2011 Air Canada Top Tier Program - Modifications to Benefits

Less then a week after initially being released, Air Canada has listened to their top flyers and have adjusted some parts of the 2011 Top Tier program due to the numerous complaints they received. The primary changes come in the number of credits required for upgrading certain fare classes with Air Canada lowering the amount in three categories.

Once again this was announced on FlyerTalk.com by Air Canada representative Andrew Yiu. Following is an excerpt from his post that covers the modifications

Thanks to everyone for the comments that have been posted here the last few days, and especially those who took the time to post some very valuable, constructive feedback. While it's not our intent to address every issue raised on this forum on the changes to the 2011 Top Tier program, some very valid points were raised which we agree should be addressed to the best of our ability. These modifications are our attempt to do just that. As I've explained here previously, the eUpgrades program is designed to give our customers more flexibility in terms of what types of fares and flights they would like to use their upgrades on. All credits can now be used to upgrade from Tango Plus and Latitude fares, instead of a system where fixed types of certificates were being offered, which resulted in some customers not being able to fully utilize their upgrade benefit. eUpgrades will allow a customer to choose between using more credits to upgrade lower fares, or less for higher fares. The zone system was developed to take into account the fact that all credits will be valid on all Tango Plus and Latitude fares. We need a simple system to reflect the value of an Executive Class/Executive First seat in a particular market; hence the 1500 miles cutoff within NA and 5000 miles cutoff for International.

Having said that, our Marketing and Revenue Management teams sat down today and reviewed all the constructive feedback we've received. Following that, we have decided to make the following adjustments to the 2011 eUpgrade Program:

All Tango Plus Flight Passes will be booked in M class
(Edit to add: North America + Sun Passes only.)

This one has actually been in the works as the Flight Pass program is independent of both the eUpgrade and Top Tier programs. All Tango Plus Flight Passes that are currently booked in U will be rebooked into M effective Jan 1, 2011 (Passes for flights to our Sun markets are the only ones that are currently outstanding). Existing Flight Pass bookings that are booked in U will be rebooked in M. You will be able to upgrade using your eUpgrade Credits based on the requirement for M class for travel effective March 1, 2011.

Adjustment of credits required for Tango Plus (M class) on International flights

The credits required for Tango Plus (M class) on an international flight will be modified as follows:

• For flights that are < 5000 miles: 8 credits (instead of 10)
• For flights that are 5001 miles or longer: 12 credits (instead of 15)

There is no change to booking windows, which remains the same versus 2010.

This change will become effective on the eUpgrades system later this week.

The rationale behind the change is that we took another look at all the current M fares across our markets and as some of you have pointed out, the differential between Y/B and M is not always the same. The new revised requirement better reflects the average of the fare differential between M fares and the rest of the Tango Plus fares on our International markets.

Adjustment of credits required for Tango Plus (U,H,Q,V,W,S,K,L,T class) on International flights

The credits required for Tango Plus (U,H,Q,V,W,S,K,L,T class) on international flights will be modified as follows:

• For flights that are < 5000 miles: 14 credits (no change)
• For flights that are 5001 miles or longer: 17 credits (instead of 20)

There is no change to booking windows, which remains the same versus 2010.