Originally Posted by
yscleo
It was reported in several place. Would have to search for that, but I thought this is common knowledge by now.
This 8 percent remark is a red herring IMHO. If we want to have a frank and honest discussion about how valuable Altitude points are with respect to award availability and bang for buck, we'd need to have a report... wait there is such a report :
IdeaWorks Award Seat Report .
Key takeaways from the report:
- AC ranks second in award seat availability globally with some 96.4% of routes having availability overall during the report period
- Even for long haul rewards, AC ranks a strong second with 94.3% of routes having availability
- AC ranks relatively low in terms of the value of points 2.4% return for non-elites and 4.8% return for elites (compare that to 1.8% and 8.9% respectively from WS)
Considering the fact that AE MR transfers (currently) 1 to 1 to Aeroplan the third point implies that you'll get a 2.4% to 4.8% return on your money spent with an AE card which while not bad isn't as good as other airlines programs. The key question AC needs to ask themselves moving forward with Altitude is: should they favour greater seat availability or greater value for the consumer? Both factors negatively impact their bottom line but given how competitive the travel points landscape is these days, they can't afford to stiff their customers lest we write angry letters to AE demanding UA be a frequent flyer partner.
Safe Travels,
James