Threshold Gift? Doesn't seem like it...
 

I just crossed the 200,000 mile threshold, only to login and be offered a choice of two gifts - 45,000 Aeroplan miles, or the Commuter flight pass to New York from the East Coast. I live in Vancouver, so naturally this is useless and I assumed an error. When I called AC to explain this, I was told it was Aeroplan's mistake and to call them. I then called Aeroplan who told me it was Air Canada's mistake and to call them back.

After 45 minutes on hold with the AC agent (who was lovely and very understanding), I was told that they were completely out of all the other gifts, including the Southwest flight pass, which is what I should have been offered. My question to her was - how does an airline run out of flight passes? I can see not having the Bose Wave, or the headphones, or even the 2 night stay with Fairmont, but the flight pass is an Air Canada product. She agreed, but said marketing decided they only wanted to give away so many, and that is why it says "first come, first served, while quantities last" I guess its a good thing they didn't also run out of Aeroplan miles, or I would be completely out of luck.

So much for a gift Air Canada...you really should have taken these items down off your website as they were consumed, it is very misleading, and after spending that much time on your aircraft, I feel more than a little cheated.

A similar thing happened to me last year with the Amazon GC. They ran out of them too. I think it should be up for the entire year. Not an until supplies last offer. Especially at the 200,000 mile level! Ha.

I am beyond speechless.

I passed 150K last week. The only threshold gift left is the 25K miles.

I was not impressed - the 60K & 90K threshold rewards are not available to me (as I'm SE), and they had set my expectation that there would at least be a reward at the 150K level. And then there wasn't (ok, there was something ... miles ... but I really don't need more miles).

Without disclosing that there are limited quantities of a product available... That may be a Competition Act offence ;)

EDIT: They do disclose that. Oh.

Congrats on crossing the 200k mark, don't feel too bad, this happens on all the threshold levels. I have been watching 250k levels dwindle as well, I hope the flight pass is still around in a couple of weeks.

Speaking of threshold levels, has anyone crossed a subsequent level without choosing the previous level gift? I haven't selected my 250k choice yet and I'm about to cross 300k and I'm not sure what will happen with my 250k selection.

Jeez us. Respect Considering you're on a unlimited FP and get a fixed # of miles per month. That's an insane amount of miles. Wow, just wow. :)

I did it with the 200 and 250k thresholds. It wasn't a problem.

Yeah I have similar experience with threshold gifts.
How on earth can they run out of things like flight passes and online gift cards (Amazon)?
It's not like they come in limited physical quantities...this is just wrong.
Also, I'm not sure if the threshold gift website even says "while quantities last"...is there such a line?

One would think that even if they ran out of gifts AC would order them in, especially for a pax who has flow 200K paid miles. I imagine it's a very small % of SE's who cross the 200K threshold, it's not as if AC is losing $$ on these pax.

I am still bothered by signaturechip's experience and post, partly because of what was said to him/her and partly the sheer nonsense of running out of "passes", and also because of the conversations with AC and Aeroplan.

It reminded me of this from a few months back: I passed through multiple Altitude tiers in a very short period of time. I never got the 50 email or package, the 75 showed up and then never received the 100 SE.

It DOES NOT matter that I knew I hit those levels or was able to choose my privileges. It matters that Aeroplan agents told me AC is responsible and I should call them. AC does not have anyone to call about these things. I mentioned it to a couple of phone agents who said "We hear this all the time".

Well, if you hear it all the time, fix it.

Finally, after repeated calls - where one Aeroplan agent literally told me that I can't keep calling back trying to get a different answer. Well, if the answers supplied by the collection of previous agents I'd spoken with didn't all contradict each other, then perhaps I would not keep calling. (And who are you to tell me not to call, I might add?)

Finally, a really great individual was able to track down the answer:
They ("the supplier") ran out of the printed travel options. She said that is why I was never sent one of my packages.

How do you run out of something that is on a tiny piece of paper and can be re-printed? (And why are they mailing these OnBoard Cafe options in the first place when this should be done via web posting)

How is this set of experiences - especially signaturechip's - not completely absurd?

<rant over>

I haven't looked at T&Cs, but maybe you can give these to a friend or family member?

What do the Bens have to say about this?!

I think this needs to go to the media. It's so dumb.

Have you wrote to the AC mailbox on their website? They are usually quite reasonable there

Here is what it says on the Threshold Gift page:

"Gifts will be provided while quantities last, and are available on a first-come, first-served basis".