By Sol Zia - SE100K Million Miler and occasional contributor to Rewards Canada
And so it continues…Those of you who have flown on AC this week, or saw the post on Air Canada, AC is implementing Zone seating like WestJet, United and many other carriers already do. I’ve been lamenting on Rewards Canada about how the new Altitude program is a very convenient way to erode the value proposition to what used to be AC Elite (35K to 99.9K on AC/Star Alliance). The Zones push the separation further. It used be all Biz Class, Elite (35, 50 and 75) and SE100K could board at the same time. With the new Zones Biz Class and SE100k board first (Zone 1) followed by Elites (no mention of Prestige 25K), Star Alliance Gold, Premium Economy, Latitude, TD and CIBC Aeroplan card holders (Zone 2). Zones 3, 4, 5 board next. Why 3, 4 and 5? I predict it won’t be long before lower distance Elites are moved to Zone 3 or worse. “Want Zone 2? Well you better put fly another 15K on AC if you want that…”
Screen shots from AirCanada.com about the new boarding process:
Have you flown Air Canada this week and experienced the new boarding by zone process? What are you thoughts about it? Let our readers and us know by commenting below!
I'm E50K, so I boarded in Zone 2 this week. On the YYZ-IAH flight, there were about 10 Zone 1's and fairly low stress (we hung back and joined the line as the Zone 1's were done). On the IAH-YYZ flight, they called Zone 1+2 together, so no difference from what used to happen.
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