Originally Posted by
Sean Peever
For most people, this is the other way around, where Aeroplan is just a specific component of Altitude.
As it stands already - most people don't care about the Aeroplan miles.
For that subset of customers, I'd suggest allowing them to LMU-ize their Aeroplan miles at a reasonable redemption rate then. The LMU infrastructure and pricing algorithms already exist so it would be a relatively trivial change.
What do people care about? Well reading this thread tells me; upgrade, priority service, lounge access, not waiting on the phone, etc. Well, none of that is part of Aeroplan, all of that is only part of Altitude.
The phone situation at AC is clearly unacceptable, but merely giving elites priority into severely over-loaded queues is just a Band-Aid on the problem. For the goodwill and loyalty they gain from a few elites, they most likely lose it on the less frequent customers who have to put up with such nonsense.
Upgrades, again, damaging the customer experience of the paying, to cater to the non-paying. I don't see how that endangers loyalty, especially since many status passengers actually paid premium fares. PY is a great step forward in this regard and I believe it should be rolled out across the fleet including the narrowbodys. The situation where status passengers might pay a higher than required fare for only the chance of an upgrade isn't one that is particularly fair for anyone -- hence all the complaining we see in FT on an almost constant basis. ("why didn't I get my upgrade, there were 3 staff in the J cabin", "why did that AP J reward confirmed in Y get upgraded ahead of me", etc., etc.).
IF (not suggesting just making a point) one of the two were ever to be cut out completely - it would be Aeroplan that gets cut because FF will stay around for Altitude (upgrade, lounge, etc) FF will not stay around to collect Aeroplan miles.
I personally believe the utility of FF programs has mostly come and gone. Outcomes are far too unpredictable for customers. The best loyalty programs are simple. I think they'd do better by stapling MLL cards to flight passes as part of the overall package, or including them as part of corporate travel contracts, than running the whole complicated status scheme. Reward loyalty up-front where it can be seen and appreciated for the moment, rather than rewarding people for past behaviour.