Why I need to switch from United Airlines to Air Canada

An introduction:

United Airlines had a special loophole that I had exploited as a Canadian. Previously, in order to reach their top tier status, you required

• 100,000 miles or
• 120 premier qualifying segments; and
• $15,000 USD spend on 016-ticket stock; and
• 4 segments on United aircraft

In brief, top tier status, 1K, was afforded the following benefits:

• Star Alliance gold status
• Increased availability of award seats (no fuel surcharges added, unlike Air Canada's Aeroplan)
• Free changes and cancellations for award reservations
• Free same-day changes
• Unlimited complimentary upgrades on domestic itineraries (space available)
• Opportunities to upgrade internationally (typically 6 segments a year)
• One free alcoholic beverage and food item on all United flight segments
• Pre-boarding (before group 1), use of Polaris check in desks on all itineraries

As a self-funded traveler who spent $4,600 USD on United last year, I would not have normally qualified for 1K status. However, non-US residents with a non-US addresses, were exempt from the $15,000 USD minimum spend. This made it easy to qualify for UA Premier 1K status, and I took advantage of this for the last 4 years.

Then the changes happened:

Announced late last year for the program this upcoming year, United changed the policy to be more about dollars spent than distance traveled. Now, their requirements are as such:

One Premier Qualifying Point (PQP) is equivalent to $1 USD spent pre-tax. For the same status, I would need to spend either $24,000 or $18,000 (along with 56 flight segments). 

That is impossible.

But we can game the system still somewhat ...

One way to possibly game the system was to fly on premium cabins on Star Alliance partners. PQP for preferred Star Alliance partners would be calculated as the total number of award miles earned divided by 5. (PQP for the rest of the Star Alliance partners would be calculated as the total number of award miles earned divided by 6).

The preferred carriers are:

Air Canada is a preferred partner. 

An example of gaming this system:

A premium economy fare (N-fare) from Vancouver to Taipei (YVR-TPE) would net (5971 x 1.25) = 7,464 miles one-way, or 14,928 miles round-trip. This would net 2,986 PQP for roughly $1,600 CAD fare. 

Or if you bought a business class fare (Z-fare) from YVR-TPE, you would get (5971 x 2) = 11,942 miles, or 23,884 miles round-trip. This would net 4,776 PQP for a roughly $3,500 CAD fare.

Two business class fares from YVR-TPE would cost $7,000 USD, but would give nearly 9,500 PQP, or almost Star Alliance Gold. As you remember, 9,500 PQP = $9,500 USD before taxes. 

And so I thought that it would be cheaper and easier to obtain at least Star Alliance Gold with United Airlines, until I realized that I was going to fly mostly partner airlines. You don't get the best benefits on partner airlines. 

This leads me to the newest part of the journey: if I am going to fly mainly Air Canada to obtain status on another airline, let's work on switching to that airline.

So now, follow along as I play with Air Canada's Aeroplan program ...