Air Canada tightens up on Super Elite 100K’s in 2014

Rewards Canada contributor Sol Zia gives us a look at some unannounced changes for SE 100Ks

Very subtly and without any announcements (that I could gather or find) Air Canada’s Altitude program made some small but impactful reductions to the service levels of Super Elite 100K’s.

1.       New restrictions on access concierges:


Air Canada’s concierge services for Super Elite 100K’s changed as of March 1. Super Elite 100K members used to be able to contact concierge office directly during their business hours (which varied by gateway). As of March 1 that contact was restricted to day of departure only with all other inquiries being rerouted to a central Air Canada agent. To many Super Elite members this was a significant loss of service and many inquiries to the concierge were related to complex booking, seating or destination requests days away from the date. Based on my casual conversations with concierges in two markets they are already hearing complaints about the cutbacks in two major Canadian markets. It’s surprising that this change was never communicated to Super Elite 100K members.

2.       Inability to log your Elite status number to some Aeroplan Reward bookings:


Also, seemingly, new as of March 1, 2014 is the loss of ability to register your Aeroplan/Altitude number to a rewards booking made by another member (e.g. your spouse). Now this may seem trivial until you realize that this new restriction makes it difficult to take advantage of core Super Elite 100K privileges that apply when you are traveling on a “cash” ticket versus a rewards ticket. For instance 3 complimentary bag check-in, priority boarding and lounge access now require showing your card to receive the privilege (this is non-trivial when you try to check-in online and show no complimentary bags allowed). What is worse for some Super Elite 100K members is the access to Business or Executive First when Economy is sold out is gone completely. Now this is not a documented privilege but all Elite status members know that when Economy is full and they have to “bump up” passengers that Elite members (ranked by status) get access to those seats first.

As a Super Elite 100K member my lingering question is, “Is this just the tip of the iceberg or anomalies that were likely to happen and don’t foreshadow more restrictions/changes to come?”

Sol Zia has been a Super Elite 100K member since 2003 and is a semi-regular contributor to Rewards Canada.