Dorian

UA just introduced spend on a per tier basis, how long until AC does it....?


Premier Silver: [25,000 PQM or 30 PQS] and $2,500 PQD
Premier Gold: [50,000 PQM or 60 PQS] and $5,000 PQD
Premier Platinum: [75,000 PQM or 90 PQS] and $7,500 PQD
Premier 1K: [100,000 PQM or 120 PQS] and $10,000 PQD

YYZtoDCA

So now that United Airlines has introduced a minimum spending limit for the different levels of its frequent flyer program, I was curious about what the implications might be for Air Canada? Is this coming down the pipe at AC for the 2014 year or soon after? Is there a reason why AC might not go in that direction? Does the minimum spending level really make much of a difference, or would most people likely hit it anyway en route to earning their qualifying miles? And finally, is this going to influence in any way the flow of FFers from Altitude to United (assuming AC doesn't implement a similar policy for the coming year)?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ification.html

kwflyer

I think we already have an unpublished spending requirement given the amount we pay in higher fares, taxes, surcharges, and living in a country with less competition (leading to all of the above).

Oh an the MP spend requirement is exempt for Canadian residents. AC, take note.

Doug Parker on the other hand, is probably rubbig his hands with glee.

yvr76

Delta just did this as well. AC doesn't necessarily need to do this through $ - all they need to do is raise their minimum mileage requirement for AC metal and their fare pricing structure will take care of the rest. e.g.

P25K - 10,000 miles
E35k - 15,000 miles
E50k - 20,000 miles
E75K - 30,000 miles
S100k - 40,000 miles

Otherwise they will have a minimum AQM/AQS requirement, a minimum AC metal requirement, and a $ requirement.

Also note both Delta and United have waivers for credit card holders of their FF programs (although with United 1Ks have to meet it regardless). I doubt AC would have that exception.

hydrogen

AC is a sheep. It follows whatever happens: Asia/Australia $100 for 2nd bag, increased change fee, etc., etc., etc.

As mentioned in post 2 of the link:

Maybe not for next year, but probably for the year after. It's only a matter of time...

YYZtoDCA

It seems to me though that what United is doing is making it much harder to qualify for status via mileage runs. Now the value of that $150/9,000 mile trip with four segments or whatever is much less than it used to be. Without a spending floor on AC this is not (yet) the case for us.

ridefar

Am I missing something here or is this kind of toothless as it stands? I mean spending $10,000 to get to SE (to put it in AC terms) would be very difficult except for the most diehard mileage runner. I know some members here report spends in the range of $5500 to $8500 to get to SE, but even here that seems to be the definite exception.

As I have posted before, cranking up the AQM requirement for the tiers seems to make more sense to me--make SE require 50,000 AQMs. With the new fare rules, that would virtually guarantee you $10,000 right there. And it would be a lot easier to track (because the tracking system is already built and running).

YYZtoDCA

When is $10,000 dollars not really $10,000 dollars? When it is the spending floor for Premier 1K status on UA. Only the base fare and carrier imposed surcharges count toward your PDQ with this enhancement, so in reality customers are going to be required to spend some indeterminate amount more in order to qualify. As to how much more, I'm not really sure. Any ideas about how much the "non-carrier" fees and surcharges amount to on the average domestic/TATL/TPAC flight?

Edit: If I am not mistaken taxes do not count -- that's a big consideration here.

canadiancow

If taxes/fees don't count, that's a little more challenging. UA seems to want 10cpm, but that will be much higher once you factor in everything other than the base fare.

The one thing that seems to be common is that the limits only apply to residents of the airline's country. Now I'm even less interested in switching from AC to UA

I don't really like this though. If they want to do this, they can move cheap fares into a Tango-like bucket. Don't just make miles not matter any more.

Doesn't this effectively kill the whole point of the Star Alliance, if flights on other airlines don't really count towards status any more?

sluis

I think it would be nearly impossible to obtain Altitude status in Air Canada for less than those spending amounts (a ticket from Vancouver to Calgary is usually 600$ round-trip for 1000 status miles). United is quiet generous with miles (100% on all fare classes, possibility to double your status miles for a fee and even the possibility to get miles on rewards tickets for a fee).

YYZtoDCA

The following costs count toward PQD, as per the Mileage Plus update:

Base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges
Flights flown by United, United Express, or Copa Airlines
Flights operated by a Star Alliance or a MileagePlus partner airline and
issued on a United ticket (ticket number starting with 016)
Economy Plus purchases

A typical 1K or Platinum (or 75K/SE in AC parlance) may be paying literally thousands of dollars in taxes on United tickets that are not going to count toward attaining status (and that leaves out the other non-carrier issued fees).

You're also right, it devalues the Star Alliance membership because the spending floor applies only to UA and codeshare tickets.

It also seems to me that this virtually chains UA Mileage Plus members to United for the vast majority of their long haul flying. If flying a *A partner TATL/TPAC no longer counts toward getting status few FFers will do so.

supatight80

So which in here count towards PDQ?

Air Transportation Charges
Base Fare 1740.60
Surcharges 5.40
Fuel Surcharge 244.34
Taxes, Fees and Charges
Canada Airport Improvement Fee 20.00
Hong Kong Air Passenger Departure Tax 16.09
Canada Goods and Services Tax (GST/HST) 1.00
Air Travellers Security Charge (ATSC) 25.91
Total airfare and taxes before options (per passenger) 2053.34
Number of passengers 1
Grand Total - Canadian dollars $2053.34


Base fare and Fuel Surcharge??

YYZtoDCA

However, AC elites can use mileage runs with other airlines to top up their qualification totals. That is much harder now on United, where a massive amount of miles from an inexpensive ticket may not do the trick for you.

hydrogen

Base fare and fuel surcharge sounds about right. Maybe the $5.40 surcharge too, depending what it is.

Isn't 10K AC spend for SE not too hard? Especially when someone else is paying for your J travel.

Dorian

Huh? I thought we were talking about minimum spend thresholds? Since when does flying a *A partner not count towards earning status?