Getting the most out of Aeroplan

It would be somewhat useful to have some way of knowing what your ticket is in dollar amounts as well.

If you are looking for Aeroplan promos you should check out
http://www.rewardscanada.ca/aeroplan.html for a complete list of what is available,

BTW you’ll need to fix your link on the side there from rewardscanada.com to rewardscanada.ca

Thanks!

Aeroplan – forget it, it sucks! It started as a passenger loyalty program and grew to a money making machine.

Here is my experience with Aeroplan: It is almost impossible to get a reward ticket at the basic published “cost”. The number of classic points required to fly to Tel Aviv from Canada is 75,000 points. I actively looking to get a ticket (Feb 2008) and was surprised that the earliest availability of “classic” seats (e.g. 75,000) is 8 months away (Oct 2008)!
Yes, sure there are available seats for 115 000 points and above in May 2008.

Let us compare the cost of issuing a ticket with aeroplan’s points with the cost of points collected with other cards available in the market.
With a TD bank’s card a group of 5,000 points = 75$. The current average price of a ticket to Tel Aviv is $1200. Thus you need 80,000 point to purchase a ticket (British airways, Air Canada (if the price is right), Air France, Olympic, etc). That’s it! You DO NOT pay additional fees (Like ~$ 250 airport fees etc) when issuing the ticket with Aeroplan. The cost of carrying the credit card ($120 / year) is assumed to be the same with the various financial institutes.

As good as it is to own an aeroplan card and i certainly don’t disagree owning one, since i have gotten at least 7 to 8 free flights through them. I beleive its better to have a TD or Royal bank points Visa card. This way, you get to double dip since you can use your royal or td points to book a ticket on star alliance network, while you get free points for the flights as well.

Is it better (better value) to use your aeroplan miles on flights or merchandise?

I am looking forward to burning my aeroplan card as soon as I possibly can. I would not recommend Aeroplan to anyone, for any reason. If you are choosing between an aeroplan visa or avion I would recommend avion any day. With my aeroplan visa I pay a yearly fee of $120.00 plus high interest rate. For what? To wait 30 minutes on the phone to book a flight a year in advance and be told they have no classic seats, but do have business….when they just told my sister the opposite!

I agree 100 percent with Dayna, I the last thing they have in mind is their members, has anyone notices how much their we site just sucks? Always broken, search does not work, full of bugs and inconsistencies? It is not rocket science to build a proper Web site. and god knows they have enough money to make it great.

BTW this blog sounds and feels like a fake. Something aeroplan PR people would cook up.

As of October 20, 2007, you can no longer add an Aeroplan number to your Bell account. Aeroplan and Bell have cancelled their agreement

Aeroplan sux….I just used 120,000 points to book tix YVR to LHR – with $590 “fees” for each ticket…then used my United Points for the same trip – $150 of fees…what the heck is that all about? I plan to cancel my CIBC aeroplan…what a ripoff.

Is there a reference chart that denotes how many status miles you get travelling to certain destinations?

Aeroplan used to be “bad” but now its even worse. Before you could pick a destination and start searching for dates of when you could go. You couldn’t pick when but only where. Now Aeroplan will often not have any “classic” flights available for specific destinations you want to go anytime ever! They’ll have the “non-classic” trips available but they are a ripoff for points. If you upgrade to business with business level points they won’t be business all the way there and back. And of course, no discount of points required for the economy flights.

Their accountants that are nickling and diming us are going to shut down Aeroplan one of these days. I fly Air Canada alot and may just keep the aeroplan for that and cancel my aeroplan credit cards.

I find the Aeroplan website to very cumbersome and not user friendly. The air travel section probably works the best. The car rental section is terrible. I just entered Scottsdale, Arizona and it could not find that location. 10 minutes earlier it did find it. The pricing is also odd. THe vehicle I wanted was 84,500 points whether I took it for 6 days, 7 days or 8 days. Something is fishy. Feel like I could be getting ripped off, so I will save my points and use cash for the car rental (Navigator) which is US$567 all in.

I’m looking to fly to New York for New Years. Currently no classic seats available. Is it likely that as the date gets nearer those ‘extra access flights’ (i.e. flights requiring 3 or 4 times the points of the classic flights) may become downgraded to classic flights? I’m really no fan of Aeroplan anymore. Who cares if every flight is available if they hike the number of miles required to buy the seat.

