How to find Aeroplan flights

[MEL_Traveller]

Does anyone know if you can route US to Australia via Europe? I can only see 1 online option via Air India, but if I look at individual segments, NY to Brussels Brussels to Brisbane I am ok. Obviously I would need to do this via the call centre.

That’s fine in principle, subject to the restriction that the total journey (multiple segments) cannot exceed double the distance of the non-stop.

If the non-stop is 4000 miles, your constructed itinerary can’t exceed 8000 miles.

 

[drron]

It's been a known pain point that NH (ANA) award disappeared from Aeroplan a while back and it was a big edeal that NH Economy has recently shown up again very recently. NH J is yet to come back - so as to answer your question, no NH J yet.

No point phoning AC about it. Keep an eye in FT if you want to find out when its back. Anything that can redeem NH (especially generous programs like AC) make the news rounds quickly.

NH via VS is also possible with VA visibility. Lots of people in NA especially are using VA seat alerts for NH to then use VS to book.

I can see NH from Australia in J now on aeroplan. Not that many but better than QF.

 

[elanshin]

I can see NH from Australia in J now on aeroplan. Not that many but better than QF.

Cheers I see it as well. Have also informed my Canadian friends that fly to JP alot.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Does anyone know if you can route US to Australia via Europe? I can only see 1 online option via Air India, but if I look at individual segments, NY to Brussels Brussels to Brisbane I am ok. Obviously I would need to do this via the call centre.

Yes and have done it in reverse before (Australia to Toronto with a 2 week stop over in Zurich). This can all be done online via the AC website. Select multicity, enter your origin of New York, final destination as Brisbane and then click the little blue link that says add stopover and set Brussels as a stopover city. Then choose how many days you want to spend in Brussels.

-RooFlyer88

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes and have done it in reverse before (Australia to Toronto with a 2 week stop over in Zurich). This can all be done online via the AC website. Select multicity, enter your origin of New York, final destination as Brisbane and then click the little blue link that says add stopover and set Brussels as a stopover city. Then choose how many days you want to spend in Brussels.

-RooFlyer88

Yes, but if you don’t want to stop anywhere, you will need to call up.

The small catch is that sometimes there are revenue management controls in place… for example married segments. This can mean some combinations aren’t possible.

But generally speaking, if you find multiple sectors, aeroplan should be an,e to piece them together.

 

[I love to travel]

One more question, why you cancel an award, how long for the points to be returned?

 

[jase05]

One more question, why you cancel an award, how long for the points to be returned?

Pretty much immediately in my experience

 

[Nexus007]

One more question, why you cancel an award, how long for the points to be returned?

Just did one this morning and it was instant.

 

[I love to travel]

Been waiting to get through for over an hour. I wish they had a system where you could input your membership number and get to the top of the queue if you have higher status.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Been waiting to get through for over an hour. I wish they had a system where you could input your membership number and get to the top of the queue if you have higher status.

There is!

If you call the US or Canada toll free number it’s one of the first things they ask you for. As a gold you should be through in around 5-10 mins, max.

Regular status can be on hold for up to two hours

 

[I love to travel]

There is!

If you call the US or Canada toll free number it’s one of the first things they ask you for. As a gold you should be through in around 5-10 mins, max.

Regular status can be on hold for up to two hours

I called the Australian number.

But when you get through, OMG I love this program. Literally saved 1000's of dollars. The trick for US and Aus routing, find your own flights through Europe first as seperate bookings, then call.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I called the Australian number.

But when you get through, OMG I love this program. Literally saved 1000's of dollars. The trick for US and Aus routing, find your own flights through Europe first as seperate bookings, then call.

Oh, yeah. Use free skype and the US or Canadia toll free. The whole point I’m keeping aeroplan gold for next year - at $450 fee - is for the fast access to the call centre!

They’re very good at piecing together itineraries. You can still run in to married segments, but can do your best to avoid those by checking availability for several segments at a time. For example a routing A-B-C-D you can check if A-C Is available, then B-D.

 

[am0985]

I called the Australian number.

But when you get through, OMG I love this program. Literally saved 1000's of dollars. The trick for US and Aus routing, find your own flights through Europe first as seperate bookings, then call.

Which routings have you found?

 

[I love to travel]

I got JFK ZRH SIN SYD

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Which routings have you found?

I cannot speak for them, but I have had luck with the following flying Sydney to Toronto in business class:
SYD > MEL > AUH > ZRH - stopover in Zurich for 2 weeks to attend conference
Then continuing on ZRH > LIS > YYZ. All in business class with Virgin Australia, Etihad and TAP Air Portugal.

On the way back I was in LA and again no availability to SYD in J. So I chose the routing LAX > ICN followed by ICN > SYD a couple days later. All in business class on Asiana.

Adding a stopover attracts a cost of 5,000 points which on an ultra long haul flight like Australia to North America is peanuts. Plus you get to visit a continent for free!

Today’s trick (if I can call it that) to get between Australia and North America and Europe might surprise you: Turkish airways. They fly direct from Sydney to Istanbul and often have availability in business. From Europe it’s always child’s play to find an award flight to North America

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Unfortunately AUH is no longer an option in business class as there’s zero EY availability.

But TK is the winner at the moment. pretty much wide open.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Unfortunately AUH is no longer an option in business class as there’s zero EY availability.

I would concede that EY award availability isn't the same as when I was booking back in late 2022 (even back then it was a struggle to find such seats). However, I would not entirely strike them out either. For instance, I suspect you will find some availability between IST and AUH and for some destinations from there to North America.

One thing I should point out, and I believe it may have already been mentioned before, is this trick of using a stop-over to construct a routing where there is business class award availability has a couple key considerations:

• You are limited to at most 6 flight segments each way on an Aeroplan award ticket. So SYD > SIN > FRA > JFK is fine but something like SYD > MEL > NRT > CDG > LHR > IAD > ORD > JFK isn't.
• These stopovers are for all intents and purposes treated as two separate trips. Meaning you'll be paying taxes and fees as though you had two trips. This isn't a big deal for many airports where the taxes & fees are low, but if you're stopping over in the UK, you'll have to open your wallet to pay the Air Passenger Duty (something you wouldn't have to do if you were simply connecting via LHR for instance)
• There is a distance based limit on the fares you can construct which is generally no more than 2 times the direct flight distance between your origin and final destination. You can use a tool like GCMap to calculate those distances. My routing from Sydney to Toronto was well under the ~20K hypothetical limit, but even then it was still tight making it work (i.e. I originally wanted to fly via ORD from ZRH to YYZ on UA but that wasn't allowed):

But TK is the winner at the moment. pretty much wide open.

Winner for now until the influencers shine a light on this sweet spot. Which is why it's kind of important to know where people fly to figure out routings. That way if IST is no longer the sweet spot, maybe TYO (for NH) or MNL (for UA) will be.

-RooFlyer88