Putting aside the debate about the “enhancements” to the top tier ACFF program for a minute, the big winner of the eupgrade system is of course Air Canada.

The introduction of eupgrade gives AC tremendous flexibility to tweak the top tier FF program, such as the amount of credits required to upgrade, by distance, by destination (Europe vs Asia), by booking class. This will also enable AC to decouple status miles and eupgrade credits accumulation separately. AC could in the future maintain the 35K/100K for E/SE to get a basic core group of benefits, while the most desired benefits, upgrade to Exec class, using eupgrade credits, will be earned at a different ratio, perhaps based on revenue. The value of such a system to AC cannot be overstated.

Just me 2 cents.