I’m getting so sick of Aeroplan / United / Air Canada – I know, I’m joining a large club of “fed up with this crap” Aeroplan users. Why is it that I strictly follow the rules, make sure my Aeroplan number is on every flight, and I almost never get the points for my United code share? My number is on the damn ticket – I see it – it’s right in front of me! Why doesn’t it get to Aeroplan!
Oh, but wait! The Narrowplan site now let’s me get my credits online. Entering all the information online (it even helps me by filling in the departure airport – how nice), hitting submit – oops – can’t use the system for that departure. BUT YOU HELPED ME FILL IN THE AIRPORT that you are telling me is not really valid.
Screw it – it’s not worth the stamp. Oh, wait – now I understand…

One month ago I would have agreed with all your comments bashing Aeroplan, their website etc., but I just had some good fortune worth sharing – tips perhaps?

I am flying Montreal to Melbourne, Australia and their website was showing nothing available across many days I was checking. Tio # 1 – call on a weekend afternoon, early morning – 9:00AM+, or late late evening. When I spoke to them ( tip #2 – do the “voice print” thing – and just keep saying “book a flight” or some other gibberish. It will pass you through to an agent quicker ) the phone agent was easily able to find an itinerary. Could care less about the $30 “phone agent fee”. Ridiculous, but efficient. Flight was 75,000 miles. I upgraded part of the trip to Business class for a 100,000 mile cost, and got business class MTL – LA.

Here’s the biggest surprise. I called to see if I could modify the 15 hour to Melbourne and they found me an alternate route – ALL business class, and didn’t charge me any more miles?? Love it! Not sure how that could happen because if you search on business class flights, it should bost a half millions miles to go business class ( seriously ).

Another tip – although I paid a $90 “change itineray” fee, I came out even because I was NOT flying AC to LA, but rather United. You see, AC still charges a much fuel surcharge ( robbery ) that they simple pocket. United charges way less. I was refunded on the “service fees etc”. So the tip is to use other Star Alliance airlines and avoid AC routes.

Final tip – just keep calling them. You never know what will open up, and every agent is different. Some try harder than others, but most are very pleasant to talk to. Costs nothing to keep calling if you have the time.

Believe me, I was ready to tear up my card and go for ANY other one. Now I have a return flight to Australia in business class that cost me about a little over 2 years worth of credit card purchases, and lots of gas I buy only at Esso.!!

Good luck!

I’m cancelling Aeroplan..

Basically I collected for YEARS.. now have enough to fly my family to South America and back (3 of us) Executive Class..

Well I book the flights, but they only have Aeroplan Executive Class seats available on the way back.. fine so be it… BUT… they charge you the FULL EXECUTIVE RATE…. So I’m paying (in points) for a full executive trip, but only getting half.

The only advice from the CSR Drones: “Cancel and go econonmy”… buh by Aeroplan…

I get all my groceries at Sobey’s and gas at Esso. I pay everything with my Aeroplan gold and get even more points. The interest rate is no worse than any other credit card out there.

I’ve gone to Australia and Peru on my BF’s points. This summer I flew my sister, her husband and two kids across the country so they could come visit me.

There are seats available but you do have to plan ahead. I booked in February for June travel.

If you can’t pay your credit card balance in full each month or can’t plan ahead then this might not be for you. It’s worked great for me and I look forward to my next trip.

Michelle, I’m glad your trip planning went so well but sadly the truth is AC reserves very few seats for Aeroplan economy travel and booking 6 months in advance is a pipe dream in most cases if you want to travel at normal times (weekend to weekend for example).

Countless times, I have tried to book convenient flights only to give up in frustration and disbelief and end up buying the flight instead. They really have no appreciation for their client base and are the crappy behomoth that the better points programs refer to when they advertise more flights and flexibility.

I’m looking into ways to migrate my points away from Aeroplan. I pay for the privilege of using a Gold card to collect and yet am the lowest of the low when being considered for available flights. They suck.

God, Aeroplan sucks!!! Yes I tried to book a flight to Miami, forget it they booked me from Toronto Canada, to washington, to philli, to texas I mean really?/?/
I ended up cancelling and buying my ticket. Does anyone know who has the best mile plan?

God, Aeroplan sucks!!! Yes I tried to book a flight to Miami, forget it they booked me from Toronto Canada, to washington, to philli, to texas I mean really?/?/
I ended up cancelling and buying my ticket. Does anyone know who has the best mile plan?

It is a great post

I have tried many times (that means over 20 times) for about 3-4 years to book a flight from Montreal to Hong Kong and never succeded. I’m even ready to book Business class, but only the Montreal-Toronto leg is Business, and Toronto-Hong Kong is economy. What a scam!

I used to love Aeroplan, now I’m in not so much. My wife and I like to travel in first class. Not because we are rich but because we play the points game (get a credit card bonus, cancel, repeat after 6 months)

What I love about Aeroplan is the fact that you can book up to 16 flights on 1 reward with 3 official stopovers (all the other stops have to be less than 24 hours). Business *WAS* slightly more than Economy and first *WAS* a bit more.

