How to find Aeroplan flights

[levelnine]

All of the past week, the availability from Sydney (Direct Business) has been only Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea, and Vancouver. Nothing to Japan. But last week, there were plenty to Japan, and IIRC, some to LAX and SFO. Maybe ANA releases Japan flights in blocks every few weeks or maybe it's seasonal? I'll keep watching. Brisbane to Vancouver (Direct Business) seems to be constantly available.

No, NH awards have disappeared from AC. Well documented on other sites. Mixed reports as to whether you can search for availability on UA and call up AC to book.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

No, NH awards have disappeared from AC. Well documented on other sites. Mixed reports as to whether you can search for availability on UA and call up AC to book.

NH economy is wide open, just no business class.

 

[levelnine]

NH economy is wide open, just no business class.

You can book economy awards seats? Didn't know those existed.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You can book economy awards seats? Didn't know those existed.

sure. Lots of connections available on carrier such as OZ to KIX, connecting to NH domestic for example.

 

[Investor7]

I'm still keeping an eye on online Business Direct flights from Sydney over the last few weeks. The destinations are still limited to: Singapore, Seoul, HCM City, and Vancouver. I wonder how long it can stay like this. It's obviously a bad look for Aeroplan. How long can a business leave something like this unfixed?

 

[Rifty6210]

I'm still keeping an eye on online Business Direct flights from Sydney over the last few weeks. The destinations are still limited to: Singapore, Seoul, HCM City, and Vancouver. I wonder how long it can stay like this. It's obviously a bad look for Aeroplan. How long can a business leave something like this unfixed?

I wanted to travel to Japan mid July 2024. During the time when Aeroplan removed availability, I was only able to lock in one way NH J seat SYD > HND via LifeMiles. I spent 2 weeks waiting for any NH J seats direct flights back home to no avail. One option was SQ J seat HND > SIN > SYD which was very expensive @ 90K via Aeroplan. But I realised that ICN > SIN > SYD is only 65K. Since Korea is next to Japan, I added a few days to my trip and locked it in. One way flights HND > GMP Y seat NH costed me about $220 via LifeMiles considering that non-award booking is $500 - $$700... not too bad. Note: this worked for me because I was quite flexible.

 

[bigal1990]

There is some Aeroplan and Virgin Australia business class availability Syd to Vancouver next week (Wednesday and Friday) if anyone is looking

84k Aeroplan points for 14hrs of air Canada signature class is amazing

 

[djtech]

Manually checked a few destinations on the phone - btw recommend calling closer to 2pm AEST which is late night at the call centre. HKG, HND/NRT, TPE, basically the whole of China have been 'blocked' on the website and no award availability showing, but agents can still find award availability on their end. Some agents I talked to were happy to waive the phone booking fee given they couldn't find it online either but some stuck to policy and did not. So because of the evil works of pesky points brokers, now we're slugged with an additional CAD25 fee and also the hassle of searching for availability on partner websites then calling up and holding.

 

[Investor7]

A bigger variety of direct business flights have appeared from Sydney, e.g. HND, BKK, SFO, LAX, and DEL. I skipped the recent sale due to lack of direct destinations from Sydney, but now they have appeared.

 

[Investor7]

One tool I would recommend using is Seats.aero

I just saw that Air Canada is suing Seats.aero: https://seats.aero/lawsuit

 

[Ecco]

Did anyone read that letter from Air Canada that came through last night? It states that script and other automated means are banned from being used to search for awards. Wonder how that will affect seats.aero. Without that option for searching I've gone right off aeroplan.

I certainly won't be buying any of their points on sale. You can't even get through to their call centre if you have some slight issue that cannot be sorted online and then their change fees are horrendous. And there's no other way to contact them. United and Alaska are much better options. Even Air NZ is easier to contact.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Did anyone read that letter from Air Canada that came through last night? It states that script and other automated means are banned from being used to search for awards. Wonder how that will affect seats.aero. Without that option for searching I've gone right off aeroplan.

I certainly won't be buying any of their points on sale. You can't even get through to their call centre if you have some slight issue that cannot be sorted online and then their change fees are horrendous. And there's no other way to contact them. United and Alaska are much better options. Even Air NZ is easier to contact.

Oh, yes, I got it.

I’ve never used any of those tools to find seats, so for me this is a positive change.

I also read that somehow, mileage brokers were exploiting some loophole to ‘hold’ award seats as soon as they were made available, then selling them on later.

Could potentially be a good thing if scraping tools are banned or restricted, giving more availability and more airlines back to genuine passengers and FFers.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Did anyone read that letter from Air Canada that came through last night? It states that script and other automated means are banned from being used to search for awards. Wonder how that will affect seats.aero. Without that option for searching I've gone right off aeroplan.

Shouldn't impact Seats.Aero since services are allowed to scrape websites (if that wasn't the case Google wouldn't exist).

I certainly won't be buying any of their points on sale. You can't even get through to their call centre if you have some slight issue that cannot be sorted online and then their change fees are horrendous. And there's no other way to contact them. United and Alaska are much better options. Even Air NZ is easier to contact.

