shore9

Im planning to goto YYC in late augest, and i did some sample booking, AC is 42 dollars more than WS. in order to get prestige next year i need to do YVR - YUL one way 3 times, and 1 has to be a J booking and 2 C bookings, if I do this trip on AC on a Fun fare (which is 42 dollars more than WS) I can just do 3 C class one ways YVR - YUL, which will save more long run, however, is it likely that i'd get prestige by getting 17,500 status miles?? Also is 42 dollars worth MLL access and priority checkin/baggage for a one hour flt, keep in mind as the whole family's going we'd be at the airport a good 2 hours in advance (some better safe than sorry thing my mom has), so we would make use of the MLL

ALW

How are you getting MLL access? You seem to be Basic this year and are flying in the back.

andrew

Andrew Yiu

A complete waste of money IMO since you're just going to school and my guess is your parents are paying for it? What's the point of getting Prestige when you don't even get MLL access and the UG certs barely last you one trip. Why would you make your parents spend $2000 on every trip when a roundtrip could be bought for $500??

Andrew Yiu

From reading his posts, he claims that he has tried to used his dad's Elite card (Even though the dad wasn't flying) and he was successful...

ALW

But then in this thread he says the whole family's going!

andrew

Andrew Yiu

And I find it extremely interesting that he is thinking over a $42 difference while buying a $2200 ticket (x 3 = $6600+) just to make Prestige is not a problem!!

Q Shoe Guy

Empress how is any of this surprising? One of my grandmothers always used to say........"you can lead them to water , but you can't make them drink". He already knows that the MR to SIN would be enough for him to make prestige at less than a third the price he will spend on the return C fares. We will just have to chastise him for not being a true FT'er ! Where is my whip.............

FatBoyYVR

Ah, but it is only those of us who work for our money who have to contemplate the occasional SIN run to top up our status. Shore9, in case you havent realised it yet, the majority of us in this forum are average hard working people, for whom every dollar matters as we have to make choices about every dollar we spend. For many, I suspect every dollar spent on flying from our own pocket impacts families, children etc etc. While we certainly like to fly in J, we also rarely pay full fare for it (In my own case I like to think it is because I have more sense) and if we had to would choose to fly in the back. When work pays, sure - whatever, but quite honestly I suspect most of us have better things to spend our own hard earned dollars on than J tickets. This is not to say we do not consistently give AC a lot of revenue each year, and indeed the upgrade system is designed to keep us loyal without expecting us to necessarily pay full J on all our flights.
If you want to impress people on here (and it seems that you do) then stop telling us about buying J and M and tell us how you can fly a really long way in the back for a few dollars (I suggest a SIN run from YVR with the 7 hour turnaround and YVR customs - if you can persuade Ferrari to accompany you we would be particularly impressed ).

flyingstudent

Shore9, what good can a Prestige membership bring you? It doesn't even give you priority bagging handling (the most important thing both me and my parents look for in a trip) or lounge access.

Honestly, just save your parents $$ and fly the cheapest carrier.

The few people in my class who are from Vancouver keep asking me to book their tickets home term after term. Even those traveling for leisure ask me to book their tickets for them. The reason why .. because I always find them the cheapest fares! The past week, I've booked my friends on Westjet (YYZ-YXX), Jetsgo (YYZ-YVR), HMY (YYZ-YVR) and America West (YYZ-LAX) because they offer the lowest fares for the particular routes they're traveling. With the extra money they saved, they can use it to go travelling and do other fun stuff.

One side question, I'm wondering what's the process of getting an IATA or travel agent account. I've been booking quite a few tickets lately for friends and would like to find ways so that I can actually get commissions out of them. Haha!

Q Shoe Guy

I don't know the process, but I think the bond is $15,000 for the IATA licence........exAC or Tcooke will probably correct me though ! You might just charge your friends a commission to book their tickets !

shore9

well also realize my dad is travelling, so he can get me in first of all. Secondly, my dad will be prestige or elite next year, so I can have his upgrade certs and MLL passes as well. I would be on my way to SIN this summer, but I get off work in mid augest, I'll have 2 weeks till school, so im gonna take a family vacation, and just hang out here. I'm thinking next may i'll be off to SIN for a week, is that a good time? too far to just turn around after 7 hours, i'm sorry I wont be doing a true MR I'm also thinking eastern Europe and go backpacking with a friend, either way it's coming out of my pocket. Over the last few days i've realized that being elite or prestige isnt as valued to me as I once thought. Prestige is really nothing, elite is something, maybe the year after next, it's more the fact that i'm on my way to prestige now, that I don't want to give up on it. In all likelyhood next year i'll be on cheap fares, and using my Prestige card for priority checkin and some MLL coupons, probably never use a cert. I think that the less you fly the more exiting it is when you get to travel in J or just travel in general. People who fly it all the time probably could care less. It's sort of a let me get this and then i'll quit for good type of thing, sorry for the long rant

Q Shoe Guy

So then as you just said it is worthless to you "really nothing" then why bother!? No reason to give up on anything........your not missing out on anything, really!
Enjoy a trip to Europe or where ever. There are so many ways you could spend 6K on great fun things.......no need to waste cash on J or C!!!!!!

shore9

well also from my parents POV. They want me to come home during the semester, flying me J is one way of convincing me, kinda sad I know. I like coming home too, but I find it a hassle, J for me is a reward, a very expensive one. I've already done 3 J trips this year, 3 more to go, to quit now I'd feel like I wasted too much money already, I know nobody will understand this .

Q Shoe Guy

Guilt , guilty , guiltiness........the first one is what most parents dish out to their children, the second is for the children who accept it, the third is for the waste that it entails........You should try to reason with your parents to allow you to spend the large sums for the J tickets on something that might expand your horizons a bit( like a trip to BKK ). They might stop treating you like a child (by feeling that they need to "reward" you to come home) if you start acting like an adult in more control of your destiny. Yes, I know you are still young.......but don't wait till you are too old to change their perceptions of you!

Andrew Yiu

Yes, that's very sad. I know many parents in real life that would only buy their kids the cheapest ticket to come home during holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas & the kids are already thrilled. Some parents I know make their kids pay part of the airfare if they really wanted to come home.

What Q Shoe Guy said.