I realize that the topic of "Hidden City" bookings has received a lot of coverage in these forums. Nonetheless, I was hoping I could get the collective opinion regarding my situation.

First, I fly on Air Canada on almost a weekly basis; unfortunately for me, due to cost cutting measures, my company flies me Tango. Which means that I get 25% Aeroplan miles, and no status miles or status segments. I'll do close to 40 segments this year, 30 of which will be Tango, and make Prestige. Truly a turd sandwich for me. I also do a fair amount of personal travel, and I have approximately 9,000 miles over 7 segments in the next two weeks, all of which are personal.

For one of these segments (a flight from a smaller city to a major hub), booking a hidden city ticket would save me over 75% (in the range of $300) AND would be Tango Plus rather than Tango because the last destination is in the U.S., meaning 100% status miles (1,000 miles are in play here). I don't have any real worries about doing this once (I travel only with carry-on, I'm not a nervous person and I know how to talk my way out of situations). However, I travel to this particular city for personal reasons quite regularly. By booking the return flight this way, I could potentially add a decent number of miles to my FF account(s) and also get status miles for my troubles.

Here's where my question comes in: do you think that it would be 'safer' to collect miles under a different *A airline's program on these flights (I have United, Lufthansa and Aegean accounts)? Would it be harder for AC to track my flight purchases if I did this (and also switched between three different credit cards)? Would this take away their primary "hammer" (i.e. taking away aeroplan miles or aeroplan tier status), while saving me money and allowing me to collect significant miles under another *A mileage program?

Would savings of $1.5K a year and an additional 5,000 status miles be a worthwhile risk to do this say five times a year? For example, those 5,000 status miles would get me 1/3 of the way to being *A Gold on Aegean (and my personal travel alone in the next three months would make up the other 2/3).

Does anyone know how diligently Air Canada been cracking down on hidden city tickets recently?

Thanks for any comments or assistance anyone can provide.