Air Canada Altitude moves to Altitude Qualifying Dollars instead of minimum Air Canada Flight Requirement

As you know several years ago Air Canada added the requirement that you needed to have a certain amount of flights on Air Canada metal to be able to achieve Altitude status. That requirements is now being nixed in favour of a revenue based requirement that we have seen with U.S. carriers. This means that those who buy more expensive tickets will qualify easier than those flying on fares bought during seat sales or lower fare classes (ie Flex vs. Latitude) etc.  This will definitely affect those who reach status after only several long haul flights or lots of cheaper Tango fare flights as their AQD may not match the AQM's or AQS's earned. $3,000 that's achievable for lots of you. $20,000 for SE100K? Some will have not problem but I'm thinking many will not reach that! Overall this is not good news for the Altitude program and leaves us wondering what else the program will entail for changes as this is the only news to be released so far. (Thanks to regular RC contributor Sol Z. for passing the email to us!)

We’d like to inform you about some changes regarding how you will reach Air Canada Altitude™ status in 2017.

INTRODUCING ALTITUDE QUALIFYING DOLLARS
Altitude Qualifying Dollars (AQD) represent the monetary value associated with an eligible ticket and, when combined with the number of Altitude Qualifying Miles (AQM) or Altitude Qualifying Segments (AQS) you fly, will determine your Altitude status in 2017.

This new qualification requirement, which takes into account your spend on eligible Air Canada flights, will be tracked as of January 1, 2016, and will be used to qualify you into Altitude in 2017. The introduction of Altitude Qualifying Dollars (AQD) will replace the Minimum Air Canada Flight Requirement.

These changes reflect similar requirements in other global frequent flyer programs and will ensure that we continue to better recognize our most valued customers.

EARNING ALTITUDE QUALIFYING DOLLARS
You will earn Altitude Qualifying Dollars (AQD) for eligible flights flown, including:

Flights operated by Air Canada, Air Canada Express™ and Air Canada rouge™. This includes codeshare flights marketed by another airline and operated by Air Canada.

Codeshare flights marketed by Air Canada and operated by Star Alliance™ member airlines when ticketed on Air Canada ticket stock (ticket numbers beginning with “014”).

You will also receive Altitude Qualifying Dollars (AQD) for eligible Flight Pass purchases and eUpgrade Add-ons.