tmac100

Noticed this thread and the situation that led to KenH making the switch.... Bravo!

I stopped flying with AC when they would not ... and now try to fly BA as much as possible - but the exception is a RT on UL into SIN and then SIN-Australia RT on BA or a BA codeshare on QF metal...

The PE seats that I can buy on BA are worth the switch and the extra money. On PE seating I sometimes get op-ups to CW. A nice way to give me another reason to be loyal and fly in WT+ often. I think I'll no longer fly CX into HKG because they don't have PE seats. However, the ability to stretch my legs on a UL business class flight into HKG is worth the poorer seats (UL is supposedly a 3* airline)....

No matter ... I will not FLY any airline without premium economy seats any longer unless I have to - like the DHC-8 flight bewteen MEL-DPO

Choice is a great thing to be able to do - IF you have the financial and time resources to exercise it. I acknowledge that many families and some business folks do not have that kind of flexibility - but I do

In all honesty, I do fly AC domestically because of the number of flights they have. They are less than 3 hours so don't worry much about the seating....

Cozmo456

I too have switched. In my case it was because MM has been dropped as a program. After putting my butt on strange routings to get my MM, AC gives NOTHING.

Other airlines would pay a lot for that kind of loyalty.

So I moved on. And yes Y+ is all I need. No more aerolotto.

Now I fly where I want direct. In Y+.

And Ken, I will have Gold on DL in September. Going to take the summer off travel.

Flews

Recently flew AC for the first time since switching to ABAC a couple of years ago. Booked and paid for by my client, so I had no choice. Flew out on economy, and bought (out of my own pocket) a J upgrade on return.

Aside from being cramped on two CRJ legs, only experienced minor, but typical, AC irritants: "ran out" of food for purchase on the first leg (4+ hour flight); "forgot" to stock food for purchase on second leg; couldn't have a 'can' of diet coke because "we don't have enough on board"; "ran out" of wine in J class (after one glass, less than 10 passengers in J); when asking AC connecting gate agent if next flight was on time, was told "check your boarding pass for boarding time"; when confirming departure gate with same agent, was given wrong gate #; when asking info desk AC agent where the lounge was, she replied "it's where it's always been". Har, har.

All in all, as I say, a typical AC experience.

Which is why I am flying paid J to Disney on United this fall with the entire family.

Cheers,

fission

May I ask which airport(s) this was at? Especially that last comment…ouch…what if it had been your first time there?

margarita girl

I've spent the last couple of weeks thinking about where to post all my Star Alliance flights on several RGN mistake fares for the first 3 weeks of August. It's only about 25K actual miles but all in C class, so will earn COS bonus. (I'm also doing 40K Skyteam miles.) Turns out that UA/MP offers a 50% bonus for C class, and AC/AE only offers a 25% bonus. Anyhow, after doing spreadsheet after spreadsheet to take into account what I have already flown and the rest of my upcoming travel for the year, I figure I can finish up the year with 120,172 AE miles and 100,584 MP miles. Whew, I know that's cutting it close, but I always used the lowest number I could find for all my estimates (comparing GCM, Webflyer and Kris Flyer sites).

So I'll finally get to taste UA 1K and decide whether my departure from AC is final. The three straws that broke this camel's back are the R games, introduction of T fares to Asia, and the biggest one is the increasing fuel surcharges on AE reward tickets at the same time as increasing the mileage requirements. I'm going to have to hold my nose, as I don't really care for UA, but since I don't work anymore, I just don't want to pay those ridiculous co-pay fees on my "free" tickets any more.

Funny how AC's LOYALTY program is what is driving me away! That's some marketing genius that put that together.

okazon69

Just as long as you stick with your many husbands, it'll be ok. You may have to train them to call UA instead of AC, though.

Jagboi

As long as you're going to become a "free agent" why not look beyond *A and at One World? I've come to refer BA over AC for TATL travel, although their fuel surcharges are just as bad as AC. CX would be very nice to Asia though.

margarita girl

I do love AA. I've redeemed for a few reward tickets with them with no difficulty (and I don't have status), and the taxes are really low. I'll get to try AA's First Class on a YYZ-BKK flight at the beginning of Aug as a positioning flight for my RGN MRs. (Taxes were $90.)

I wouldn't consider BA because of the fuel surcharges. That is my primary reason for having to abandon AC/AE.

I expect to fly 220K miles on Star Alliance Airlines this year, so this is why I am considering UA. I will reach Gold status (all in J) before ever setting foot on a UA plane so I can make the move easily without a status match.

I am very close to million miler status, so will continue to put miles into AC/AE next year, but it will probably be the final year unless UA screws up royally.

In a way, I'm kind of relieved. I've been thinking about this since last year, but didn't know when to jump. The abundance of miles this year has made it possible.

Academic

I have to say that I'm reconsidering my options. I'll hit 100K on my next trip, but after that there's not much incentive. The last straw was an upcoming flight to FCO. The J award ticket for my wife was going to be 90,000 points and about $850 in scamcharges. The a/i T+ fare was just over $1000 and there's still lots of R space showing. With about 160 e-upgrades sitting there, that wasn't a tough choice. And for the rest of the year I'm looking at the cheapest J flights to Asia. Has anyone done TK to HK?

Cozmo456

Like Ken (OP), I switched to Delta because SkyTeam is more convenient for my flying. But getting MarcoPolo Gold with Amex Plat is making me seriously think about OW.

All this because AC took 9 months to give me my MM.

shuuy

is that really the only reason?

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+)

Like the rest of us it was probably the tipping point after a never ending series of minor - and not so minor - annoyances.

acysb87

Have noticed as well of what you refer to.

A J ticket to MUC for Mrs.acysb87 is almost 1K in fees,750.00 of which is fuel surcharge.
I just booked 3 family to BGI in February and the total fees for all 3 were just over 300.00,including fee for agent because the flights I wanted would not show up on-line.

Rewards are not free on AC metal, and is compounded by what UA,AA and others do not charge when compared to AC.

Compare that to a RTW reward ticket Mrs.acysb87 and myself have later this year and what I paid in fees. Most carriers are non AC and cost is significantly lower.

Cozmo456

No. As Ken said it was the insult to injury. As an SE, I expect that I get upgraded ahead of E. If they are on a Latitude fare, I accept that. However, time and again people were upgraded around me on T+ fares. One was the T-24 R glitch. The other was the distance rule. Since I start/end in YYZ, I am prioritized lower.

Forget about YQ. I do not want to travel on my time off. So that never entered my mind as it does for others.

Away from YYZ

Finally catch up with the post here... Like MG, the Tango fare is the last blow for me to leave Aeroplan.

I will miss J, but willing to fly Y/Y+ when my eUP expires. Right now, just not so happy with all my eUP, at least in the past I can use them as wall paper.

This may also be an excuse AP use to reduce # of eUP next year, some smartie pants in AP will say, "Look! there are so many eUP unused... maybe we can give less so they don't go to waste..."