The problem now is 2 fold, Aeroplan has changed their rewards chart. For example, we like Canada – Asia 1 (Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Vietnam) First use to be 120K points per person and now it’s 175K.

Ok you’re still flying first and it’s only 50% more… well on top of that as of NOV 2011, Aeroplan now charges fuel Surcharges on Partner flights. That’s a HUGE problem.

Here’s an actual example:

We booked this before the points increase and before the Partner fuel surcharges:
Vancouver – Germany – Korea – Japan – Thailand – Vietnam – Thailand – Hong Kong – Germany – Vancouver

It cost us each 120K point for First (all the legs are First except Vietnam-Thailand) and about $220 in fees.

Now I was looking at making changes (Longer stopovers and possibly change cities) With the New Fuel Surcharge (on partner airlines) It will cost me $750 per person for the Surcharges + $90 Change Fee

So now I’m seriously considering moving over to British Airways.

and for those of you that have problems booking flights, try the
ANA Tool (Air Nippon) at ana.co.jp

Just open an account (it’s like Aeroplan, you’ll get a free card)
then you can search with their Search Engine. They won’t offer different or more flights (you get the same Star Alliance flight options) But their website is much easier to use and much faster than Aeroplan’s. And it won’t offer silly connections unless you click “Connecting Flights”.

One small catch, when you have 0 points in the ANA account you can’t search for Star Alliance flights directly (it will be greyed out). First search for an Air Nippon flight (i.e. NRT – BKK) then when you get the results, at the bottom of the screen there will be a “use Star Alliance Partners” and you can search all you want.

If you want to avoid this extra step, either fly 1 X with AC or StarAlliance and credit the points to ANA. Or do like I did, answer a simple survey and get 100 points.

Note: I’m not suggesting anyone switch to ANA from Aeroplan, I’m suggesting you use their website to do your searches, then use the Aeroplan website to book or call an Aeroplan agent.

Is there any place to get a list of hotels, where you can redeem aeroplan points versus picking the location and then seeing if it has a hotel nearby where you can redeem aeroplan points?

just cancelled my CIBC Aerogold found I could book the same flight on line and save $100 and not use 120,000 aero miles seeya aeroplan they have certainly changed in the last 7 years

Some of these comments really crack me up! I am a miles/points “collector”, and have learned how to use them to my advantage, usualyl for Business or First class on international trips. But some of these comments are crazy! You want to fly to NYC for New Years eve? Fly to Rome for Easter week? Fly overseas on business class on 3-4 weeks planning? Forget it, you are dreaming. I realize not everyone likes to plan (or can plan) a year ahead. But if you are trying to book last minute (60 days or less), or booking peak times when all the flights are full (New Years in NYC!), then you are sadly off base. The few “free” seats that were available on those peak-time flights are gone! Want to go to Rome? Go in April or October. Avoid the peak season, and plan between 3 and 12 months ahead; and you will typically get flights that are very workable. AND BE Flexible!! If you only have a window of 1-2 days each way, it’s not going to work. I have been to Sydney, Auckland, Rome, Singapore, Rio, Buenos Aires and more, all in First or Business class for FREE (miles). Don’t want your Aeroplan miles?? Give them to me please!! I need a few more. Good luck all! Hope you find a good way to use those miles.

I agree with the person who says that Planning NYC at Christmas on short notice is not going to happen. If you learn to use and accumulate and are able to plan ahead you can make aeroplan work

The program is free to join and easy to accumulate points. I have to buy gas, groceries and prescriptions anyways so I might as well go to Sobeys, Esso and Rexall.

Aeroplan sucks big time…. I want to just go from Winnipeg to Kamloops…and back…. booking is easy.. $209 each way. Aeroplan puts me Winnipeg to Edmonton to Grand Prairie to Calgary to Kamlooops. Come on REALLY ? AND get this… return is worse… 22 hrs travel time…. what a ripoff. why do they promise SO much and then screw you…. you wait m,ore than 10 minutes to talk to someone wnd then they don’t know anything…. WTF

I received a newsletter last week which indicated that Air Canada would now have 5 Aeroplan levels instead of the 3 there used to be.

They make it sound like it’s a great thing but really it is a downgrade for most of their Elite members. Indeed, Elite membership used to be awarded right from 35,000 points and included Star Alliance Gold benefits. It’ll now require 50,000 points to acheive Gold status.

