Earning Stories: As hard as I try, I can't get rid of my Best Western Rewards points balance!

 
Best Western Hotels are a brand of hotels we here in the Rewards Canada family don't visit very often. Typically we only stay at one here in Alberta but also ventured to one in San Francisco many years ago and it was that latter expensive stay that helped us build up a decent amount of points in our Best Western Rewards account. The problem with that was that we were sitting a nice amount of points and not many places to really use them since we don't stay with them often. There was always the option of converting to Aeroplan points or some other airline but seeing that Best Western points don't expire it was best to leave them be until the time was required to redeem for a stay or convert to an airline. So I did just that, redeemed some points for a couple of free nights several years ago (read about that here) in Stony Plain Alberta as that seems to be the only BW we stay at. Even after that redemption I still had over 26,000 points in my account so when plans had us going up to Stony this August it was ripe for us to use some more points and bring that balance down. However best I tried that just didn't happen! Read on to find out why!

Redemption Stories: Using Scotia Rewards points for an All Inclusive Vacation and utilizing free lounge passes from the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card

Today we welcome back Jeff W. who has contributed several articles in the past to Rewards Canada. Jeff has been a long time reader of Rewards Canada and we've had lots of discussions with him via email and Twitter as he is always looking to maximize his credit card, travel and other loyalty program rewards! He is heavily invested in Scotia Rewards and his next post details his most recent redemption with Scotia:
 
Hey fellow Rewards Canada Readers!  In the past I wrote how our family loves the Scotibank Gold American Express Card for the earning power it has.  Since the last time I wrote, the card has undergone some changes.  Rewards Canada has gone into detail about the changes, but for simplicity sake, you can earn 5%, 3% or 1% on various purchases.  We have also added the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite to our portfolio.  This gives us two cards now that earn Scotia Rewards points.  The Visa gives you 2% back towards travel on Grocery, dining, entertainment, and transit purchases, and 1% on everything else.  This card also has no FX fees, making it our ‘go to’ card when travelling outside of Canada. (Editors note: The Scotia Gold Amex also has no FX fees but will earn less points than the Visa on non C$ spending) The Visa has one last great advantage, as it comes with six Priority Pass lounge passes per year, perfect for our family of four.

Recommended Reading: A closer look at how a Winnipegger maximizes his Scotiabank Gold American Express Card purchases & Using the Scotiabank Gold American Express card to redeem for any travel - whale watches included!

The great thing about Scotia Rewards, is it doesn’t matter which card you earn the points on, you can transfer the points to whichever card you placed your travel purchase on.  You can also interchange SCENE points with Scotia Rewards points, thus whenever we have a stockpile of SCENE points, we always transfer them over to our Scotia Rewards points account.  This is the rewards program that we use for our winter vacations every other year.

You can convert in both directions between Scotia Rewards and SCENE

There are a couple of ways you can redeem your Scotia Rewards points.  The first, is pay for your travel on your card, once you see the charge applied, redeem your points towards this charge, either the full charge, or some of it, it's your choice.  The minimum you can redeem for is 5,000 (equal to $50) points.  The second way is to book through the Scotiabank Rewards website.  One advantage of booking through Scotiabank’s Rewards website is being able to book a flight on WestJet with a 5% discount (on the base fare) over their regular rates.  Scotia Rewards also offers a Best Price Guarantee on airfare (within 24 hours of booking).  So if you book, and then find a better price, Scotia rewards will match the price.  When it comes to redeeming, it’s really your own preference.

Also, if you don’t have enough points at the time of booking your vacation, you have up to 12 months to still accumulate the points to pay for your travel!

Scotia Rewards makes it easy to choose your redemption option

Any travel any time redemption steps

Steps to redeem for travel booked via Scotia Rewards

Summary page to Apply Points to Travel

So, to get into our winter vacation.  We booked as part of a group of family and friends to an all-inclusive resort in Mazatlan, Mexico.  Vacationing as a group is so much fun, and it gives you the leverage to get a discount on your booking as you are traveling in such a large number, this year we had 34 people (including kids).  As with most group bookings, we owed a deposit in August (5 months prior to traveling) of $600.  Because we use Scotia Rewards points for our major trips every other year, we had more than enough rewards points come August to pay off the full $600 deposit that we owed.  Keep in mind, when redeeming points for travel you have already charged, you are earning 1% in rewards points for that charge, rather than booking it through the rewards website.  In our case of the deposit, that earned us another $6 in travel points.  Step 1 - deposit, done and paid for.

Recommend Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Credit Card & Loyalty Programs for the All Inclusive Vacationer

Step 2, is paying the remaining balance of our all-inclusive vacation in October.  In our case, this was $6,100.  Paid for it on our Visa, earned another $61 in travel dollars.  Naturally we didn’t have enough points for this charge, so we decided to wait until we got home from our vacation in January to redeem our points.

