Fiordland

Why would that be a concern. The ticket has been issued. You would expect the ticket would have been paid for before the first segment on the ticket.

rankourabu

What travel dates do you expect people to be booking award tickets for with miles accumulated lets say Jan-May 2020.
Or are you saying that any Aeroplan miles accumulated at that time are simply worthless? Then why fly AC at that time at all?

Easier to do for those of us who dont credit flights to Aeroplan, can simply top up accounts with AMEX and drain them. A lot harder when youre flying AC on May 31st, and June 1st Aeroplan becomes AirMiles 2.0

khkchan

I found that the absence of a concrete award chart for post 2020 really doesn't give any meaning to any of the communications. If Amica wants to survive post 2020 you better publish the award chart soon.

Jumper Jack

I suspect it will be after AC releasing theirs

jasdou

Not to derail the thread, but an award table from AC would be meaningless for as long as we don't know the earning rates.

ffsim

You're both right. There's a massive lack of information which makes all these strategies, all this advice, all this FUD utterly meaningless. We can't possibly know how we should act in 2020 because there's no info on which to base a decision.

Even my own personal goal of burning as many AE miles as possible is based on the assumption that things will be worse in 2020.

Bartolo

InTheAirGuy

My guess is that they are walking a very careful legal line, so as to not be seen to do anything that might give Aimia an excuse to sue them for violating the current agreement.

Hence, we're in a vacuum until ....

robsaw

I think it is much simpler than that. I highly doubt that the agreement between AC and Aeroplan would prevent either party from saying clearly what they are going to do AFTER the agreement expires other than they can't do anything negative towards the current arrangement. Stating that the new program is "better", "more flexible", etc, is already a future statement which the release of an award chart and earning rates by either party wouldn't substantially change. I suspect the REAL reason for lack of hard data is that neither party has actually got their internal ducks-in-a-row yet to make such an announcement. The Aeroplan announcement implies that they already have a tentative deal with a on-line travel booking provider but AC appears to be holding-back much more. There are all sorts of negotiations probably going on in the background that will likely continue for months if not right to the brink of the cutover - it are those negotations that would have a far more reaching legal constraint than the well-established current contract between the two primary parties here.

drgmobile

You're able to find business class inventory now? I'm barely ever able to find any now. This silly Aeroplan video is all a lot of talk, with no action. I'm really looking forward to a new program. Aeroplan falls down:

1) Lack of J inventory in generally
2) Lack of much of any inventory that isn't Air Canada. It sounds like travellers fortunate to be loyal members of other Star Alliance carriers have been access
3) Their outrageous assertions that all their inventory is available online and other supposed "myths"
4) Ridiculous search results where you search for trans-oceanic ticket in business and they return with a 45-minute domestic flight in business but across the ocean in economy -- Seriously, it has been years and they have done nothing to fix this

ffsim

I doubt AE thinks that's ridiculous or broken.

I know we all want something for free, but AE wants to sell Aeroplan miles for as much money as they can get and redeem them for as little value as possible. Even better, they'd rather see miles expire. It's up to us, with help from communities like FT, to maximize our return through education.

Have a look at the mRTW thread to see the value people can find in AE even today.

InTheAirGuy

Yah, but is a business model based on bait-and-switch dishonesty a valid plan? I think they are gambling with the idea that lots of pax won't notice. Will this be part of the new 2020 AE, or will they still show a lack of ethics?

ffsim

I'm edging uncomfortably close to AE apologist territory, but honestly, I don't think it's really bait-and-switch at all. AE offers an array of awards, and most people simply buy luggage, toasters, headphones, etc when they can't get flight rewards. I feel like it's just a matter of the typical FOTSG convincing themselves that, "heck, what was I expecting? Of course I couldn't get this flight for free. Oh, squirrel!!! I looooooove these new Breville mini ovens."

You and I and everyone else here know better. We know there's some value in AE miles and we gripe about how it's not as easy as it was in the old days to get exceptional reward value. Yet I know friends and colleagues who bought Bose headphones for 53,000 AE miles because they tried finding a flight one time, didn't like the schedule / routing / taxes and wrote off AE as a flight reward program. And I think that suits AE just fine.

Meanwhile, I helped my dad redeem his miles for 2x round-trip business class flights to Europe for $102 each. All thanks to you guys. (Well, maybe not you specifically, but you get the point )

jazzsax

You won't see info from AC or AP until closer to 2020 for competitive reasons.

1) FLyertalkers will try to find every loophole (lol, it's true it's what we do).
2) The travel market could change dramatically between now and then. If Senor Trump and Comrade Un got into war, you could bet that would affect global travel, which would affect everything in trickle down. Destina could have worked... except it was poorly executed and also launched 5 days pre 9-11... global travel took a massive hit and impacted everyone
3) The longer both parties wait, the longer they can ensure people either stay loyal (why switch to a different card if you will switch again in a few months), burn their miles (giving certainty on the balance sheet for Aeroplan), or give feedback on best designs for the new plans.

Either way, it's wishful thinking to do hope for clarity anytime before January 2020. We might see more right around then given AC might tie their new program to Status.

drgmobile

My comment is not about the business model, it's about the trickery and lack of interest in improving their systems. Find me somebody who wants to pay a higher amount of Aeroplan fees to fly in business for 30 minutes from Ottawa to Montreal and connect to a 7-hour flight in Economy.

I get lots of value from Aeroplan, but I see other get greater value from their frequent flyer programs at other major international carriers and know Canadians can do better.