Originally Posted by
ensco
Sorry but that makes no sense and cannot be right.
While it might make no sense, it is positively, absolutely "right." Several of FTers were present when the statement was made.
So yeah, now that AC actually "pushes" you to get SE status for much, much less money (i.e. flight passes) you're right - it makes no sense. And yet it's AC's own doing.
In fact, this group, which I am one of, was obviously very much in AC's mind in terms of how the recent changes fell. High frequency domestic flyers are less affected by the recent changes, as they do most of their flying on AC metal, value upgrades less (getting upgraded on YYZ-YUL is just not that big a deal), and, most importantly, probably celebrate the disappearance of YQ more.
Speaking for myself, because of the frequency of my travel, I really didn't ever plan personal itineraries with stopovers when AC direct was there, life is just too short, and therefore I didn't use LX or whomever when making AP bookings, and as a consequence paid quite a bit of YQ.
You should stick to "speaking for yourself", 'cause your various claims about what all the other frequent fliers, Air Canada status holders, and FTers do, think, value, spend, etc, are miles off the mark. Your Toronto-centric experience is a great deal different than someone who frequently flies YVR-YHZ or YVR-YYT (which is almost as long as YYZ-LHR). So while an upgrade might not be important to you on a take-off-then-land YYZ-YUL trip, to lots of "domestic" fliers, upgrades are very important.
And as (I think) Shareholder recently reminded us, survey after survey after survey repeated shows that upgrades are the most desired and sought after benefit, across all types of fliers and all status levels.