I just received the email below

Dear David Owers,

As a valued Air Canada customer, we’d like to share changes planned for the 2013 Air Canada Top Tier Program. As the program includes the introduction of new tier levels and the realignment of some benefits, we are announcing the key benefit changes a year in advance.

Note that these changes apply to the 2013 Top Tier benefit year beginning March 1, 2013, and therefore do not affect the 2012 Air Canada Top Tier Program.

The 2013 Top Tier Program, which will feature two new tier levels, has been redesigned to better recognize and reward our customers. It also aligns our program with industry leaders and ensures that the Air Canada Top Tier Program remains highly competitive internationally.

Here are some of the highlights of the 2013 Air Canada Top Tier Program for each of the five tier levels:
Members earning 25,000 Status Miles or 25 Status Flight Segments will enjoy 2013 Top Tier benefits similar to those offered with the 2012 Top Tier Program

Members earning 35,000 Status Miles or 35 Status Flight Segments will notice changes to their 2013 Top Tier benefit program as compared to the 2012 Top Tier Program:
Star Alliance™ Gold recognition will be replaced by Star Alliance Silver. Members, however, will be able to choose Star Alliance Lounge access as a Select Privilege
Upgrades with eUpgrade Credits will apply on Tango Plus and Latitude fares for travel in North America, and Latitude fares for travel to international destinations
Members will continue to enjoy many Air Canada Priority Airport and Reservation services, complimentary access to Maple Leaf™ Lounges, three complimentary checked bags on Air Canada flights, Bonus Aeroplan® Miles for eligible flights as a Select Privilege, and more

Members will be able to achieve new levels of recognition with the introduction of two additional tiers:
Members earning 50,000 Status Miles or 50 Status Flight Segments will enjoy the 2013 Top Tier benefits earned at 35,000 Status Miles, as well as:
A higher upgrade priority
Upgrades with eUpgrade Credits which apply on Tango Plus and Latitude fares system-wide
Additional eUpgrade Credits
Star Alliance Gold recognition

Members earning 75,000 Status Miles or 75 Status Flight Segments will enjoy the 2013 Top Tier benefits earned at 50,000 Status Miles, along with:
A higher upgrade priority
An accelerated earning of Bonus Aeroplan Miles for eligible flights as a Select Privilege
Additional eUpgrade Credits
An exclusive Threshold Program

Members earning 100,000 Status Miles or 95 Status Flight Segments will enjoy 2013 Top Tier benefits similar to those offered with the 2012 Top Tier Program

To view more details with the qualification levels and associated benefits for the 2013 Air Canada Top Tier Program, click here.

Over the course of 2012, we will continue to introduce improvements to the program, as some new and exciting benefits are currently in the works. Also, we will be unveiling the names of the new tiers.

To keep you updated on the latest news, we will be communicating with you regularly throughout 2012. We also encourage you to bookmark aircanada.com/toptier2013 and to follow us on Twitter @ACTopTier.

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This is really a big change for Aeroplan as it used to be a program in which it was relatively easy to get gold status (35,000 miles). Now to get Star Alliance Gold only at 50,000 miles, while it does put Air Canada more in line with other Star Alliance carriers I think it might push people away from their program- at least the people who fly less than 50,000 miles per year and were still enjoying the perks of Elite. Personally it won’t affect me as I typically fly 50-75K miles each year.

One thing I am glad to see is Air Canada announcing these changes a year in advance. This gives time for people to get used to the changes and also gives them the time to make any adjustments before the program goes live.

I used to be a huge proponent of Marriot Rewards but last year I decided to make a change and try out Priority Club hotels http://www.priorityclub.com.

The availability of hotels from this group is just as good as Marriot, at least in the cities that I am visiting.

Here is a tip if you are going to be staying at these hotels.

Register yourself as a Priority Club member. It costs nothing so you have nothing to lose. Go to the priorityclub.com website, go to the word offers, and you will get a drop down menu. The last item on this menu is my offer status- click on this. It will ask you to login if you are not already.

The next page will be a list of offers you qualify for- typically by staying some number of nights you will get X thousand additional points.

Here is the tip: Sign up for all of the offers. Then forget about it. And try to stay at Priority Club hotels.

I wouldn’t change any of my travel patterns to get extra hotel points but this way you are covered if you do happen to stay.

If you are a Marriott fan, there is a new site available now called the Marriott Rewards Insider

For tips about specific Marriott hotels, and nearby activities, this could be a good place to look. Typically I prefer to use tripadvisor for things to do if I have time to look around a city, but I can see how this might have good info when you are making a short stop somewhere and just have time to find what what is close to the hotel.  Check it out.