I tell everyone, never buy any frequent flyer points regardless of how good the sale is unless and until you have a specific itinerary in mind which has availability. Ideally you want to have the itinerary (and one or two backups) in mind, buy the points then immediately book using said points. With that being said, I have had good luck in finding great value redemptions with Aeroplan including most recently flying from Sydney to Zurich on Virgin Australia/Etihad business, then onwards to Toronto in TAP business, then from LA to Seoul in Asiana business class and lastly Seoul to Sydney in Asiana business class. All for 220,000 points, 160,000 of which were bought from Aeroplan for ~$3000 CAD - a far cry from the cost of an equivalent cash fare!

In terms of point redemptions I would argue that yes Alaska has some sweet spots given the eclectic mix of partners they have for awards (i.e. LATAM to get you into Latin America, StarLux for trips to Taiwan, Singapore Air, EL Al, Condor, etc.) and at least as it stands now the pricing ain't bad either. For instance, you can fly between North America and Australia in Qantas business class for 55,000 miles one-way. Not bad!

-RooFlyer88

 

[anyonebutqantas]

The lack of a 24/7 call centre for Aeroplan is a real nuisance.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Shouldn't impact Seats.Aero since services are allowed to scrape websites (if that wasn't the case Google wouldn't exist).

I tell everyone, never buy any frequent flyer points regardless of how good the sale is unless and until you have a specific itinerary in mind which has availability. Ideally you want to have the itinerary (and one or two backups) in mind, buy the points then immediately book using said points. With that being said, I have had good luck in finding great value redemptions with Aeroplan including most recently flying from Sydney to Zurich on Virgin Australia/Etihad business, then onwards to Toronto in TAP business, then from LA to Seoul in Asiana business class and lastly Seoul to Sydney in Asiana business class. All for 220,000 points, 160,000 of which were bought from Aeroplan for ~$3000 CAD - a far cry from the cost of an equivalent cash fare!

In terms of point redemptions I would argue that yes Alaska has some sweet spots given the eclectic mix of partners they have for awards (i.e. LATAM to get you into Latin America, StarLux for trips to Taiwan, Singapore Air, EL Al, Condor, etc.) and at least as it stands now the pricing ain't bad either. For instance, you can fly between North America and Australia in Qantas business class for 55,000 miles one-way. Not bad!

-RooFlyer88

Aeroplan is the one program I speculatively buy points in. Sales are frequent, but not so regular that you can count on one being available at the time you want to book.

Fine if you have set plans for a year away, but that doesn’t help spontaneous itineraries, or spotting rare availability.

I wouldn’t buy for a program such as Lifemiles which is difficult to redeem in. But Aeroplan usually has something to offer.

 

[Ecco]

Aeroplan is the one program I speculatively buy points in. Sales are frequent, but not so regular that you can count on one being available at the time you want to book.

Fine if you have set plans for a year away, but that doesn’t help spontaneous itineraries, or spotting rare availability.

I wouldn’t buy for a program such as Lifemiles which is difficult to redeem in. But Aeroplan usually has something to offer.

Agreed Aeroplan might not be running a good sale when I want to book something.

Also agree, not going to buy aeroplan or Lifemiles speculatively anymore. Just too many ifs and buts. I had to try and contact Aeroplan the other day to cancel a booking that wouldn't go through online. Took me days to get through to them.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agreed Aeroplan might not be running a good sale when I want to book something.

Also agree, not going to buy aeroplan or Lifemiles speculatively anymore. Just too many ifs and buts. I had to try and contact Aeroplan the other day to cancel a booking that wouldn't go through online. Took me days to get through to them.

YMMV!

I had to call them the other day and was on hold for over an hour to get connected… but once through the agent took complete control, manually pricing a complex itinerary. Total call time was nearly three hours. Pretty amazing work.

EY has been suspended, but SQ is wide open. It’s not a terrible program.

 

[jase05]

YMMV!

I had to call them the other day and was on hold for over an hour to get connected… but once through the agent took complete control, manually pricing a complex itinerary. Total call time was nearly three hours. Pretty amazing work.

EY has been suspended, but SQ is wide open. It’s not a terrible program.

I called them up the other night to completely change our itinerary and got through in a matter of minutes to a competent operator who was able to cancel our flights no issue apart from the fees of course. Points credited back instantly and money came back 3 days later.
I don’t use Aeroplan often but I’ve never had an issue with their call centre

 

[deangelj]

I'm still buying aeroplan miles. The issue is that to grab a seat/itinerary you want, you need to book 11-12 months out if you can. And you need to have the miles available. I was looking to book a BC round trip to europe next May and I could find good availability on SQ for the return but not on the way over. In the end I invented an itinerary that went SYD-SIN-DXB-IST-PMO with a stopover in DXB. Call centre was able to price it up for the standard 110K miles.

 

[djtech]

I'm still buying aeroplan miles. The issue is that to grab a seat/itinerary you want, you need to book 11-12 months out if you can. And you need to have the miles available. I was looking to book a BC round trip to europe next May and I could find good availability on SQ for the return but not on the way over. In the end I invented an itinerary that went SYD-SIN-DXB-IST-PMO with a stopover in DXB. Call centre was able to price it up for the standard 110K miles.

One thing I appreciate is their competent call centre. They just "get it" and can easily understand what a more complex itinerary looks like and apply the correct rules of the program. I dream of the day I could say the same about Qantas. Now if only they would make it 24/7!