Sunny Day

Trying to understand the thinking here. What is the difference for AC for one customer who does what you just described vs. another customer who spends $20000 on 20 YYZ-YVR returns per year in Flex? They both get to SE. To me, the spending is the same. AC wants people to spend money with them, whether that is done in short or long distances, on few flights or on many flights, in my opinion, ADQ should be the only measure. What is the downside of using ADQ as the only criteria for achieving status?

YOWgary

Among other things, AQS / AQM is a way of measuring purchase intent.

It's the same logic that tells me, as a small business owner, that I am better served to take care of my steady customers who spend $50,000/yr, than I am to chase after each one-time walk-up that wants me to bail on my regulars for a one-time payout of $70K.

To an airline, someone who does 150 segments a year is very likely to continue spending money with the airline consistently down the road, while someone who bought a single, last-minute Z ticket YHZ-HKG hasn't demonstrated that s/he won't simply drop the next $20,000 on whichever flight happens to be leaving an hour earlier.

It's possible that down the road, airline programs will simply go spend-based as you suggest - but for the moment, the objective is still to recognize and incentivize frequent flyers.

...and the more time I spend looking at airline-loyalty programs, the more it becomes clear that each airline does its own set of carefully-calibrated carrots and sticks.

eUps, priority boarding and lounges are carrots; AQD is a stick that's targeted almost exclusively at turning low-spending SEs into 75Ks, and getting rid of Tango segment runners and pax who credit to Aeroplan but mainly buy their tickets from other *A partners or OTAs.

ffsim

You've had a couple excellent responses to this question already but I'll try to contribute further. AC wants to recognize flyers who travel a certain number of segments or miles on Star Alliance flights. In order to justify the expenses associated with the earned status, they assigned a certain dollar spend target to each tier. As the qualifying dollars are only earned on AC metal or codeshare agreements, they're giving themselves a way to ensure that a (usually) significant portion of one's qualifying flights involve AC making money.

YEG_SE4Life

Is there such a thing as *Alliance mileage requirements for *status that the partners have agreed to?

rehoult

No. An airline could hand out *G for 1 mile if they wanted. However, they would get absolutely slammed with bill backs for lounge access, etc... such that even for an airline as big as United, there would be a material change in earnings from such a decision.

Hence why AC moved *G to 50K from 35K; the expense of *G could not be justified for someone who only flew 35K.

The Lev

I can assure you that if it was spend only, the spend requirements would be significantly higher. Be careful what you wish for.

...who spend a certain amount with that airline.

Jumper Jack

If airline do indeed switch to pure spend based...

It would be the death of alliance status no?

Also I imagined the spend quota would be much higher than the current requirements

Because I easily go pass 3K a year with my AC spend

Unless of course tango become 25% AQD accrual lmao

YOWgary

One imagines a move to pure revenue-based FFP would start with a lot of discussion at the alliance level - but since alliances are about more than just reciprocal frequent-flyer benefits, it wouldn't necessarily be the end of the story.

Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future. For now, though, the way AC has set its spend quotas indicates that AQM and AQS continue to weed out the people who fly eight revenue segments a year in Tango...

Jumper Jack

unless.......


Okay back to serious side, I guess they could set anew alliance wide quota but then again with the way AC is handling AQD now.. I can only imagine the shock when UA flier discover our current system. Which is....

gglave

No, but there should be.

If Star was truly an "Alliance" they'd have a program that says if you fly X miles / Y segments on *A partners then you get a baseline series of perks on *A carriers -

- Early boarding
- Free bag
- Priority baggage
- Lounge Access

Jlariv

I am new to this and having difficulty finding answers.....

I have 9,156 AQM, 23 AQS and 5555.62 AQD

I have 3 AQS that will hit next week,I know that I will hit 25k status... how do you qualify for early recononigtion for the next level....seen it at half the AQS required.

Appreciate any info.

canadiancow

P25K is not eligible for early recognition. You'd need 35 AQS before October 15.

CanadaOne

Just wanted to confirm I am understanding this all correctly and don't miss out on any AQS or AQD. When flying on a *A member, not booked through ac.com, I do not receive any AQD for the flight correct?

Further, in December I'm flying AC YYZ-FRA, then LH FRA-BCN...this was booked on ac.com so I WILL received 2 AQS and all AQD for both flights correct?

Thanks!

Adam Smith

You get AQD for:
(1) any flights on AC metal, regardless of where they were booked
(2) codeshares of *A partner flights, booked on AC ticket stock

If you booked on AC.com, you definitely have AC ticket stock. But the question is, is your FRA-BCN flight a codeshare or not? If it's a codeshare, it will have a flight number something like AC9XXX with a note that it's operated by LH or LH CityLine.

If it's a codeshare, you'll get AQD. If not, no AQD.

The Lev

Either way you do get the 2 AQS for YYZ-FRA-BCN.