rankourabu

This is a valid point. And its across all airlines. Search the forums, and the exact same complaint will be across all the airlines that give out upgrades using some sort of "earned" instrument. If you fly on routes/times that are generally low in OPM flyers, the upgrade success is much better.

The "not enough room on the plane" complaint does hold some merit - whats AC's biggest business cabin? 40 seats? AA has 52, United has 50 and 60. Even the 767s have 46 seats. Thats a lot more space for both revenue pax and freeloader pax to keep them happy using upgrades

warrens

My flight last night (an A220) pushed back from the gate with 4/12 in business. Three of us were eUpgrades. I paid about $300 for the Standard (yes, not even Flex) ticket that I bought less than 10 days ahead of time, compared with about $500 for business. Pretty good deal I think.

So yeah, J cabins are stuffed full on some routes so it'll feel like eUpgrades are useless, even for SE's. But on other routes it's still very easy to save a stack of money with no effort at all.

foothills county flier

I find Aeroplan very valuable. In 2022, I spent $21K with AC and received over $45K in value. Between free flights, extra baggage, free preferred seats, upgrades and free drinks in the lounge and on flights.

DTxTOflyer

I'm not sure by what you mean about the eUpgrades and entitlement. There is such a thing as truth in advertising. If the benefit can rarely be redeemed, then it shouldn't be offered.

As far as the types of flights, almost all the flights were not business destinations (Fort Lauderdale, Athens, Phoenix). Most of my biz f is domestic and that's actually not that hard to get a

I do agree with you that AC has created way too many elite status members and it dilutes the benefits across the board. It would be much better to completely overhaul the Aeroplan and create 3 levels that correspond across the other airlines in their alliance.

This way the system would make more sense, but them AC wouldn't be able to do their false ads about how great Aeroplan is for everyone.

just my 2 cents

wjw

I think the benefit is advertised clearly, you can use eUps to upgrade to a higher class of service when there is an open seat in that class. Air Canada selling out their J cabin is just a fact of life sometimes.

Regarding too many elites, I was just warning that you might want to be careful what you wish for if you currently only have 50k. They’ve already devalued 35k and if this is truly a problem lower tiers is who they’ll come after next.


Not sure what you mean about 3 tiers corresponding to other airline alliances? Like just have one that is no status, one that corresponds to *S and one for *G? That doesn’t make a lot of sense as other airlines also have higher tiers above that which gets you *G (like HON Circle with LH).

The other big elephant with NA is premium credit cards. As a Super Elite with the Amex Reserve card I’m just swimming in credits, which is I suppose how it is intended to be. However, starting the year with 20 credits plus the 50 if I choose that select benefit, plus the 50 rollover plus the rollover SQM mean I also start with more from the threshold rewards. Just a lot of credits floating around…

I don’t know, end of the day as SE I rarely have an issue getting upgraded, and while I understand that you do as a 50K, that sounds like the problem of “too many elites” is somewhat taking care of itself.

foothills county flier

I find AC is very truthful in there advertising of Aeorplan.. They deliver everything as advertised. My wife is 50K and I would say, she gets good value from Aeroplam. I don’t know much about the Athens route, but in the summer, I would think it would be a hard route to upgrade on from Y. Fort Lauderdale and Phoenix’s, I find it always hard to upgrade.

iwillflytheworld

I started flying mostly AC this year. I got 25K with the Chase CC, made my way up to 75K and will qualify for SE by the end of the year. I flew in Y only once, when I was 25K and it was a small cabin on a popular flight. I book a mix of flex FPs, and cheap PY or P fares, and latitude awards to confirm in R. Maybe I'm just lucky but so far I've gotten a lot of value from the program.

I agree service is not consistently good (though mostly ok) and the J cabins and service are not competitive with top tier airlines, but then again I would need to spend many times the amount I do to regularly fly J on those airlines. And in many cases they don't even serve the destinations I travel to.

warrens

Ehhhh. I'm not so sure about that.

It's not all sunshine and roses in the three-tier world. ANA is a good example..... their frequent flyers complain bitterly that too many people have priority boarding, resulting in situations where 100+ people will be in their equivalent of Zone 2. Why? Because they have an overabundance of Platinum members, which is their middle tier. And then there's the lounge situation -- all three levels (plus premium credit card users) have lounge access, resulting in massive crowds.

