Feeling even better now about not making super elite next year
 

As I have posted Several times before, I gave up trying to chase super elite once the $20,000 spending limit was introduced. That's after over 15 years of being super elite.

For holiday plans, I need a business class round-trip ticket to China in April. Looking at Air Canada I was still able to get low-fare P business class seats for just under $4000. More expensive than the premium economy I traditionally get an upgrade from, but at least not full price. Not too bad I thought. Then I checked Google flyer. I will be flying with American airlines for $2200 Canadian. There are short hops from Ottawa to Philadelphia and Philadelphia to Chicago but then A lie flat business class bed to / from Chicogo / Beijing --a bed as good or better than what I would get on Air Canada! That's even cheaper than my premium economy Air Canada Seat would have been that I would have hoped for an upgrade from.

Now that I am off the Air Canada metal treadmill to get super elite, it will be interesting to see what other great opportunities there are throughout the year for my travel plans.

Myoneconcern: I am about 100,000 miles short of reaching two million miles for Air Canada, which benefit I will give to my daughter. But if price comparisons like the one described above continue to be available, I'm not sure if I'll ever get there to 2,000,000 miles.

It would be interesting to know what other long time super elites who will not make it next year are experiencing. So far for me it's much more positive than I ever expected. I will have to do a bit of work in finding good deals, and I will miss the concierge service ; but I feel new horizons have been opened.

I would mileage run to the 2MM if you're that close. It's a big milestone and being able to share permanent elite status with someone else is pretty useful. Be a free agent after.

Also, be careful with the products that AA has on board. The reverse herringbone seats are absolutely excellent, better than most of what AC has. The angle-lie flat is not, on the other hand.

Sing it with me: Freedom... freedom... freedom... FREEDOM... :)

For me 2016 is the first year not being SE since that level was established.
I did my 100K+ miles last year, but only some 45K was on AC.

I am also flying more on P fares, and more on other airlines.
Watch my signature as more and more non *A get added, later this week
I'll be flying KE, and I have CZ and WJ booked in the next while.

Launch a status challenge with AA just before you fly to China; you'll get most of the way to Platinum status (equivalent to 50K) from that trip alone.

AC prices YOW-YYZ-PEK higher than AA prices YOW-PHL-ORD-PEK because AC's best customers will pay a premium to avoid a delay-prone Air Wisconsin CRJ200 to Philthadelphia airport. They'll pay to avoid sitting plane side waiting for their carry on to be brought out by an unmotivated employee. They'll pay to avoid waiitng for a bus transfer from Term F to Term C in PHL. They'll pay to avoid flying between 2 of the most delay prone airports on the planet just to position themselves for the TPAC sector. They'll pay to avoid schleping between T-3 and T-5 in ORD. They'l pay to avoid the gong show awaiting them when they arrive into T5ORD from China on the way home. . . . .and on and on.
Many frequent flyers suffer from the delusion that being a top tier member does not make one a top tier customer. The spend floor is snapping those delusional elites into reality.
Good luck w/ your travels.

AWESOME comment.

So I'll share this interesting piece I just read.

QUOTE:

"* A high fare customer isn’t the same thing as a profitable customer

* You don’t want to “reward” a high fare customer you want to “incentivize” additional business you wouldn’t otherwise get. In other words you want to increase profit (or avoid loss)."

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....flyer-changes/

Interesting.

But how does this play into the idea that non residents only need half the spend?

Or that AC put the spend bar so high that they risked losing the regular business flyer?

It fits right alongside AC's constant attempts to drum up more US business, where I can buy YVR-YYZ-LGA for $292, or the same flight as YVR-YYZ for $400.

They already know they're getting about as much Canadian business as they can; what they want next is to pull 5% more market share away from DL, UA and AA.

Cow answered the question about non-residents and half the spend.

UA still has their version in play, but someone posted on this forum that UA will change for 2018 and Canadians will not get their "waiver". Those who are UA can correct me.

AA's new program with their spend does not exempt non-residents but does have a formula for OW partner flying. At least I don't get penalized for flying OW.

I believe Cow and others also previously explained the point of the higher spend for SEs, let's call it "weeding the garden".

I was just having a separate conversation with someone about the supposed benefits that would be given to the "new" SEs who achieve status with the new requirements. An example discussed was the obliteration of anything decent in the Dom and TB MLLs. The reason is irrelevant as SEs and others with status who have access to these MLLs have certainly been told that it is a benefit.

Anyway, I don't want to derail this thread as we know this hot potato never ends well.

Because non-residents are fliers that AC doesn't have caught by the balls.

UA will get rid of the waiver if and when they launch a UA credit card in Canada, with minimum spend to waive PQDs, similar to the US.

The post you quoted had the answer.

(replace "I" with "someone who does more US domestic flying" for this to make sense)

UA flies everywhere I want to go from SFO except YYZ.

AC has YYZ, but everything else is either equivalent or an additional stop. I often take UA (or someone else) within the US, and because of that, cannot hit 20k AQD. So I'll go with UA instead. AC loses YVR, Europe, and Asia. And possibly YYZ, though the non-stop is still valuable.

But I can hit 10k AQD, so they get Europe, Asia, and a lot of business they'd otherwise lose.

That's a more interesting way of phrasing it :p

But if it's like the US, that waiver would not apply to 1K status.

Yeah, or like how the OP can buy YOW-PHL-ORD-PEK for $2200 while YOW-YYZ-PEK is $4,000. Guess AA is trying to drum up more CAN business?
No different from virtually all network airlines. How much do you think AA charges their ORD based flyers for non-stop to PEK?
Highly doubtful

Man, it's that ill-informed sarcasm that makes FT so attractive. AC have been very public about their US targeting for years now - the key problem being how to hold up against carriers who are (A) used to having to actually compete in the marketplace and (B) drawing from a market 10 times the size.

This forum is full of endless threads about how much cheaper AC suddenly gets when flying competitive routes, this isn't news.

Apples to apples, consider that the cheap AA/Delta fares to China are usually on older aircraft. 747 & 767s usually.

AC may suck but they do have beautiful 777/787 on most of their runs to China. I was on the dreamliner to SHA last year on AC and it was glorious and quiet.

New plane vs old plane and additional stops + clearing into the US instead of passing through YVR is another consideration. Worth the ~30-40% premium? That's up to you...