Should we get 1.5 AQS for flying in Business Class
 

I noticed United Mileplus program provides 1.5 AQS (PQS in United language).
Air Canada seems to mirror United's program in most aspects including the AQS/AQM PLUS AQD.

Should Air Canada not be providing 1.5 AQS for flying business and 1.25 for plying PE.

Who's the unicorn that would help?

With ADQ now in place, 100% milage on Tango fares would have more value and be an intelligent and welcome adjustment by AC

Tbh I don't know why they just don't scrap AQM and AQS altogether. They are an unnecessary metric to determine who your best customers are.

AC's treatment of those buying (non-discounted) J fares is a joke. Not even first choice of meals, largely shunned by concierges, no way of even contacting concierges by phone, limited miles, limited AQS etc etc

While I recognise that we are in the minority on this Board I'd think AC would treat its highest RASK customers better - but no. I'm one that has spent way more than $20K with AC some years but don't even come close to SE.

And please don't say that full J customers don't need SE benefits - just having what is left of IKK would make a big difference.

I would rather AC not mirror UA too much on this as they also have 0 PQS while still 25% PQM for Tango fare. This is the #1 reason and major reasonwhy I didn't move to UA MP.

There is not one airline in the world that treats a full paid J or F pax better than their top tier pax sitting in the same cabin. You would be in a very small group flying full J without status on any airline. Why is the conceige that important to you? Being a paid J pax, if there is a problem with your flight, they will contact you directly. I did not use a conceige once this year, so you are not missing out on anything.

There is something about bum time in a seat.

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What about 1.5 AQDs for premium cabins?

If I spend less bum time in a seat, won't I be using less of AC's resources (priority lines, MLL, etc.?). AC gets the same amount of revenue, but has to spend less to keep the high yield, low frequency flyer.

Not true in the least. AC wants the FF program to reward its most "profitable and loyal" customers (as reported by the FTers who met with the Bens and Andrew Yiu a while back). If someone flies AC only once in a year on a last-minute full J fare and they spend $15K, why on Earth would you waste FF benefits on that person? It's an unnecessary cost.

Having AQM and AQS thresholds in addition to a revenue threshold ensures that you're rewarding people who actually fly the airline frequently.

What exactly are you expecting? How much do you fly? Remember, AC wants to reward people who fly a lot, not just those who buy high-margin fares.

You'd want to offer the benefits to them, they would never use them.

No, there's no reason to offer them, because they might use them.

They might use them when flying other *A airlines.

But in order to use them, the SE member would have to buy additional AC tickets. Thus more money for AC, which is what AC wants.

Thus you are conditioning SE benefits with money in AC's pocket...

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.

Are you saying AC would see very little return if, for example, they allowed true J fares to have access to Concierge and to get the meal they want?
The people who have the means and need for real J fares are the most coveted passengers for any airline - doesn't matter if they fly weekly or every full moon.
Passengers forking over upwards of $1,000/hour are passengers you better keep happy, cause there aren't many of them out there.

I'm writing something for a newspaper on a closely related subject right now, as it happens. Would anyone who regularly pays their own way on full-fare J be interested in talking briefly offline? PM me.

You already can make SE100K without taking a single flight. Some (or all? not sure) FP offer 10k status miles/month (I'm guessing that these status miles count as AC miles, meeting the AC metal threshold.) 120k per year = instant SE even if you never use the thing. Not sure WHY you'd do that, but it's certainly possible.

If you're flying full J on a "short" route like YYZ-LHR "every full moon", you fly enough for SE.

You're describing a frequent flyer.

A real airline allows premium cabin passengers to pre select their meals and even publish their menus on line.

Ok. Is this where I should post my pre-order menus from the "other" airlines, or should we start a new thread? :D

Data derived from their own statistics would probably indicate that the full J flyer who is not a SE is probably a rarity in real terms.

Well I'll admit I haven't flown many airlines' premium cabins on international flights, but AC/UA/LH do not do that.

Although I suspect were getting quite a bit off topic :p

I believe this is in the planning stages at AC and was test driven some time back in YUL.

LH F shows their menu but doesn't allow a preordered meal. TG and SQ allow pre ordered meals as do a few other airlines.