lcohen999

As an SE, I don't see any real new benefits but the SE program is pretty good as it is right now. Although high SQD spenders are seemly ignored after a while.

I don't love having to fight everyone for a preferred seat when I buy at the last moment and I have 3 kids so I don't care about kids but yes, the cafe is my happy quiet place. It has gotten busier and "my" seat has been occupied the last little while I've been there.

The day there is a lineup down the hall for the cafe will be a disappointing day for me

Altaflyer

The caf� announcement is unfortunate. At times it�s way too crowded. Not sure what the point is.

canadiancow

They probably think it makes no sense to have one lounge at 50% occupancy while the once across the hall has a line out the door.

expert7700

AC has a reputation...(a "brand standard") for their MLLs.

The cafe was normally quiet and uncrowded. Clearly they needed to fix this. Now the Cafe will be equally crowded and chaotic.

songsc

Cough, cough, the YTZ Cafe... It's probably the least busy AC lounge and it's better than most MLLs, but I hope not many people know about that...

VIA is having a slew of equipment issues recently, to the extend that they often have to use some already faulty locomotives, only to have them breaking down halfway, potentially blocking all trains behind. I try to avoid flying in winter but I am seriously considering PD and AC for a few Eastern Triangle trips for the next two months. The YTZ Cafe will definitely make any potential delays more bearable.

yowcat

I was trying to avoid the kids thing; however, I would like to just echo not "All Kids" the same way there are a lot of misbehaving adults and I would argue adults IMHO are the more problematic ones. One of my kids has status and they have been flying Intl J since they were 4 and I suspect you'll find you never hear a peep from them because I take a lot of time ensuring they do not disrupt the poor business flyer trying to get a few hours of sleep before landing and heading straight to the meeting. But I agree not all do that.

To me it is all caused by the overcrowding problem with access being given away like candy causing a lot of occasional tourist fliers coming in who I think don't respect FF etiquette. When you have a place that crowded it will just be naturally loud in a crowded space like that. Especially now that most of the lounges have dorm style tables to shove even more people in.

So it doesn't bother me there will be more kids in the cafe. It bothers me more there will be no chance to get a seat since it feels like half those flying have lounge access these days. Perhaps AC needs to follow what I've seen at Amex lounges and simply limit access at a certain capacity.

flyingcrooked

Children are (in my experience) a very small minority in lounges. This change will be good for folks who have cafe access but can�t avail themselves of it if they�re traveling with two kids. I doubt it will make any significant difference to numbers. Moreover I suspect disruptive kids won�t be a problem in that quiet environment as any disruption will be obvious to staff and, frankly, parents. The MLLs (the big ones) are zoos, where barbarism abounds, so it�s no wonder children join in.

YZF_Elite

I agree with this. On a Tuesday morning in October, I see no kids in lounges. On a Saturday in July, of course there are plenty, but for the most part I find the overcrowding is adults and AC being too generous with access. Cutting out the 35k's hasn't seemed to move the needle.

wjw

Big nothing burger for me. Don�t fly domestic so the cafe stuff doesn�t affect me. Also don�t buy flight passes, but I suppose I like that I don�t have to randomly pick one of the meaningless select benefits that I�ll never use anymore.

The change to the lower re-qual benefit is interesting. Probably still won�t pick it, but it does add an element of being not just lower re-qual but also an effective lower threshold for threshold gifts and eUps�

painintheuk

Exactly my takeaway! Well - not the screaming kids so much, but the lack of crowding part.

I just don't travel as much any more, as if I ever did, so hopefully my absence helps .

How do they decide on these "improvements"/enhancements?

yvr76

Of note, the enhanced Lower Requalification Select Benefit still doesn't provide any SQDs - between $500 to $1000 would be the appropriate equivalent. That's why I've always found this benefit to mostly useless for SEs, especially if you have a premium credit card. You're likely getting a decent amount of SQMs though rollover, and spend. Hitting 100k SQM is still E75K if you're only at $10k SQD.

My case, I hit 100K SQM in May, and won't be at 20K SQD until next month.

canadiancow

They've made it very clear on many occasions that the vast majority of Elite members have way more SQD than they need for their SQM/S.

If you're on FT, you're probably into the "game" of optimizing your travel, and are therefore less likely to fall into that category. But we're the minority.

warrens

YTZ Cafe is probably going to be mostly unaffected by this policy change... families typically drive between Toronto and Ottawa/Montreal instead of flying through Billy Bishop, especially if they live east of the city. And the ones that do fly will mostly go through Pearson instead because it's closer to where more families live (Mississauga, Brampton, Kitchener/Waterloo etc), and has the better overall flight schedule & planes. Plus YYZ has long-term parking.

As a supporting data point..... I've seen an average of one child on the half-dozen YTZ-YUL flights I've taken so far this year.

Shout out to all the people who do two YYZ-LHR trips in J in a calendar year and hit the SQD requirement for Super Elite, but don't have enough SQM for 25K....

loganre17

If the changes to lower requalification take place next year could anyone shed some light on why I am seeing "5,000 SQM rollover applied."? This is from an account that doesn't have a credit card. Is this a visual glitch?

SaintsFanInVan

How about they improve their partner availability, award flight search ability, and allowing the creation of family share pools again? You know, the stuff that actually matters...