As much as I understand that Air Canada may have been pressured to level itself with most other airline companies which offer Gold status at 50,000 points, on the other end, I personally fly the equivalent of between 35,000 to 50,000 Aeroplan miles every year, as such, and although some of my flights are completed on United Airlines, Lufthansa and others, I nevertheless used Air Canada as my favorite airline and reward program just because of this competitive advantage their 35,000 miles Star Alliance Gold status represented.

Had Air Canada noticed me before January 1st of this year, I would have chosen another prefered vendor and reward system this year, one more to my likes. Since Air Canada advised us of the upcoming changes after January 1st, they have created a situation which represents a prejudice for me, which prejudice is probably faced by thousands of other people who will accumulate between 35,000 to 50,000 status miles this year and who would have been entitled to Star Alliance Gold benefits in 2013 under the former system. In consideration of the above, I am considering the option of filing a class action against Air Canada.

If you feel that the above conditions apply to and that you are affected by this prejudice, please notify me at martin@martailer.com, the number of qualified respondee will determine our next step.

I have used the aeroplan rewards many times. Currently have Aerogold Visa Infinite and accumulate miles thru that. I was thinking of possibly enrolling in a different Visa program every 12 months. Just long enough to get the Welcome bonus miles for each, then try another. Some are offering 15,000 to 20,000 miles for sigining up. This would make a nice additional number of points each year. Has anyone else ever done this?

I was thinking of this, as well. Just signed up for a no-fee Best Western MasterCard, where you can transfer BW points to Aeroplan with your bonus. Also thinking of applying for a classic Amex card, too (they waive to fee for the first year). The bonus points are a great way to accumulate miles. You can use them for a while and then cancel them.

Hello! This website is fantastic for information! Thank you!
My question is this:
If I want to use my Aeroplan points to book a hotel, you need to really have a list of hotels where you can use Aeroplan points!
For example, a year ago we stayed at the Westin at Beaver Creek Colorado, near Vail. We found this hotel only because of a search to find the town called “Avon”. If you didn’t know to enter “Avon” when trying to use your points for a hotel booking, you would never know that this hotel exists.
Now we’re trying to find a hotel near Salt Lake City skiing or perhaps near Jacksons Hole, Wyoming for skiing. But we don’t know a hotel that we can book!
Is there a complete list of hotels (with a map of where these hotels exist?) where you can USE your Aeroplan points and book online through Aeroplan? I wish you could see this list when making a booking!

Another odd thing: You can fly with Aeroplan points from Toronto to Aspen (Colorado).
However, if you try to book a flight (and pay for your flight) on AirCanada.ca, you can’t fly from Toronto to Aspen.
STRANGE!
Please reply to this comment & email me at misscross2000@yahoo.com so I know the answer is posted? Thank you kindly!

Aeroplan useeeed to be a great travel rewords program some 12 years ago. Lets do the math today:

Economy class trip Toronto to London, if you are lucky to book it:
60,000 points – worth around $460 (in terms of what you can redeem in gift cards from the Aeroplan site)
Taxes Fees and Surcharges: $640
Total: $1100

Outright Purchase price including all fees and surcharges of a scheduled flight in the same time period: $950. Cheaper and hassle free.

TD Visa is the way to go. Collect 10,000 points with every $3,333 you spend and redeem immediately this $50 dollar value in points for any travel related expense whatsoever. Simple and Fast. Not to mention Expedia for TD customers that matches any price online and lets you earn triple points when you book through them.

I am trying to find out if I can use my Aeroplan miles to book a hotel for someone else?

I have bee spending $120 a year for many years in order not collect miles. It used to be a pain to book flights when you wanted it but it did not cost you nearly as much as the ticket in fees on top of the point that you paid for over the many years. If you are flying often and collecting point on flights it may be worthwhile but not otherwise. When did they start charging these huge fees to redeem points for travel. Is there any way around it and does anyone suggest another card please.

Thanks

Sorry, that was supposed to read in order to collect miles.

Aeroplan went from being decent to being a ridiculous joke. I was finally able to convince my wife to ditch her CIBC card after having been burnt one too many times. And the smaller your airport, the worse it gets as they seem to have no more than 1-2 seats per flight.

We’ve been trying to use our last points so this weekend wanted to book a short trip in June to a location 1 hour away. The Aeroplan website is pleased to offer us seats both ways- except that our trip back takes between 10-25 hours- I could drive there and back in 25 hours!

Once we’ve used our points, we will NEVER again collect Aeroplan.

Fuel surcharges have completely devalued Aeroplan. It used to have some value and encourage some Air Canada loyalty. Now it just makes me despise them. I’ve got several hundred thousand miles in my account, so I always look for reward tickets before I buy elsewhere. Without fail Aeroplan’s surcharges on a reward flight are about 80% of the price of another airline’s fully loaded ticket price.