There is another thread that is providing information on members of Varig's 'Smiles' program and the move to other programs of Star Alliance members. However, I thought this was sufficiently different to start a new thread. Yesterday I posed the following question to the Aeroplan Program:
" January 31st 2007 Varig ceases to be a member of Star Alliance. I have extensive travel planned for March 2007 within Brazil. After January 31st will Aeroplan/Air Canada continue to recognize the accumulation miles, flown on Varig, for the purposes of aeroplan miles accumulation and status miles accumulation? The Aeroplan site still displays Varig as a Star Alliance member with applicable miles credit to Aeroplan members."
this was the response today:
"Thank you for your e-mail, Mr.
We wish to inform you that VARIG and Aeroplan have negotiated a new partnership contract which is effective February 1, 2007. Unfortunately status miles accumulation will no longer be possible on Varig flights as this carrier is no longer a member of the Star Alliance. Kindly note, the information on our website concerning VARIG has yet to be updated.
We hope the above information is useful and we look forward to serving you on a future occasion.
Regards,"
So, no status miles when flying Varig, however, the response does not answer my full question. Will I even get non-status mile credit for flights flown on Varig (Varig metal - Varig ticket - I do not know about codeshared flights - or even if those will continue with Air Canada).
And, I do not know what they mean by a "new partnership agreement" and what that entails.
I will go back for clarification.
However, I thought this information would be of interest to both Air Canada frequent flyer members and to Smiles Program members. For the latter, if you are considering Aeroplan something to consider.
For me, I will now book Brazilian airlines by price, at least for now.
I still hope a new partnership with Star Alliance with the new Varig happens. It worked very well for me in the past and would give my Canadian dollars (for what they are worth against the Real
) to the new Varig as long as they continued to recover and grow with an improving product.