No Velocity status benefits on Air Canada?

[antycbr]

Guessing also no baggage allowance/seating for VA status? Aeroplan really is horrible.. would much rather be crediting to VA

Zero bags included in VA redemptions on AC in Economy, and no additional if included in a paid AC fare.

 

[Tlinoz]

I thought you also had Star Gold membership, so this I guess is an academic discussion?

No it doesn’t seem to work that way. I am at the airport in Sydney Gold Velocity does not get priority bags or priority boarding. Not a great partnership

 

[Tlinoz]

Guessing also no baggage allowance/seating for VA status? Aeroplan really is horrible.. would much rather be crediting to VA

That is my experience today. Gold Velocity. No priority boarding or priority bags

 

[GDale]

Just adding to the data points here - online check in completed today as a VA WP and no recognition whatsoever on the digital boarding pass at least. Velocity number recognised and accepted but "frequent flyer" details under the special remarks section of the boarding pass has no notes, and boarding zone is zone 5.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Leaves a lot to be desired, it seems for the VA and AC FF and etc agreement.
Not that I do plan to fly to Canada anytime soon, but apart from your comments, Gdale, plus what others have mentioned, ie, ineligiblle classes of earn, etc, its a tough decision.
Probably more benefit to put in your KF FF# if you have one, and earn points that way, if this was a rev fare.
Granted you don't gain by VA WP status, but at the least, your BP will show info on the trip for reference, re points claim etc.
If nothing is on the BP as in your case, and you have to make a points claim, if this was a rev fare, it will be harder.

 

[GDale]

Leaves a lot to be desired, it seems for the VA and AC FF and etc agreement.
Not that I do plan to fly to Canada anytime soon, but apart from your comments, Gdale, plus what others have mentioned, ie, ineligiblle classes of earn, etc, its a tough decision.
Probably more benefit to put in your KF FF# if you have one, and earn points that way, if this was a rev fare.
Granted you don't gain by VA WP status, but at the least, your BP will show info on the trip for reference, re points claim etc.
If nothing is on the BP as in your case, and you have to make a points claim, if this was a rev fare, it will be harder.

Yes and it's surprising because AC has been very aggressive at developing airline partnerships, so surely status benefits/frequent flyer integration would be something that they're well used to doing? Perhaps it's the VA end that's problematic? Maybe something that requires systems investment that VA is unwilling to do? To be fair, the only listed benefits to the partnership on the Velocity website are points and status earn plus lounge access, but you still can't help but feel disappointed when that really is all you get.

Yep I'm on a revenue fare in Y, so nothing fancy here. I'm only keeping VFF on the boarding pass because of family pooling - assuming the flights post of course

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I would say its the VA end.
VA is not happy to join *A, or maybe they can't afford to pay the ongoing fees.
If you take an indepth look, it would probably cost a lot of money to fully intergrate into an alliance, FF wise, not only between VA and AC, but between VA and the rest as well.
Not only in your case, don't know what class you were booked into, and if your class of travel is an eligible class of earn in VFF.
One member on another thread, mentioned they couldn't find an eligible class of earn in VFF for flying ACd, a few threads below this one of yours.
Tho, according to the pointshack, VFF WP should get lounge access, but don't think that there is a Mapleleaf lounge in SYD, so you would probably have accsss on the way back from Canada to Aust.
Hopefully, you still have the paperwork, ie, the PNR etix, so that you can claim if the points don't appear in your VFF account.
It was mentioned on another past thread, that no SC are earnt flying AC, but this might have changed in the meantime since the AC and VFF agreement went "forward".
Edit: can earn VFF SC on AC flights now, so long as its in an eligible class.
Anyway, hope you do get all the points you counted on getting.
On an aside, the CBSA officers from what I see on youtude scare me, and as mentioned, I have no need to go up there to Canada to see snow, NZ will do me very well.
+++
From the VFF and AC points earn calculator website.

Fare Type	Fare Class	Points Earn Rate Per Mile
Business	J	1.5
Business	C, D, Z, P	1.25
Premium Economy	O, E	1.10
Premium Economy	A	1
Economy	Y, B, M, U, H, Q, V	1
Economy	W	0.5
Economy	S, T, L, K, G	0

 

[GDale]

Just posting another update for my flight from LHR to YUL in Y - no status recognition at the airport either (no priority security, check in, luggage, seating or boarding benefits), but access to the Maple Leaf Lounge was granted with no issues using boarding pass and digital VFF card. Points and status credits posted very slowly (took nearly 2 weeks), but eventually came through correctly. All in all, exactly as advertised but a long way from being recognised as a valued customer.

By contrast, back when VA and DL were friends, I remember being treated better on DL than most Skyteam elites were treated, with lounge access and main cabin extra upgrades being made available to VA elites. It shows it can be done if they would just spend some time and effort on it!

 

[GDale]

YUL back to LHR - lounge dragon at YUL international MLL politely advised that lounge access is limited to VFF golds only - took a little bit of convincing that platinum is actually a step above gold

The lounge itself was quite busy but otherwise nice. Food was far better than the LHR MLL!

 

[henrus]

YUL back to LHR - lounge dragon at YUL international MLL politely advised that lounge access is limited to VFF golds only - took a little bit of convincing that platinum is actually a step above gold

It's not just AC, I've had the same issue with SQ before as well.

Not sure how it works with AC but on SQ those with Gold status get "Partner Gold" printed on the boarding pass (which most airport staff recognise as similar to Star Alliance Gold) however VA Platinum prints as "Partner Premium" which confuses many at non SIN/AUS airports.

 

[jase05]

It's not just AC, I've had the same issue with SQ before as well.

