What should AA do to get CP domestic and/or transborder business away from AC?

[Ken hAAmer]

DFW is one place where they have a sterile transit lounge. Among other routes, it is used for MEX-DFW-YVR flights.

[hsi.chang]

Originally posted by terenz:
Is this all there is? Please make final submissions by 5 July

Well, I personally was afraid that I was going to get bonked on the head for speaking out. What the heck, here is another tidbit of information. Canadians, call the Cathay Pacific Airways North America Marketing Team at +1 (800) 486-7523 and listen to their record marketing pitch. I wonder what level is "top-tier"...

Originally posted by AC*SE:
There are no sterile transit facilities avaiable at JFK--even for flights which arrive/depart within the same terminal. The only exception are continuing flights transitting the US where transit passengers remain on board, or at a sterilized gate. This does not permit a change of aircraft.

I remember transiting JFK 20+ years ago while flying Lima (?) - JFK - YVR - NRT. At JFK, they take all the transit passengers into a room with coffeee, donuts, and washrooms, all guarded by armed personnel. I don't remember which airline I arrived in JFK at, but it was not the same airline that flew the JFK-YVR segment (Canadian Pacific ?).

Better still was at YVR CPair boarded us all in a bus, took us for a tour of town, even fed us a boxed lunch on the bus. Didn't have to clear custom formalities at either JFK or YVR.


[This message has been edited by hsi.chang (edited 06-30-2000).]

[Shareholder]

Got that Cathay offer in a package that arrived yesterday. Wording includes the phrase "golden opportunity". When I called the toll-free number got a recorded message promoting a special offer for Canadians with elite status on any other program: Elite Canada offer. You send (mail or fax) a copy of your latest statement, your elite card and new AAdvantage card to AA in Ft. Worth and you will hear back from them in about 4 weeks. As hsi.chang notes, it is imprecise as to what it considers "top tier elite" to be.

As to the sterile transit facilities, I recall the one at DFW coming back from Guadalajara a few years back, but made no difference for us because we our flight departure was 4-hours and the Admiral's Club or a bar in the rest of the terminal was much more attractive. Just cleared U.S. customs and had a few drinks.

Gee, 20-years ago we were a much more innocent world and JFK actually an attractive airport to fly through. Those, indeed, were the days...

[Guy Betsy]

Do you think The Marco Polo might be comping us?

I've almost requalified for Exec Plat for this year (only 4K to go), and am now concentrating toward my AA Exec Plat (will achieve that by Sep).

So what else is there - except Marco Polo Diamond.

[chihuahua]

On the same topic, another good way to encourage the AA Advantage program in Canada would be to launch the Advantage mastercard offered in the US through Citibank.

Now that Citibank has bought the credit card business of Canada Trust they must now have a much larger customer base to support a card like the AA card. Given their close relationship with AA in the US, then why not do the same in Canada. It would give some competition to CIBC and Aerogold.

What does evryone think?, anyone heard of them doing this soon in Canada.

[AC*SE]

Only one problem.

Frequent flyer plans, and similar loyalty marketing cannot have infinite lives in Canada. (That's why Aéroplan keeps having to get renewed every few years).

I do not know whether it would be legal for a card issuer to offer miles to Canadian customers in a foreign program that does not comply with Canadian law.

[hsi.chang]

Originally posted by AC*SE:
I do not know whether it would be legal for a card issuer to offer miles to Canadian customers in a foreign program that does not comply with Canadian law.

By the same token you cannot earn AA miles as a Canadian resident, nor can American Express transfer MR points to Delta/Continental. If AA wants to come into Canada, I'm sure they can work around this law, probably setting up a points system that is 1:1 transferrable (AOL Advantage points ?)

Best scenario ? Citibank Canada offers a Oneworld MasterCard in which points earned can be transferred to ANY Oneworld alliance FF program. That would be something.

[T3]

Maybe I'm misreading you post, hsi.chang, but I've been collecting AA points for years and I'm a Canadian resident. Further Amex Canada certainly allows transfer of MR points to both Delta and Continental. Check their web site.

The only thing that seems impossible to do is to issue a US credit card (with or without a FF connection) to a Canadian resident. You can get US dollar credit cards (I have one) but it has to be issued by a Canadian bank.

