Did you know? There are 37 bridges that cross the River Seine, France. The oldest is over 430 years old while the newest was constructed in the mid 1900s.

United/Continental Roll Out their 2012 MileagePlus Program

Although in my view Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan is the best secondary points program to have (ie. in tandem with Air Canada's Aeroplan program), in fact probably United Airlines' Mileage Plus program is the second most common airline points program in Canada.  With the merger of United and Continental (parent company is called "United Continental Holdings"), they've revamped their "Mileage Plus" program for 2012.

On change is the tier names, which now are closer aligned to Star Alliance tier names.  Premier becomes "Premier Silver," Executive Premier becomes "Premier Gold," 1K becomes "Premier 1K."  A new level will be "Premier Platinum," which requires 75,000 status miles or 90 "segments" to achieve.  This is interesting: look for a similar move towards 4 distinct high tier status levels in other airline programs to follow.

The feature that distinguishes most of the US status programs from Aeroplan is their far more aggressive and generous upgrade program.  If you are a high tier member of most US airline programs, you will automatically be entitled to complimentary upgrades (from most fare levels) a certain number of days in advance.  As most of you know, with Air Canada, upgrades are pretty stingy and difficult to manage.  It takes a pocket calculator and spread sheet to work out a strategy for how to best utilize your "eUpgrade" credits with Air Canada.

Another great feature of United (and soon the merged Continental Airlines planes) is their Economy Plus seating.  Unlike most other airlines, which claim their front 10 or so rows are "preferred seating," in United's case they offer a genuine superior product in their premium economy seats - ie. more leg room, at the front of the economy cabin.  There are various ways (membership, buying, status) that you can access Economy Plus; and the tier status angle is a major benefit of United status.  Our agents regularly advise our clients who tend to fly US airlines such as United and Continental to switch their frequent-flyer status strategy from Aeroplan to Mileage Plus for this very reason.

Other developments, mirrored by American Airlines (AAdvantage program) are:

1. Access to points seats based on market value (ie. pay additional points for access to any economy seat on the plane - but fewer than in the old program or on Aeroplan's version.)

2. Million-Miler Clubs, for members who have flown 1M+ miles on the airline.  (This copies a program Air Canada pioneered last year.)

For a great summary of the new Mileage Plus program, click here.

 

 

 

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