Air Canada joins the rest, adds revenue requirement for 2017 elite status

Virtually every major airline in North America has moved to a revenue requirement for elite status — even the long-time holdout American has made this much-maligned switch in its 2016 program. Now Canada's flagship carrier, Air Canada, has decided to require a set threshold of spending for elite qualification.

The airline points to the changes in other global airline loyalty programs as the driver behind its decision to include revenue in its program:

"These changes reflect similar requirements in other global frequent flyer programs and will ensure that we continue to better recognize our most valued customers."

Although frequent business travelers can already spend significantly on last-minute travel, this change will become another hurdle for travel hackers who use low fares on long-distance routes to qualify for elite status without spending as much as most other passengers.

The newly-introduced Altitude Qualifying Dollars (AQD) are sure to annoy some elite fliers, as the threshold is quite high — especially at the Super Elite 100k level. That top-tier status will now require a whopping $20,000 spend. Of course, traveling over 100,000 miles is also required, which means there's a lot of travel that will need to be booked and paid for to reach that level on miles alone.

While Air Canada has an additional fifth level of status, the chart is still a bit more demanding as far as spend at the top level when compared with Delta and United. Delta requires $3,000, $6,000, $9,000 and $15,000 for its elite levels, while United sets its levels at $3,000, $6,000, $9,000 and $12,000.

Here is Air Canada's new chart:

To earn AQDs, be sure to book flights operated by Air Canada — including codeshares operated by the airline — and any codeshare flights that are operated by Star Alliance partners and ticketed via Air Canada (those ticket numbers begin with 014). Dollars spent on Flight Pass purchases and any eUpgrades will also add to the total.

These changes will go into effect on January 1, 2016, when the airline will begin tracking spending. Also, for those who are monitoring their Million Mile progress, there's absolutely no change to how that's being tracked. So at least there's that.