Argonaut1000

I believe that the chart is a misprint. The only international routines that will require 32 are Asia to South America.

FlyerGoldII

I guess that another new benefit, for all Altitude members who are upgrading, is that fewer eupgrade credits are needed for flights of 500 miles or less, such as Rapidair flights.

172pilot

I think this is great especially at the end of the year when eUps are expiring. 6 points was too much for a one hour flight. 4 is still a lot but doesn't seem so bad when you are using them up anyway.

BlondeBomber

The one big benefit that no one talks about is that Altitude is now clearly an AC program not an Aeroplan one--there should be no more back and forthing of shifting blame/responsibility between Aeroplan and AC on strictly top tier issues.^

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+)

"...there should be..."

YULcookiemonster

Can you explain this? (Dorian made the same comment also)

Why do you guys see it as easier when SE trump E for upgrade priority anyway?

Thanks

zsm1928

You are incorrect. Look at this link http://aircan.ca/PdTEtA

xLuther

Chart is wrong, use the e upgrade tool

It does not even make sense, find a non North American international flight 0- 500 miles

RoadWarrior60_13

I really cannot see any significant change - the E50 offer as meaningless to me. The marketing of the s100K has not given me sense of anything new. My biggest beef is the fuel surcharges on points tickets...my US buddies do not need to deal with such costs on programs like United or American.

hearna

or even a 501-1500?? even YYT-LHR is more than 1500....

ac777

I suspect you are wrong--although AC TT did tell us about the 5000+ and 11000+ and the eupgrade credit requirements. The reason eupgrade site is still showing the lower numbers is due to the fact that they are still playing catch up. I'd still like to know the International route below 500 miles and 1500 miles or less. Maybe US now can be classified as International. Unless AC changes the table I'll accept it as the new improvements. Twitter feed from ACA is quite interesting.

fission

I think two things will directly reduce the number of people vying for upgrades:

• Tango fares (since some can't/won't pay for Flex); and
• raising the minimum qualification level for most upgrades (which essentially chops off the 35-49k crowd from upgrades).

Obviously the latter only affects SEs when requesting an upgrade within the E50K window (if R=0 and J≪9). And arguably, Elites can still pay M class fares to get upgrades, but honestly, I suspect most people willing to pay for M would just as soon pay for Z to avoid playing The R Games.

The E50K gift is a neat idea, I think. Wasn't that a threshold gift at one point? (I forget at which level.)

Besides higher upgrade potential (if one is willing to shell out for Flex), I don't really see that many real improvements. Compared to the UA method of gifting upgrades to anyone (on the right fare class), I'm still a bit vexed by the eUpgrade nominee system, especially with the additional restrictions imposed last year (ie you may only be nominated by one person).

Tax Dude

For me, the benefits are improved over last year. I'm happy with the "first-change-free" for reward flights, I'll use that a few times I'm sure. Upgrading reward flights is also a nice benefit, although the credits required are steep. Maybe they'll have a sale for the summer!

But the best benefit for me is the gifting of E50 status. Mrs TD and I were able to give status to our two boys who are are both planning on doing a bit of travel this summer. As a result, they'll likely fly AC whereas without status they'd just book the lowest fare.

makemoretospendmore

Not a SE but don't you think allowing SE to gift E50 is going to increase the number of travellers in priority lines, MLL lounge, and priority boarding? It may not be apparent yet, but this could be another diluting of your benefit...

Tax Dude

I doubt it will have much impact. Most people that get gifted the E50 are likely infrequent travellers and/or they're spouses of SEs who would usually be accompanying a status member anyways.