True Cost of Elite (E50K)
 

AC Flyers:

I kept a little spreadsheet running all year (2012) to track a) how much in total does it cost to achieve E status on AC and b) how much difference does one pay chasing this status by purchasing T over T+ fares. Here are the results of my "analysis":

Route........................................Miles......Tango($)....Tango+($)....Difference ($)
Elite bonus status miles.............1500............n/a.............n/a....................n/a
YYC-YOW-YYC..........................3576.......530.01........666.51............136.50
YYC-YVR-SYD-YVR-YYC...........16484...........n/a.........2246.63................0.00
YYC-YYZ-YOW-YYZ-YYC............4340.......539.05.........675.55...........136.50
YYC-YYZ-YQY-YHZ-YYZ-YYC......5610.......692.20.........828.70...........136.50
YYC-FRA-PRG-FRA-YYC.............9590..........n/a..........1060.81................0.00
YYC-YYZ-YOW-YYZ-YYC............4340......665.05.........801.55............136.50
YYC-YVR-YEG...........................1002......160.78.........237.43..............76.65
YYC-YYZ-YOW-YYZ-YYC............4340......539.05.........675.55............136.50

Total spend to gain E50K status................................$7192.73
Total extra $ to gain status over T fares.........................................$759.15
Total mileage:........................50,782

Note: the mileage total includes the privilege choice of 1,500 bonus status miles at the start of the year and excludes the 50% bonus status mile offer from AC in 2012. I always booked T+ fares and then went back and re-priced the same itinerary with T fares to obtain the difference shown above.

For me it raised some interesting questions:

1) Those that state they obtain SE status for <$7000 seems impossible to me when I barely got E status with nearly $7,200 spend. Is it even possible to get SE for less than, say, $10K in revenue spend?

2) It cost an extra $759 for me to commit to T+ fares; however, how much more will this now cost with the introduction of TATL/TPAC T fares? It almost seems better to simply purchase lounge access, priority check in etc. benefits from AMEX (minus e-upgrade benefits) and fly on the cheapest fare possible. Unless you really enjoy flying UA. It really reinforces for me the question of whether status chasing is worth it?

Interested to hear other FTers thoughts on this. Cheers! :)

Costs go down significantly f you do your minimum 10k or 5 segments on AC metal and then the remaining 90k on UA (within the states, not connecting through Canada or AC) on much lower fares.

Definitely not impossible. Using fares currently available I could get AC SE status for around $7500CAD by only flying AC metal. (and as I want the fare to stay alive I won´t post it here, but you can PM me if you´re interested).

And that doesn´t even take into account special fares such as the recent MAD-HNL $630r/t US fare which would have made it possible to earn SE status for <$4000, though I personally probably would have hanged myself after the second trip MAD-Hawaii in US Y.:p

Yes, for most travellers the value proposition of earning AC status has greatly deteriorated and for most people it would make sense to think outside the box and just pay for the annual MLL worldwide membership or possibly credit to A3 instead of chasing AC status. The single benefit that still can be very useful (depending on your route / flexibility / knowledge) are the upgrade credits.

Using my personal flying pattern I´d probably have to spend 60% more to book the same flights I took last year. I´ll somewhat modify my flying pattern, so my overall increase in spending may be 25%-30%. As long as my upgrades clear I may be willing to put up with the "enhancements" for the time being, but AC has definitely turned me from a happy customer to a pretty unhappy customer.

I would agree that it would be pretty difficult to get SE for under $10K if you factor in accumulating miles for work reasons, since--work-wise most if not all people need to be a certain place at a certain time, and the fares are almost never cheap in those circumstances.

If, however, you have the flexibility to fly only when there are "deals" so to speak, it's potentially doable. To get SE for $10K, you'd need to have an average spend of $0.10/mile or less. It would have been more feasible on AC when T+ was the lowest offered fare on TPAC/TATL. For example, I know there were some well-published AC fares this fall to Europe that averaged $0.08/mile or so--and you'd have to have done a whack of them or... as you say, you would need to be comfortable flying UA more often.

If you do 90% of your flying on UA, is there really any benefit (other than domestic lounge access) of having AC SE over UA 1K? I always assumed that each FF program offered the greatest benefits while flying their own metal.

In your specific case it seems worth it just from the aeroplan mileage accumulated (50,000 miles) plus the 50% bonus you earn as elite if you select that as one of your options (sounds like you did). The value of the aeroplan miles vary widely depending on how used, but with if used carefully should be worth at least $0.01 each, so you accumulated $750 worth of miles vs the tango fare option alone with no bonuses (at 25% non-status mile accumulation), which is only worth $125 in the above scenario.

