That wouldn't be 35% more mileage required, it would be 54% more.

Thanks for listening to us Andrew. I am glad that this has remained civil and no one is attacking you personally unfortunately I am going to be taking a reexamination of my travel options next year and AC will probably be that option far less (actually, it is becoming less civil in the last few pages which is unfortunate).

This year I have upgraded the following flights on AC:
YOW-HNL-YOW Lat SWU (Leftover 2009 certs) 4 e-upgrades
YOW-LAS-YOW FP SWU (Leftover 2009 certs) 20 e-upgrades
YOW-CUN-YOW FP NAU 20 e-upgrades
YOW-LHR-YOW T+ SSWU 28 e-upgrades
YOW-LAS-YOW FP NAU 20 e-upgrades
HNL-YOW Lat SWU 2 e-upgrades

I also have 7 upcoming flights and 6 SWUs to use on them. Even as a lowly E I would rate the chances of them clearing pretty high.
YOW-EWR T+ 6 e-upgrades
YOW-IAH T+ 10 e-upgrades (1,503 miles, bad luck on this one)
SFO-LHR-SFO Lat already upgraded 16 e-upgrades
YOW-CUN-YOW FP 20 e-upgrades
YOW-TPA (not booked yet, prob on FP but might go to another carrier) 6 e-upgrades

I've received 2 SSWU, 10 SWU, 4 NAU throughout the year (I think that is all of them anyway). Thanks largely to buying two Florida Plus flight passes I will probably use up all of those certs and did use up all of my 2009 certs.

Now looking at the new program these same upgrades come to 152 e-upgrades. As an E who selected the 50% bonus this year I will only start with 25 e-upgrades. With threshold levels and flight pass activity I will be up to just over 50 e-upgrade credits based on my flying this year.

Even if the U fare class was moved to the same level as M that would only bring down my e-upgrade total to about 100 e-upgrades being needed. If they do a summer/Christmas reduction on points required that would bring it down another 10 or 20 but it will still leave me in the back of the bus a lot more often than this year.

After writing this out I am going to have to seriously reconsider my flying habits. Thanks to AC's thinking that the StarMegaDo is a waste of their time I was able to qualify as a Silver on CO ($4k of revenue that AC saw none of). Since I am a leisure flyer I fly mainly to destinations where my UDUs would actually clear. I am also able to move my flights around to improve my upgrade chances. CO also gives 150% EQM for B fares so I would have earned status more quickly flying them than AC.

Initially I didn't think that this was as bad as everyone was saying but after looking at my flying patterns I now realize that I need to look at other options. While I do prefer the domestic business class provided by AC over its US counterparts I won't be seeing it much with these new changes.

I do admit that I was making nearly optimal use of my certs I am saddened that I will have to ride in steerage far more often than I did this year if I choose to stay with AC. My revenue flying will be lower than this year because of a nice award I've booked in F but I will still need to get out of fun filled Ottawa a few more times this year. I have enough for another F award in 2012 but by then they will probably remove that option so I don't think that that carrot will be enough to keep me with AC.

I guess I am the kind of bottom feeder that you are trying to get rid of though so mission accomplished AC.

(please pardon any errors with the math but it should be pretty close)

Have not personally offered anyone any extra credits. SEs can choose 40 credits from bundle 1 and 20 credits from bundle 2 for a total of 60 credits to start the benefit year.

Increasing the qualification rate on Lat fares and raising the qualification level would put it more in line with its competition (oh wait, there is no direct competition).

Sorry, but this is nonsense. >90% of all FFs will not be able to upgrade nearly as often as they did this year. The new program is not about preventing additional costs, this is about cutting benefits in an attempt to cut costs. All Elite members flying internationally will get fewer upgrades (regardless of whether they pay T+, M or Lat fares). As pointed out here, Es do not even get enough credits to upgrade all flights even if they always purchased Latitude fares (without foregoing the tier bonus). Those who do a mix of int�l travel and travel within NA also don�t benefit, neither do E/SEs who formerly bought flight passes (SEs used to get 2SSWUs, which is equivalent to 28-40 credits, I don�t quite see how earning 12 credits is not a huge cutback in benefits)

The only group that will benefit from this new program are:
- FFs who only fly within North America and now will be able to upgrade 2-4 segments (vs. 2SSWUs this year)
- FFs who (exclusively) buy Latitude fares within North America.

That�s it. All other groups face cutbacks of 40%-70% depending on their flying pattern.

Let�s hope a reasonable decision will be made. For many this will sound like “reviewed and changed if deemed necessary” = “considered and dismissed”

It�s nice to hear AC is admitting that the new program doesn�t only consist of improvements. And to be honest, the reduction in threshold bonuses is the cutback most of us are most understanding about due to the added flexibility. It�s the ridiculous low amount of credits to start with COMBINED with a huge reduction in credits for crossing thresholds AND flight passes which is more than upsetting and causing many FFs to reconsider their loyalty/flying pattern.

Sounds like good news, if it happens.

