Lllahim

When AC announced the 2011/12 reward program, most Elites on this board expressed dismay at what they thought was a severe erosion of previous packages. It will be nice to hear how well or poorly Elites are faring in the new system. Do you think AC is achieving the savings they hoped for? Did Elites receive less upgrades this year than previously? Has the loss of the 50 percent bonus impacted reward point accumulation significantly? Most importantly, as an E did you alter your airline choices and if so will you be returning as E or better for 2012/13?

Jasper2009

Hard to tell what the impact has been on a global perspective. I think one result AC canīt be too happy about is that many Es Iīve talked to have started doing a lot more research which airline and fare to choose vs. blindly choosing AC as they did in the past.

Regarding your questions:

1) Did Elites receive fewer upgrades? Iīm pretty sure the answer is yes, though the effect hasnīt been that dramatic with the additional 10 credits as it would have been otherwise.
2) Upgrade odds: Pretty much the same IMO, though AC seems to be doing a better job clearing upgrades 1-2 days in advance vs. making everyone play aeroplotto
3) Yes, I did alter my purchase behaviour. Iīd previously often buy a mix of T+ and Latitude fares on AC (often on the same ticket, e.g. T+ for the daytime flight, Lat fare for the overnight sector). With the reduction in upgrade credits and increase in Lat fares Iīve often considered many other options like BA, Z fares on other airlines, reward tix vs. revenue tix, RTW fares etc.
4) Yes, Iīve already requalified for E next year.

I wouldnīt expect AC to completely revamp the program next year, but I do hope for some minor changes:

a) not making Es choose between 50% bonus miles and 10 upgrade credits
b) making upgrade credit earnt later in the year valid for at least 6 months
c) allowing top tier members to have the upgrade credits debited on the day of departure vs. at time of booking. This has been a major nuisance for me when I wanted to buy a Lat fare several months in advance and upgrade instantly, but couldnīt do so as Iīd only earn the upgrade credits in the meantime. As a consequence, i bought T+ fares and AC lost several thousand dollars. Iīm sure AC could implement an option like "Have the credit debited on day of departure. If you donīt have them, youīll be downgraded and may have to buy a full fare Y ticket or may be denied boarding"

LondonElite

To me personally it has made no difference (yet). I live in the UK and travel to Canada four/five times a year, generally on paid Latitude or high Tango fares, and I seem to be able to upgrade most flights (at least I did in the past with certs, always getting enough to ensure all flights in J.)

These are personal flights, as my business travel takes my within Europe, the US, and Asia, but not Canada. I do virtually no inter-Canada flights, though I do have four or so transborder flights.

When I do travel in the back, I have to tell you that AC is without question the best NA airline for med/long haul economy. I have recently done a number of flights on UA and CO, where in some cases was relegated to the back with the great unwashed, and it was not a very pleasant experience.

I'm not an AC apologist, but overall the programme and the airline are pretty decent in view of what else is out there.

YULAC*SE

On the whole the E-Credits system is better than the certs previously; however as an SE I see less E-Credits given than SWU previously. Also for International flights the redemption level is way to high at 17 E-Credits for each direction, Furthermore, I too would like to see the E-Credits being taken only on day of departure after the flight closes for example.
I think that this new system certainly helps Revenue Management people in terms of firming flights in advance and OPUP's are less frequent than last year but still happen occasionally on a blue moon!
I would like to also comment that as an SE, most of the time Upgrades clear in advance and/or within 24-48 prior. For next year I hope they increase the allotment of E-Credits given to us all.

Ancien Maestro

My general gut feeling thus far this year.. the answer would be no..

I think the program isolated their most loyal customers when the entire program was gutted this past calendar year..

AC is bleeding some red ink.. and WS seems to be holding the black pretty strong..

canolakid

1) same upgrades as last year; flight passes helped secure additional credits and the higher fare class meant fewer were used per trip. We have actually increased our purchase of this product (so probably a win for AC)
3) Yes, I did alter my purchase behaviour. I don't get the pricing model, but I am way up on purchases of Z fares vs my usual Lat; so have spent less and saved e-upgrades. I will admit to having looked at options outside AC but still in *A more frequently than in the past
4) Due to factors beyond my control am on pace to hit SE... almost all AC metal (forgive me AC, but CO has some excellent prices...)

additional comments: love the nominee system (at least my teens do); like the electronic bank of credits vs tracking paper; don't mind losing the credits at booking if space is confirmed. I was a bit surprised AC didn't throw a few E-up bonus credits around. My question- how bold will AC be with the 2012 program?

