I did all the right things: dressed well, arrived early at check-in and asked politely. Lo and behold, I’m in business class all the way to Brussels.
If ever there was a sign that there’s a downturn in the number of air travellers at the moment, this has to be it.
From Aus? Score!
I got upgraded from Shanghai to Vancouver once, on my birthday. If you’re going to get kicked up from steerage, do it on a trans oceanic flight
I don’t know. The trans-Pacific flights are pretty damn easy for mine. 
Don’t need no upgrade, I’m bloody tough. 
BTW, I’ve flown all over the world for the past forty years and have never been upgraded.
All you have to do is ask? Do you pay more? I’m flying to England in a couple of weeks, and while I kind of like flying, getting a better seat would be nice! I wonder if this is something Air Canada ever does?
Six of us got bumped to business with American Airlines on a trip over Christmas, but we didn’t end up taking the flight we were reassigned to, since we were trying to catch a cruise ship (missed/delayed flights due to massive snow storm) and there was no point going to the departure port as the ship wouldn’t be there the next day. Ended up in economy to another port, but it would have been nice!