I must be bloody stupid but why would you not open a United FF account for all your AC travel in Canada...

The upgrades are not worth a fart now...

So instead of getting 35% or 50% of the miles you can get 100% then redeem them back on AC if you so wish...

Or am i missing something that to obvious.!!?

Yup... you are stupid on this one. Nice try though! You still get the same amount of miles even if you put the miles into UA. Their website still show 50% Q miles but I suspect they will be giving the same 35% as AC.

bugger!

Don't you mean "buggered", as in what happens to us when we try and earn miles for intra-Canada flights?

FewMiles..

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I guess so...

I have just been through all the web sites for the *A and its the same...

I guess SEA just became my home airport too.

I don't think that's correct. I fly UA from YYC-IAD on a regular basis, usually class Q, and I get full miles plus 100% bonus miles because I'm PE. Flying the exact same route with AC costs me miles everytime.

Transborder flights earn 100%. Intra-Canada and Carribean flights are the only ones that earn 35%.

Where did you find this on their website? I looked around, but didn't spot it....


[This message has been edited by opencdnskies (edited 01-28-2002).]

A Star Alliance� member
Earning miles
Air Canada and Air Canada Connector� serve over 115 destinations across Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Israel. Air Canada is one of 15 globe-spanning members of the Star Alliance network. Simply present your Mileage Plus� number when you make your reservations, and you can earn:

Economy Class worldwide�100% of actual, paid miles, or 500 miles minimum, on flights scheduled on Air Canada or Air Canada Connector� (within Canada, Full-Fare Economy)
Business Class worldwide�125% of actual, paid miles
Discounted flights within Canada�50% of actual, paid miles (or 250 miles minimum)
Your paid, qualifying miles on most published fares on Air Canada also count toward eligibility for Mileage Plus Premier� status.

http://www.ual.com/site/primary/1,10017,1180,00.html

Hey! I do this too!

Try flying YYC-YYZ-IAD instead of your likely YYC-DEN-IAD or YYC-ORD-IAD routing. Air Canada SCREWS YOU on the YYC-YYZ leg.

I've gotten into the habit of taking UA via DEN or ORD (ORD!!!) just to avoid AC's chintzy ways. I'm just afraid that UA will take a page from AC's book on "how to treat a valued customer" and start doing the same thing!

Besides, those triple-7's out of DEN sure are nice planes to fly! Especially if you can wrangle an upgrade!

Help from all of you UA experts please... I am AC Basic & am gunning for "status" this year such as P or E but not likely SE. Given that my expected travel is split between intra-Canada, Canada-US, & Int'l would I be better off going for AC P/E or UA Premier/Premier Exec for future benefits?

It appears that accrual benefits are better on UA given the intra-Canada 50% Q-Miles vs. AC's 35% but I'm just not clear on the side-by-side comparisons of each tier between AC & US. Is there a nice cheat-sheet comparison somewhere or can you offer up some suggestions/comparisons?

Thanks in advance as I'm heading out on my first AC intra-Canada flight this weekend & could easily switch the AP # over to UA MP #...

Cheers. Dogstar.

hmmm... Blondebomber's site on *Gold comparisons is down. **** ISP's!

Normally, i'd say that the Blondebomber's webpage is a fountain of information and gives you the side-by-side comparison, but in a pinch, i'd recommend the following:

If you do ANY significant amount of trans-border travel, UA may be a better choice. The 100% bonus miles for Premier Exec's and 1K's is nice (AC - nada!). Plus, getting E+ seating is great (but you get this with AC*E). Note that you'll need to earn 15,000 more q-miles to get to PE with UA, over AC's Elite. So if you think that you'll do 50k q-miles, i'd say go for it! AC certainly doesn't seem to care!

p.s. expect UA to lower the q-miles given on intra-Canada flights to match AC.

p.p.s. if you do end up flying with UA, please be sure to mail a copy of your UA ticket to Air Canada Aeroplan (c/o: Rupert Duchesne, President) to tell him about all the lost opportunities to EARN YOUR BUSINESS!

cheers!

Fermat: I used to do the YYC-YYZ route on Sunday night, but the hassles in TO to get thru customs to IAD in less than 1 hour made it too much trouble. I primarily do the YYC-DEN-IAD route (ORD connections tend to be very very tight). And yes, the 777's are great planes. I book, fly and collect only UA points this year - essentially give up my SE status.

My question is: as SE this year, do I still need to book 35K miles on Aeroplan to keep Elite status for next year or will I just default to that automatically if I don't make SE status again?

hmmm, that's up for debate. I've heard a remote possibility that they might "slide" you down the tier, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Air Canada has this nasty habit of not caring about either you or your business and doing whatever they d@mn well please.

Since keeping you as a *Gold member with Elite status would actually COST them something, count on your receiving BASIC status next year (but always hope otherwise!)

My suggestion? forget about maintaining *E status with AC. You'll get *Gold status quickly with UA anyways, and the RCC lounge access that you need to buy is a small price to pay to avoid getting gouged by Air Canada and their shoddy product.