Post chat analysis
 

IMHO not nearly as bad as some predicted. We did get some genuinely new info plus a lot of promises.

This new web site RD keeps mentioning better be as good as he says it will be.

Apparently RD doesn't think the changes are sweeping!!!! Well...he may witness a fairly sweeping exodus of frequent flyers and a fairly sweeping impact to AC's finances. I am giving this outfit until the end of next week to recant and restore all or nearly all that they have taken away - otherwise its adios. I am not holding my breath.

Rupert did try and did answer some tough questions quite well. But maybe they also need to do a bit of homework - Westjet allows standby and AA most certainly gives 100% miles for all fares (tier points is another thing of course).

[This message has been edited by Altaflyer (edited 02-07-2002).]

AND Rupert asked to come back in 4 weeks!!! (I always thought those Brits are strange)

AC's top flyers should not have to suffer because of system problems. The $$$$$ that RD referred to would be a wise investment in the future of AC/Aeroplan.

I also learned this week that AC' RTW segments come from C space!

The content was much better than I expected and I give RD high marks for effort. But he should do a bit more research before saying things like AA gives on 50% miles on discounted fares or West Jet does not allow standby travel.

I still call the changes to the 2002 benefits sweeping, especially for Elites, and I'm surprised that he doesn't.

No the moderator gave him a rather friendly ride.

There was not much relevance to the question will AC link, or join, with US Airways in the future. I mean we are losing upgrades and rewards and a link question is asked?

Better than most sessions. More content. But what are they paying IBM all that money for? And why is destina still not launched?

One comment: Desperate, disappointed and what looks good on the outside has no substance in his info whatsoever. R/E/A/D/I/N/G

[This message has been edited by Guava (edited 02-07-2002).]

The two things that stood out in my mind were how clueless he was about AC's competiton, and his tendency to "make up facts" -- i.e. the 50% on AA, the no standby on WS, 2T, etc. They're just whistling in the dark, slapping each onher on the back in their own parochial little world.

AC is SO great, not only do we not have to worry about the competiton, we don't even have any competition.

Rupert is still in the chat now taking questions.

Yes - give the guy credit for taking some pretty unwarrented abuse (not mentioning any names VillageIdiot)

What do you mean... I thought we hit it off fairly well. We really connected. I'm sure I'll get a dinner invite out of it.

I agree, Ken. Maybe they aren't trying to fool us when they say that Aeroplan is the best and most competitive frequent flier program in the press releases. Maybe they actually believe it. That would explain a lot of things.

I agree that it was better than I expected. I was surprised by the standby question. He missed it with WS.

ACORD, I really didn't see any abuse, at least from the FT crowd. VillageIdiot's question was well thought out and politely presented, no abuse there.

The answers were too long in coming, Flyertalk really needs Regis Philbin to be a moderator and to only allow so long for the answers. How many advisors did Rupert have in the room?

I don't think he had any. He's still going by the way.

Sure he had advisors in the room...

He said, long question, give "us" a second to type this one...

It was either advisors or a team of trained monkeys back there with him.

I was real real disappointed with the Standby Question... "Westjet sometimes doesn't allow it"

If you wanna compare your program to the big boys all the time, don't wimp out and compare yourself to the little guys when your policy is flawed.

And if you think I was “to hard” on the poor guy, both you and him need thicker skin… Actually, his skin seemed just fine.

10/10 for sticking around and listening.

1/10 for content.

VI, well my English aunt always says "give us a kiss". I think they just talk like that. He did stick around though even when the abuse started. And he says he'll be back for more...

I agree... great for him to come early and stick around for another 90 mins after the chat just to talk to us.

I missed that post talk chat. Darn it ...it seemed the best part when I logged in at the end.
Empress: Did he really ask for your resume?

Empress - we have to hold RD to having a meeting ASAP! It would be a great step in the right direction.

Absolutely... Full marks for sticking around...

But, to be honest, unless there is some action... Action to show they are concerned about the customer; I don't have a single reason to fly AC.

I'll continue to drive to SEA to go to YYZ or fly through ORD or drive from Hamilton

[This message has been edited by Village Idiot (edited 02-07-2002).]

Empress: Did he really ask for your resume?

Yup... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Empress - we have to hold RD to having a meeting ASAP!

I'll take care of that.

Count me in for the meeting. We Elites have to plead our case...

I'd really like to make it too. Please don't forget about B's as some of us are planning on growing up to be P's / E's / SE's, too. Our opinions are just as useful from the lower level of the pond. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

What is below pond scum?

Yes full marks for staying an extra 90 minutes.

The telling remark was I believe Randy's, "We've never had anybody want to come back."

They will hash this out tomorrow, in a study group, put some muffins in the microwave. Think more, then meet next week to do a few changes depending on load factor. What is everybody buying? Then possibly throw us a few treats before the next chat.

I agree, Fair play for hanging around..

Bear in mind the moderators were feeding the questions...so its those guys who were the pussies....

Flyertalk is a business remember , why would they want to piss of RD....

I think sometimes those guys at flyertalk forget whence they came...

Plus if rupert is a fellow contryman he can't be all bad...

I make my living in sales......and Rupert is a salesman....he stuck around being nice and chatty....trying to schmooze us.....I do it all the time to my clients.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

Substance was limited.

I thank him for the effort...but recognize it for what it was. I also recognize that he's not responsible for the AC product...just Aeroplan...and the AC product is half the equation.

It's UA all the way.

[This message has been edited by Carioca Canuck (edited 02-07-2002).]

Did I miss anything?

A comment to AC in general: if you ask for feedback, but do not do anything about it, you'd be better off not asking in the first place.

FewMiles..

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I´m in Europe but did not get up early enough and missed a bit of the beginning. Internet connection was slow on my end and spent the 45 minutes nodding off or fighting to keep awake.

I have to give RD credit for coming on FT after all the abuse he has taken.

I´ll have to go through the transcripts so to catch what I missed.

As far as additional changes to the program this year, I´ll go through the transcripts, but what I saw...I would have to say that what we see now is what we´ll get until capital expenditures with AC IT expands.

Cheers

After just having had a 5 hour drive to think about it, I find that in the end I am disheartened. Not because of the content, or lack of, even though it was a disappointment.

It's because the chat convinced me that the people running Aeroplan have no concept of what a loyalty program is or should be, so how can they understand the issues? Like being asked why the charge for a simple date change to an award ticket, only to be told that too many SEs and Es were abusing the system by making multiple bookings, with upgrades. Huh?

But what's even worse is they have no clue what their competition is, such as the quip about AA only offering 50% miles "systemwide." AC still has this rose coloured view of their world, that Aeroplan and Air Canada are so far ahead everyone else, that "everyone else" isn't even competition for them.

All is lost.

I thought I saw somewhere last night a URL for the transcript of the chat, but now I can't find it. Does anyone have it?

Transcripts

But it's not there yet. Hopefully later on.

Go to home page of FT and click on live chat.At the bottom of the page there is an archive with transcripts. However. yesterday's chat is not yet up. It will be later in the day.

It's up.

Is the transcripted edited ???

There are only a handful of questions - there where are the important ones like the Capacity Control overide for Elite??

FT censor the questions and gave RD the easy ones. Only 1 of the 15 questions I submitted made it to RD.