Aeroplan (Air Canada) is now selling points

[Notyourbag]

The funny thing is about a week ago I booked an award on Air Mauritius using AC (PER-MRU) and the payment worked with my Australian credit card and Australian address. However I was paying for the taxes and 20% of the miles (as a single payment) - so maybe that transition is a bit different when only paying taxes.

As you would have seen AC have a points sale with 100% bonus until 22 March 2022 - points work out at $.02 (AUD) each - when buying points when you book an award they work out at $.02 AUD - so pretty much the same.

What dates did you get? I'm trying to find MK's schedule for Dec/Jan for PER-MRU) (am guessing they won't release any award seats)

 

[luxury-lizard]

I found awards every day they are scheduled to fly (from early Nov through end of booking window) except around Dec - Jan - I booked Wed 22 Feb 2022. They only have fights 2 days per week (Wed and Sunday). My worry is that even thought scheduled to commence service in Nov that this won't happen. My backup plan is EK via DXB (using an award to KUL (on MH or other) then paid ticket KUL-DXB-MRU (on EK) which works out the "cheapest". (I only need a one-way as I will be returning to SYD ex-SEZ after a cruise. I plan to get an AC award on EY for 100,000 points once the booking window opens for my date).

As you know you can book ex-any city in Aus (using Virgin to PER) to MRU for 80,000 points or only from PER for 60,000 which is what I did - I plan to get a QF award to Perth the day before using 20,000 AA points - better value IMO.

So @Notyourbag - you'll need to look at Christmas non-holiday season - but I did notice that paid J fare PER-MRU return is about $3300 which I thought wasn't too bad if you can't get an award.

I must admit I've become quite a fan of AC's program particularly when used on their partners and other *A members - the variable pricing on AC's own flights is a disaster. I also find the AC website works well - just wished the search was more flexible.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I must admit I've become quite a fan of AC's program particularly when used on their partners and other *A members - the variable pricing on AC's own flights is a disaster. I also find the AC website works well - just wished the search was more flexible.

Agree. Aeroplan's non-*A partners have been the saviour of a RTW with now 13 cancellations/schedule changes of star flights from Europe back to Oz. GF, WY and EY have come through in the end (touch wood, fingers crossed)

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I must admit I've become quite a fan of AC's program particularly when used on their partners and other *A members - the variable pricing on AC's own flights is a disaster. I also find the AC website works well - just wished the search was more flexible.

I would partially agree with your assessment of partner awards. Yes, they tend to be great value since they continue to follow a fixed award price. However, partner award availability tends to be more limited than AC flights, particularly for their own members. In terms of AC's variable pricing on their flights, it's still possible to find a good deal using them. For instance, I booked Sydney to Toronto in late June for 160,000 points in J return, which is how much I would spend in the prior program. The key is to check for Air Canada saver award flights regularly via the United website (which can show you a month at a time when AC's saver awards are available). Saver availability on AC translates to being on the lowest end of the dynamic pricing tier.

-RooFlyer88

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hmmm… my assessment of AC’s partner availability is that it is excellent! Even ‘day before’ availability in business class on united, swiss, lufthansa, LOT for transatlantic travel!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Hmmm… my assessment of AC’s partner availability is that it is excellent! Even ‘day before’ availability in business class on united, swiss, lufthansa, LOT for transatlantic travel!

It depends on the routes involved. In terms of Lufthansa you are a million percent correct. Often booking last minute is crucial to secure J and particularly F award availability. But in this part of the world, (e.g. Oceania to RoW) we don't have the luxury of flying LH. United is extremely cheap when it comes to releasing saver J awards to partners and AC J saver award availability can be very patchy at best. And for anyone thinking they stand a chance at booking an NZ J saver award, you're dreaming. The only time that opens up is right before a pandemic is officially announced! NH can sometimes have J saver awards available, particularly mid-week, but again no certainty there either.

-RooFlyer88

 

[luxury-lizard]

Don't forget EY - good availability at 229 days out - good for OZ-Europe and some places in Africa (e.g Southern Africa and the Seychelles).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Don't forget EY - good availability at 229 days out - good for OZ-Europe and some places in Africa (e.g Southern Africa and the Seychelles).

agree, and gulf air too.