Step 3, is our transportation to/from the airport in our home city of Winnipeg.  In our case, we are traveling with our 4 and 7 year old boys, both requiring car seats.  Now, we don’t need our car seats in Mexico so we can’t take a taxi.  We also didn’t want family to drive us at 3am, so we chose the Valet & Away option at the YWG airport.  This, in my opinion, is the only way to go when you have kids.  Pull up at the front of the airport, unload your kids, bags, and leave your jackets in the car and head on in.  They track your flight, and have your car ready and running upon your return (nice and warm).  This feature also gives you priority screening through security, so you don’t need to wait in a long lineup when you have kids with you.  It’s a fantastic service, and when you know your departure/return dates in advance, you can book the Black Friday sale in November and save more money.  Lastly, I paid this travel charge on our Visa, earned $2.64 in travel rewards then paid it off with our points.

Next thing to do before hopping on the plane is to feed the family.  Do we want to pay over inflated airport prices for breakfast for the four of us?  That could easily cost at least $60 if not more.  Well, we’re in luck...with our Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card, we have six lounge passes to use.  At the Winnipeg airport, kids are free into the lounge, so we simply use 2 of our six lounge passes and in we go.  Unfortunately at 4am, alcohol is not being served, but a full breakfast buffet is on the menu.  Eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, cream puffs, cookies, fruit, and beverages.  We also grabbed a few extra items for the plane, as well all know, the kids will be hungry again.

Recommend Reading:  Lounge Review: Plaza Premium Lounge Winnipeg &  Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access

As an added note, the Lounge in the Mazatlan hotel is before security, and only provides beverages and light snacks, so we were forced to stop at a restaurant for breakfast.

Now that we’re into February, our trip is over, expenses calculated;  We spent $8,639 all tolled on our two week vacation.  $6,700 on the all-inclusive vacation, $264 for Valey & Away, $870 on Pesos, and $805 on Visa transactions.  Using our Visa while we were there, saved us $20 on not having to pay the 2.5% FX fee, and earned us up to $16 in additional travel points.  We have now redeemed $3,197 for our 2 week vacation in paradise, which equates to 37% of our bill, and makes our vacation expenses only $5,442.

Keep in mind, if you are doing excursions or sightseeing tours while you’re on vacation, these could also be categorized as “travel” expenses and could be valid for you to redeem your points towards.
Redeeming points on the Scotiabank Gold Amex or Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite cards is so easy to do online with no need to call anyone.  Charge my travel to my card, and then simply log in to Scotia Rewards to redeem my points.  Cards like these, that allow you to book your travel how you want are in my mind the best possible cards out there, as it allows you to maximize your savings.

Recommended Reading: Why proprietary credit card reward programs are the best option for most Canadians

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Redemption Stories: Saving $3,800 on last minute flights with the Platinum Card from American Express

For the Rewards Canada family a lot of our vacations are spur of the moment. So when we want to get away for only a few short days we don’t want to spend much of that time getting to our destination so we usually look for direct flights that aren’t much more than three hours in length. And since it is winter we wanted to go somewhere warmer. That means places like Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs, or Phoenix. With a trip to Phoenix already booked for later in 2020 we crossed that off the list. Then with our attendance required at a New Years Eve party in YYC we crossed San Diego off the list as the flight back into Calgary wouldn’t leave us much time get home and get ready. So that left LA or the Palm Desert. We chose the latter as it tends to be more relaxing than LA. Of course this means booking at the last minute, which also means not so cheap flights when looking for four seats. Add in the fact it was during the Christmas high season and you know there aren’t going to be any cheap seats. Four tickets at the last minute to any of these cities run well over $1000 per person - in economy. That’s pretty pricey for these flights but that’s where points and miles can come in to help. WestJet is the only airline that flies direct to PSP from YYC (unfortunately the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX meant AC dropped the route) so that gave us two points options that we could utilize to make the price more bearable. The first was booking through WestJet and using our companion vouchers and WestJet dollars. Since my wife and I each have our own WestJet cards we have two companion vouchers that we could use. Perfect for a family of four. The second option was booking through American Express travel and utilizing the Fixed Points Travel program.

Continue reading the full redemption story here!

Podcast Episode 59 - The revamped American Express AIR MILES Platinum Card and a Marriott Bonvoy redemption story that saves over ten grand in cash

In this episode we look at the changes that will be coming to the American Express AIR MILES Platinum Card as it becomes the strongest earning AIR MILES credit card in Canada as of November 4, 2019. We then discuss a redemption story of using 540,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for a three room stay that translates to keeping $10,000 in our wallet and then we expand on the discussion on how you should look beyond flights as your reward options.

