eUpgrades Go Unused and Lessons from the Giveaway

I did my best to give away all of my Air Canada eUpgrades but still I was left with 16. Air Canada does not allow more than 4 nominees for eUpgrades to share and, once a name has been added to the list, it cannot be removed or replaced.

Therefore, the lessons I have learnt (I generalized for the first 2 points):

1. People do not check the e-mail addresses they provide for the contest (I understand that they cannot give the one they currently use – I do the same – but they should check the one they gave to enter the contest or at least re-visit the blog.

For example, this is a comment someone posted when entering the the contest:

“Hello – right now in my office at the Univ. of Pittsburgh.
I volunteered to deliver a two day education workshop at a medical school in Bogota Columbia Feb 21-23. I am taking AC from PIT-YYZ-BOG. Unfortunately the non-profit sponsoring the trip cannot afford business class, despite the red-eye return and a full day of patients after arrival. In other words, I REALLY hope I draw the lucky straw!”

I would have liked to upgrade this person – doing good and karma rewards her/him with a business class seat 🙂 – and I believed the story*, but no reply to my emails (three of them).

*Dialogue from the movie The Untouchables:
Kevin Costner: l’m a Treasury Officer.
Sean Connery: All right. Just remember what we talked about now.
Kevin Costner: Hey… Wait a minute! What the hell kind of police do you have in this goddamn city? You just turned your back on an armed man.
Sean Connery: You’re a Treasury officer.
Kevin Costner: l just told you l was.
Sean Connery: Who would claim to be that, who was not?

2. Requirements are not read. Sometimes I am guilty of it as well, everyone wants to be quick  and efficient.

3. You cannot think of/plan for everything: My plan was to upgrade the chosen person exactly 7 days in advance (better chance of the upgrade clearing), but the respective person upgraded the outbound flight themselves so the system didn’t let me upgrade. In another case, I did it exactly 7 days in advance, the upgrade cleared, but the person got bumped off the flight. He re-booked but then the upgrade didn’t apply.

 However, I will start with a clean slate.

My old list had the following nominees:

1. My wife – she didn’t use any upgrades because we were able to travel on reward points alone.

2. A colleague of mine – she messages me frantically on a Saturday evening whether I can upgrade her for a long flight. I agree to add her on the list, but when I try to upgrade her, it is too early. After some time, she tell me that her husband has checked his account and he has enough upgrades (!?!). Now, from time to time, I ask her whether she needs any Aeroplan miles, Marriott points, Visa points, etc. :).

3. The reader whom I chose here: At least 30 Air Canada eUpgrades to share.

4. The reader who opened an ING account using my referral code after my highly successful campaign*: 17 eUpgrades Air Canada to the reader who opened an ING Account using my Orange Key.
*Apart from my wife – they do say to put money where your mouth is, right? – there were 2 other people who opened an account, I still don’t know who was the third person is so there is no way to thank her/him.