I received an email from Annik de Brouwer yesterday, too. The letter assured me that US lounges charge between $10-30US for guests, and referred me to an attached news release announcing the revised benefits. This is same news release which repeatedly states that Aeroplan is competitive with US programs.

So I spent 15 minutes researching the US frequent flier programs and wrote back to inform them that the four largest US airlines permit two free lounge guests per member, and cited specific examples, such as upgrades and waived capacity controls for awards for all members for less points, where Aeroplan is no where near competitive with US frequent flier programs.

I can understand the need to market Aeroplan in the best light possible, but lying to us isn't going to help their case at all.

Many thanks for your offerings Andrew but I have enough to see me through to the end of the month (which will be a challenge of getting the good and gracious Mrs and I upgraded....)

Has anybody in AC-elite received their new E kits for this year?

stil nothing, but hey - it's "early"! AC still has 18 days, if they stick to traditional policy about last-minute notifications.

I'll bet a pair of 2002 NA U/G's that we'll start seeing them in our mailboxes on the 18th. Any takers?

My wife, and I (both Elites) got two 2002 NA upgrade certs, with our Dec statements, which we received in the mail in early Jan.

I think a fair number of SEs haven't received their kits yet either. With the revisions, it is likely AC is preparing a few stickers to be placed over the pages that would have been printed up back in December. These will be included with the new cards, luggage tags and certificates for self application. They won't scrap 75K Elite kits, but it will be like the late change they made to the September/October newsletter [the stickerd insert "Waves of double Aeroplan miles"] which held that mailing up by almost a month.

If I were you, I would not expect to see anything until the beginning of March, so this way you will not be disappointed when nothing comes, and "pleasantly" surprised if the kit does arrive before the end of February. Since AC's res system will know one's status for the new benefit year, and it seems many have already received a few of the "useless" 2002 upgrades, you really will want for little more than the gawd awful looking card.

So I guess I shouldn't hold my breath in waiting (still) for my SE package.

And P kits (uh, envelopes) go out in May?

I prefer to think of Elite as Super Prestige now

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Your resident on-line IATA Travel Agent - also AC Elite

lol Maple Leaf.... how true.

How do you know what the card looks like? I know the SE's around here aren't too impressed with their's, but does that mean that the E's have to be ugly too? Are they usually very similar?

For those of us who were the last of the CdnGold, I recall I didn't get the Booklet for 2000 until the very last day of February from the new 'master'. I remember how disappointed I was that the upgrades were no longer from any fare class....it was clearly just the beginning of AC 'magic' (i.e., making benefits disappear!).

Well, maybe the card will be so great looking for Elites and Prestiges, they will make up for all the other losses. But since cards are always similar, I doubt it. Generally, only the colour schemes are different.

Don't you mean STUPID Prestige?

After all, what would possess us to put an extra 17k q-miles on AC in order to get peanuts thrown at us? (u/g certs? bloody useless! Reward tickets? Double miles please! MLL access? $20 for your spouse!)

An agent recently informed me that the second batch of top tier kits (whatever that means) will be sent out Feb 14-25. Unless this means all kits (including Prestige and Super Prestige) then some people won't receive them before March 1 which is all to freaking typical.