The airline industry used to have decent point reward programmes and as the prices got driven down by consumers, point programmes like Aeroplan went into the shitter. I'd say the consumers along with the corporations attempting to maximize profits made Aeroplan less desirable to even bother with attaining points. I was a high flier sometimes doing two to three trips each month and at one point exceeded 500K points. Then when I went to cash in points I found two things had happened: Aeroplan had greatly increased the number of points required for a decent trip to Europe and they also decreased the number of seats available during peak season to use your points. The point being, it became pointless and Aeroplan in effect didn't give a shit if we flew with them or not.
Now there is no affinity to be with Air Canada, UA, Alaska, WestJet et al.
When Canadian Airlines, Wardair (anybody else recall flying on Wardair?) and Air Canada were all in competition together it was good for customers and the customer was king. Then the three of these airlines attempted to compete globally vs the big American or European or Asian airlines they couldn't compete. Bail out after bail out and we ended up with AC as our only real international airline. Now its meaningless to even collect points unless its to get an upgrade to Biz class or a short hop somewhere in N America.
