flyingstudent

As much as people complain here, Air Transat offers many nonstop from Canada to Europe in the summer and tons of sun destination flights in the winter. They are popular destinations for family/retired crowds.

If Aeroplan is buying Air Transat seats using cash, the award availability on Air Transat to Europe can be excellent.

expert7700

Should we all ask how many North American 4 STAR Skytrax rated airlines they will be preferred partners with?

https://skytraxratings.com/airlines/air-canada-rating

/answer is of course zero, because AC has been paying for that title. 4* lounge access , hot and cold food variety, cabin cleanliness....

Admiral Ackbar

Not sure if serious

TemboOne

Isn't this what AC actually said they were planning to do initially - before all the various Aeroplan "deals" and options started clouding the picture!

skybluesea

gglave

Transat also offers nonstops out of Vancouver to destinations AC doesn't serve nonstop like Amsterdam, Glasgow, Rome and Manchester (the latter may be serviced by AC nonstop occasionally).

They don't handle IIROPs well, but everyone I know who flies them is pretty happy with them - Their PE product is also pretty comfortable.

expert7700

sorry, in rereading my post the sarcasm I had intended to convey was lost...

The Skytrax report linked to AC, when you click to expand, shows 4 out of 5 for most categories including lounge and cabin cleanliness. (must have showed inspector a 1 day old plane straight from Boeing..)

Stranger

I looked at the list and criteria. It is mostly about formal things. Like, Porter missed two stars because they don't do IOSA. Meaningful? I doubt so. Sure, some of the usual culprits are rated low.

Still, they gave Cubana 6/7. Most Brazilian airlines, 7. Most Russian airlines, 6/7. Turkish 6/7.

skybluesea

Stranger

Still, if going to Russia, I do my best to fly LH. But sure, if push comes to shove I will fly Aeroflot. Even flew Belavia. five stars .

Hellfire

Welcome to the devaluation of points!! Flair and Air Transat suck as partners.

A roundtrip ticket from YEG - YLW for two people including two checked bags recently cost me $320.18 with Flair. Of this, $97.88 x 2 = $195.76 was the base fare, and the other $124.42 is fees.
This would be a short haul flight, so 15,000 miles x 2 = 30,000 miles.

Aeroplan has said redemption levels will remain the same, and you will still have to pay fees an taxes.
Thus under the new program you will spend 30,000 miles + $124.42 for two tickets included checked bags.

$360.18 - 124.42 = $195.76
$195.76/30,000 = 0.65% return (Assuming you $1 spend = 1 aeroplan point).
Or 1 mile = $0.0065

Transpacificflyer

The pressure is on AC to do something for one simple reason; Between now and June 2020, for flyers accruing 25,000+ miles in any given year, who in his/her right mind would want to accrue to Aeroplan? What possible benefit could there be for the lucrative & profitable customer demographic to keep flying Air Canada from now on? I know I don't have any interest in accruing anymore aeroplan miles, because Porter, Flair, & Air Transat have nothing that interests me. 98% of my AC flights in the past 5 years have been in business class TPAC , so I have no interest in flying economy on a TATL to Manchester or Gatwick or Paris on AT's aged fleet. Eating a lukewarm soggy dough and tomato sauce piece of bread has zero allure, nor do I want to sit next to some of the people who fly on Flair or Air Transat. It will be next to impossible to get a seat in the PE on AT anyway as their numbers are quite limited. Yes this is good for a large number of Aeroplan members who like the sun destination routes, but for the customers upon which AC has made a sizeable profit, this is the kiss of death.

Air Canada will have to do something fast or it will see an erosion of customers to anyone but Air Canada. It is fortunate for AC that West Jet isn't ready for TATL or TPAC competition, otherwise it would be a compounded hit. I am trying to redeem my Aeroplan points now and I have almost 500,000 to get rid of in the next 2 years. That's going to be almost 4 TPACS and it looks like I will burn for the sake of burning just because I am that angry. Aeroplan has adopted a scorched earth strategy and AC is either going to have to expedite its FF plan rollout or offer incentives to keep customers like me because there is no way I am going to get burnt like this. Or, AC will have to cut a deal and accept a transfer of the redemption liability for customers like me, because I do not intend to stick around. I can afford to pay my way into a decent lounge so I don't need the MLL. And I will gladly take the lower SkyTeam or One World airfares on my routes to SIN/HKG/BKK. The clock is ticking and the sickly Aeroplan is going to do as much damage to Air Canada before it disappears.

Stranger

Surely spending that sort of miles amount by 2020 is not a major problem? Also, if needed AC could change priority rewards based upon status. Non-status folks don't really matter to them: they pronbably by and large buy tickets with zero miles accrual or near to that.

Real problem is for credit cards. These folks must be seeing a mix of larger than usual non-renewals, and a drop in spend. As people prepare for the transition. Hence the offer to take over the miles liability. Would provide continuity for the banks, which will eventually join the Altitude program under development.

skybluesea

Jagboi

That's basically no different from an AC economy redemption right now. The one time I did a Y redemption to LHR it came out to 0.6 cents/mile.