Maybe you should have been proud of yourself that you didn't make SE after all. Just ask many of the "new SE" here who worked their butts off toward the end of the year just to pass 100K. Look at what we SEs are getting next year. You made the right move by earning 100K on AA easily. Trust me, AC won't appreciate you even if you hand them that $20K.

This goes for everyone else, if you didn't make SE this year and are regretting it, don't... just look at what SEs are getting next year comparing to this year and you'll feel a lot better. Those who are stupid enough (including myself) to fly 100K on AC should be the one that's regretting it.

Empress, I disagree with you in one way, the Elite benefits are also cut back (no access to revenue inventory for award flights, no free guest in the MLL), so if someone is stuck flying AC this year, it might still have been worth going for SE to get an Elite's worth of benefits.

However anyone who's thinking of switching their allegiance for transborder flights, to AA or others, I agree completely.

andrew

Well AC has made it official:

Special News
Important Notices
Good News: Aeroplan lowers qualifying levels for 2002 status.

We know that the events of Fall 2001 may have made it especially difficult to achieve top-tier status this year. That's why we've lowered the number of Aeroplan Qualifying miles you needed to earn status for the 2002 benefit year*.

Unique and only for the 2002 benefit year, receive:

Aeroplan Super Elite status with only 88,000 Qualifying miles;
Aeroplan Elite status with only 33,000 Qualifying miles;
Aeroplan Prestige status with only 17,000 Qualifying miles.
Keep in mind that the 2002 benefit year is right around the corner, beginning March 1st, 2002 and ending February 28, 2003. We wish you a happy and peaceful year and thank you for your continued loyalty.

* Based on Qualifying miles accumulated between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2001.

http://www.aircanada.ca/aeroplan/news/020116.html

That's why we've lowered the number of Aeroplan Qualifying miles you needed to earn status for the 2002 benefit year*...... as a result, we have also taken away many of the benefits that you are accustomed to as a gesture of appreciation. We'll attempt to communicate with you again in Jan 2003 to notify you of the qualification levels for the mysterious 2003 benefit year.

The more I read about that release, the more that I think it's pointless. You bet that there are going to be more unhapppy people [who just missed thinking they won't make 100K anyways] than happy ones.

Even the wording of it... it seems more suitable if they released back in Dec or something.

It's designed to look like they are giving a benefit, while not actually costing them much. But as usual with AC PR announcements, it'll end angering many more people than it pleases.

People who got almost 88K (for example) will be annoyed that it could have been so easy to qualify. Those who put in the extra flights (and dollars) to make 100K will be annoyed that they went to that extra work for nothing. Others that would have made 100K anyway will feel that the program has been watered down.

The only group that will be happy will be those in that 12K group. But in any situation where you have to "earn points" to qualify, there's always a big hole in the numbers just below the threshold. The reason is obvious -- if you get within striking distance (say 12K, or one YVR-HKG return) you'd be crazy not to do it.

So the only people who will fall into those "almost" groups will be people who don't understand (or care about) the signifcance of it all. And those people are unlikely to make use of the benefits, thereby costing AC very little.

It could have been a good PR move, a great one even, if it had been made in November. Or October, or even December. But in January, it's just another bullet hole in the foot.

BTW, one person in my office will end the year with a little over 32K, once a FRA-YVR segment posts. He falls into the "very choked" category, 'cause if he'd known a trip to SEA and back would have gotten him lounge access, he'd have done it. But 3K would have been out of the question so late in the year.

Ken, that's a good point you make about the gap right under qualification target. And it might be why they had to go all the way down to 88K: there were probably very few flyers who made 95K and didn't "go the extra mile" (or 5000 miles) to make SE. If they'd announced a more conservative 90K some time in Q4 last year, they'd probably have had a lot of extra revenue (and pleased more people).

andrew