Originally Posted by
Shareholder
I doubt this will affect all but a very few AE members who are moderate travelers
I beg to differ. In our family: dd will use her almost 100K miles next summer for honeymoon (but only if she gets her act together, which is unlikely but not AP's fault.)
Ds has used 50K of his on Future Shop and will probably use the remainder on that or short hauls to NYC if I can land a long-term trip there (to give him a free place to sleep.) Or to take his girlfriend in J to SFO (family there so he can stay for free.)
Both kids know they need to use their points up soon if they want to be able to get the regular awards rates. I see availability being an issue once we are within three years of the expiration date of the 'old' miles. Once that bulge is gone, then expiration won't really be an issue any more.
Dh and I have almost 1,000,000 between us to use up. But, we travel for our business. Even when we aren't reimbursed (i.e. industry conferences) we have no choice on dates therefore points tickets represent poor value compared to a revenue seat. So it will be hard to use up our miles unless we 'waste' them on some frivolous Classic Plus trip.
And it is hard to want to travel for pleasure when we are away so much of the time anyway. If we want a holiday away, we just tack it onto a business trip and don't have to pay for airfare.
So I foresee we'll have a harder time using up the miles. I'm sure a lot of the SEs also travel so much that they don't want to travel (even if their family is with them) when they can stay at home and relax. So going through the miles will be difficult for a lot of people.
On the other hand, should Aeroplan offer an upgrade option (i.e. 25,000 miles to upgrade to business class in NA, 40K to Europe) I'd burn through my miles in no time flat. I don't drink, have lounge access and short lineups due to my status, but I love the legroom up front and that is worth using my points for.
Fortunately, there are members like Sammysllu who have let their points expire (and you did, you could have bought something at Home Hardware, Petrocan or any other partner and kept those miles but you chose to let them expire despite receiving 6 weeks notice.) So that will help reduce the number of miles to be used up. For that, I'm thankful since that gives me a better shot at seats to use my miles.