air canada makes another change to its elite program

received in my inbox on thursday was air canada's latest changes to its program. in general, most aren't good changes. the official link is here and the permanent flyertalk thread is here.  we knew these wouldn't be good by how their spokesman started off the official thread on flyertalk:

so here are the changes:

1) increase in the number of minimum flight segments/miles required for air canada altitude status (neutral)

• prestige 25k: 12,500 AQM or 12 AQS
• elite 35k: 17,500 AQM or 17 AQS
• elite 50k: 25,000 AQM or 25 AQS
• elite 75k: 37,500 AQM or 37 AQS
• super elite 100k: 50,000 AQM or 47 AQS

this does not change the total number of miles or segments that are required to achieve status, just the minimum number of segments or miles flown on air canada metal. this makes sense from their part -- they want to reward increased spending and travel on their airline as opposed to their alliance members'.

compared to united and delta, which requires a minimum spend amount per year on their metal (usually to the tune of ten cents per qualifying mile required on their tickets or their metal), this is probably more generous.

2) 500 mile minimum removed (negative)
for travel beginning march 2015, the minimum mileage amount will no longer be 500 for flex and higher fares, 250 for international tango fares, and 125 for domestic tango fares.

but they justify the additional cost between tango and flex fares by the non-mile benefits that flex fares offer. but one has to wonder about this. a tango fare between YVR and YYJ on november 18 (currently) is $87 all in. a flex fare for the same day is $195. the only difference (besides free seat selection) is the change fees. flex saves you $75 if you choose to change on the day of travel, or $25 if you change before that.

it's a bit silly for air canada to say that people are willing to pay more for flex on a route like that for the additional benefits. as an aside, with the new changes, you will earn roughly 45 miles on this particular route's flex fare. if you paid tango, you'll earn roughly 11. both are eligible as a qualifying segment, however.

3) eupgrade changes for business class upgrades
they're going up. before and after pics:

current

future

as a super elite flying 100,000 miles, you can earn up to 70 eupgrades this year. as a e50 flying 50,000 miles, you can earn up to 40 eupgrades. so under the new proposed scheme, if you book the lowest flex fare to asia, you won't be able to upgrade to business class. (once upon a time, you could use your two special upgrade certificates as an e35k, but that's now gone).

on top of this, the copay is still present for transatlantic and transpacific flights for all but super elite members.

4) e35ks can no longer select star gold lounge benefits (negative)
this, of course, was expected. i think last year was just a transition year to remove the e35k level. i wouldn't be surprised if they removed the level altogether for the following year.

Altitude Elite^™ 35K members will no longer have the option to choose complimentary access to International Maple Leaf^™ Lounges and Star Alliance Business Lounges as part of their Select Privileges. Instead, members will be able to select a 50% discount on any Maple Leaf Club membership. (bolding mine)

what a generous selection option! hopefully, that particular selection category is filled with much more useless options than this 50% discount option.

5) more access to preferred seats (neutral)
this is complimentary for e50k and above for domestic and transborder fares, and 50% off for international fares. the seats aren't premium economy. they don't have more leg room. there are no additional benefits to these seats except that they are closer to the front of the plane. this is really a non-benefit to begin with.

6) flight rewards for premium economy (neutral)
they're allowing you to book premium economy fares with aeroplan points. this is not unexpected.

7) removal of fuel surcharges (positive)
elite members will no longer have to pay the fuel surcharges for air canada operated domestic and transborder classic reward flights. for the most part, this saves the member $29 per booking (that's what i've found anyway. keep in mind that there isn't regularly a fuel surcharge on revenue tickets as those are included in the base fare already. but when you book a reward flight, it magically uncouples and you get hit with a fuel surcharge. so this change is actually just a move towards fairness.

super elites will no longer have to pay any fuel surcharges for air canada operate flights. this is a major benefit as some fuel surcharges can be worth hundreds of dollars.

8) limit on number of super elite benefits (negative)
my brother, a super elite member, really used the priority rewards. this was where you could book any economy seat on an air canada-operated flight for anyone else using classic flight reward levels as long as there was a revenue seat available. they have now limited this to 10.

the company representative said that only 5% of altitude members will feel this change. well of course it only affects 5% of altitude members because the benefit wasn't available to 100% of altitude members to begin with. i wonder how many super elite members this will affect? probably more than just 5%.

also, the number of eupgrade nominees for super elite benefits will decrease to 1. this means that you can only upgrade one other person who is not actually traveling with you where as you could have done more in the past.

conclusion
my traveling plans are increasing this year, especially in my first year out of residency. i was debating between moving to either air canada or united as my primary frequent flyer program, and i think i might be heading more in the direction of united.

• the majority of my transborder flights are on united now to avoid the air canada 50% AQM
• air canada international tango fares still earn 100% on united
• i will get access to premium economy on united
• i might be able to access the unlimited domestic upgrades for united flight
• as a non-american based elite, i would be exempt from the minimum spend requirements for united

i also wonder whether they will backtrack and soften the blow, but it sounds like they won't be doing this.