Questions and Answers

This is a great – thanks so much for the information.
I have been a loyal Air Canada Aeroplan member for years (live in Toronto) and travel almost extensively with them for business for the past 10 years. However moving to a new job I have to use United almost exclusively now. That said – is it worth me staying with Aeroplan or switching in 2017 to United Mileage Plus? The issue is the new rules that combine the ticket cost with either # segments or # miles flown. Most of my flights are on lowest economy and flying within the US so my question….what is the best program to join to maximize my pointsso I can use for upgrades as often as possible. I do have a few International flights a year which I try to book on star alliance partners.

One positive – I do put all my business travel T & E (except for my flights) on my personal credit cards so I do spend approx $2000-$2500 p/ month that I can collect points on.

Big thanks

If you’ll be flying UA often enough to get any kind of elite status, it might be smart to credit to UA so that you may get some complimentary upgrades. However, you’ll be subject to UA’s revenue based program, earning miles per dollar spent on the ticket, excluding taxes and fees.

You could continue to credit to Aeroplan but since you are buying cheap economy tickets, I would check the fare class and see how many miles the flight would earn you before making a decision.

Lastly, Singapore may be a good option to credit to but again, check fare class and earning rates first as some cheap econ tickets earn no miles with SQ

For expensive short haul flights, UA wins. In other cases Aeroplan Vs SQ comes in to play.
If you have status with Air Canada, think about a status challenge with UA. Crediting to SQ doesn’t get you any upgrade though!

But keep in mind that Singapore miles expire after 3 years, even with activity in your account. See Frequent Miler’s post: [URL]http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2015/12/03/how-to-keep-singapore-krisflyer-miles-from-expiring/[/URL]

Are you trying for elite status as well? Keep in mind that there are changes to Air Canada Altitude for 2017. The introduction of Altitude Qualifying Dollars (AQD) means that you have to spend from 3000CAD (Prestige) to 20000CAD (Super Elite 100k) on AC or AC codeshare flights along with the mileage requirements.