payam81

AMEX SPG lacks the extent of insurance offered on the Plat. cards. Of course it's a far cheaper card as well so fully expected. I do use it for about 25% of my non-travel AMEX spend as a hedge against this kind of devaluations.

yulred

AMEX SPG is cheaper if you re in the US. Its the same as an Avion Infinite in Canada - ie $120. RBC will get my travel dollars because of the insurance, but AMEX will get most of my other expenses, including, happily, rent .

getaround

Bend over and once again take it up the a@@.

I see folks talking about jumping ship again and again, maybe if you actually did that earlier this year maybe we wouldn't be getting done again.

Complaining and doing nothing does nothing. Do something about it.

CanuckOnFire

So, my understanding is that 80% of Canadians, or maybe 80% of wealthy Canadians collect Aeroplan miles. This means they have the market cornered. They can do as they please and if I was in their shoes I would devalue the points every year. At some point AE would start to lose more market share than they would make up in profit by devaluing the points. This is where they will stop the devaluation and not before.

So my personal cut on AE miles, they are free to me and allow me to get huge $ value benefits once or twice a year. So, until that huge benefit is devalued or the dollars I pay reach something that I just do not want to pay I will keep collecting. Why, well because the benefits outweighs the costs. AE is not stupid and they know this. They are managing the program. AE's stock has bounced around but it is paying just over 5%. In today's economy they are doing something right. (Even if this really irks me.)

Just my $0.60 (Annual dividend.)

And yes, when the tipping point comes, AE management will listen.

Have a great long week-end,
COF

KenHamer

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.448 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

Which is to say the only people who will be pissed off at this change are those who are allegedly their best customers.

yulred

Jumping ship is easy...but where will you swim to?

The other FF programs don't look any better, especially in Canada.

Want points on OneWorld? Pay full fare Y. That makes sense in the US or Europe, where discounted Y is actually discounted, but it doesnt apply to Canada, where discounted Y is, well, hardly discounted. By way of comparison, if you fly VS ex NYC in Y+, you get 100-125% points. It costs $1100. If you fly BA ex YYZ in "discounted" Y ($900-1050), you get 25%-50% points.

It all boils down to competition. Competition keeps prices low in other countries and makes full Y fare reasonable for those who want the perks of an FF program. In Canada, weak competition means discounted rates are expensive and full rates are even more expensive. Who are you going to go to? AE knows that. AC knows that. Even if it loses FFs, people will fill planes. Demand isn't decreasing.

Long story short - you can run...but where will you end up?

Santander

They aren't even free because we have to pay higher fare, even on international flights, to get full mileage now (not even considering EQM) and you forfeit the ability to earn on UA or another *A programme. Why should we just sit back and smile while they gut this so-called "loyalty programme" which is the only reason many of us (myself included) fly AC at all?

I liked AC because I could upgrade the cheapest international T+ fare, unlike UA. That's gone with Tango popping up on international flights.

I liked AC because I could actually use miles to take holidays I could not afford to take with cash. (or would be very unwilling to part with such sums of money) This is greatly devalued with the LH fuel surcharges and mileage increases.

I liked AC because I thought they were actually one step better than the US airlines. I think I can still say this, but it is less convincing everyday.

Combined with the past year's labour debacles, I have decided to vote with my wallet. To be honest, I am pretty much done with UA too. I gave them a serious try over the last year (~$25000 in travel) but they've mainly disappointed. CX should be quite happy of this announcement by AP because it only means I will be flying CX/OW more next year. Asia Miles are pretty useless but at least CX achieves a level of excellence both in-flight and on the ground which AC could never even dream of. I will be avoiding all but necessary travel on AC next year. If only we still got paper upgrade certs, I'd burn a few of them on the sidewalk outside YVR.

yulred

Amen to that. I m usually a "path-of-least-resistance" type when it comes to flying - ie I ll pay a premium to fly direct out of YOW instead of transiting through the US, but with airfares where they are - and no tangible benefit to collecting them anymore, I think I m going to try some alternatives.

Granted, living in Ottawa, its not easy for me - but a combination of Avion points to EWR and VS Y+ EWR-LHR now costs less - or around the same - as flying AC in Y, albeit potentially through YUL or YYZ. Especially during the peak summer months. Maybe its time to start treating EWR the way I do YYZ and YUL. Will it work? Who knows. GOing to try it at least once, though.

ffI

The only good news in this (if only for me) is that I did not switch my corporate spend over to the Fidelity Amex for the Aeroplan miles as yet.
I have stuck with SPG Amex for the SPG for AA LT and now will just switch to the Chase UR cards. Who knows, UA/CO may well follow shortly, but I think this is AE/AC changing their arrangement and effectively doing a damper on TATL LH Awards.

travisw

just did. canceled my credit card today and am booking the rest of my flights for the year on ua.

i encourage others to cancel their credits cards. this sends a message. the bank supervisor seemed quite distressed because i was third person to call this morning.

yulred

+1.

Made the mistake of booking my YOW-LHR Xmas run on it, so going to keep it active till Jan 4 should I need the insurance. Then its history, almost exactly two weeks before its renewal date. I really have to thank AC for the timing in that sense- thank god it was before the renewal fee kicked in.

erasmus99

+1. Cancelling Aerogold and no longer crediting to AE is doing something.

Ancien Maestro

I agree that AE is the main program used by many Canadians, upward to 80%..

I think the carriers are to blame for the additional fees, and fuel surcharges though.. Generally, imo AE has been pretty good to work with.. When AC had the high surcharges, the *A was available at the fees offered untampered generally..

Now that other carriers are subscribing to AC type business surcharges, its a shame that AE is taking the heat for it. AE is a seperate entity from AC and other airlines.. squarely some of the blame needs to be placed with carriers..

Souvlaki

Yes. I had an all-LH award and it was 014 stock, which caused a headache at MRS LH check-in at 04h45 on the way home.

SensFan

Are you are saying that AE should be praised for keeping the fees off non-AC flights in the past but that they are now unfairly being blamed for the addition of the surcharges?

That makes absolutely no sense. Yes, it is possible that AE was being unfairly blamed at this time but the giving them praise for the past is equally misplaced.

Give credit where credit is due if you want to praise someone for not levying surcharges on *A flights in the past. The hero there would be AC just as the villain right now is AC (which might actually be misguided and it is possible that LH is the real villain).

It seems quite odd that AE was the first NA *A partner (possibly the first non M&M program?) that was asked to charge these surcharges. I wonder if LH is seeing too many redemptions on their flights from all of our mini-RTWs which almost all have at least some LH flights for people after F.