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Links relating to this week's topic:

• Awesome new enhancements coming to the American Express AIR MILES Platinum Card
• The True Value in Reward Redemptions

Redemption Stories: Redeeming points for Best Western free nights at a value that maximizers may cringe at

Last week, the Rewards Canada family decided to head up for a small road trip to the Edmonton area and would need a hotel for one night in Stony Plain. We chose the Best Western Sunrise Inn and Suites Stony Plain as we had stayed there many moons ago and enjoyed the hotel. As with most of our hotel stays now we book two rooms for the family and here's what the two rooms were pricing out at:

A very reasonable price of only $121.49 plus taxes per room for the Best Western Rewards members rate (the AAA rate was the same). However I also saw the 20,000 points option and it triggered my memory that 'hey we have Best Western points we haven't used'. I have been sitting on 60,000+ Best Western Rewards points for years as Best Western is a brand we almost never stay at! As most of our readers may know it's Marriott, Hyatt etc. for most of the Rewards Canada family stays. The last time we stayed at a BW hotel was back in 2015. So, I decided that I would redeem points for the two rooms as the points are just sitting there not being used. It is better to use them up rather than not at all and seeing that I don't even know when we may stay at another Best Western hotel it just made sense to redeem. This was the topic of discussion for episode 56 of our podcast with guest Rob Carrick about hoarding points and something we talk about in a lot of our media interviews that it is better not to hold on to points for too long. Give it a listen if you haven't yet!

Anyways, back to the redemption. The process on the Best Western website was super easy and I was able to select the 20,000 points rate for the first room, then it went to the second room and I was able to do the same and after completing some fields in the reservation form (requesting connecting rooms etc) we had the rooms booked in less then 5 minutes.

40,000 points and no cash outlay. Nice. But for some of our readers, you are probably cringing now! Why redeem 40,000 points for a hotel stay that isn't very expensive. Yes if we paid cash it would have only been $264.84 total for the two rooms.

40,000 points for $264.84 in room cost translates to a value of only 0.66 cents per point. I would say this on the mid to lower end for Best Western Rewards where you could pull upwards of 0.9 cents per point. Don't get me wrong, I like to be able to receive as much value for my points whenever possible but I also live by my mantra that was covered in my feature The True Value in Reward Redemptions where the best redemptions are those that make you happy. This redemption made me happy, I got to use up points that have been sitting there for years and most likely would have sat there for many more years. I also got to keep almost $265 in my wallet. So in my mind this was a redemption that was well worth it.


Not only did we get the stay for free, I also earned 750 points on the stay thanks to being a Best Western Diamond member (thanks to BW Status Match No Catch) and completing the stay survey afterwards:

Overall I would say this was a great redemption for the Rewards Canada family! We'd love to hear your comments about redeeming points for Best Western stays. Do you try to maximize them or don't even bother looking at the value and just redeem for those free nights whenever you can get them? Let us know in the comments below!

Title image courtesy of Best Western

Redemption Stories: Utilizing the BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard Companion Flight Benefit

Rewards Canada reader Jim M. provided a comment on our post Travel Hacking 102 - Earn up to 4,300+ AIR MILES Rewards Miles for FREE with a potential value of over $1,300 in travel (Updated Nov 21, 18) and how he has leveraged just one of these offers for an amazing redemption story. This ties in perfectly with our latest Ultimate Credit Card Portfolio that came out earlier in the week that focuses on companion passes! We'll pass it off to Jim now!

Here is a good example of how we have been able to receive amazing value from AIR MILES. I applied for the BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard last month. It offers first year free, 3,000 AIR MILES Rewards Miles on a minimum spend of $3,000 which in turn produces 3,300 Air Miles. The card also brings a 15% reduction in AIR MILES award flight mile requirements for travel within North America and a one time free companion benefit.

I received the card and am in the process of completing the minimum spend. Last week I booked return flights between Sudbury and Vancouver for the spring. The mileage cost was 7,200 Air Miles for two, reduced by the 15% the card provides so in the end the redemption was 6,120 AIR MILES Reward Miles.. The companion benefit will see 3,060 miles returned to my account so the net miles cost is only 3,060! That’s 240 less than the sign-up bonus on the card and the earnings for the minimum spend.

The taxes and fees for two return tickets YSB-YVR were $287. The lowest price I could find for two between YSB and YVR return flights on the same dates of our travel was $1,471. The immediate dollar value of the miles earned from this card is therefore $1,184!

Not bad for one card, not bad for our tertiary travel program. In the end we are receiving about 39 cents of value per AIR MILE on this booking thanks to the companion voucher. AIR MILES, used carefully, is a very valuable option for ‘free’ travel.