Not sure how it works with AC but on SQ those with Gold status get "Partner Gold" printed on the boarding pass (which most airport staff recognise as similar to Star Alliance Gold) however VA Platinum prints as "Partner Premium" which confuses many at non SIN/AUS airports.

My boarding passes from SQ have been printed with “VA PT” and EY boarding passes always have had “VA Platinum” on them

 

[GDale]

Not sure how it works with AC

For both of my AC flights, there was no indication whatsoever of my VFF status on the boarding pass - maybe a good thing based on what you're saying; at least people can't misconstrue anything from it!

 

[henrus]

My boarding passes from SQ have been printed with “VA PT” and EY boarding passes always have had “VA Platinum” on them

Yeh EY are good (no need to even show card at the AUH First lounge with VA Platinum printed on boarding pass back in Jan), maybe the SQ one is new? I went and found some old SQ boarding passes which showed VA Plat as "PTNR PARTNER PRIORTY"... useless in my mind

 

[The-Aviator]

Has anyone had any experience accessing the Air Canada Café as a SG/WP at Pearson or Billy Bishop, as opposed to the Maple Leaf Lounge? Visiting Billy Bishop in mid-September and wondering if I should expect any access issues.

From Air Canada's side they appear to treat them the same as a Maple Leaf Lounge from an eligibility perspective but VA's website is a bit less clear as some areas refer specifically to Maple Leaf Lounge.

 

[The-Aviator]

Has anyone had any experience accessing the Air Canada Café as a SG/WP at Pearson or Billy Bishop, as opposed to the Maple Leaf Lounge? Visiting Billy Bishop in mid-September and wondering if I should expect any access issues.

From Air Canada's side they appear to treat them the same as a Maple Leaf Lounge from an eligibility perspective but VA's website is a bit less clear as some areas refer specifically to Maple Leaf Lounge.

Just to close the circle on this one and as a data point for future visitors, we were let in. So appears to be treated like any other Maple Leaf Lounge in terms of eligibility.

It was a pretty nice lounge as well!

 

[servicerequired]

Further data point - entered Maple Lounge at YYZ - flying YYZ-LAX on an AC booking credited to UA - no status on UA. Flashed the VA Platinum card at lounge entry - a couple of confused looks, then they clicked something, swiped the card on their keyboard - and entry granted.

 

[The-Aviator]

May as well share my experiences at each of the lounges visited on the trip, in chronological order!

YYC Calgary - receptionist initially mistook my VA SG card for an Air New Zealand card, right corner of the world I suppose But she took another look, recognised the VA membership and we were allowed in without problems. Somewhat surprisingly, I would say this lounge was the nicest of the Maple Leaf Lounges I visited.



YYZ Toronto Pearson - receptionist was lovely and a long time AC employee, she recognised the card straightaway and said they were working towards including VA status on boarding passes to make it easier as currently it just says VA on it, doesn't note the status. It was a late-night visit to the lounge and it closed at midnight with food disappointingly taken away long before the closure time, however it was certainly very spacious. Had to leave at midnight and wait another 90 mins in the terminal for our connecting flight. Found it interesting that AC have fixed closing times for their lounges and not the more common (at least in my experience) "x minutes before last departure".




YHZ Halifax - if I was expecting status recognition problems anywhere it was going to be here, being an airport which presumably sees fewer Aussies than the major ports. The receptionist was indeed confused to see a boarding pass without the status noted as happens with the *A partners and tried reprinting my boarding passes but of course it didn't change anything. They still recognised the status and allowed us in, they were just confused by their system. Smaller lounge but still had everything you would need.




YTZ Toronto Billy Bishop - as per post #35 above.





YUL Montréal - no issues getting in, receptionist asked me to scan FF card and boarding pass myself and they both came up green. Large lounge with the highlight definitely being the smoked meat sandwiches.



YVR Vancouver - I'm sure they get bucket loads of VA FFs through this lounge so no issues getting in. It's a large lounge with a smaller Signature Suite within for those on a paid Signature Class ticket. Food and drink was good. My flight was delayed by two hours and after the YYZ experience I was thinking they would close early but they extended the closure to midnight, which was nice and meant only a short wait at the gate before boarding.



Some general thoughts on the AC lounges...

• F&B was generally pretty good with local craft beers and flavours on offer, as well as plated dishes served by the staff. Exceeded my (low) expectations and I would say it's more like a QF J lounge than a QF Pub or VA Lounge.
• Lounge directions are very poorly signposted in the terminal compared to what I'm used to. If it's your first time to any of these lounges you will probably want to check out the maps on the lounge page on the AC website to get the location.
• I'm fine with partner lounge access not being available elsewhere but it's a bit of a shame they haven't found a solution to the lack of lounges in Australia for Y/Y+ passengers. It would be nice if they arranged access to a partner lounge just in the Australian airports like United does.
• I'm really missing my Canada Dry club sodas and Spicy Caesars - have been making my own Caesars at home but still haven't nailed the recipe just yet!

 

[RooFlyer]

Awesome, @The-Aviator , thanks. YYC had a major terminal expansion and reno in the late 2010s; the old MLC was pretty dire. In fact AC seems to have improved their catering all round since I was a regular visitor - used to be standard soup, salad, crackers and cold-cuts (except YYZ, their 'flagship').

 

[servicerequired]

I had very low expectations of AC generally given the comments on here … across the board though, lounges, service quality, aircraft - excellent!!! Could not fault.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I always thought of AC to be very similar to QF - great when the effort is there, beyond terrible at worst. Real up and down. Only flown once which was last year YVR-NRT and as the meal service began I had that thought again. This is the most non-Qantas Qantas experience I've ever had on an aircraft. I couldn't fault it as such either.

However what was funny was as my first course arrived, I glanced at the tablecloth and thought...yeah, I was right - they really are like Qantas, aren't they!! I think even Neil would approve of these leaves