I have the top tier status with Air Canada and am trying to choose between two status benefits for 2024: gifting my spouse Air Canada 50k status, which includes Star Alliance Gold, or earning double Aeroplan points on AC flights for the next year. We are normally in Canada but will spend about 6 months in Edinburgh in 2024 and I'm hoping to get a sense of how useful *A Gold is for someone in the UK. We would make a few trips from Edinburgh to the continent with two kids, say maybe 3 to 5? I'm trying to figure out whether it would make sense to fly *A (and benefit from the status) vs just booking with other airlines.

It looks like to get most places in Europe on *A, you have to connect in FRA or another hub city, versus a direct flight to Berlin or Rome or Paris or Tenerife etc on a discount airline. That is a major negative especially for weekend trips. Another con is that although each of the parents would have fast track security, the kids wouldn't, so presumably none of us would get to use it. (Kids will be 7 and 9 - not sure if there is regular enough access to family lines or if priority security would let us through anyway. I know in EDI they scan boarding passes so presumably we'd get rejected.)

The main benefits of sticking with *A would be:

- civilized boarding procedures (I hope -- I hate those Ryanair buses and endless queues!)
- access to good lounges both upon departing EDI and during connections
- not having to worry about all the bag fees etc that come with cheap airlines, since we could check bags if needed (we tend to travel light)

One thing I'm not sure about is schedule convenience, e.g., with young kids there's no way I'm doing a 6am departure or a late night arrival, that kind of thing. I know sometimes the cheap airlines have crazy inconvenient times but am not sure how pervasive that is.

Although I'm mostly hoping to get a sense of whether folks with *A Gold status in the UK find it useful for family holidays, or just find themselves booking other carriers, I should say that if we fly *A the family would fly on my aeroplan points and my status gets free cancellations/changes, which is a major benefit. So I have some incentive to book *A anyway, aside from normal Star Gold benefits.

anyone been in a similar situation and have advice?


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