canadiancow

Yes, that's the same as last time.

I find I get a lot less stressed and aggravated when I just treat this as a game

yyzprincess

Not really. Fall of 2014 I was planning to fly United for all of my TATL Business travel. When EWY#3 was announced I changed my plans . Flew AC.
AC got my travel $$$$ instead of United.

Having spent last few hours working with a friend of mine, we have put together several options for EYW#4 already for my May & June business travel. AC will mostly likely the May & June Travel $$$$ instead of United.

cairo604

Cow: If you're doing this I wouldn't mind tagging along

superangrypenguin

Well then, I eat my words. I guess it does make sense from a revenue perspective!

canadiancow

Okay I'm just going to throw this out there.

Several people have expressed interest in tagging along with me.

1. The more people who come, the higher the fares will be, and the more we'll be competing against each other for both upgrades and a top 20 position.
2. Drunk Cargo's offer for v3, which he made to everyone on FT, was 25% of the ticket cost. At the rate I charge for software development, and assuming the two people I worked with would charge less than me, the algorithm cost us $12,000 to develop. I'm not making, requesting, or accepting any offers with this post, but just keep it in mind if your instinct is to PM me and say you want to join, and I've never even met you.

YOWgary

Are the point values per badge published somewhere that I'm not seeing?

Am I right that Contestant #20 gets 500K miles, plus their wings, and Contestant #21 just gets their wings?

cairo604

I'm good with that... the only factor is if I can work in the travel dates. All my flights are booked till Sept so would need to cancel/reschedule 2 weeks of travel to play

cperciva

I don't know exactly what AC pays for aeroplan points, but I was figuring it was somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0 cpm.

canadiancow

Globetrotter badges are 2000 each. Canada destination badges are 200, US are 400, international are 750.

You're right about 20 and 21.

20 is the most cost effective position to be in, but also the highest risk.

you're number 6 to ask me then.

I suppose having 6 SEs could be nice for IRROPS, but I doubt I'd want more than 4 of us.

My schedule is also a bit... unusual... for the next while. But last time it was 9 days. I don't think this time will be any longer.

cperciva

Be careful, if you charge too much I may decide to compete.

cperciva

Theoretically, except that last time Air Canada created a booby prize (50k miles I think) for people in 21st-30th places.

kwflyer

For the simple reason that overall, it drives incremental revenue that is in line with departmental objectives.

Yes there is dilution at the top (i.e. the leaderboard and Cow's scenic tour) but overall, AC makes additional money, higher brand awareness/engagement (that is difficult to replicate with traditional marketing spend), increased market research (what can we get our customers to do/not do), zeroing out seasonal profit losing routes (think of certain low yielding markets with badges next to them).

This is all tied into a larger loyalty marketing picture called gamification. It is something you are going to see more of in the marketplace as millennials (who grew up playing video/computer games) become larger targets for organizational growth.

In short, its a way to revamp traditional loyalty programs with adventure/thrill/fun that the younger generation seek to have (over material rewards) while driving revenue. Doesn't mean the older generation can't take part in it (who are probably scratching their head) but does require a paradigm shift in how one chooses to buy

cairo604

Is the prize distribution the same for all Top 20? 500K points each?

9 days of flying and drinking....

maradori

I'm out of budget for Q2 2015 (blew $20K last month and need to save up another 20K within a couple months), so I'm releasing my spot.

So if there are any bored, loaded SEs with time to burn, feel free to hit up the cow

I do want to re-iterate cow's important points though

1. I think the sweet spot will be cow, DC + 2 others. Any more and I don't think there would be enough fare availability to get things to work economically for everyone.

2. I haven't seen the code, but from what the cow told me, $12K sounds about right in terms of development costs for their proprietary scheduling algorithm. If you're going to tag along with the cow, please pay your fair share

(hurry up and post that scheduling code on github already!!!!! )

cperciva

There's no need for everybody to take the same flights. Odds are that there's going to be an almost-as-good itinerary starting a week earlier or a week later.