This kind of specific use of AIR MILES allows us to save most of our Aeroplan Miles and British Airways Avios for long haul, intercontinental Business Class travel which is where the real value of those programs lies. We also save Avios for travel within South America where LATAM doesn't have scam charges. Qantas is similar in Australia for us.

And a tip from Jim:
When we get new cards we tend to concentrate all our spending on the new card until minimum spend amounts have been reached. All our spending, even a Starbucks coffee, goes on that card. We occasionally plan to get a new card with a high minimum spend just in advance of a major payment. I pay off our cards daily online from our bank accounts and almost never carry a balance on a card. It is the easiest way to manage them and ensure we never miss a payment. We do not use any manufactured spend techniques to meet our minimum spend requirements.

Editors note/tip:
This redemption story from Jim provides insight to an often forgotten value of the AIR MILES and even the Aeroplan program. That is using miles and points for domestic flights out of smaller Canadian cities that tend to be expensive to fly out of. Sudbury is a famous one that always shows up on forums like FlyerTalk. Basically any small town or city that has only one major airline serving it tends to be more expensive which equates to better value for your miles and points, even more so than for international flights and remember it doesn't take as long to collect enough miles for most domestic flights!

Redemption Stories: 72,000 Reward Point stay at a New York City Best Western Hotel for only 30,000 Points!

 Going back a couple of weeks ago we brought you the details of Best Western's Fall promotion and it wasn't met with huge fanfare as it's a simple double points offer. However the promotion also includes a redemption portion that is being met with lots of fanfare. That offer is that you can redeem 10,000 points for a reward night at any Best Western Hotel in North America. Of course you wouldn't want to redeem that amount for a hotel that's only 8,000 points but with many being in the 16,000 to 24,000 point range per night you can see why this becomes a great offer.

When we posted the offer there was some confusion on how you book the redemption offer. Thanks to our reader BoogieManer we learned how you do. You simply needed to call Best Western Rewards customer service to take advantage of the redemption offer. Remember it is only good for stays between November 1 and January 31 however you can book those stays right away:

As you can see the Redemption Story here is one that provides some big time value! BoogieManer booekd a hotel in New York City for only 10,000 points per night (30,000 total) instead of 24,000 points per night (72,000 total) That is some huge savings and an example how you really need to keep on top of the game and utilize promotions like this when they come about. Good job BoogieManer!

Great news is that these rates are also now available online, you don't have to actually call in! Here is another New York example at the Best Western Premier Herald Square:

The hotel normally goes for 36,000 points per night but during this promotion it is only 10,000 points!

Once again here are the details of the Best Western promotion:

Double Rewards Points for stays at all Best Western branded hotels Worldwide. Full details, Online registration and booking (Registration is required) Until Nov 30, 17
Additional offer: BWR members can redeem 10,000 points for an exclusive offer for a Free Night valid for a stay at any Best Western branded hotel in North America.  The free night is valid for stays taking place between November 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018 

Have you or are you going to take advantage of this offer? Tell us your story in the comments section below!

Redemption Stories: Using Diners Club Club Reward Points for a Hertz Car Rental

For our Maui trip back in February we rented a large SUV to shuttle us around the island. We picked a 7/8 passenger SUV (Ford Explorer or similar) from Hertz as they had some of the best pricing and we could take advantage of an Aeroplan bonus mile offer for Hertz rentals.

Related: Earning Stories: 2,500 Aeroplan Miles on a Hertz SUV rental in Maui

I put the car rental charges on my Diners Club MasterCard for two reasons. It has no cap on rental car value for the CDW just in case we got an upgrade (and we did, read the related story above!) and the possibility of using Club Rewards points for the charge. In the end I did end up using points for the rental:

So as you can see the rental ended up costing us 47 cents as you don't redeem points for portions under $1. I pretty much only use the Diners Club card for the Tailored Travel Credit redemptions to save us money on our vacations (see my other Diners Club redemption stories here). The redemption rate works out to a 1.7% return on my spending, of course there are cards out there that could have got me 2% however I wouldn't have been able to drive around in an upgraded luxury SUV with those cards. This is one card where I am willing to give up the .3% return for the benefits it provides like the great CDW and airport business class lounge access. 

That being said, the Club Rewards Program is changing on April 6th and the tailored travel credit drops to a 1.5% return. So that has got me thinking about my main MasterCard choice. It may be time to move to another card but keep this one for car rentals and the airport lounge access. The good thing is you can also convert Club Rewards points to 19 airline and hotel programs at OK but not great ratios unless they run a promotion. For example I did convert Club Rewards points during their last bonus for British Airways where the redemption rate of 1,250 points gave 1,300 Avios instead of 1,000.

