In this video, let’s do a round-up of some of the most valuable ways to redeem your Aeroplan points when travel opens up again.
Here are nine of the best sweet spots in the new Aeroplan program, ranging from direct routes that cost much fewer points than what other loyalty programs might charge, to over-arching strategies such as aiming for the “Asia 3” zone or booking Economy Latitude fares and using eUpgrades to upgrade into business class.
Aeroplan won’t be the perfect program for everyone, but there’s a fair mix of sweet spots for all Canadians, regardless of whether you’re based on the West Coast or the East Coast and whether your travel style involves trips closer to home or farther away.
Without further ado, you can watch the video below:
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Hi Ricky – thank you for this video. I’m looking at flights from YYZ – HNL in 2022 and for round trip, the latitude award in economy is 64,600 points for the dates I chose. Is it right to interpret that it would cost 8 (4 each way) of eupgrade credits for business? My account shows 20 credits expiring end of Feb so was hoping to use them.
When will Aeroplan stopOvers be bookable online? how can I check a stopOver is even possible? do those found “crazy route” mean I can add a stop over on those passing cities for 5k too? Example: Santiago to Bogota thru YYZ “crazy route” for 30k in biz. If positive I would love to find routes that for 30k biz (or less in economy) will let me land in Argentina (EZE specially) starting anywhere in South America with stop over in USA, Canada or Mexico…
Not necessarily, it could simply be a quirk of the search engine, and adding a stopover might break it into two one-way bounds by the “real” underlying fare calculation. You can call in to know for sure, or wait until the fully functional multi-city search engine comes online.
Hi Ricky thanks for the very informative video. For the pacific arbitrage does stopover work? Say I want to book SIN-IST, stopover, FRA-BOS. Will this still be 90k (85k + 5k stopover)? If yes can I book this now through the phone?
To clarify — I’m not sure if you meant stopover or open-jaw. If you mean open-jaw (i.e., making your own way between IST and FRA) then no, it’d be priced as two separate awards: 80,000 + 60,000 = 140,000.
You’re right I meant open jaw and not stopover. So that itinerary will be treated as 2 one-way then.
Yes and yes!
Thanks for the video Ricky! I would really like to see a video about achieving Elite Status. Also, since it is possible to get good deals on booking short flights in Asia with Aeroplan, I wonder what to do about Avios. Beside that sweet spot YYZ-DUB and unless I would like to book a multi-carrier redemption, I think maybe it would be better to convert my HSBC and Avion to Asia miles instead. What do you think? Thanks again.
Good point Lisa, but I think Avios will still be useful for short-haul flights based on different airlines/destinations. For example, if you’re flying into London, Hong Kong, or Kuala Lumpur then you might prefer Avios and their partner airlines, compared to flying into Munich, Bangkok, and Singapore. But you’re right, if you think you can take care of most of your short-haul needs with Aeroplan, then Asia Miles’s long-haul sweet spots might be more attractive for your HSBC and RBC points.
Thanks for this! I never really thought of the Toronto-Europe-Asia routing. Certainly not as good as the mini round the world journeys, but still nice to know one can get in a few continents for a manageable redemption. Especially with no surcharges.
At 180k round-trip with two stopovers, it’s probably the closest to the old Mini-RTWs at 150k–160k miles that we’ll get.
Great video Ricky. Any idea when multi city search will be up and running on Aeroplan search engine?
Late 2021 is the estimated timeline.
SPECTACULAR!!! Thanks Ricky! That’s a very inspirational and motivating video. I know you’ve covered most of these in print but hearing it again really brings it together and gets the creative thought process going again!
Thanks Eric, that was very much the intention!