Aeroplan Changes went into effect yesterday (January 1)

Rewards Canada was one of the first third party outlets to break the Aeroplan news back in June about the credit card changes, award chart changes, the Distinction program and more. All of these changes came into effect yesterday (January 1st) and taking note from our expanded thoughts post in July here once again are the changes that are taking place:

7 Year Expiry Rule

Firstly, the 7 year expiry rule is over and done with. A good move in
my opinion. A couple of other programs have already done this, Delta
SkyMile and more recently JetBlue TrueBlue. However with Aeroplan they
still have the inactivity rule in place which means if you don’t use
your Aeroplan account at least once every 12 months (either earn or
burn) you will lose your miles. Now if you read any other frequent flyer
blogs or forums the removal of the 7 year rule is not a big deal. True
for frequent flyers or big time credit card spenders it’s not, they earn
enough miles quickly to redeem well within 7 years. But for the average
Canadian Aeroplan member who is neither a frequent flyer or big time
crest spender this is great news. Just look at all the comments from
people on numerous articles in the Canadian media when the rule was
introduced or even when it hit the airwaves for a second time just
before Christmas 2011. I have even received many emails from people who
have or were about to scramble to redeem their miles. I know my parents
did redeem theirs and I was about to as I still had around 23,000 miles
from before 2007 in my account even after past redemptions. Now I didn’t
have to rush to do so and I’m sure many Canadians were in the same boat.

Reduction in Miles for one way awards

For both the frequent and infrequent traveller this probably the best
news to come out of the changes. One way flight awards are now only 50%
of the round trip mileage requirement. Groundbreaking? No not at all.
In fact most other frequent flyer programs that offer one way awards
have been at 50% so Aeroplan just put themselves in line with everyone
else. This is a great option now though so that you can mix and match
flights (ie one way with an Aeroplan reward and the the other way on a
seat sale fare). Also if you plan it right and book award flights on Aeroplan partners that do not have fuel surcharges tacked on (United, US Airways until March 30, Air China, Brussels Airlines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian, EVA Air, Scandinavian, Singapore, Swiss, and Turkish) this option becomes very attractive!

Market Fare Flight Rewards

The current ClassicPlus Flight Rewards are now replaced by Market Fare
Flight Rewards, which apparently will require up to 20% fewer miles than the late ClassicPlus Flight Rewards.  This somewhat good news and initial random searches do seem to show that Market Fare rewards are priced better than their predecessor! 

Increased Mileage Requirements for International Business and First Class Rewards

The primary negative action announced in the Aeroplan changes last June which is a BIG
negative is the increased mileage requirements for
certain International Business and First Class award tickets. Here are
the changes:

As you can these are some significant increases and what adds salt to
the wound is that most of were just increased in 2011. For example the
coveted Asia 1 redmeptions have gone from 100,000 in early 2011 to
125,000 in July 2011 to 150,000 in 2014 for Business Class while First
Class went from 120,000 to 175,000 to 210,000, a 75% increase from 2
years ago. Add to this Aeroplan now charging the fuel surcharge on many
of their partners Asian flights and these awards have gone from being
some of the best in the industry to just mediocre ones. You can still
complete the mini-RTW
with Aeroplan but it is going to cost you a lot more miles as of
January 1st. 

Distinction Program

In what some are calling the first elite status program for accruing
miles in an loyalty program via many methods rather than butt-in-seat or
body-in-bed status earning for flights and hotels, Aeroplan’s new
Distinction program will reward Aeroplan members who earn lots of miles
via various earning methods. Is it the first program of its type in
Canada? No, Air Miles Gold had that distinction many years ago and even
HBC Rewards has elite tiers. So technically speaking this concept is not
new but being tied into such a large program and offering certain
travel benefits does make it somewhat different than those others. Now
please heed this: Distinction does not replace Air Canada Altitude. Altitude
which is Air Canada’s elite status program remains the same and will
continue to serve those who fly on Air Canada and their partners. Think
of it this way: Air Canada Altitude is a frequent flyer status
recognition program while Distinction is a frequent mileage earner
recognition program.

How do you earn Distinction status?

Distinction includes three status levels based on a member’s total eligible mileage accumulation:

·         dSilver – 25,000  miles accumulated during the calendar year;

·         dBlack – 50,000 miles accumulated during the calendar year;

·         dDiamond – 100,000 miles accumulated during the calendar year

What miles are eligible?

Eligible miles are miles earned in the Aeroplan Program directly at
participating partners and include base and certain bonus mile offers.
Unless otherwise indicated at the time of offer, the following miles are
not eligible for Distinction status: financial card sign-up; bonus 
miles received as a benefit of the Air Canada Altitude  program or
Aeroplan Distinction status; miles  accumulated through conversion from
other programs  or transfers between member accounts, top-up miles, 
contest prizes, and reinstated miles.

Points converted from other programs do not count towards distinction status.
So for most this would be from credit card like the American Express
Membership Rewards program. Also a source of
lots of miles are conversions from hotel programs like Starwood
Preferred Guest. Now if you choose to earn miles directly instead of
hotel points those will count towards distinction status. Now don’t let
the lack of status qualification deter you from converting, as that is
still a good option for topping off your account for a redemption.

Once you earn Distinction status, what does it get you?

This is what the various levels of Distinction status will get you:

To expand on this once you reach Distinction status you will receive a
further discount on the aforementioned Market Fare Flight Rewards (nee
ClassicPlus flights). You will have access to Distinction Flights. If
you have been a CIBC Aerogold cardholder this will be familiar to you.
These are flights exclusively reserved for Distinction status holders
who want to redeem for those flights. I believe from what I’ve seen from
the CIBC ones is that they are very Toronto-centric so this benefit may
not be of much use to many.  You will also get bonus miles for eligible
Air Canada flights, hotel stays (that earn miles directly to Aeroplan)
and purchases made via the Aeroplan eStore.

Related: Distinction Bonuses released

With all these changes, including the new TD cards which we had a separate post about earlier today, what are you thoughts on Aeroplan as it stands today? Are you going to participate more with program? Keep your earning about the same or are you going to jump ship to another program? And if you reached Distinction status, what level did you achieve? I got to dBlack and that was without credit card spend.