Unfortunately the Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard is not available for new applications but you could use some of the following cards to do the same type of partial (or full) redemption towards the travel charge:

• American Express Gold Rewards Card
• Capital One® Aspire Travel™ World Elite MasterCard®
• mbna Rewards World Elite MasterCard
• Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
• TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card
• and more! Simply look for "Any Travel Provider" in the Redemption Centre row of this chart: Travel Points comparison chart

Ultimately this redemption shows the power in proprietary credit card programs. You don't have to redeem for flights only, you have lots of options. You also earn points on the charge at first not to mention potential frequent flyer miles like we did (2,500 Aeroplan Miles) and technically you don't have to have all the points, you can do a  partial redemption or wait  longer to redeem more points against that charge. This is why we believe proprietary credit card programs are the best option for most Canadians.

Related: Why proprietary credit card reward programs are the best option for most Canadians

Redemption Stories: Etihad Guest miles were going to expire, so I redeemed them for merchandise!

Shot of my Powerocks charger on RewardsCanada's Instagram!

What do you do when you have some miles in an account you don't use very often and those miles are about to expire? You redeem them that's what! Such was the case with my Etihad Guest account. I had earned a bunch of miles in the account for free when they were running an offer for free miles for connecting your personal account to a business EtihadConnect account. Seeing that I wasn't earning Guest miles anywhere else and the best viable flight option was a short haul in the Middle East that wasn't happening anytime soon I wanted to find a redemption I could actually use. The logical redemption was for some merchandise. Yes I know, that goes against what we discuss right here on Rewards Canada in that merchandise rewards are some of the worst value redemptions you can take advantage of. But is that really so? NO! True, if you have an account where you gain lots of miles or points in like Aeroplan or AIR MILES for so many Canadians then yes, merchandise rewards tend to be a bad value. But if you have miles and points in an account you don't use very often and know you won't get to a travel award then merchandise rewards are totally worth it.

I knew I was never going to use those Etihad miles for a flight so rather than let them expire I redeemed them for merchandise via the Etihad Guest Reward Shop (quite an amazing reward store I must admit!). Was it a good value. Heck ya! Rather then getting nothing and the miles turning into dust with a value of $0 I redeemed them for a Powerocks Super Stone3 Dual USB portable charger. It was something we needed in our family to provide a power source for when are away from the house, hotel or car. It cost me 13,096 Etihad Guest miles which included express shipping from the UAE. Best I can tell this unit sells for around US$109 (~C$140) plus shipping and handling from several locations overseas.

My estimate is that if I was to buy this unit from one of those places I would be looking at about C$170 total. This means I received a value of roughly 1.3 cents per mile redeemed. This is actually a good rate for merchandise seeing that most programs have values of below 1 cent per mile but the fact I got all my Etihad Guest miles at no cost the redemption was worth more than that!!

Bottom line is that if you have miles or points expiring in an account where you can't use them for travel reward or convert them to another program then redemptions like these make sense. It also shows that you should sign up for all those 'free miles/points' offers out there as you never know when you may just build up some of those oddball reward program accounts to a high enough balance to at least redeem for something!!

Redemption Stories: Using WestJet Rewards Dollars and Diners Club Reward Points for WestJet flights

Highlights from our SFO trip
(www.instagram.com/rewardscanada)

Back in July the Rewards Canada family took a vacation to San Francisco. This was quite a last minute decision on our part, it was late July and we really wanted to get away before our busy August. It was Sunday night and could travel later that week. Without going into all the search details on places we haven't been and within a few hours of home seeing we only had 3 full days we decided on San Francisco. The Rewards Canada family had never set foot in San Francisco unless you include the airport for connecting! This was an ideal location seeing that we had done Los Angeles (three times) Palm Springs and San Diego in the previous 14 months or so. Yes this is the power of miles and points, many of those trips were funded in part with loyalty programs!

Seeing that we only had three full days we wanted to ensure that we got to SFO in a short amount of time so it was decided that we would fly on WestJet's direct flights so we could use up some our WestJet dollars. As we were redeeming WestJet Dollars from multiple accounts I actually had to call in to WestJet to book the flights as you cannot redeem from multiple accounts online at the same time. The process was really simple as I just had to supply our WestJet Rewards numbers and told the agent we wanted to use our dollars for the flights. The cash portion was put on my Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard so we could also utilize Club Rewards points for a portion of the costs to make what would be an expensive flight purchase more reasonable.

