mapleparty

garykung

I am inclined to say no. Elite 35K is not *G.

But your travel is exclusively within Canada, it might be worth it to you.

canadiancow

I'm not convinced there's any situation 35 would be worth $700 over 25.

There's definitely a price I'd pay, but it's less than that.

ridefar

RangerNS

If next year is going to be like this year, then take your $700 and pay for prefered seats and some BoB snacks.

Cash vs cash RoI, it isn't worth it.

24left

@mapleparty

Do you know if you might earn enough from flying for the rest of the year to be 50K?

mapleparty

colombianbrew

canadiancow

What is the itinerary you'd be upgrading for $700? We can give much better advice if we know whether it's YUL-YYZ or YUL-YVR-TPE. I'd pay $50/hour to upgrade PY to J, no questions asked. I'd probably pay $100/hour. Above that, it would depend on the situation.

E35K to E50K is not worth $2000. However, a fun weekend somewhere might be worth $2000 to you. And if that happens to get you E50K, then just treat it as an added benefit.

RatherBeInYOW

You need to look at two things a) the delta between the benefits of the different tiers and b) how much you are flying in 2020.

Unless you expect to start flying a lot more in 2020 (and even then, you'll earn new status fairly quickly) there is no way in my books that E35K is worth $700 or E50K is worth $2000. Given the amount you are travelling (25K to 35K miles per year, including international travel, is just a handful of trips) then $700 or $2000 will go a lot further getting a credit card that provides some of the same benefits or just straight up paying for lounge access and domestic LMUs.

Just do the math. Today for example I'll be in YOW dom where I will grab a soda water and a chair in the far corner where I will do some work calls before my flight (value: less than $5, plus whatever value you place on slightly comfier chairs and slightly better WiFi) and then I'll be in YYZ transborder working on my laptop and having another soda water and a snack (value: less than $20). I have zone 1 boarding so I know my bag will get in to the overhead of the Embraers I'll be flying today, but P25 gives you zone 3 which pretty much guarantees the same (incremental value $0) and I could have eUped my transborder flight if I wanted to but I was not going to burn eUps on ~2h in an E175 from a cheap flex fare (incremental value $0). As an SE I have access to the concierge and will be among the first to be accommodated if something goes sideways (incremental value potentially ${A LOT}) but you're not getting that with E35.

But sadly right now I fly most weeks, so the value builds up. You're flying what, every couple of months? That is a long way to $700 of value from domestic lounges, or $2000 from international lounges ... plus some domestic eUps and getting on the plane a bit sooner.

Symmetre

IMHO the only status levels worth going out of your way to achieve are 50k and SE. And even then, in both cases you really have to be able to make a valid case that the extra benefits you will receive actually do exceed the value of the extra cash you'll need to drop in order to get there. There's no way on earth would I pay $2,000 to get E50 over E35, but that's just me (similarly, there's not a chance I would spend $700 to get E35 over E25). Lounge access is wildly over-rated, esp. since domestic lounges in particular can be so crowded they're sometimes louder and more congested than the terminal itself.

Status perks are terrific IF you can attain them in the course of your normal travels and you don't have to significantly alter your spending pattern to achieve them. Once you start paying extra to get XYZ status, the value of it declines accordingly. Any kind of incremental spending just to attain status better bring a substantial ROI that you can easily defend or you're just throwing money away.

mellon

no its not worth much to go to 35k. cheaper just to get a Amex card and get Priority Club access to the lounges in every airport. Also this means you honestly have better lounges than AC offers, and they are not limited to your domestic trips.
So get that Amex card!

flyquiet

Agree with post 11 - but add it could be worth a little effort to get to P25K as well, under some circumstances, as then minimum miles for short hops apply. If person planned to travel more the following year, on a number of short hops, this could help them build miles to attain higher status the following year.
Agree E35K > P25K primarily for domestic/TB flyers for the MLL.
Not sure E75K - I really like the red tag (and the longer eUp window) but have never been in the position of choosing whether to spend any money to get there from E50K.

canadiancow

Probably a topic for another thread, but AC keeps really missing some good opportunities to make this level have a noticeable perk over E50K.

SEs just got a huge Aeroplan fee waiver. Why not extend it down one level?

garykung

No one says the $700 is exclusive for the status. But based on the way you present, part of the reason why you consider $700 upfare is due to the status. Based on everyone's opinion here, the answer is clearly not worth it.

But is it worth it just for the J seat? It really depends on you.

I can tell you this - not everyone value J as much as others. For instance, there are elites who travel in Y exclusively. There are also, of course, elites in F/J exclusively.

You are in PY, which is supposed to be a better seat. Do you really need to go all the way?

Also - this is AC we are talking about. Sitting in J does not mean you will have a better service.

Last but not the least - $700 for TATL or TPAC? TATL is way much shorter than TPAC.

At this point, only you can be the judge.