quoxton

Message to Air Canada -- do not let Aeroplan cannibalize your brand. I don't pay a lot of attention to these programs, but I have focused in over the past week and the 'Distinction' Aeroplan program is absolute bull#### to anybody who understands these marketing schemes. I totally get that it made sense to spin out the loyalty program, but dual 'loyalty' schemes are confusing and extremely annoying for those who fly a lot of miles on your airline and pay irregular attention to the benefits that should be easier to track and more meaningful. Someone made a error here in understanding their target market. 'Distinction' Black without anything real -- save me the time.

YEG ex Executive Platinum

+1

I don't profess to understand these marketing schemes, however my reaction was similar when the Distinction program was announced. Frankly, I was more annoyed when AC rolled out Altitude because it seemed to me to be unnecessary duplication. Regardless, I simply choose now not be annoyed and ignore Distinction. The Aeroplan site functions pretty much as I need it to so I rarely even visit the Altitude site.

YEG ex Executive Platinum

Distinction program thread can be found at:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...n-program.html

jjclancy

We hadn't considered that, thank you for bringing it to our attention. We'll immediately discontinue Distinction branding.

Sincerely,
AE management

Max Power

I gotta agree with Quoxton, I can't for the life of me figure out what the difference is between Aeroplan, Altitude, and Distinction.

Mind you, I'm not what you would call a 'frequent flyer' on Air Canada - only SuperElite and Million Mile.

Perhaps the three million mile members understand what it is all about. Perhaps by the time I get to three million miles I might understand what it is all about.

cmatteotti

My brother hit SE for the first time this year, after his first year of punishing business travel (so, new to the frequent flyer game). He was asking me if Diamond Status (or whatever the top distinction moniker is) is any good and honestly didn't understand a) that Altitude even existed, b) that Altitude is an entirely separate programme, and c) that his Altitude benefits will have considerably more impact on his day-to-day travel than whatever Distinction actually is...

yscleo

So, the aeropeso Disfunction program is now distinct.

sp4294

So obviously everything is working to plan then...

Symmetre

Distinction = Aeroplan's new loyalty program.

Altitude = AC's new loyalty program.

Aeroplan Points = the currency that, for now at least, is used by both. That won't last though. At some point Altitude will introduce its own currency (Altitude Miles, or whatever) and the divorce will be complete.

Distinctly ridiculous, IMO.

nowinyow

After the AC-AE "divorce" (2017 ??), will CIBC offer only AE and their version of "distinction" and might TD offer AC Altitude only with their own version of "distinction"? Given the amount of money TD is paying, will they become the sole AC credit card?

Shareholder

AEROPLAN isn't a brand owned by AC. Hasn't been since that company (AEROPLAN) was spun off after AC emerged from bankruptcy protection as part of a holding company. Then AC itself (the airline) was spun off into its own independent company, as was JAZZ (now CHORUS). AC contracts with AEROPLAN (actually AIMIA) to manage the mileage accumulation and redemption elements of its ALTITUDE program. And AC manages the elite program itself. So ALTITUDE is technically-speking now the AC FF program for elites, with AEROPLAN an element of ALTITUDE. And now AEROPLAN/AIMIA has decided to introduction its own elite program called DISTINCTION.

Isn't that as clear as mud?! Can't see why there's so much confusion?

Of course you still need two separate apps, AC and AEROPLAN, and cannot access much of the ALTITUDE program from the AC web site. But it all makes sense, somewhat, somehow...

WR Cage

Air Canada is an airline.

Aimia is a loyalty program company.

Aeroplan is a points currency. Legacy Aeroplan had much more significance to the overall brand than current situation.

Altitude is the Air Canada loyalty program for people who fly a lot and collect Aeroplan points from flying.

Distinction is the Aimia loyalty program for people who collect Aeroplan points primarily from nonflying sources such as credit cards, retail stores, gas stations, etc.

For me, I want the ability to participate in AC Altitude but collect points to Mileage plus. In this instance I would have mileage plus points but no status united premier program. I want this to avoid the Aeroplan scam charges. This dream is not that far off reality, only requires UA to further separate the mileage plus points program from the premier loyalty program.

hazcaddy

So with all these separate-but-allied programs who do I gripe to about the following:
Air Canada advertised in November that if you booked a flight through the AC website and paid with your CIBC Aeroplan-branded card, you would get triple miles for the flight. I made the flight and of course didn't get the triple points, just the regular amount.
Now what?

margarita girl

I hope you read the fine print. You aren't getting triple miles on the mileage flown. You are getting triple miles from CIBC on the amount you spent. So if you bought a ticket for $500, you'll get 1000 bonus miles on top of the usual 500 miles. I don't know when they promised to post the miles, but it's CIBC you should be talking to, not AE.

(Don't feel bad if you misunderstood the promo. You're not alone. My sister thought she was getting 20K+ bonus miles on her flights to GRU. She'll get about 2000 bonus miles.)

mapleg

Exactly. Solving a rubik's cube is probably easier than figuring out all this stuff.