InTheAirGuy

I think this might be worthy of a thread.

I was going to buy MrsITAG a North American flight pass for an upcoming trip, $10,500 Latitude spend.

I did the math and miles, and decided to not do that for now; I just booked a YYZ-west return using one of my IKK for 50,000 miles and $109.

Burn, baby, burn.

I can see more of these decisions. I'll be SE next week, she'll be SE in early October, and so it makes no sense for us to do much but to burn miles in the absence of clarity.

(1 million miles between the 2 of us; 900,000 miles banked on Amex)

longtimeflyin

Removed my other post to post here as it seems more appropriate.

[for points accrued via spending]

My own strategy after the announcement is as following:

1) Continue to accrue Aeroplan miles using my Visa card.
2) I plan to leave my membership reward miles and if I need to transfer to Aeroplan to top up for a redemption that I plan to redeem for within a short period of time, I will do so.

I plan to bank miles with membership rewards. I'm hoping that Air Canada announces more partnerships in 2019 and I cannot forsee American Express not partnering with Air Canada given the CIBC/TD competition and the loss of Costco using AMEX as their sole POS vendor.

If I end up with far too many MR miles than I know what to do with (other than transferring to Aeroplan), I still have the ability to transfer to SPG at a 2:1 ratio (I can't foresee SPG devaluing the program too excessively in 2018) or transfer to British Airways/Avios at a 1:1 ratio.

I'm choosing to hedge my bet with membership rewards where possible and will continue to earn with Aeroplan for my Visa/Mastercard spend as I cannot get a better return from those two latter cards with other card offerings than to bank with Aeroplan

[for points accrued via flying]

Most likely accrediting to Aeroplan for now. Will reevaluate in the near future time permitting.

YHZ_Flyer

For now I'm going to keep accumulating AP points as normal. I don't have an AP credit card so I only accumulate from flying. However by the end of the year I should have enough points to do a mini-RTW in J. That is definitely on the table for using up all the AP points before they split from AC. Then If I happen to have any points left I'd just use them for short haul flying.

DNAwizard

I earn about 600k-700k AP miles per year. Not always easy to find the time to burn them! But SO and I just booked some very interesting reward flights (mRTW, Europe, Asia, O class) for 1.4M miles. That will help lower the AP mile balance. We will certainly do our best to use them more frequently.

I will continue to credit to AC/AP since the divorce is 3 years away (and I'm getting closer to MM).

I will cancel my AP credit card when the renewal fees are due.

I will continue banking Amex MR points and not transfer them to AP.

RoutingWonk

first, I think it's time to start churning cards. All of the AE Amex cards that only allow one sign up bonus per product type are all earnable without any cost sequence beyond 2020 now.

On the burn side, I don't think that this really changes the conventional wisdom. You shouldn't be keeping huge balances if you can help it since devaluations can happen on short notice. This is a huge devaluation with 3 years notice.

Im not concerned about my Aeroplan balance and spending it out, I'm concerned about what the redemption chart and policies will look like on ACs new program. Losing free stopovers would be a huge loss to me.

YYT82

Strategy hasn''t really changed - Earn and Burn (I earn miles quickly and burn at more or less the same pace). I like to keep approximately 0.5M miles in my account for mini-RTW in J, so that'll still be the plan going forward, until 2019. In 2019, I plan to fly OW and get top tier status with OW while flying AC where I cannot fly OW. Come January 1st 2020, the strategy becomes redeeming all remaining AE miles for AC gift cards and/or fly AC on IKK and hold off on revenue AC or *A flights until June 30th 2020. Revenue flights in 2020 prior to that date would be all on OW.

ulyparis

1. I was going to spend $ 3000 on AC and $ 3000 on Swiss. The day we got the announcement, I realized I needed to get rid of 350 k miles fast. Instead of that $ 6000 I was prepared to spend, I snatched 2 trips in C on AE (March and April 2018). And now I am checking out May 2018 (not open yet) for another free trip.
AE wanted 1 000 000 miles (market) for one the trip; how ridiculous! Fortunately it was available one day later for the regular 77 500 miles (one way Canada - Asia).
The biggest loser so far: AC. As instead of buying tickets, I am burning the miles asap.
I am 1 Million AC with no chance to get E75 or SE. So paying or not, my status stays E50.
2. I had already taken the Tangerine MC card as they charge much less for foreign currency conversion: with Tangerine I get $ instead of AE miles that will end up not valuing anything. I am reviewing my option and will probably end up switching my Small Business TD (4 users) to a cash reward scheme. Big loss for TD to come.
3. I despise the fact that in May 2020, if I fly AC, I will still get AE miles which will be of no value at that point.
So from 2018 I am considering switching to another *A program and accruing real miles instead of accruing evanescent AE miles. Flying AC and getting closer to status with another airlines, that will be the end result.

The Lev

For now only minor tweaks from me. I'm focused on my ~10-year goal of achieving 3M status for lifetime SE, so I will continue to buy the vast majority of my own flights (although I did just redeem for a short-haul to Montreal tomorrow rather than spend $600).

What will change is I'll be more aggressive in burning each of my and Wife Lev's million+ miles on flights for her and family.

When it comes time to choose my benefit options next year, depending on what sort of clarifications we get from AE and AC between now and then, I may choose to gift E50K rather than accruing 100% bonus miles.

InTheAirGuy

I had that in my list, but now, not, since I essentially have about zero trust in Air Canada right now. I fully expect that 3M lifetime SE will prove to be another bait-and-switch and at some point, they will take it away without notice.

Jma12

1. Continue to churn and burn at a faster rate with AP Credit Cards
2. Bank all my flights to A3
3. Have a balance around 50K so I son't get hit as hard during devaluation
4. Have enough SPG/Amex Reward for top ups

Right now I only have about 25K AP, I think I am okay for now.

172pilot

2017 - 2019: Earn and burn. No different than now. Hoarding miles was always stupid, it is now officially stupid.

2020: AC is going to need to sweeten the offer for FF. Miles earned in Q1 and Q2 2020 will be worthless in Q3. I have to believe that AC understands this and also realizes that it will result in purchasing behavior away from them. Some kind of conversion program will be needed here.

InTheAirGuy

I suspect they are legally bound from not being able to do anything? That might be best for the other thread.

I also have 800,000 Amex miles, and wondering if I should continue to accumulate them (for fast switch to AE should I need to top up for a trip), or if I should bank miles somewhere else? I have 300,000 DL and 250,000 United.

After Burner

I plan to spend a lot less, burn a lot more and discontinue use of my AP affiliated credit card.

Same here except I reached the zero trust level many years ago.

airbus320

Six months ago burned 400K to treat my family to a great trip.
Small change left in the account.
Now looking to migrate to a new Visa account.

The smallest state

Get to 100k and have a business class seat for Mrs. Smallest State and I to go to YVR for a visit.

Earn as i go, spend on UA or AC as soon as i get enough.