air canada expands its tango fare classes; united gives you 25% on air canada's domestic tango fares

in a move that i completely didn't see until i saw the flyertalk thread about this. beginning september 24, 2013, more booking classes have turned from flex (100% full earnings) to tango (25% or 50% earnings). it looks as though more of the cheaper fares seem to be transitioned downwards to tango.

this means that for those trying to use e-upgrades, it becomes harder and more expensive as it would force you to buy higher priced flex fares rather than tango fares. what used to be just on the cusp of a flex fare is now pushed down towards tango. this is on top of the recently introduced co-pays for international e-upgrades.

a quick look at asiana's earning chart has not revealed any of these changes (nor are they offering status miles on domestic tango fares). i expect that these changes to the expanded tango fares will be added shortly, but i doubt that the additional earning power of domestic tango fares will be updated. BUT a quick look at united shows that they have already updated their earnings table. effective october 1, 2014, their new table looks like this:

traditionally, they gave 100% for international tango fares and this has not changed. they used to give 0% for domestic tango, but this has now been updated to 25% status miles. this is now a reason to move to united's mileage plus if you are going to buy tango fares on air canada.