Neil791

Ouch!! That must mean you've got a lot of Tropicana orange juice in the fridge, eh?

Shame all she's got is a bunch of points which she paid goodness knows how much for and you've got SE status with all the perks...

I know which one i'd take if given the option!!

The Lev

Actually what we should do is dump her card and have me get one where the points go to my account. (This was orginally done when CRA was making noises about treating point redemptions as a taxable benefit. Only problem is With that while that threat has now diminished, it is tough to tell SWMBO that she's not longer getting "her" points.

Academic

Having earned a massive 1100 points from Tropicana since that program started, I think I'll stick with flying 100K/yr to get my 200K points

arf04

AC/AE discriminate against me too as I buy Odwalla juice and not Tropicana, and I don't buy gas at Esso either... I don't see the logic of your argument.

The AE program is a marketing and loyalty program. Clearly, the changes mean that AC is not marketing to you anymore as they don't want to reward people who don't fly on their metal (though you note elsewhere that you do fly AC metal enough to qualify for status so I don't even see how the rule change is detrimental to you??). As for the notion that you want to keep all your points accumulation in one program, there are credit cards that will bring you all the benefits you want through their programs (flights and merchandise) except status. AC is now saying that the loyalty they value the most is people who actually fly on their planes.

donard

Not True. Mrs Donard first qualified for elite accidentally after a number of flights for personal family reasons. We found the benefits pleasant, and used AC especially and other star carriers. In retiredom we bought yearly RTW tickets for a while (until a massive price increase) which had many trans-oceanic flights on AC. So as our travel patterns evolve, we still have a major AC component, as they fly many places from YYZ. The new rule will probably not affect us. It is just something I may need to watch sometime.

The FF programmes have instilled a loyalty to Star Alliance as it was *A RTW tickets I have bought, as well as choosing *A carriers (BD, LH, TG, US, etc) for many independently ticketed flights. The AP membership has encouraged me to route these tickets with AC in order to use SSWUs or SWUs before they changed the rules on RTW rickets. This year we will both reach E with 5 intercontinental Y flights on AC, but the rest on others. Any year less than 50% of our flying is usually done on any one airline. If it were not for the alliance feature we would be using different carriers - mid-east, OneWorld, Budget, etc - much more than we do.

So, by your thinking any programme would be "a programme of convenience". My point is that we do enough star alliance flying so that we deliberately book *A carriers, rather than their competitors. That must be worth something to the alliance, and by extension, to the carriers within it. The "program of convenience" comment seems to make out we are, somehow, less important Es than others.

And of course I want to get *G for fewer miles, and different qualification periods. The airlines set the rules, I do not. Much of the chatter on this board is to do with ways to get things (status, redemptions, upgrades, seating) to the passenger's advantage, and within the rules. What is wrong with that?

global happy traveller

the new qualification criteria................. I LOVE IT!

get rid of those advantage seekers

Rejuvenated

Anyhow, I have nothing against this new criteria. I should be able to make the 5 flight segments without any problems.

ac777

IMHO I don't see why there's so much excitemnt about this--it's 10,000 miles OR 5 segments-- it could have been BOTH!! Surely some identifiable loyalty can be expected in return for benefits.

arf04

I don't mind the criteria either, but wonder what advantage people seek by becoming Elite without ever flying the airline? If they don't fly on the metal then upgrade certs are useless, and there are easier ways to get *G than through AE/AC if lounge access and other *G perks are what one is after.

D582

I just had a thought...could be reading into this too much but since it hasn't been raised:

When it says 10,000 miles or 5 flight segments, is that being tied into the method of qualification?

For example:

Let's say someone has 35,000+ total status miles earned, with less than 50 total flight segments flown. The person meets the qualification criteria for Elite based on miles. Of these miles, LESS than 10,000 are on AC metal, however 5 or more of their segments ARE on AC metal.

Would they still get Elite? (I would think so, but...)

why fly

making money, something AC has missed, they didnt miss getting more from the taxpayer this year. 500K loan.

Nimish

I'm one of those with AC Elite (*G) status for the past 5-6 years without a single segment on AC metal. Definitely helped as my regular carriers ex-BLR are LH, TG, SQ, and I can get priority boarding/ lounge access/ occasional op-ups from them due to *G.

I've not received this email either - perhaps Aeroplan will attach a "stinker" with the regular stock text and then send that over to me.

I'll probably switch to CO next year, and hope that I do at least 50K of flying a year. Main reason to switch to CO is that at least they fly to India, and soon with CO/ UA coming together I should get E+ why flying UA.

Any other thoughts or suggestions (I heard TG mentioned and Aegean air mentioned, don't know their benefits/ criteria)?

PS: I can see this making total sense for AC, I'm not complaining about the change in rules (which I'm yet to see)...

arf04

Aegean requires 20,000 status miles for *G and TG 40,000 (TG's *G is good for two years).

auerbal

Does anyone know whether code share flights will count? Some routes are exclusively code share, e.g. yow-dca.

Jasper2009

No, the e-mail stated "operated by AC", so only AC metal and flights operated by AC Jazz etc. count.