TG into and out of AU is quite good for availability, and can be combined with EY or GF out of bangkok.

TPAC is pretty hard on just about any airline or any alliance these days, except for dynamic or ‘extra-priced/full fare’ awards.

 

[jgm]

Aeroplan doesn't seem to see any TG award flights.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Aeroplan doesn't seem to see any TG award flights.

There are indeed TG awards available on Aeroplan. Here's one such itinerary:

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Aeroplan doesn't seem to see any TG award flights.

TG is showing on Aeroplan 3 months prior to travel… plenty within that timeframe. Agree it’s more for ‘close in’ travel.

 

[joon8887]

Does ANA release any flights from SYD - NRT? Can't see it anywhere.

 

[bernardblack]

Sometimes yes, but note it's SYD-HND v/v.

 

[luxury-lizard]

And only 1 seat except very close in (i.e. - 2 weeks) - at least that was the pre-covid situation

 

[James Gatenby]

Hi All, I thought I'd share my recent first time experience with buying and redeeming Aeroplan (Air Canada) points. I wanted to travel to Europe in 2023 and was looking out for a cheaper bus class option. When the recent 100% bonus came along, I found that there was pretty good availability on EY from SYD. So I took the plunge and bought points for the forward journey. The points arrived almost immediately and so I then booked online the flights SYD-MAD via AUH. All good so far. The next day (Syd time) which I think was still same day in Quebec, I tried to buy the second lot of points for the return journey. I used the same card and received an email acknowledgement that the transaction was "pending". It stayed that way for 5 days (including a weekend)! It also showed pending on my credit card account. During that time I made 3 calls to the Aeroplan contact centre and they were able to confirm that the delay was with Points.com but were unable to help resolve. They thought maybe it had been flagged as a potential fraud and needed review. On the 5th day, I received an email saying the transaction had been cancelled. Fortunately the bonus offer still had 1 day to run, so I initiated another points purchase using a different card and thankfully that went through ok. Originally I wanted to stopover in AUH on the return journey from BCN-SYD and thought I could do so for a cost of 5000 points (which had been mentioned on AFF and some other sites). However the Aeroplan contact centre operator explained that this type of stopover is not available on all flights, and the system would not allow this on BCN-SYD. If I wanted to stopover in AUH I would have to pay an extra 45,000 points rather than 5,000 so decided against that. I hope this post helps others who are thinking of buying Aeroplan points. Even with the hiccups, I'm still very happy with the flights as they are quite cost effective when compared to straight purchase.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Glad it all worked out - I've never tried to add a stopover but I suspect the agent just wasn't sure how to make the change. You could always call again - I've always found the agents to be very friendly and helpful
.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The stopover rules are pretty generous for Aeroplan. In fact a lucky mentions a stopover in AUH on EY in this thread: How Aeroplan's Award Stopover Feature Works

Might be worth following up as the agent you got might not know how to do it.

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

Hi All, I thought I'd share my recent first time experience with buying and redeeming Aeroplan (Air Canada) points. I wanted to travel to Europe in 2023 and was looking out for a cheaper bus class option. When the recent 100% bonus came along, I found that there was pretty good availability on EY from SYD. So I took the plunge and bought points for the forward journey. The points arrived almost immediately and so I then booked online the flights SYD-MAD via AUH. All good so far. The next day (Syd time) which I think was still same day in Quebec, I tried to buy the second lot of points for the return journey. I used the same card and received an email acknowledgement that the transaction was "pending". It stayed that way for 5 days (including a weekend)! It also showed pending on my credit card account. During that time I made 3 calls to the Aeroplan contact centre and they were able to confirm that the delay was with Points.com but were unable to help resolve. They thought maybe it had been flagged as a potential fraud and needed review. On the 5th day, I received an email saying the transaction had been cancelled. Fortunately the bonus offer still had 1 day to run, so I initiated another points purchase using a different card and thankfully that went through ok. Originally I wanted to stopover in AUH on the return journey from BCN-SYD and thought I could do so for a cost of 5000 points (which had been mentioned on AFF and some other sites). However the Aeroplan contact centre operator explained that this type of stopover is not available on all flights, and the system would not allow this on BCN-SYD. If I wanted to stopover in AUH I would have to pay an extra 45,000 points rather than 5,000 so decided against that. I hope this post helps others who are thinking of buying Aeroplan points. Even with the hiccups, I'm still very happy with the flights as they are quite cost effective when compared to straight purchase