Once you factor in the other add-ons, upgrades and perks, it seems like it's still worth it. :)

I took a look at some random dates in March and the delta between T & T+ for SYD from YOW is ~$2400 return so it would necessitate 2X the trips or 2X the $$ to get those 16k miles which increases the cost of earning any status dramatically.

For me, I find the delta between T and T+ on domestic routes is not too bad. If I am flying and not earning miles i would be angry with every mile.
as for international T to T+, they are pricing themselves out of the market. Right now YYC to SYD has a 700 dollar difference each direction between T and T+. ($3306 on AC mid april, one week stay)
Looking at the same dates on UA, $1928. for that price I would get full miles, and also be able to get E+ both ways and still be ahead.
Seems like a horrible business plan to me.

Domestic lounge access is worth it for me (more UA than AC most years). Plus, no MP credit card in Canada...

Thanks for sharing - very interesting! Looks like you were able to take advantage of a couple TATL/TPAC T+ fares before they introduced the T fares (at former T+ prices).

With the fare changes, I think you'd be hard pressed to do the same mileage for that price in 2013 on AC. As much as I prefer AC product, I'll likely end up taking United for any personal overseas travel, as I can't justify the premium for AC with the TATL/TPAC T+ fares.

To get a true cost, you'd really have to consider a few more factors for most of us. For example:

- Was AC the cheapest carrier for the flight?
- Was a mileage run requried to get Elite?
- Was a higher fare class booked to guarantee an upgrade (eg. latitude)
- Was the flight even necessary?

Easy to still get SE for $7K, if you want it:

4 UA SIN Runs at $1,400 YYZ/BUF-ORD-NRT-SIN in off-season yields 80K+.
2 AC HNL Runs at $700 YYZ-YVR-HNL yields 20K.

Total spend $5,600+$1,400=$7,000.

While fares are rough estimates, these have been available through much of 2012 from time to time. Of course, through the year one would have "normal" travel but that only increases the cost of elite.

Better value if you put your money into getting UA 1K though.

From what I gather UA 1K is a better deal than AC SE and probably can be earned with fewer $ since TATL/TPAC T fare introduction. UA 1K has really good 1-way and RTW redemption if that's something you're interested in. As long as you're *G you'll get MLL access anyway. In Canada I strongly advise you getting NEXUS/Global Entry to clear customs/security line, worth every penny and faster than Priority security line (and can save yourself from missing tight connections)

Since residing in the US, I've flown UA/US domestically to get AC miles, and flew AC/*A combo out of US via YYZ to claim eUpgrades and play Aerolotto, thankfully with excellent yield despite being a lowly E in 2012. Fortunately for me, flying out of USA via a Cdn hub booked on AC.com still has fairly decent T+ fares (yes it's higher than before but with the right dates can be done still competitively vs TATL directly from NYC area).

If you do quite a bit of TATL/TPAC flying in 2013 (I see you did one TATL, one TPAC in 2012), SQ most fares and LX S fares and above get you 100% status on AE. I try to avoid UA on TATL/TPAC b/c of the horrible Y product. Recently, found good J deals on TG and OZ which gets you 125% status on AE.

Another factor to consider reaching A50 in 2013 is fly TATL/TPAC when they have the 50% bonus status promo like they recently offered in December. Can get you >50K much more quickly.

Ultimately, deciding between UA/MP and AC/AE comes down to:
1) How many flights you will fly UA vs AC that get you 100% miles?
2) How much do you value eUpgrades and whether you feel you will get it most of the time?
3) How much AE points do you redeem and how do you accumulate your AE points besides flying? Given you're based in YYC it'll be hard for you to get a US credit card to get UA/MP miles. In the US I can use SPG AMEX to convert to AE points 1:1, and Chase Sapphire preferred VISA to get convert to MP points 1:1.
3) How much are you willing to re-route creatively to get the 100% miles?

Judging from my research, it doesn't make sense to pick UA/MP unless you'll be 1K since upgrades are not possible internationally (except to Latin America and intra-Asia at UA75 Plat) and there're too many UA75 Plat and UA1K to get the free domestic upgrades in busy domestic US routes to make it worthwhile.

GT

i think if there is a promo again with YUL-YOW-YYZ-YVR-SEA for $380RT in Tango plus then you can do your 50K for approx $4000.

I also found a route from US to AKL via SFO/HKG/SIN or SFO/ICN/SIN for $2800 and yields 30+K miles

Then again.... I learn the same amount of $$$$$ can buy me other things of interest in life.....than just MR-ing

Understatement. Spent about $2500 for 50k Gold on UA without any MRs.

This year so far have booked 90k of vacations for just over $3200, 70% up front using confirmed regional upgrades, and of course a couple great mistake fares - including one RGN fare.