Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Four

Great Funny!

It is sad you lost them. When the seam of points and miles gold was somewhat richer a few years back we formulated many family named accounts as well as those directly in our own names. So keeping track is pretty much a part of routine.

I’d still give pursuit a go on the basis that it is a matter of “good faith” that whilst you accept that the onus was on you and Myster to keep track and that you had failed, you had also been reassured that if you failed to notice that they were about to lapse then Aeroplan would proactively alert you and that having failed to do so then lapsing them without them sending the alert is extremely harsh and as a gesture of goodwill at least they might agree a once-only relodging of the miles with a new expiry date.

Write to a senior name as they often have a sort of executive complaints department like BA who are sometimes a touch more sensible. In this situation the tone of the note is the thing. Throw yourself on their mercy rather than indignance. If that fails, you might try the ceo of Canada as it is their reputation that is being damaged. Ask him to intercede on your behalf.

Great suggestions Jeff! The tricky bit will be finding the appropriate addresses. The Aeroplan website's only Contact Us is a phone number...no email address. I will have to find something which provides "leadership" info for the organization. They are not found on the Better Business Bureau site. That will be my mission for today. Myster is off to an afternoon poker game with his friends from high school/university followed by dinner. I have oodles of quiet time to research.

It seems the CEO for Aimia (parent company of Aeroplan) is stepping down and no replacement had been named as of the date of the following article.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-ceo-of-aimia-aeroplans-parent-company-to-exit/

"Aimia has said little about its vision for Aeroplan over the past year, but at its annual general meeting on Friday, the loyalty rewards provider started painting a picture of what the program, which has five million members, might look like in a few years. Chiefly, members are expected to be able to fly on more airlines – however, the cost to do so will likely jump.

It is unclear how many members will stay with the program once this change happens. The most valuable Aeroplan users may be more loyal to Air Canada, and the airline has announced plans to launch an in-house loyalty program. It is also seeking a credit-card partner."

Deleted...duplicate post

Fish today were dabs with fries and lemon buttery and Bredon champers

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I want some of that food!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

and drink

I want some of that food!

Hers looked nicer than mine. I love her so I always give her the more attractive plate!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Morning all. Seems I never get near the computer anymore.

Mysty, you'll want to look at CBC.ca/news this morning regarding Aeroplan. (I've tried to include a link but it keeps screwing up my post. This is my third attempt at writing this post!) The new CEO is Jeremy Rabe, and he made an announcement about charter flights for Aeroplan once their partnership with Air Canada ends in 2020.

Since I've retired I'm finding a lot of my hard-earned points are expiring. We just don't go anywhere anymore. When you live in a vacation destination it seems a bit silly to leave, and when we do we typically stay with friends. But when I was working I was spending 20 nights a month on the road, so I did accumulate a lot of them.

We used most of my lifetime of accumulated points last year on our big trip to UK (and cruise back on the Whisper). My IHG points are expiring next month, but I'm not too fussed about losing the leftover 843 points. My HHonors points are also expiring in December. I've got enough for one free night, so I guess we'll just have to find a place to use them before then.

It's a shame about losing all those Aeroplan points Mysty. The Aeroplan rules aren't that stringent, but you have to be aware of the rules: you have to accumulate or spend points in the course of the year. Aeroplan points are available at HomeHardware, which is what we do to keep our Aeroplan account active. Good luck retrieving them.

That said, it is exceedingly difficult to actually use Aeroplan points. The best 'value' is in booking first/business class tickets, but they're hard to come by. We booked our business class tickets to Heathrow almost a year before we actually flew. And then we had to pay all those taxes and surcharges, so it wasn't even all that cheap. Right now I'm looking at flights in 2019, but it's hard to know what we'll be doing in a year. They're useless flights to Fort Lauderdale for our upcoming Christmas cruise on the Whisper, as the flight days are smack dab in the middle of their Christmas 'blackout' period. It's going to be hard to use up the points before the transition in 2020, and who knows what they'll be worth then.

(First world problems, really.)

Keep up the funnies! Always enjoy them.

I agree.

All these things are opportunist things, and the opportunity for all things miles I guess has past. Each year I know we won’t get any First Class BA flights to Singapore for the next trip but each year I wangle them. One recent year three return Firsts for both of us ie 6 First flights, and that year they gave me more than half the miles back ... nice people! I might at other times need to stump up cash for First but “ ‘er indoors” having tasted meat she will no longer sit anywhere other than the pointed end.

The IHG points I’m afraid are to few and are therefore of no use. I use mine for Vienna when I can and they are very kind and still upgrade us and give us lounge. So miles for BA Club Europe and points for the intercontinental give us a meaty trip at vegetable cost.

Life with miles is a sort of sandwich where bits of it can be cheap and bits expensive;

MLeh...thanks so very much for the information on Aeroplan! Yes we were aware that our points were not permanent. This year has been a little difficult and I lost track of things that weren't priorities. I was expecting to be alerted prior to them disappearing though (as it clearly states on their website). And I agree that the points were difficult to actually use for flights. We were hoping to get to Calgary with them in business but that did not happen.

