Originally Posted by Sopwith

FREQUENT FLYER PROGRAM(S)

For many years Air Canada has operated a frequent flyer program called Aeroplan. Originally it was Us, then for a while it was Them. The original intent was to create loyalty to Us, but when it was Them, they tried to get you to be loyal to Them rather than Us. That wasn’t working for Us, so to correct it We created another frequent flyer program called Altitude. Altitude is Us, but Aeroplan was still Them.

Last year, however, we decided that They still weren’t doing what we needed Them to do, so we decided to dump Them and go back to Us. The plan was that in three years They would be gonzo and We would launch yet another program which is heretofore unnamed. For convenience we will call it Son of Aeroplan for the time being, or SOFA for short.

Then this year some wizard in the executive suite had a brainwave and decided that if we buy back Aeroplan we could save ourselves the trouble of relaunching our own program. So we did. At enormous cost. And the assumption of the enormous liability associated with all those unburned points you have. So now we have Aeroplan, which was originally Us, then Them, and now Us again. And we still have Altitude, which was originally Us and still is.

Exactly how SOFA will play out, and how it will interface with Altitude remains uncertain at this stage. Similarly, the fate of your Aeroplan points, upgrade credits and what they may be redeemed for in the era of SOFA remains to be seen. In the meantime, all indications from Us and Them are that it’s business as usual. Many of you will know from experience what usual is, so you will have to take your chances. In the meantime it seems that Aeroplan is still trying to convince you that your points are worth something. That is, in fact, why We decided to dump Them.

The following information is based on the current state of Us and Them. It is expected to remain valid for the foreseeable future, unless, of course, We decide to change the future.

A popular misconception is that the Frequent Flyer programs are Loyalty Programs. While this was once the underlying intent, it is no longer the case. We actually don’t care about your loyalty, because for every disaffected customer we lose, we gain one back who has become disaffected by another airline. The only reason we continue with this foolishness is because everyone else is doing it and we don’t know how to get out of it. So as best we can, we continue to take advantage of the fact that many customers perceive a much greater value to frequent flier points than we actually deliver.

Points are often referred to as Miles. That’s because sometimes the points you receive approximate the number of miles you flew. Or some fraction of the number of miles you flew. Or some multiple of the number of miles you flew. Or how many dollars you spent on gas. Or some multiple of how many dollars you spent on gas. Or some other formula, depending on what you bought, where you bought it and when you bought it.

It is also noteworthy that contrary to a widely held belief, for the most part the points you receive are not free. Indeed, if you carefully examine our fare structure and notice the number of points you receive for a particular fare class, you will soon realize that the TANSTAAFL principle applies to frequent flyer benefits, as it does to most other things in life. (Google it.) In most cases the points you receive have nothing to do with Air Canada or flying. Suffice it to say that you can obtain points by flying or buying, or both if you’re clever. To avoid confusion we will henceforth refer to points obtained by flying as Miles, and points obtained by buying as Points.