yyztozag

1 and 2) Months off - all the doctors I've spoken to have said September at the latest for D1 and D2 for sure by the end of October/November.
3) Highly doubt it, if most (if not almost all) of the population is vaccinated.
4) Nobody can predict that - I wouldn't immediately disagree with you, but the fact of the matter is that the virus mutates when there is a lot of it. Mid 2022 would mean that there is a new variant at the end of 2021, which is when most of the world will be vaccinated.
5) They're not going to shut their borders over low levels of transmission when their entire population is vaccinated.

But I agree - nobody (except for the Cow and Adam Smith) will be re-qualifying this year. And if you rely on travel to Australia, you can pretty much write off 2022 as well.

expert7700

Don't forget that points 1-3 don't even touch on the fact that there is no vaccine approved for <16 and only one approved for 16 & 17 year olds.

Is it worth pursing S100k status if it means we have to jump through more hoops/testing/quarantine, or are even denied travel, just to bring a germ infested 12 year old Super Elite on a weekly family mileage run?

//as far as @canadiancow and @Adam Smith flying enough to retain status, perhaps they need new airport code T-shirts!
GRU P.1
LHR B1.1.7
MEX B.1.1.222
SFO/LAX B.1.427/429

Adam Smith

<Moderator hat on>

​​​​​This thread keeps veering towards a broad discussion of travel, border restrictions, etc. I'm not deleting any posts for now, but let's please try to stick to the topic at hand, which is specifically AC status, extensions, and incentives.

Those wishing to discuss COVID's continuing impact on travel or when certain border restrictions will be lifted are encouraged to do so in the coronavirus forum or in the relevant destination forum (Canada, Australia, etc).

​​​​​<Moderator hat off>

You must have me confused with someone who actually travels I've done 0 AQM, 0 AQS, and 0 AQD (ugh, SQx, I keep forgetting) so far this year, and having only flown enough to achieve 50K in 2020, have no rollover anything. (I did book a trip on Flair last night though!)

I would love to get back to travel sometime this year, but I expect to need some sort of extension or incentive from AC to maintain my SE status for next year. I just wish they would announce something so that I have some idea what I need to achieve.

​​​​​​​I appreciate the attempted mention, but you couldn't even get my name right?

EdmFlyBoi

Agreed. I mostly have AQM/AQS from my CC. Having a target for the second half of the year would be helpful.

DistressedAssetInvestor

Today I'm just taking my very first flight on AC for 2021 (yyz to yvr to sfo to las using aeroplan points) This trip is already 1 month late and I will be down there for 8 weeks +/- to make the quarantine on return worthwhile. TPAC (hk,sha,tpe) is a no-go for 2021 due to border closures for non-citizens. If I didn't have to "run" businesses where i have money at risk, I absolutely have zero motivation to deal with the lack of direct flights, high fare prices on certain routes, getting covid tested and quarantined, very not-enjoyable minimalist hotel stays, less than enjoyable restaurant meals not mention longer than usual time away from family.

So...at best, I think I might eke out 10k to 20k miles worth of paid flights for 2021 (I have too many credits left on my flight passes which will be lost if AC doesn't extend those again)....

Already made up my mind that the last thing I'm going to worry about this year is chasing or maintaining status (Have enough covid related business impacts to deal with)

If the worst case scenario is that I have to miss a year and re-earn status for a subsequent year, so be it. ( I think i'm like 60k from 1MM)

Looking around the empty yyz lounge this morning, lack of aircraft at gates, I gotta believe AC is sufficiently busy trying to put out all the 5 alarm fires across the business.

If all these airlines and hotels keep unrealistic thresholds and spends on for 2021, it's gotta be the most "TONE-DEAF" attitude ever, especially where loyal customers are concerned.

Also logging into flyertalk / Marriott / Hilton websites for first time to catchup and just seeing the Marriott 14k spend to maintain a diluted Ambassador status.... (decided My wallet will go to Hilton for 2021 since I don't have lifetime status there yet)

Too bad Air Canada doesn't set up a program where we can use aeropesos to get pre-flight covid tests, vs the $200+HST spend at Shoppers drugmart to fly outside of Canada.

So hopefully AC actually understands the perspective i share with you and others on this forum Nitehawk ... and we all just pickup where we left off....

FlyerGoldII

I got this email - per last year's covid related benefits which were announced last year.
So as a SE, I was able to gift a E50K status as a friend. So far, no issues.
(see email below, which I received from Aeroplan).

BUT I also selected someone through my SE select benefits for E50K status.