J...continue to enjoy the fruits of your "points". It is heartening to know that they work for you!

Thanks M!

Another travel thing often overlooked is that on meaty hotel bookings, hotels are often pleased to be approached directly and engaged and “flexible” on rates and upgrades and “goodies” particularly if you are a loyal repeat customer and approach negotiations with a degree of humour. “The noisy wheel gets the oil” as I ws told by the GM of the Intercontinental in Istanbul !

Today wifey has announced a further extension to our Balcony@Seaside visit so we are here until next Wednesday earliest. More Fish next week. :D:D

Sounds like a wonderful plan J!

Do you not yearn to return for all that lovely food .....:D

I certainly do ;p

That said, it is exceedingly difficult to actually use Aeroplan points.

Most Frequent Flyer plans are exceedingly difficult to actually use. I've spent more money on new glasses over the years due to eye strain from reading the 'fine print' on FF plans than the value of the tickets I've received. ;) I've had way more points/miles expire than have ever been able to use.

However, I've had a few 'successes' :):

- Aeroplan points for a free, after paying the taxes (you always have to pay the taxes :rolleyes:) one-way flight on Air Canada (Jazz), Vancouver - Victoria;

- Bangkok Airways FlyerBonus - free RT ticket, Phuket - Udon Thani;

- Japan Airlines Mileage Bank - free RT ticket, Busan - Okinawa ;

- China Southern Sky Pearl - free RT ticket, Zhengzhou - Kunming;

- Korean Airlines SkyPass - free RT ticket, Phu Quoc - HCMC (Saigon) on Vietnam Airlines as part of the SkyTeam alliance.

Looks like you've done well Bill! I just wish our Aeroplan points had done nearly as well.

I had 2 around the world business class trip on my husbands Qantas frequent flyer points before he retired, but those days are over.

I lost 350.000 Qantas points I was saving when they changed the rules quite a few years ago. I didn’t read their emails (2) warning me. I just presumed it was advertising and deleted them!

Our credit card was linked to my husbands account so he was accumulating points and didn’t have to worry.

We have never flown Qantas again after being loyal customers.

The main airline we fly now is Qatar and have been very happy with them.

I had 2 around the world business class trip on my husbands Qantas frequent flyer points before he retired, but those days are over.

I lost 350.000 Qantas points I was saving when they changed the rules quite a few years ago. I didn’t read their emails (2) warning me. I just presumed it was advertising and deleted them! :')

Our credit card was linked to my husbands account so he was accumulating points and didn’t have to worry.

We have never flown Qantas again after being loyal customers.

The main airline we fly now is Qatar and have been very happy with them.

Jill...it is a little heartbreaking to lose points. I think it is the nature of the beast now, at least in our experience.

Sorry for the duplicate posts. I’ve tried to delete one but somehow it’s not happening.

Why is it with a FF program, if I need 50,000 miles for a free ticket (or to upgrade), I have 49,800 miles in my account? ;p

Paddies law Bill.

We generally do OK with our SkyMiles. We pay for international tix and gain a ton of them, then use them for most of our domestic flights. Usually the value is reasonable. It's far from a windfall but a nice bonus.

***

Dinner tonight was a grilled eggplant parmigiana. Sliced eggplant and tomatoes, grilled for a few minutes then stacked with fontina cheese and a mix of hot pepper, basil, and capers (recipe called for olives but Chris hates them, thus the brilliant substitution). Once stacked, they cooked for a few minutes until the cheese melted. Yummy!

Lovely plate JP!

Oh dear .....

From my BA dashboard and logs .... our travels have quietend by comparisons recently but we have had the following BA miles redemptions many using Amex 241s on LH and on Austrian/BMI/Lufthansa. I currently have 1.4m BA miles left .......

BA

5 Singapore Sydney First Returns x 2

11 Heathrow Singapore First returns x 2

1 Heathrow Bangkok First x 2

7 Heathrow Vienna Club returns x 2

2 Heathrow Athens Club returns x 2

2 Heathrow Istanbul Club returns x 2

2 Heathrow Rome Club returns x 2

3 heathrow Nice Club returns x 2

1 Heathrwo Madrid Club return x 2

1 Gatwick Dubrovnik Club return x 2

3 Heathrow Paris Club returns x 2

2 Heathrow Amsredam Club returns x 2

1 Heathrow Munich Club returns x 2

1 Heathrow Cologne Club retuns x 2

Autrian and BMI and Lufthansa

7 Heathrow Vienna Club returns x 2

2 Heathrwo Salzburg Club returns x 2

4 Heathrow Paris Club returns x 2

4 Heathrow Nice Club returns x 2

3 Heathrow Amsterdam Club returns x 2

1 Heathrow Munich Club return x 2