I have enough of Air Canada. I am trying to go for TG for *G status. Yes, I am still greedy to get Elite with Air Canada/Aeroplan. In any case, I don't think I would like to fly AC that often.
In any case, my birthday is in November. So, when is a good time to join TG to get the maximum benefits?
Thanks so much for your help!
Soju
Dec 12, 06, 2:53 am
ROP is based on a calendar year, so it doesn't really matter that much when you join with respect to your birthday. More important about the joining date is whether you want to qualify for Gold based on 50K miles in 1 calendar year or 80K miles in 2 calendar years. If you sign up for ROP this month, then the 80K in 2 years does you no good unless you're planning on flying more than 30K miles between now and December 31, 2006. If you sign up on January 1, 2007, then you have until December 31, 2008 to fly 80K, so you only need to average 40K per year. Lot's of people signing up for ROP who don't fly 50K a year don't realize the significance of the sign-up date until it's too late.
Now to my knowledge, there is no verification of your actual birthdate by ROP. Hint, Hint! If you tell them your birthday is December 31, January 1, or whenever, it just gets recorded in their database based on what you tell them and it cannot be changed once entered, at least not by you via the online profile editing provision. The importance of your birthday is with respect to the birthday award, which is not guaranteed, and could possibly change from one year to the next. This year and next year, the birthday award is being able to purchase an award ticket on TG for half the normal miles for use in either the month before your birthday, the month of your birthday, or the month after your birthday. So for example, if you can use this award and it can best be used in July, due to your vacation schedule or whatever, then it would be best if ROP records show your birthday as being in July. If you can best utilize the birthday award in December or January, then it would be best if your birthday was in one of those months.
You might possibly be able to get up to three birthday awards if your birthday is at the end of the month during which you initially qualify for Gold. So if you birthday was on November 30, and you qualified for Gold on November 1, 2007 then being the Gold status is based on calendar months and not days, you would have Gold status from November 2007 until November 2009, which technically might qualify for you to have 3 birthday awards rather than 2. I'm not certain about this point, so maybe someone else can shed some more light if it truly works that way or not. If so, and you want to try to utilize this strategy, then you may very well need to consider when you sign up and more importantly when you start crediting miles and how much you'll fly so that you can qualify early in your birthday month.
The birthday award is IMHO one of the great features of ROP being that it effectively doubles the value of all my miles that are used when redeeming this award, so hopefully you'll be able to fully utilize it. But if you can't use the birthday award, then it doesn't really matter when your birthday is.
One more hint. In the past, I don't think it was mandatory that you supply your birthdate to ROP when signing up but could add that information later at your leisure. If this is still possible, and just before you are about to qualify for Gold, you decide to supply them with your birthdate which magically happens to be the last day of that month, then you might be able to get the 3 birthday awards without requiring so much advance planning in order to qualify for Gold at a particular time.
Inquirer
Dec 13, 06, 12:18 am
ROP is based on a calendar year, so it doesn't really matter that much when you join with respect to your birthday. More important about the joining date is whether you want to qualify for Gold based on 50K miles in 1 calendar year or 80K miles in 2 calendar years. If you sign up for ROP this month, then the 80K in 2 years does you no good unless you're planning on flying more than 30K miles between now and December 31, 2006. If you sign up on January 1, 2007, then you have until December 31, 2008 to fly 80K, so you only need to average 40K per year. Lot's of people signing up for ROP who don't fly 50K a year don't realize the significance of the sign-up date until it's too late.
Now to my knowledge, there is no verification of your actual birthdate by ROP. Hint, Hint! If you tell them your birthday is December 31, January 1, or whenever, it just gets recorded in their database based on what you tell them and it cannot be changed once entered, at least not by you via the online profile editing provision. The importance of your birthday is with respect to the birthday award, which is not guaranteed, and could possibly change from one year to the next. This year and next year, the birthday award is being able to purchase an award ticket on TG for half the normal miles for use in either the month before your birthday, the month of your birthday, or the month after your birthday. So for example, if you can use this award and it can best be used in July, due to your vacation schedule or whatever, then it would be best if ROP records show your birthday as being in July. If you can best utilize the birthday award in December or January, then it would be best if your birthday was in one of those months.
You might possibly be able to get up to three birthday awards if your birthday is at the end of the month during which you initially qualify for Gold. So if you birthday was on November 30, and you qualified for Gold on November 1, 2007 then being the Gold status is based on calendar months and not days, you would have Gold status from November 2007 until November 2009, which technically might qualify for you to have 3 birthday awards rather than 2. I'm not certain about this point, so maybe someone else can shed some more light if it truly works that way or not. If so, and you want to try to utilize this strategy, then you may very well need to consider when you sign up and more importantly when you start crediting miles and how much you'll fly so that you can qualify early in your birthday month.
The birthday award is IMHO one of the great features of ROP being that it effectively doubles the value of all my miles that are used when redeeming this award, so hopefully you'll be able to fully utilize it. But if you can't use the birthday award, then it doesn't really matter when your birthday is.
One more hint. In the past, I don't think it was mandatory that you supply your birthdate to ROP when signing up but could add that information later at your leisure. If this is still possible, and just before you are about to qualify for Gold, you decide to supply them with your birthdate which magically happens to be the last day of that month, then you might be able to get the 3 birthday awards without requiring so much advance planning in order to qualify for Gold at a particular time.
This is what I called "calculated"! Wow, this is good information. Thank you so much. I like the idea of the getting three birthday awards, if that is true!
Soju
Dec 13, 06, 12:40 am
This is what I called "calculated"! Wow, this is good information. Thank you so much. I like the idea of the getting three birthday awards, if that is true!
One point to remember is that the birthday award does you no good if you don't have the miles to burn. The more miles you have, the better value you get out of the birthday award. But if you're getting lots of miles (50K or more per year), then you'll be renewing your gold status, so even if you were able to get 3 vs. 2 birthday awards, the advantage would be mitigated by the renewing of your gold status which would give you another birthday award with it. Don't fly enough to renew gold and even though you might get 3 birthday awards, if you don't have enough miles to go anyplace worthwhile it might be of no value to you. So in my eyes, the possibility of 3 birthday awards isn't important, in my case the timing of when my birthday is with respect to when I most want to travel is the important factor. If you are getting a lot of miles credited to your ROP account without flying, such as via a credit card, then you might better be able to use a third birthday award even though you didn't fly enough to renew your gold status.