Air Canada Altitude Status: Introduction

I'm Canadian. I switched from using an Aerogold Visa (earning Aeroplan points) to using an Amex Platinum card a year ago. I've been battling to earn miles and my status has suffered (!). As someone who flies mostly with AC how can I use my Amex card to increase my status?

Used to be AC Super Elite until they slapped the $ requirements and continued to devalue mileage accrual. My employer only pays for economy Tango flights and travel within Canada is not only expensive but not rewarding. I fly over 100 segments a year (and almost 70% of them on AC and the rest is other *A) yet last year only accumulated short of 60,000 miles and I only qualified for 35K as my AQD fell $80 short of $6,000 CAD. So this year I switched to WestJet and it appears I will make Platinum on just 40-ish flights (including Delta/KLM flights marketed as WJ).

I am a bit bummed that showcased the AC advantage. I wanted it to remain a secret. I have been SE100K for 11 years in a row and while AC has not always been the best option for me to fly to Europe or Asia (since I live in LA), for the most part they really take care of me. J has gotten much better and when I have to sit in Y, I still feel well taken care of.

I'm Canadian and I don't hate Air Canada. I fly to Europe a lot, 4, 5 times a year. I tried Westjet and Air Transat a couple of times. Nothing special there and too many negatives, like schedules and Euro destinations. AC and it partners in Star Alliance just do a better job getting to places the others don't serve.

Long time reader, first time poster.

I used to earn status on AC easily and was Star Alliance Gold for many years. But then I started flying internally within Canada more and lost my status. Here is why. On most routes in Canada, at most fare levels, you only earn 25% of miles flown, unless you buy the more expensive fares (Who buys Latitude fares anyway?). So let's say you mostly take AC's flagship route between Vancouver and Toronto, which is one of the top 10 most profitable routes in the world according to Forbes, generating around a half a billion for AC every year. You would earn a total of 1040 miles round trip ( that's for 5+hours of flying for each leg). You would need to take 25 round trips just to get to Prestige. I've never seem this fare drop below $550 and I typically pay over $600. So that would be a spend of $15,000. Here's the thing Prestige is garbage. You don't even get priority boarding at that level. What you really want is Elite 35K, as that will get you priority boarding as well as Canada and Transborder lounge access. So you would have to spend $21,000. Its shocking to me that you could spend that much with an airline and not get meaningful status.

I've given up on getting status with AC and to be perfectly honest, I don't really miss it.

The one benefit I would say to collecting miles with Aeroplan is that the frequent flyer program is decent. Over the years I have managed to secure two business class tickets for me and my spouse to many destinations around the world.

I'm on board with some of the other Canadians here. Air Canada sucks and their rewards program is not worth considering at all.

I saw a guy with a 100k elite tag on his backpack and just giggled a bit on the inside. Yes, he was economy with me

Air Canada is a horrible airline.

Altitude only works for the poor souls who are stuck flying for work around Canada. The rest knows better.

Aeroplan has been a decent credit card program, but when AC takes over, the devaluations will be hard to swallow.

I have been a Super Elite for 4 years now. 100% of my work travel is on domestic route, on the lowest fares (Tango/Standard. I qualified based on AQS and AQD. It's a joke how much miles I have earned this year on 71 segments...9K miles. I hope AC moves to a revenue miles system. I have no other complaint about AC altitude. There are a lot of great perks being a Super Elite.

What I find amusing is how obviously AC milks their monopolies. If you want to fly from the US east coast to europe, prices are cheap and you get 100% miles. Try pricing just the hop to yyz and you will be down to 50% miles and will be paying through the nose. I especially enjoy the offers to upgrade your border hop to "business class" with "premium meal service."

I live in Vancouver. Most of my business travel is to the USA, with a couple of trips overseas each year. I used to be loyal to Air Canada, but the devaluation of the Altitude program made it harder and harder to earn status. So a few years ago I took all my business to United, moved to United's MileagePlus program and never looked back. United has more competition, so they do a much better job at recognizing and rewarding loyalty than Air Canada. With Global Entry / Nexus, transiting the USA to / from Europe is no worse than transiting Toronto.

Hi Kate,

I’m flying WestJet next week, LAX-YYC-LGW BC on the Dreamliner and wondering what my options are in terms of crediting miles?? Please help!

Hello

I am going to be about 1800 miles short of the 50k threshold requirements? is there a way to top that up? The air Canada website is not helpful