The pressure is on AC to do something for one simple reason; Between now and June 2020, for flyers accruing 25,000+ miles in any given year, who in his/her right mind would want to accrue to Aeroplan? What possible benefit could there be for the lucrative & profitable customer demographic to keep flying Air Canada from now on? I know I don't have any interest in accruing anymore aeroplan miles, because Porter, Flair, & Air Transat have nothing that interests me. 98% of my AC flights in the past 5 years have been in business class TPAC , so I have no interest in flying economy on a TATL to Manchester or Gatwick or Paris on AT's aged fleet. Eating a lukewarm soggy dough and tomato sauce piece of bread has zero allure, nor do I want to sit next to some of the people who fly on Flair or Air Transat. It will be next to impossible to get a seat in the PE on AT anyway as their numbers are quite limited. Yes this is good for a large number of Aeroplan members who like the sun destination routes, but for the customers upon which AC has made a sizeable profit, this is the kiss of death.
Air Canada will have to do something fast or it will see an erosion of customers to anyone but Air Canada. It is fortunate for AC that West Jet isn't ready for TATL or TPAC competition, otherwise it would be a compounded hit. I am trying to redeem my Aeroplan points now and I have almost 500,000 to get rid of in the next 2 years. That's going to be almost 4 TPACS and it looks like I will burn for the sake of burning just because I am that angry. Aeroplan has adopted a scorched earth strategy and AC is either going to have to expedite its FF plan rollout or offer incentives to keep customers like me because there is no way I am going to get burnt like this. Or, AC will have to cut a deal and accept a transfer of the redemption liability for customers like me, because I do not intend to stick around. I can afford to pay my way into a decent lounge so I don't need the MLL. And I will gladly take the lower SkyTeam or One World airfares on my routes to SIN/HKG/BKK. The clock is ticking and the sickly Aeroplan is going to do as much damage to Air Canada before it disappears.