Air Canada's five-level system provides extra flexibility to more finely tune who can do what. Changing MLL access from 35K to 50K is a good example... ANA couldn't make a comparable change because Mileage Club only has the equivalent of 25K, 50K and 100K.

Adam Smith

Yes, AC should definitely match UA's 3 levels (Silver, Gold, Platinum, 1K, GS), AV's 3 levels (Red Plus, Silver, Gold, Diamond), CM's 3 levels (Silver, Gold, Platinum, Presidential), OZ's 3 tiers (Gold, Diamond, Diamond Plus, Platinum).

These, of course, all match up well with the 3 Star Alliance statuses (Silver, Gold).

wjw

Had a real wake up call of how I perceive a competitive offering in the airline space. YYZ-NRT on AC and had a wonderful cabin crew and experience. I mostly fly AC and LH so that’s my benchmark. Flew NRT to SGN on NH and my word it’s another level. Just the level of service on board was better than the best AC experiences and it just felt like a normal flight. Was on the 787-10 and their J product both hard and soft was just so much better than what AC offers. Also made me realize how much I prefer a cushioned seat to the inflatable bags and even though I wasn’t even in the more private seat, I actually really prefer the staggered 1-2-1 facing forward versus the 1-2-1 reverse herringbone.

CanadianMike

Similar for me recently but with different airlines. On a mRTW at the moment and flew TK J (787 + A321neo), WY J (787), SQ J (A350 + 787).
All were miles ahead of AC's offerings in just about every category between hard + soft product.
Seat, amenities + amenity kit, service, food...

AC's offering is fine, solid most of the time. But just not as polished, high quality, or exciting as other carriers.

Symmetre

AC's offering is good, but it is very definitely mid-pack in terms of value. It is simply not equal to what the premium carriers deliver, despite AC often charging premium prices.

I'm not blindly loyal. When fares are comparable, I will often book with the better airline to enjoy a superior experience that represents better value. KE and KL come to mind immediately. I have only limited experience with JetBlue's Mint product, but it's also impressive.

vancouver25k

Agree with the sentiment although I have not experienced all the airlines you name. I will disagree with one data point which is that in some of the SQ A350 configurations, the J seats are just terrible - I'll take the AC dream cabin any day.

Transpacificflyer

Wasn't impressed by my experience. If customer is flying from YVR, it is ok if you do not mind the late departure and awful early return departure time from BKK. Connecting is a stressful event. My connection from YYZ required a 4 hour buffer to make it on time since my arrival into YVR was late. On return, onwards connections from YVR can be stressful if flight arrival is late and CBSA decides to do the Thailand bias search.The menu is similar to what you get on any other TPAC; 1 meal and one unpalatable breakfast of eggs or overcooked noodles. More expensive than the higher quality carriers.
From YYZ, EVA is $3,000 less expensive than AC depending on day. From YVR Cathay is $1200 less expensive. ANA has some excellent sale prices. Catering, OTP, ground and inflight service with these carriers are all better than AC. I did notice that a large number of pax in the J cabin on my flights were upgrades.

I flew ICN route a few times. AC delivered a mediocre product. IMO, if Westjet can offer a consistent quality at a competitive price, consumers will go with West Jet. The problem West jet has is that it has lost its shine and is not any better than AC, so IMO pricing will be the difference.

My recent flight from NRT to BKK on TG was an eye opener. Very good catering, with a Japanese specialty meal (unlike AC's insult of Beef sukiyaki etc. on the NRT route) The wine selection was admirable and cabin crew polite and polished. More important to me was that my pod (B777) was roomier. No tray table to coffin me in and I could easily turn over at my seat. Arrived 30 minutes early and baggage was delivered within 15 minutes of my arriving at carousel. Best of all, the cabin temperature wasn't ridiculously hot. AC assumes that consumers will accept its inflated fares, for a low quality product. I suggest that any carrier with a better price can easily win over AC premium fare customers.

Symmetre

Westjet's flights are all ex-YYC, and that being the case, I can't imagine them having much if any real impact on AC. Pax living west of Calgary are far more likely take the AC or KE flights out of YVR instead, while pax from eastern Canada will take the direct AC or KE flights out of YYZ. Absolutely no one from east of Winnipeg will connect in YYC. So the question is, what is the demand for ICN from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba?

Frankly, I expect these flights are more about developing a cargo route.