Aeroplan devaluation, and 2012 Mini-RTW

I meant to post this when Aeroplan was busy de-valuing itself in Nov 2011.

Then December 2011 came and they ran a "secret promotion" to redeem Business class for only 75000 miles, same as redemption for Economy class. Normally one needs 125K miles to redeem Business class so this was a great promotion (that lasted 2.5 weeks to everyone's surprise). We took advantage of booking one Mini-RTW trip to Taiwan for Summer 2012, so now I feel slightly better.

Compared to my 2011 Mini-RTW planning (days and $350 in fees), this one only took hours thanks to the limited # of YQ-free airlines and Istanbul lounge has been nominated as the best *A lounge so a visit is an easy decision. It was booked simply as Multi-City on Aeroplan.com

• YYZ-IST TK J on 777
• IST-ICN TK J on A330/340
• ICN-TPE TG J on A330
• ....................................................... 
• TPE-NRT NH J on 767
• NRT-ORD UA J on 747
• ORD-YYZ AC J on E75 but who cares...

Fees only $220 as we avoided most YQ-airlines

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=YYZ-IST-ICN-TPE&MS=bm&DU=mi

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=TPE-NRT-ORD-YYZ&MS=bm&DU=mi

My own calculations of Aeroplan mile's value 
I did a dummy Aeroplan booking for CNY 1.21-1.29
75000 Aeroplan + $400 in fees for 1-stop Y both ways (Tokyo, Beijing)
vs.
TourEast.ca
2-stop = Delta $1200 to United $1350
1-stop Cathay $1460

Let's take $1400 - $400 fees = $1000 for 75000 AE miles..
= 1.3 CPM.. worse than Gift Card redemption

Here are some complaints, taken from FlyerTalk
- No more earning points on Flight Purchases (1/$3.00 spent)
- addition of extra seats to the E90
- elimination of free baggage on transborder flights
- minimum flight/miles requirement on AC metal
- drastic devaluation of the E benefit package/gutting of the Elite program
- Increase to the mileage required to book travel.
- Tango fares no longer earning 100% miles on int´l routes and AC introducing Tango fares in many markets
- no more domestic 2-cabin F segments on int´l J/C awards
- implementation of fuel surcharges on *A partners without any/much notice
- retroactive application of new T&C, generally much less transparancy, the goodwill AC had managed to build with many FFs over the last years has pretty much disappeared
- LMUs offered before all upgrades on the waitlist have cleared (not confirmed, but also no statement saying otherwise as we received in the past)

Latest one being the new 2013 Top Tier program de-valuation. I'm glad I was never near Elite status because I'll be upset too

Just another note, my friend booked even crazier route to.... AFRICA