Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways · Wednesday, September 16, 2026
The ease of obtaining Aeroplan 25K status with the new Chase Air Canada card leads to a question about the value of elite status if everyone has it. The speaker pondered if this widespread access to status might make upgrades and other benefits less special or harder to attain.
“It also makes it a lot simpler than the old version of that benefit on the card because previously, you would get it the first year you became a cardholder and then there was a $15,000 minimum spending requirement each calendar year to keep renewing it. So now there's no spending requirement. You just get this automatic elite status as a cardholder.”
“This makes me wonder though. It is going to be so much easier for so many people to, I guess, get status which they've always been able to do with this card, but hold onto status. And it does kind of make me ask, if everybody has status, if everybody is special, then does that mean nobody is special?”