WestJet Rewards redemption

Diners Club Club Rewards redemption

What initially began with flights costing $3,014.36  ended up only costing us $1,824.36. A great example of 'flexible' reward programs like WestJet Rewards and Diners Club Club Rewards. You don't have to wait until you have the full amount of points or miles. WestJet does require a balance of $25 to redeem if you don't hold one of their RBC MasterCards and that is why you only see three WestJet redemptions for the four of us travelling as my older daughter only had $24 in her account at the time of booking. You can also see however that we earned WestJet Dollars on the cash portion of the tickets which explains why my youngest daughter actually earned more on her flights than my wife or I as she redeemed less dollars. Also you may see that our Diners Club redemption was actually done nearly two months after the trip. Again another bonus of flexible credit card programs, you can continue to earn points on purchases and use them towards a past purchase. Depending on the card you carry you have anywhere from 90 days to 12 months after the charge is posted to use your points or miles!

Could we have utilized another reward program? Well I looked at using Aeroplan miles and all options required a connection with a lot longer travel time than the direct WestJet flights. With only 3 full days in San Francisco and this being a vacation, not business, we wanted to ensure we had the most time possible in SFO so the decision was made to go with the direct flights and enjoy more time in the Golden Gate city on the actual travel days.

Unfortunately the Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard is not available for new applications but you could use some of the following cards to do the same type of partial (or full) redemption towards the travel charge:

• American Express Gold Rewards Card
• Capital One® Aspire Travel™ World Elite MasterCard®
• mbna Rewards World Elite MasterCard
• Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
• TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card
• and more. Simply look for "Any Travel Provider" in the Redemption Centre row of this chart: Travel Points comparison chart

Redemption Stories The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Aeroplan Summary

I asked and you responded. Welcome to the summary of Rewards Canada's latest Redemption Stories: The Good The Bad and The Ugly. For this go around we went back to Aeroplan after they were spotlighted on CBC about the miles being difficult to redeem. Our readers definitely spoke out once again! Surprisingly to me there weren't as many 'Ugly' incidents as I thought there would be based on the number of complaints I receive but the balance of responses do fall into the 'Bad' category. Of course these are categorized by me, so what I think may be 'Ugly', could just be 'Bad' to someone else or vice-versa, either way I hope this post helps shed some light on Aeroplan redemptions.

RELATED STORIES:
Redemption Stories The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Aeroplan Summary from 2012
Redemption Stories The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Air Miles Summary from 2012

Some interesting notes from these comments tell us how some like to work stopovers and layovers into their Aeroplan award tickets while we see others who have had success with Aeroplan in the past but not so much anymore, others who have more success with AIR MILES and we do see a few people dumping their Aeroplan co-brand credit cards for other credit cards.

I would love to hear more comments and stories from Aeroplan members, feel free to do so at the bottom of this post and finally I want to thank everyone who contributed their stories, without you this post would not be possible!

The Good

Jerry H via the blog

have too much Aeroplan miles now to give up on it, but it did get harder and harder to use since 2010 with all the devaluation (Mini-RTW in J from 100K to 125K and now 150K) and generous CC signups

If used correctly and one's flexible enough, Aeroplan is still very valuable for 2+ CPM return, and bonus for ME is the weird routing I can do and stopovers/layovers (impossible on cash fare)
YYZ-NRT-TPE-SIN-BKK-ZRH-YUL-YYZ, YYZ-IST-ICN-TPE-LAX-YYZ, TSA-HND-SFO-YYZ, YYZ-LGA/JFK-BRU-NCE-ZRH-CDG-TPE-LAX-YYZ, etc...

The game is getting tougher to play, one has to adapt and play it well to come out ahead, and occasionally get in on the rare Aeroplan mistakes (I booked YYZ-IST in TK J for 50K miles only vs. 105K during the 4-hour Halloween glitch) to top it off

Steve F via the blog

The good AND the bad. I'm a football fanatic, I've attended 7 World Cups now and often use points to make the dream a reality. Last year heading to Brazil (from Victoria BC) and wanting to be in business class I successfully booked a full 12 months in advance (approx June 2013) A wonderful trip, except for the 11 hour layover in Toronto! Really Aeroplan? 135,000 in points and a 11 hour layover??

Charles K. via email

We were able to book business class tickets on Air Canada partners before the points were devalued (need more miles for same trip) and into Singapore, instead of our destination, Kuala Lumpur (~350 KM away) and saved ~50,000 points by booking early and not going directly to destination. Taxes/service were ~$80 by going with partners,and flew FireFly for ~$50 between KL & Singapore.

Otherwise,  I have only negative stories on points usage to fly into Europe.

Randy M via email

Like many other long time Aeroplan members, I have learned one must plan ahead to be able to book the flights for your dream trip. Where possible we book 11 months ahead but have found that booking 5 months ahead has worked for us too. We have been able to book 5 round trips with Aeroplan, including one to India, Bali and return to Victoria. So overall, our experience has been positive and we have been very fortunate to be able to book well in advance as mentioned earlier. We have also found that using/paying the Aeroplan agent is worthwhile for example that is how we arranged our stopover in Bali on our return from India in 2014. In 2015 Aeroplan is taking us to Greece and those Aeroplan miles make our trips affordable.

