InTheAirGuy

I gave up on the upgrade game this year. Two J flight passes, one Europe, one Big South. Paid J is so much easier.

rankourabu

How many counters were actually open.
I've been there with the line out the "door" of the priority area in the afternoon rush, and AC had one or two people working.
It wasnt the number of priority pax, it was the poor staffing that was the issue.

That was the other Ben
"we are not a charity" and "cheapens the J product"
https://threadtripping.boardingarea....titude-battle/
Good read for those who think AC disdain for the customer is a new thing.

c224488

This is for the TD VIP Card. My partner got approved for the Amex Aeroplan Reserve (which has the exact same benefits as the TD VIP) with 1/3 of the 200k requirement.

c224488

I recall most of the counters were staffed. The worker manning the SE100K booth looked very bored.

canopus27

Yeah, I get it. I do acknowledge that line is frequently long. I look at the people in it as I waddle my way slowly past them to the SE desk (or better yet the concierge office).

I know, I'm callous

And to cow's point from last night .... where there are stations which don't have an SE checkin, even the slowly waddling SE's have to stand in line.

YVR4Ever

Obi-Ben? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...a long time.

wjw

Yeah no minimum income at all for Amex I don’t believe. From what I’ve read the CIBC/TD minimums are mostly BS. They were in response to the merchants being upset at the higher accept fees for premium cards when they don’t have a choice as to whether to take them or not (take all Visas or none at all). A way to appease them was for the banks to say they were really only giving the premium fee cards to high income individuals. I would bet they don’t even actually check. Amex is already a niche that a lot of places don’t accept so they don’t face the same problem.

Tax Dude

I agree. I used to never book J, but as I get older, I’m less willing to jump through hoops to sit up front. Latitude passes still seem to work well domestically, but it’s much harder to upgrade in advance internationally. I’ll likely buy a UK/France Business class pass instead of a Lat Europe pass for our next set of trips to London.

recreationaltimetraveller

My suggestion would be to impose some restrictions to limit "abuse" and make those of us earning status the real way feel special.

1) Restrict LAT upgrades on Aeroplan tickets made at time of booking to 35K and up, cash tickets can stay the same.
2) Cap these alternate status earning promotions at 75K (keeping SE special) or only allow people alternate paths to N-1 status level so 75K can only get 50K, 50K only 35K, and so on.
3) Some kind of priority line for the lounge or electronic waitlist that allows 50K and above to jump to the front of the line.

smilee

As someone who has spent many dollars chasing status doing mileage runs, I eventually learned that the elite status is only as valuable as your own personal value. I chased AA 100K status for 6 years and thought it was wonderful. I purchased about 30 round trips trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific in economy and 59 / 60 were upgraded to business class. The program was great, but American Airlines owed me nothing, they offered me perks, and I tried hard to earn them giving up my valuable time and money in the process. Then they merged, became a program thats rules didn't fit my cheap-o style (buy coach, but fly J) Point is, I don't begrudge them anything even when they were handing out status like candy. It is all PROMOTION - to get customers to spend money $$$.

In fact it is the new AC promotions that has finally made me start to look at Air Canada's elite program, and is shifting some of the thousands $$$$ to Air Canada.

You can never have too many elites. If your promotions are causing value to the company (Air Canada) and driving sales. That is good. When problems arise (priority lineups, lounge overcrowding, upgrades not clearing) to the point that it drives away customers, then you need to either as a company spend more money (more staff, lounges, larger J cabin VS economy) or loose those elites. They can do the math and see what it comes out to.

AC is in growth mode as the pandemic has really hurt sales. They have more product that they potentially can deliver but not enough customers yet. So one way to "spend" to fix that problem is promotions for elite status. So to answer the question in this thread. No Air Canada has not created too many elites .... at this time.

FlY2XS

While I am certain that someone did the projections of 3-6 month outcomes, I wonder if anyone bothered to do the 24 month analysis. Even top execs these days can be forced to show short term results, and 24 month outcomes are considered too long term. There are a bunch of veteran folks here who are upset about this, and others who are really happy. Before this Covid mess, they were (almost) all loyal AC FF. Remains to be seen who will still be in a couple of years.

c224488

At this rate, I'm pretty sure eUpgrades will soon be offered as a Credit Card benefit.

wjw

Although I’ll preface this by saying that I am actually still quite happy with AC, for a lot of people there aren’t a lot of great alternatives. Everyone’s travel is different of course so no statement will be true across the board, but I suspect there are a lot who wouldn’t really see any true competition for their flying needs.

Domestic and some transborder travellers have Westjet for sure. But otherwise, unless you want to connect in the US, which I certainly don’t, there aren’t a plethora of other options. I already split a lot of my flying between AC and LH, but Miles and More is harder to get *G status than AC.

I would say with the addition of the 787’s if Westjet were to add more international destinations (that don’t leave from YYC) and they were to join an alliance it might give AC a run for its international money though.

While I have loyalty to AC, it’s pretty thin in reality. If WS were to join Oneworld or Skyteam and status match me, and they had good European connections with the relevant partner (be it LHR with BA if they went Oneworld or CDG and AMS with AF and KLM if they went Skyteam) I would seriously think about changing my loyalties.

Otherwise I’m probably sticking with AC for lack of a better option for my flying needs. Lufthansa generally serves all the markets I work in, so AC makes sense to get me to FRA (or LH booked on 014 stock) and then onwards from there. If my flying begins to increase over time I’d look at moving over to Miles and More but for now getting *G at 50K keeps me pretty happy to stick with AC.

YXU

They already were as part of Chase's first welcome bonus (only 10 though, for waitlist)

c224488

Isn't it 25 eups now? Since you get automatic 25K status. Or did they strip away the eupgrades for those who earned 25K via Chase?