" Standardizing check-in cutoff time is Air Canada's latest step to elevate the travel experience for all customers. Frequent fliers will be pleased...."

A downside for FF is that it makes it harder to do SDC after flying the first segment of a connecting itinerary where you can make the next flight to your destination but you weren't able to ticket it because it didn't meet the MCT.

E.g., my EDI-YYZ-YOW flights are usually ticketed with a 2.5 hour layover in YYZ because the flight to YOW that leaves about an hour after the EDI-YYZ flight arrives doesn't meet the MCT. My habit is to deplane, hit customs, and immediately do the SDC if there's no line up, then catch the earlier flight to YOW.

This point applies to standby too. I'm not going to put myself on a standby list until I'm sure I can make the connection, but if at that point the standby/upgrade list has been run then I'm left with scraps, being SE is worth squat.

SDC and SB are mainly for FF and for each 15 minutes less to pull the trigger can really make a difference.