The Bad

C and T via the blog

"My husband and I have been to New Zealand four times in Business Class using Aeroplan Points. I have been saving up points to go again in 2016, but I have been looking at the flight possibilities online recently. Whereas Aeroplan used to give me many options for getting to New Zealand, now the only thing they offer is flying Air Canada to Sydney and Air New Zealand to Auckland. Even if I try going from LA, the flight goes to Sydney and then Auckland. The only availability seems to be in Economy and even then, the taxes and fees for two people are as much as a flight for one of us on Air New Zealand Vancouver to Auckland. I got an Amex Gold Rewards card, but if I transfer points to Aeroplan, they aren't Distinction miles. If I use Amex Rewards points, I need over a million points to get my Business Class tickets with Air New Zealand. That is why Aeroplan should in theory be the program of choice, but there are no tickets available. We are going to give up our TD Visas before I have to pay my yearly renewal fee, as there seems little point in collecting Aeroplan points. I can use my BMO Mastercard for no fee whenever my Amex card is not taken. I do collect Air Miles, but you can't get Business class with it. And that program has changed too, requiring different amounts of miles with different airlines. Plus ca change, as they say."

Hubert P. via email

What a joke!
You experience the non available dates you request both way. When you finally book, the extra charges are more than a special on AC regular flights.
Having purchased 2 return trips to Switzerland, I tried to up-grade using my Aeroplan points. NO, since I purchased my fares.
In March 2015, requested a flight on points from New Brunswick to Montreal for June. No seats available! I then checked the availability on AC web page, with 80% of seats unoccupied for my requested dates. I called Air Miles and without problems, booked my dates with cheaper extra charges.
Same month, tried to book 2 return flights to Nwwark, NJ, for Aug.28th. Unable to get the dates chosen. However by using the market technique, those dates became available!
The following morning I cancelled my TD  Infinite Aeroplan card for a TD Infinite First Class!
I would rather pay my fares rather than be frustrated every time I need to travel!

Lia A. via the blog

I just came back from a 9-day trip to Naples and the Campania Region. I booked my flight during March Break last Sept. Re-booked in October via Istanbul (instead of Vienna & Rome), paid 750 dollars in 'taxes'; a month later AC had the direct flight to Naples for a total $900 (and the taxes were listed as $150)! My return was via Munich and London: something like 20 hrs and 3 security screenings. The Best Western Naples hotel was in a dump area. I cancelled my TD card. Will stay with CIBC card for a while even if adding points will be very slow; the hotels I booked with this card were excellent and cost a lot less points than with Aeroplan card. Besides, the Star Alliance does not have good companies so I'll rather buy my ticket with a different sort of network (like AF/KL M/Delta for example). This recent trip was my 1st time booking hotels.

Kmtluna via email

We booked two tickets round trip, Calgary to Frankfurt, Business Class, and paid substantially more in points to do so.  They could not “guarantee” that we would get Business Class, even though we paid the points for Business Class.  We would only get BC seats if they were available at the time of the flight.  Coming back from Frankfurt, we walked through the BC to Economy, and could see that there were very few people in the BC section.  I immediately went to the Purser who said he could do nothing, I would have to go back inside and speak to the AC agent there.  When I went back inside, they were very snotty and said I should have checked much earlier.  They knew we had already paid the points for the Business Class seats, and they should have advised us that seats were available, but they did not.

Also, the Black and other levels you can earn depending on the dollars spent on your Aeroplan Credit Card.  They say in all the advert that you “can earn until December 31^st” – but that is not true, as it depends on the statement date of your credit card, and sometimes purchases made in November will not get credited to your mileage status.

Aeroplan advertises and promotes, but then does not give sufficient detail for the consumer to be able to plan effectively and maximize their benefit.

Ginny via email

We have bee saving Aeroplan miles and using them for years.  In fact we have travelled to New Zealand from Toronto 3 times with one coming up in 2016. Shorter journey have been made as well.   Generally the service has been pretty good with as with any company some excellent service people.  However we have decided to switch to a more flexible card as of this month.  I am retired so can spend hours on the computer fighting the system.  The last straw was that we couldn't find tickets we wanted Toronto to Auckland, business class but they would not be bookable (because of time shifting) until Midnight.  I stayed up to book the tickets for about 7 consecutive nights trying again for the next day but someone else took the tickets before I could.  There is no possibility of talking to a person because the phones are not staffed at that time.  We have tickets almost a year in advance for next year via New York and Seoul to Sydney then Auckland.  Since I started checking for both Economy and Business seats for seats in February there has never been a seat available to Auckland.  I found one online just Sydney to Auckland and an agent changed our booking for $90.00 each to add this flight.  In the past we have been willing to take unreasonable waits in airports because the choices available from Aeroplan (once waiting over 12 hours to transfer to the next plane).