[Shareholder]

Nix on the Citibank Visa or Mastercard tie in with AA up here since Citibank owns Diners and that, in Canada, of course is AC's travel and entertainment card partner ever since the enRoute division was sold by AC to Diners.

FF programs up here exist on a year to year basis, and are renewed annually. That's why we will have an announcement by mid-July about the futures of Cdn+ and Aeroplan.

CX appears to be concentrating its efforts with AA here in Canada. All their promotional material stresses the advantages of AAdvantage and the benefits by achieving elite levels in that program. As I noted, the 1-800 number given in CX's covering letter for its "2 business class tickets for price of 1" and "$200 off any fare to HKG" promotions goes directly to Ft. Worth and AA's Elite Canada message. (You must have a Canadian address to qualify for this comping, so maybe they'd consider Marco Polo for a Cdn+ ExecPlat who resides in the Asia/Pacific region.)

[YVR Cockroach]

Originally posted by Shareholder:

CX appears to be concentrating its efforts with AA here in Canada. All their promotional material stresses the advantages of AAdvantage and the benefits by achieving elite levels in that program.

Seems to be a small exception to this. They are only aiming AAdvantage at member who are not with Asiamiles currently. When I got the free J class companion certificate, the accompanying letter had a box that said:

We assume you are actively earning Asia Miles when you fly (CX). If this is not the case, and you have been earning miles in a Canada-based frequent flyer program (read: CPlus or Aeroplan) instead, please call 1-800-307-3388. We have information that may be of great interest to you.

I wonder why they (CX) are not pumping Asia Miles in Canada?

[FewMiles]

terenz: I've never seen any promotions for AsiaMiles in Canada. I can think of a couple of reasons why CX is promoting AAdvantage instead of AsiaMiles for Canadian residents. AsiaMiles is only a loyalty program with no status levels. To me, AsiaMiles is akin to the Air Miles program here. AAdvantage, on the other hand, is a full-fledged FF program, offering elite status and has an established network of partners (at least in the US). AsiaMiles expire after just one year of inactivity, which is impractical for Canadians who do not travel to Asia every year. Ever since AAdvantage miles can be earned on discount economy fares on CX, AsiaMiles to me is of no use.

I've always been confused why CX has separate AsiaMiles and Marco Polo Club programs.


FewMiles..

[chihuahua]

Shareholder, good point on the Diners Citibank connection. I wonder if another Canadian Bank might step up to bat. I know that AA has a Advantage branded credit card in the UK offered trough Royal Bank of Scotland. Maybe someone else in Canada might be interested?

[ALW]

BMO is I think connected to Air Miles, but I don't think TD (coincidentally the buyer of Canada Trust and cause of the CT-MC selloff) has an affinity card beyond the General Motors rebate plan.

Other than that, who's left? Only Scotia as far as I can tell, unless ING Direct wants to get into the game (they have cash machines at Canadian Tire stores now). Or National Bank.


andrew

[Shareholder]

TD has a travel-related gold card program which gives discounts on bookings based on points earned through spending, so they may not be a candidate. But I agree there are still one or two others, albeit not the big three (or is it four or five?) banks. Problem is ING and BN are not large issuers and the latter is based primarily in Quebec, so would have even less presence in the key AA markets here in the rest of Canada.

I believe ING's investment accounts do have an airline tie-in in the US. I have been meaning to check this out, since I have considerable money in their high interest account and would not mind the miles. TDWaterhouse also have an airline tie-in in the US, but nothing up here either. Again, they have a fair chunk of my money too. I just wonder if our securites laws are different enough to preclude such tie-ins. (AC*AE should know these things, and I am sure will provide an answer. But I digress from the credit card issue at hand.)

Perhaps the Hong Kong Bank (forget the full set of letters it now uses for its acronym) might tie in with AA and CX to offer such a card. They have a solid customer base and the obvious home country tie-in to CX, which appears to be the primary staulking horse for AAdvantage's second assault on Cdn+ members.

Time will tell.

[chihuahua]

HSBC a possibility, but BMO runs their credit card arm in Canada. You know who else is in the market and would love some more customers is MBNA Canada. They are based in Ottawa and would just love some more business. I think in the US that they do have a few co-branded airline cards. They could do with something else to be more competitive.

I quess at this point we all agree that a AA card would be a benefit to AA in Canada!.