will have priority over someone with the same status without a co-branded…