shadowspar

For the first time ever, I'm going to end up with Altitude status this year, barely scraping into the lowest tiers (P25K or E35K). Given how heavily devalued your AQM awards are if you're sitting in the cheap seats (25% for domestic, 50% for transborder/int'l), I never thought it was even worth trying for. I'm kind of kicking myself now, for not making more of an effort to pile up a ton of segments.

The travel situation for me:

• most of my trips are company-paid TATL to western europe
• my company's travel guidelines dictate economy, regardless of how long the itinerary is
• I usually know my travel dates well in advance; occasionally I end up with last minute changes
• I'm not willing to book Latitude / Flex / full-Y / etc fares if I don't have to. I like my employer much more than I like Air Canada
• usually flying from a tiny regional airport served by Jazz (YAM), so I get 1 segment for the hop to YYZ before I even really start travelling

AIUI it looks like the key criterion for choosing between miles or segments is whether you're averaging more or less than 1,000 AQM per segment you fly. If more, you should try to maximize miles (AQM); if less, you fight it out on segments (AQS). And it seems like the two strategies boil down to...

Segments: break your trips down into as many segments as you can possibly tolerate

Miles: book further flights; arrange flights so that int'l/transborder segments are as long as possible (50%) and domestic segments are as short as possible (25%); buy up to a higher booking class wherever possible, to maximize AQM%

Am I missing anything? Any further tips when it comes to making the choice between pursuing AQM or AQS?

Bohemian1

Well, you could also augment your other travel and do a long-distance, multi-hop mileage run similar to those seen on this very forum for Earn Your Wings. You could get both decent AQM and AQS.

But that would come out of your pocket and may be more brutal than you'd like.

yyznomad

Are you saying that under no circumstances that you would be willing to upfare (for free) to a higher fare class that gives better AQM?

You'd be surprised how cheap the upfaring is at times, especially if you're at the highest bases of the coach fare class your employer/client purchased for you. (I'm speaking from my own experiences)

HerpaYvr

I guess you have to ask yourself what is the long game, if there is one? You do not like Air Canada, fair enough, are you happy to just get an annual status or look at the bigger picture and work towards say 1 Million Miles and stay loyal to Air Canada? Because you have that dollar part of the equation regardless if you choose miles or segment that may play into your plans. Flying to Western Europe in more comfortable seats while earning 100% or more miles is not expensive and up-fares as stated above is free or low cost at times.

When you have a corporate account paying for your flights, I consider that a free flight so if you have to dip into your own pocket to achieve a bigger goal, then that is not a big deal, from my perspective. Sounds as you have an opportunity to do well depending on how you play this.

Best of luck to you

shadowspar

Heh, I'm actually debating doing a segment run in November to push myself over the E35K threshold. I have vacation days to burn anyway, and it's not too spendy to get the segments I'll need by doing a jaunt from here to somewhere in Quebec or the Maritimes.

shadowspar

You have a good point there for the times when there's been a last-minute change and I'm already booked on a fairly high-grade coach fare anyway. That's when I should really be considering a (possibly quite cheap) out-of-pocket upgrade to PE...especially heading west back across the Atlantic.

Most of the time, though, I'm on a rock-bottom Standard / TFFKAT fare, and even the jump up to Flex is a minimum hike of $500. I'd rather my employer keep that money and use it to put me on more flights, than hand it over to Air Canada for AQMs towards a status I might never reach.

shadowspar

I don't dislike Air Canada per se; I'm actually slightly fond of them, despite the consistently inconsistent travel experience they offer. It's just that I like my employer much more, so given the choice between transferring extra money to AC, or leaving it in my company's coffers, I'd rather choose the latter.

When it comes to loyalty, it's almost not even a question given where I'm flying out of. If I'm happy to drive 8 hours to Toronto before & after every international flight, I can choose most any airline I want. If I'd rather fly from the airport that's 30 minutes from my house, it's going to be on AC. The choice is literally Air Canada or the highway.

At one point, I'd hoped to land a seat in the 1MM club. This year was a banner year for me so far as travel, with 40,000 butt-in-seat miles flown. Given my past travel history, I'd need to keep this up for something like 37 more years to make my million. I'm not sure I'll manage to live that long.

I was honestly a bit shocked at how quickly the AQDs piled up -- again, especially because I go to some length to try & book the cheapest reasonable flights when I travel. I'll easily crest $6,000 before the end of the year.

Thank you; much appreciated!

WaytoomuchEurope

Also consider using United for trans border flights. If the AQD isn't presenting a problem for you then you will benefit from the 100% AQM on UA.

canadiancow

Cheap UA fares went to 50% AQM years ago.

WaytoomuchEurope

Didn't realize this. I haven't had one below 100% all year and I'm selecting the cheapest option on my work travel site (Concur). I'll just count myself lucky I guess.

jc94

shadowspar

Thanks for the pointer! Regardless of whether it works out to 50% or 100%, it's certainly no worse than flights on AC metal.

One thing I have been doing is making sure all my non-AC travel at least lands on *A carriers. Accumulating AQM/AQS has been more of a concern for me than AQD, so every flight helps. And hey, if the flights in question happen to be ticketed on AC stock, you get AQD for them too.

shadowspar

Yes, I've been burned by this more than once -- most notably where a Jazz flight was cancelled d/t mechanical issues & I had to drive to Pearson to make my connection. I've been told in here that it's possible to request credit for your original itinerary if you're rebooked due to IRROPS. Anybody had any luck with this?

I'm from Northern Ontario and love to ski, so I'm one of those annoying people who gets more excited the closer winter gets. I'm sure I'll find some way to pass the time.

Adam Smith

Yes, it's not difficult at all. You may need to send them an e-mail as the online form may not work properly, but it only takes a few minutes. Whether it's a cancelled YAM-YYZ segment or being re-routed on a shorter connection than what you had originally booked, getting original routing credit for AQM is not hard. They generally don't give ORC for segments though. There's no logical reason for it and is likely more of an IT issue for AC, but if you're trying to qualify on segments, that could certainly put a dent in your plans.

yyznomad