Don't know about earning, but with redemption, they've done what every program seems to do: increase redemption costs for (some) hotels and classes, and made it harder to switch to airline programs.

Got my card this week and was reading the rules online. Card has a new number on the front but my old number on the back (I assume it's my old number, haven't checked digit-by-digit).

Hotels are now 25K/30K/60K instead of 20K/30K/60K. Checking a place I know (Toronto), Admiral on QQ is still 30K, Suites on Dixon Road is 30K from 20K (class change), the others are 25K from 20K (no class change, just higher cost).

You can no longer transfer points on demand to an airline plan unless you're Elite. Instead you have to set up the automatic transfer and they'll check weekly and transfer in lots of 1000 (->125, so that hasn't increased from 8:1 since the fiasco of a couple of years go). Still limited to 1MM per year to airline programs so I wonder what would happen if I set up the auto transfer, would they stop at 1MM and leave the rest alone? Screws up the idea of moving enough for a BA upgrade or an AA ticket in North America.

Oh well, in this business none of the plans ever really gets better, only worse.

=aw