Fair enough, I think most FFs understand the requirement to balance benefits and costs. Just take the recent implementation of the 10k miles/5 segments requirement. While it is a devaluation of the program, the vast majority were very supportive of this measure.

Anyhow, I doubt the new upgrade system will generate more revenue, the opposite is the case, maybe you could answer the following two questions:

1) Why would someone fly 35k miles on AC if he/she doesn�t even get 1 long-haul int�l upgrade from T+ in exchange? AC�s Y product is decent, but not miles ahead from its competitors who have mostly installed AVOD on most planes. If there�s not even a chance of getting an upgrade, people will just buy the lowest fares.

2) Why would someone buying Latitude fares on int�l routes stick with AC if he/she doesn�t even get enough credits to upgrade those flights? (see example posted here)

I don�t completely disagree, but the 35k threshold on AC (vs. 50k on most other airlines) isn�t necessarily lower if you consider the following factors:

1) Tango fares only earn 25% non-status miles (and the fare difference between T and T+ fares has increased to a point where it barely makes sense to buy T+ fares)
2) Other airlines have often offered DEQM/DEQS promos, either for their entire network or on selected routes
3) Some of AC�s competitors offer status miles through their affiliatede credit card
4) Other airlines award 150% status miles for the most expensive economy fares (e.g. booking class B earns 100% with AP/AC, but 150% with UA MP)

So overall AC�s 35k miles requirement is pretty comparable with other FFPs� 50k requirement.

Unfortunately this is not the impression the majority here have. The program has been devaluated for the vast majority of E/SEs, and trying to spin it like an improvement didn�t build any goodwill at all. Either AC was hoping the majority would be stupid enough not to recognize the devaluation with the more complex credit system, or someone made some major mistakes when calculating the impact for various types of FFs.

Just to summarize the above comments: Most of us fully understand that AC needs to balance benefits and costs of the FFP, but as of now the new credit system doesn�t seem to provide enough incentives to stick to AC. If this is about revenue (which it is of course), here are a few suggestions how to minimize the negative impact of the new program for those who spend $$$$ on AC metal.

Anyhow, thank�s for your presence here on FT which is greatly appreciated.

That won't happen. If you look at Aeroplan as a company, which I believe it is, it makes sense to allow points to accumulate at an increased rate but make them worth less to redeem. That then raises the profit on each point in the system.
Taking 200,000 points to buy a $1200 computer vs 2 biz class tix is prime example of how "costly" redeeming AP points is to the program as opposed to typical Aerogold customers. Now making them worth less (yes I know I keep using that split phrase) to upgrade means less money flowing out of the Aeroplan coffers.
The answer here is not to inconvenience yourself by flying another carrier. Simply shuttle the points to another program. The airline has its own issues in terms of being competitive. Make Aeroplan realize it no longer serves as an airline loyalty program but rather as a gas station/credit card loyalty program.

The upgrade credits are designed to be a universal currency. Many feedback tells us that customers can't use the SWUs that are earned throughout the year so our end goal is to make the credits applicable on all T+ fare types if that's how a customer chooses to use them. We had to come up with a balance system that would still permit upgrades from Tango Plus and yet not giving the shop away. If we give all the Elites the equivalent credits vs 2010 using the worst case scenario (which is Asia since that's the furthest and most expensive), then all of a sudden customers would have many credits to upgrade T+ within North America. For example, if we give E say 40 credits to start the year, that would be equivalent to 4 SSWU on NA for a NA customer and that is 2 extra SSWUs for many customers vs 2010. Majority of our customers fly a mix of NA and International itinerary; there are LOTS of NA only customers especially within the Elite tier.

Sorry, you are correct.

Would Aeroplan just please fix the darn Problem so everyone can go back to their regular happy lives of living and traveling on AC metal.

You might not like me because you don't like what I am posting; but I am spending lots of time on here trying to answer questions and let you guys know some of the rationale behind the changes.

And your carriers are the only ones in North America that does not offer complimentary SYSTEMWIDE (read anything outside of NA) upgrades to their mid tiers, not permit lounge access on domestic itineraries, 50K to qualify instead of 35K.

Andrew, a lot of problems could be alleviated simply by reducing the amount of credits necessary on long haul flights with no changes to amount of credits given to members. This would also not affect the NA only passengers. I, for one would, would reconsider moving to continental if this were the case.

Andrew,

The changes penalize those flyers that fly long haul international a lot more than those flying within NA. One of the key issues is the very small amount of credits given at each threshold. I mean come one you are replacing 2 SSWU at 40k and 2 SSWU at 75k with 15 eupgrade credits at 20k and 15 eupgrade credits at 80k.. in essence going from the equivalent of 40 eupgrade credits at 40k and 40 eupgrade credits at 75k to a combined of 30 eupgrade credits at 40k and 80k. This really is a devaluation of atleast 62.5% of the benefit right in those 2 threshold levels..

You guys are obviously not consumers of anything that reflects the day to day in your life. That's the issue.

We only make LMU available after we clear all waitlisted R class customers. If you decide to add yourself to the list on the day of departure, you're on the waitlist not because we didn't clear you, but because you didn't request the upgrade in advance.