After the changes in the 2007 program I would have thought everyone would have realized that FF perks are designed to benefit the airline, not you.

The idea is that you will book a flight you don't already have booked in order to take advantage of the certs, or at the very worst if you had pondered booking a flight for Jan/Feb, you would have put it on AC metal in anticipation of using a cert. These are things that benefit the airline. And if the airline is really lucky your upgrade won't clear!

The certs are only as "useless" as far as you simply don't feel like using them.

If there is something preventing you from booking a weekend in London in February, say, to try to use a few certs, that's your problem, not AC's, who are committing no worse crime than sending the 2006 program certs as it promised it would.

If you don't like to play the game, don't play the game. If you do like to the play the game, then use the rules to your advantage. Keep your AP# off your November flights and send in the boarding passes in December. Then you'll pass the threshold in the December sweep and get the new certs.