I’m new to these awards. I’m wondering how much it ends up costing to fly to Europe or se Asia? I know it can be variable but I’m just wondering what it roughly works out to?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Only awards on air canada metal are dynamic. Partner airlines are a fixed price, based on total distance. Distance can vary depending on the route.

A basic AU to Europe is 100k one way, south Asia is 45k, Asia to Europe is 80k.

Stoppers can be added for 5k.

Airlines can be freely matched, so VA connecting to SQ connecting to Gulf Air connecting to LH is fine.

Miles will slightly increase from 1 September when the new chart comes in.

Edited to add the points quoted in this post are business class. First class to Europe is an extra 20k ex Asia and 30k ex AU

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Just thought I'd share that I took part in the recent points sale and bought myself 160,000 miles for $2800 CAD. I then transferred over 60,000 miles from AmEx to Aeroplan to build out the following itinerary:

1. Sydney to Zurich:
   • VA 832 - SYD > MEL
   • EY 463 - MEL > AUH
   • EY 73 - AUH > ZRH
2. Zurich to Toronto:
   • TP 929: ZRH > LIS
   • TP 257: LIS > YYZ
3. Los Angeles to Seoul:
   • BR5: LAX > TPE
   • BR150: TPE > ICN
4. Seoul to Sydney:
   • OZ 601: ICN > SYD

All of this travel is occurring in business class, and I'm purchasing a couple of tickets here and there to complete the trip (i.e. KL from ZRH <> HAM and DL (WS): YYZ > LAX). Overall, I think this is decent value given I got the routing I wanted and more or less pieced together a round the world itinerary for peanuts:



Some notes for those curious on making such a booking:

• Find partner availability when possible, it's often the cheapest when it comes to points required. In addition, I would go so far as to say the partners provide a better quality service than AC. Certainly I would choose NZ J over AC any day of the week to come back to SYD, despite having to connect in AKL. And given NZ has release some sporadic J award availability to partners it's not a bad idea to book with them.
• How did I book this for 220,000 miles? Per the Aeroplan Terms & Conditions, you can request one stopover on a one-way and 2 stopovers on a return award ticket with each stop over costing 5,000 miles extra and the total cost being based on mileage flown. Since SYD > YYZ is between Asia-Pacific and North America zones, we would use the highest band in the Aeroplan award chart (i.e. travel above 11,000 miles) which is 105,000 miles for Partner J.
• Stopovers can only be requested over the phone. Do not follow what other bloggers may tell you and book online then call in to add the segments as you'll be assessed a change penalty which sadly I was assessed. Have the flights you want to book ready and indicate to the agent that you are looking to flying from X to Z with a stopover in Y. For instance, "I'm looking to fly from Sydney to Toronto with a stopover in Zurich".
• If an agent tries to book it as a multi-city just say no and insist that it can be booked as a stopover for 5,000 miles extra. If they don't believe you hang up and call again (HUCA). Eventually you will be greeted to an agent who knows what they are doing
• The Aeroplan booking engine agents are using seems to be a black box, with certain routings not being allowed. For instance, I originally wanted to fly Swiss from Zurich to Chicago then connect onto a United flight but their computer said that routing wasn't permitted. Fortunately I had a backup with Tap J and that worked
• Further details on the rules and permissible routings with the Aeroplan program can be found in this AC document.
• In terms of finding partner availability your best bet is to use United Airline's award search tool which will show you partner J availability a month at a time.

Hope someone finds marginal value from this article!

-RooFlyer88