Originally Posted by
Golden Toque
I don't like the 1 year rule, or the 7 year rule either...
But remember first and foremost, Aeroplan is a loyalty program. Some might argue that it is a loyalty program not for frequent flyers, but consumers, and that may be true, but if your kids only fly a couple of times a year, even if it is on AC, I wouldn't say they generate a lot of revenue for AC.
If they don't collect AE miles in another way, then they are not loyal consumers, and in my opinion shouldn't be upset that they aren't accumulating huge amounts of miles. It really is their choice.
As for yourself, if you are Elite every year, you attain at least 35K miles. if you want to redeem for more than a short-haul ticket every year, I would suggest choosing the 50% mileage bonus for AC flights...
So assuming you fly AC all the time, you will have 52 5000 miles a year... enough for a North American flight a year, or every 4.5 years, you would have enough for 2 people to fly first class to Asia...
Seems like a pretty good reward to me!
Agreed - Aeroplan isn't first and foremost about giving free stuff to people. It's about creating loyalty. If Aeroplan isn't seeing loyalty from a particular user, it is fully within their right to cancel the account and make the points go puff - why should they give me something for free if I hardly patronize them, say once every few years. Why should they give me something when I've hardly given them anything?
I don't like the 1 year of inactivity or 7 years expiry rule either, perhaps it is a little short for inactivity to have the points expire. But as a member, those are the rules I have to abide by - that is what Aeroplan considers loyal. It's not like a few years ago, where points could only be earned by actually flying. It's pretty easy to earn points without spending much money at all. $3 at Esso does it.
Yes, they do need to let us know how many points expire when, and I expect that will happen well before Dec. 2013. We do have a right to know when the points in the account will expire. If they aren't able to do this, then there is certianly a problem.
To those upset that their points are expiring, they really only have themselves to blame. The rules are clearly laid out, and as reported, reminders are being given.