So I thought that I could gift E50K status this year (at least) for 2 people. But my dashboard says that the companion benefit for E50K status - per the benefit below- is already used - for the person I gifted through my select benefits.

So is it 1 person or 2 person - that I can gift E50K benefits this year?


Last year, as part of our initiative to recognize and support our membership during these unprecedented times, we committed to automatically extend the Aeroplan EliteTM Status you held in 2020 into the 2021 benefit year. We also shared that should you achieve status on your own by the end of 2020, you would have the ability to gift that status to the person of your choice.

Since you continued to fly throughout the year, and achieved Aeroplan® 50K Status on your own, you now have the ability to share this status with a friend or family member.*

Nominate your friend now, by simply visiting your dashboard and entering the Aeroplan number and last name of the person of your choice. Once you’ve made your selection, the status of your nominated person will be valid through the end of 2021.

We realize that your travel plans in the coming months may remain uncertain, and many of you are asking about Elite Status for next year. For that reason, in the coming weeks we’ll be sharing more details about how we’ll help you qualify more easily for 2022 Elite Status.

Adam Smith

If you flew enough to gift 50K under the COVID benefit, and you selected the benefit of gifting 50K, you should have 2 to give.

capebretonboy

I too share Nitehawk's sentiments. I do hope we hear soon about another status extension. It would be the right thing to do given the extraordinary circumstances.

I will keep checking back on this thread as I am sure we will all hear about this first through FT (as the email communiques slowly trickle out from AC).

VancouverFly

I believe the announcement to extend benefits came our on April 6th last year so hopefully we are close to hearing something!

canadiancow

Have any of the US airlines extended again?

Also, while I'm indifferent to AC extending status, I hope they do something better for people who actually earn it. I earned 75K last year without trying, but I definitely would have pushed for SE if there were any benefits.

Maybe something like get 100k bonus MM miles if you earn SE or something like that.

YOWgary

That wasn't really a "this is the time of year we announce that stuff" kind of thing, though, that announcement was a one-off.

Nitehawk

It would be nice if AC would announce the extension now. I think there is a greater need for it this year than last year. By this time last year I already had 14k aqd and 30k aqm. This year I have 0/0/0 SQD/SQS/SQM... Obviously it was easier to qualify in 2020 than it will be this year given that we didn't lose the entire travel year to covid which is looking more and more likely for 2021.

I've accepted that if they don't extend status I won't earn it. Once I lose SE the odds of me not caring and not getting it back are higher. I'm enjoying my life here on Vancouver Island without constant travel.

Without an extension it gives AC a good opportunity to reinvent the status program since almost no one will have it, so no one will be pissed off by the changes. Given how much AC invested into their new and "improved" Aeroplan that's very unlikely to happen.

Adam Smith

Doesn't look like it. OMAAT did a summary a few weeks ago, and doesn't appear much has changed since then, from a couple minutes I spent Googling. Rolled over miles from 2020, reduced thresholds, allowing more CC spend towards qualification, but no extensions.

BA did recently announce another 1-year extension, but they have rolling membership years, so they had pressure to do something quite soon.

WS has not announced anything, although they did switch from rolling membership years to calendar last year (when they extended everyone's status through end of 2021), so nobody's status should be expiring until the end of the year.

So the competitive landscape looks very different from a year ago when AC announced their extension - the US3 had all already done it at that point, so AC was just following the crowd. Which means I think those who are expecting/hoping for an extension soon just because it aligns with last year's timing may be disappointed.

gcashin

No outright extensions that I'm aware of, but at least the US airlines all announced significantly qualification tiers and a head-start on status points at the start of the year and said they'd make future adjustments if needed, so at least they've done something thus far. AC still hasn't announced anything.

Also, the US situation seems to be MUCH different with passenger traffic rebounding very quickly and a good chunk of the population eligible to be vaccinated, while Canada still has something like <2% fully vaccinated, regional travel bubbles, bans on flights to the many sun destinations, and hotel quarantines for Intl arrivals.

So the situation is very different here with far lower travel numbers, and AC has been very quiet thus far.

YOWgary

Public sentiment is also very different north vs south of the border. AC's reduced demand is due at least in part to a domestic customer base that is (on average) simply less willing to fly right now than Delta's or AA's.

Whether that's an argument for a blanket extension, or a reduction designed to incentivize re-started travel in Q3/Q4, is a big fat question mark right now.

The biggest difference, though, is that AC essentially gets to make its own decision, where AA/DL/UA have to base their response around stacking up against each other.