Not to mention it's a frequent flyer program :p

Yes to segments questions^, no to mirroring UA :eek:

To answer the OP, yes, we should be awarded 1.5AQS for flying in J.

Actually, I don't understand why the exact same COS multipliers that apply to AQM don't apply to AQS. If someone at AC decided that Tango would be valued at 50% miles versus 100% on Flex, why are they both equally valued at 1 AQS?

But the point of the program is about FF. The $ condition is only stop pax from working the system. True high rev customers are on another program with the sales department.

Only if 1 segment = 1 fare base ticket. I believe segment runners are the main reason AC put a rev. condition into the FF program. Direct flight or 2 to 5 stops should equal the same AQS.

If the program is really about FF, then shouldn't all fares earn the same AQS/AQM?

Tango fare =/= Business fare. At the end of the day, money talks...

Yes, but bum time is still the face cards in the deck.

No. If you give SE to someone who did 1 TATL and 1 PLH in full J and spent $20K, but didn't fly enough AQM or AQS to earn status, there's likely little that FF benefits will do to influence them to fly AC more.

More likely, they will gift E50K to a relative or friend who does travel, which will cost AC money. As others have pointed out, they may use the *G lounge access when flying other than AC. Next time out they may buy a Latitude fare and upgrade instead of full J.

It's simply not likely to earn a high ROI on awarding that person any benefits.

No. The program isn't about FF. It's about boosting AC's profits by influencing customer behaviour.

Customer behaviour is, at the base, a combination of (a) do I fly AC? and (b) if I fly AC, what fare do I buy?

AC doesn't mind people buying Tango fares, since they're putting money in AC's pocket. However, they're low-margin fares, so the profitability of those customers is low, and AC wants to award them lesser benefits than those who are more profitable, or push them to buy higher fares. Hence 25/50% AQM on Tango fares (and COS bonus for Latitude/J), as well as the AQD requirements.

Horrible if true
If you say so
Doesn't matter really ...... The airlines of the world have implemented spend floors for highest status. Time to weed out the K flyers with lots of free time from the valued customers. AC tried to gently tiptoe on the edge for a while but it's great to see a spend floor in place. SEs will truly be among their best customers soon.
What could this mean?

I'm not sure how that was unclear. There's likely very little return on dollars AC spends on FF benefits for infrequent flyers who happen to buy a high-margin fare.

I don't understand why it matters if there is little return, the benefits are always in response to previous AC spend. If we look at it your way, any FFP has very little return.

You can always leave the FFP game at any time. But once you leave, you lose the benefits. Want to keep playing the game and enjoy your benefits? You need to keep spending...

Airlines don't hand out status just out of the goodness of their hearts, it's about encouraging people to spend money. First, to spend the money to obtain the status, then to spend the money to retain it.

For those who fly often, upgrades, lounge access, etc can be an important driver in directing dollars towards AC.

The guy who buys one or two full-J tickets a year but doesn't fly a lot of miles or segments may be profitable, but he already buys expensive fares and doesn't travel often. Therefore handing him FF benefits likely doesn't influence his spending (this year or next) and is therefore a waste of money.

Sadly it's very true. Even when buying an appropriate fare (i.e. international J) there's no way to contact a concierge short of tracking one down at the airport. This has been confirmed by at least one Ben on FT... Smith IIRC

This; otherwise someone could buy unlimited FP's and make SE100K on AQD without actually taking a single flight.

Wait... all that money for AC without needing to provide someone the benefits? Oops.

I kind of agree, with the intro of AQD, that's really all that matters. If you've established an SE = $20,000, then what does it matter HOW they achieve it.

To me it's one of 2 things.

Either A) They figure having the AQM/AQS will still weed out a few more people and they've already got that in place, so maybe they can take it away as an "enhancement" later.

B) They wanna prevent someone from buying 1 YYZ-SYD in flexible J $20751 (in Jan) and then tango all year. I can't imagine even 1 person would do this...but maybe they do.