If you are into collecting Marriott points- this is just a reminder that there are a few changes happening to the program starting January 15th.

• No Blackout dates. Marriott is touting this as an important feature- but this does not guarantee that standard rooms will be available. However, for people wanting to stay at a particular hotel who have a lot of points this could be good.
• Redeem for 4 nights and get the 5th night free.
• For Platinum members, increase of points bonus from 30% to 50%. This is good if you happen to be a Platinum member (you have to stay 75 nights in a year to achieve Platinum)

I have not had the time to do much on this site as of late, aside from updating my Getting the most out of Aeroplan page.

In the last few months I have been busy changing jobs and moved to London, England..  Technically I was born in the UK- however it has been more than 25 years since I lived here, so it is quite a transition. Expect to see more UK-related tips in the future.

I am also planning some changes to the site to make it more logical to find information- so stay tuned…

By the way- I have been spending some time on Tripadvisor lately- there is a lot of good review information for anywhere you are planning to visit. They also have a cool travel map which allows to to pin the places you have been, and those you want to go to. You can see mine here.

I got taught a lesson today in exchanging money…

I was at the airport- about to board a flight to the US when I spied an ATM machine for US dollars. This is great- I thought- this way I don’t have to look for a machine when I land. Also, the transaction fee was $3.50 which is a lot for a regular withdrawal but I have found that banks can charge up to five dollars when you use ATM machines in another country.

What I should have noticed was that this was a standalone ATM- not affiliated with any bank- only a company called Direct Cash.

 What was the problem? Firstly the machine didn’t say what exhange rate was used until you actually received the money. When I checked my receipt I was astonished to find out that I got charged a ridiculous rate of 1.12 Cdn to 1 US- when in the real world the canadian dollar is the same value as the US dollar (today the Cdn is actually worth MORE than USD). I think they make more by giving you a crappy exchange rate than they do with the transaction fees.

In all I ended up paying $115 Canadian dollars for $100 US which at my bank would have only been $100. Even at an exchange booth I would have payed around $105.

The moral is to be very careful where you exchange money- and be sure to check the rates.

Too add insult to injury the ATM only gave me $60 instead of $100 so now I have to run after the banks to get back the rest of my money…

I just found out about the new Aeroplan Be a Miles Millionaire contest which runs from now until June 20th. The grand prize is 1 Million Aeroplan miles and there are 160 prizes of 25,000 miles.

This contest runs from today until June 20th, 2008. To enter you just need to collect Aeroplan miles from selected companies- each mile earned gives you one contest entry. Qualifying miles are any  Aeroplan Miles earned through Home Hardware, Esso, Tropicana-Quaker, Uniprix, Rogers Magazine Service, Primus Canada, Bose and Aeromove.

Usually I don’t enter contests, but the chance of winning a million miles will probably sway me to give it a shot. What I like about this contest is that there is a variety of retailers to choose from.

See full contest info here.

According to an article on yahoo  Air Canada has just added new fuel charges on all of their flights- effective immediately.

The new surcharges are $40 return for flights of less than 480 kilometres, $80 return on flights between 480 kilometres and 1,600 kilometres and $120 for longer flights.

It’s nice to see that Air Canada feels that they can do this without any warning at all. For a $25 additional fee for the second bag they gave 2 months warning but for a minimum $40 increase we get none. Thanks Air Canada.

According to the article  West Jet does not have any extra fuel charges- but they are considering them. I hope that if West Jet decides to do this it will not be out of the blue.

As seen in the National Post- Air Canada is introducing a $25 fee for checking a second bag on all flights within Canada and the United States starting on July 15th. The reason given for this is the increase in fuel charges. Usually I would tend to blame the airlines, but with oil prices increasing the way they have been I can see their point… Read the article here.

The annoying thing is that not only does it cost more to fill up my car- but now it costs more to fly too… Of course, not everybody is suffering.

A couple of days ago I received a newsletter from Lufthansa.

Usually I would delete the email (except for Aeroplan) but this time I opened it and while reading the latest Lufthansa news I spotted an interesting number in the corner- I actually have 47,000 Miles and More points.

47,000 is not a huge number of points- but it is enough for a free flight in North America- or if I can manage to get 13,000 more I will have enough for a flight to Europe, or 2 flights within North America.

If I had not signed up for the newletter I would have forgotten for sure and the miles would have expired, probably without me even knowing about it. I checked if these miles expire and sure enough they do expire after three years- which gives me only 11 months to use them. Many miles programs expire even sooner than three years.

So this is a reminder to check your old plans- you may get a nice surprise like I did.