Originally Posted by
yulred
When I said people who travel domestically, I meant people who travel domestically in the US/Canada, not necessarily Greece or within Germany.IE - a frequent flyer on YOW-YVR or IAD-SFO would find no benefit in using an A3 card for these fairly long journies that offer nought miles on discounted Y. In such cases, discounted Y fares count for nothing.
I don't fly *A much—probably only about 10k a year.
As someone who 'pays my own way', I'm not as loyal and much more fare-conscious: I've travelled across the border to take B6 before, and I'd do it again if it was substantially cheaper than AC. (I prefer B6 anyway: B6 is probably the only airline I would—and have—paid more to fly on)
More often than not nowadays, I use my BA Miles to take AA flights rather than pay some egregious fare on AC. I make a lot of short-haul journeys that are less than 5k BA Miles and that I otherwise would pay out of pocket for. It's going to take a long time to get status on AC with 500 and 750 mile flights, and they're going to charge me a fortune along the way.
But I was taking an AC flight anyway where I would earn enough miles to qualify for silver on A3, and said, "Well, why not credit it to A3? Aeroplan is a horrible programme anyway, and with silver, I'd get a free checked bag on UA and US."
US/UA can't complain because it makes me more likely to fly with them, A3 can't complain because they're generating the mileage revenue off my *A flights, and AC.... well, I don't really care about AC.
And if I were likely to qualify for G, it would make me much more likely to make my TATL travel with *A, mostly for the lounge benefit. Again, UA/US/AC win, because I otherwise would've looked elsewhere.
So the A3 programme is benefitting other *A carriers by directing traffic to them that would otherwise be more fare-conscious.
Originally Posted by
Often1
2. It's even less likely that any *A carrier would status match.
This isn't the same situation as a more global carrier where there's an affirmative business case for Carrier A to honor Carrier B's program.
Wasn't some sort of formal program set up after JK went under to match them on other *A carriers?
Not that I really care. It really just is a curiosity in many ways for me.