YWG-RO

I think there's been a significant erosion in benefits as others have stated. Not sure how this has impacted AC as there are few places for us to go (other than UA). I have spent more time researching other carriers then in past, and I'm considering WS to Hawaii (mainly due to poor cnx in YVR). I'm well over 35k, but the thresholds are much less important now. They had better offer 50% + full e-upgrades next year.

OTOH, you can't beat AC's hard product among NA airlines.

global happy traveller

have to say, Mrs GHT and i have been getting upgrades (using the eupgrade credits on T+ fares) so far this year and still have plenty to last.

i believe the strategy to maximize is to use it on a combination of long and short routes.

rumblefox

I've done pretty well but as an SE I travel on a flight pass for about 2/3 of my trips so I have plenty of upgrades left and found the upgrade process way better than before. A buddy who's an E and travels on Tango Plus fares isn't too happy with the amount of points left...sold some of my credits to him..

Souvlaki

I suppose the answer depends on what AC's objectives were. Obviously the overall objective is profitability, but IMO there is absolutely no way from a passenger perspective to draw a line between the new program and the bottom line. All we can do is relay anecdotes on behalf of ourselves and our friends and family, then try to extrapolate across the whole AC customer base. That's a whole lot of speculation without a lot of foundation to it, and this crowd is a very small and biased (i.e. relatively well-educated on fare classes and rules) sample of the AC customer base.

Having said that, one thing seems clear to me: they were trying to limit the number of upgrades given on lower fare classes. They are bound to be succeeding at that. What is completely unclear is how many people have bought up to higher fares versus how many have flipped AC the bird.

For me, mostly flying M and B fares on flight passes, this system is great. Despite starting with only 35 credits, I'm 18/23 upgrading this year, including 8/8 TATL. The only failures have been short-haul last-minute T+ flight pass bookings. My balance as of today is 35 eC, same as I started with. And I've flown just over 60,000 SM (roughly 58,000 AC metal) this year compared with 55,000 all of last year.

global happy traveller

i guess one easy way to see if they achieved their objective is whether you feel their J cabin has been 'fuller' this year

RCyyz

With yesterday's flight I now have 5 segments on AC metal. This means I'm done flying AC metal unless there's a really compelling deal or connection I want to take advantage of.

I've done very well flying Z fares on other *A carriers this year (40K status miles) versus buying Latitude fares on AC metal. Nexus + Global Entry has made flying via US fairly straightforward. I don't like flying through the US but given my flying pattern, AC fares + gutting the E program make no sense anymore.

Jasper2009

Itīs one of many factors, but I wouldnīt draw any conclusions based on the preceived load. The economy is doing better than a year ago (at least in Canada and Europe).

Iīd even argue that AC has a hard time distinguishing whether the result their revenue management sees are due to the top tier program changes or external input factors (like better economic climate).

I actually wouldnīt be surprised if the revenue generated by top tier members actually increased this year even if a substantial number of E/SEs were unhappy and took part of their business elsewhere.

global happy traveller

+1, at the end of the day...... money and load factors count

canadatosiberia

Was P, will make E in approx 4 weeks from today. Flying mostly Z fares, so it isn't a huge deal on the e-upgrades, though I did use some round trip to CPH and was upgraded on T+ fares both ways. Only ever used the paper certs a couple of times, but always got the UG.

I will get E for the lounge access on personal domestic flights, and on *A within Europe where I fly in Economy. This will be done with the minimal AC miles, the rest being on UA, SAS, LH, OS. Once I have this I will work on my Gold with DL, so that I can get the best of both worlds - DL has unlimited UG in NA, which I have only missed out on 2x when I was on a plane that actually had a front cabin...

If AE was going to be a better value, I would fly 80% *A and not worry about the DL miles - but it is lacking in enough ways that I just have to spread it out...