This was the last straw and we have changed to another bank card which allows the use of any airline and any routing.  We will use our remaining Aeroplan miles for shorter flights and look forward to a more flexible travelling life.

Paul L via the blog 

Aeroplan has mostly lived up to expectations and allowed us to take many discounted trips with the kids when they were pre-schoolers. However since they've been in school it has been near impossible to find flights during school breaks. Often we have have had to leave early and return late, which has the bonus of a longer vacation but everything you save on flights you end up spending on additional nights of hotels; not to mention frustrating some teachers and principals who don't appreciate when the kids miss school. The last straw for us with Aeroplan was when they started occasionally charging a 54$ Carrier Surcharge on Air Canada flights and sometimes ridiculously high taxes, ie 670$ pp for flights to Venice! I cancelled our Amex Aeroplan Platinum 3 years ago and we are now straight 2% Cash Backers with MBNA World Elite MC.

Frank via email

No refund changes, 5 minutes after booking!

I was booking a flight from Toronto to Las Vegas on Aeroplan points one way.  Forget the expensive taxes $120 plus 12.5k points.  The booking engine didn't make it clear that an 08:00 flight was 8 am - it doesn't say AM!  You need to have figured that out on your own.  If there are no comparison flights on the screen past noon it's hard to notice since there's no 13:00 plus flights.

Only after booking does it tell you AM.  As soon as I booked I called realizing my mistake.  After only 5 minutes had gone by for a flight that wouldn't take place for 6 more months Aeroplan told me that changing to the 8 pm flight or 20:00 o'clock would cost me a $90 change fee.   Only 5 minutes had gone by!

Frank.

Aeroman380 via the blog

I was just looking at using points to go from YYZ to Hawaii and it is 45k ap return in Y this summer + Taxes. Then I looked up how much a return ticket from yyz to ogg/hnl is and it is only 600$cad! Why would I use points and pay high taxes that are about the same as a fare ticket?

Buzz B LocalPony.com via email

The problems are simple, Aeroplan markets flights available at low mileage, but those flight selections are very limited. If you want a flight that suits "reasonable travel times", you will pay a premium.

Case in point: Wife wants to fly YYC-YVR for her high school reunion. That's marketed as a 15k point flight. Except all the flights are 6am ish. Want to fly mid afternoon that's going to cost you double.

I'm trying to fly to IAD for a conference next February, and have been checking daily to try and snag a ticket the first day the window opened to book for February 21.

Guess what? No seats. None. Zero. Even in the higher reward zones. This despite there being a number of flight options via Air Canada codeshare partners.

These last two flights will clean out my account. From then on it's Aventura or Avion. A chance to use points as discount dollars, a chance to find a good sale fare and have a better selection of flight options.

I've been an Aeroplan member my entire life, and now I'm letting it lapse.

The Ugly

Lee Barker via the blog

The day after receiving an email notifying me I was a million mile Aeroplan member and could never go below Elite 50K status again I was refused entry into the Maple Leaf Lounge at Pearson because I did not have the new card . I showed the email to two ladies at the desk and they both refused me entry saying I could not come in without the card which obviously was in the mail -- One of these women also made the comment when I explained the number of points I had accumulated on Aeroplan flying on Air Canada that "those are only points they don't mean anything for Air Canada you can get them on credit cards "-- I was clearly disgusted with this type of attitude and service and sent a message to Aeroplan but of course I never received a response.

On March 23 2015 I missed a flight to Hong Kong at Pearson and tried to get priority assistance to re-book a flight to Shanghai and on to HK --I was told by the Air Canada check in Official at the Elite counter that I had to go to the regular ticketing counter and their was no priority booking system available -- I found this unbelievable -- I waited for over 35 minutes in the lineup (only two Air Canada personnel were servicing at least 30 passengers in line. I finally gave up and used my cell phone to book a flight myself online - after which I proceeded back to the priority check in counter and checked in. This kind of treatment of business passengers who have supported AC for over 45 years and accumulated over a million miles on AC flights is intolerable and AC staff should be properly educated in how to treat their most loyal supporters.

Bob G via email

1.      My wife and I would like to plan a trip to Hawaii, January to February, 2015 and I have tried to book our travel 356 days in advance.

On the 356^th day, I was able to secure only one Executive seat (YVR – HON) for my wife and had to book an Economy seat for myself.  I was told that I would “have to check daily” to see when and if additional Executive became available.  I was also told that there is “no wait listing”.  Every day I needed to check and finally was able to secure an Executive seat for myself, after paying the $90.00 change fee as I was forced to change as seats were not available.

While I was hopefully waiting for a second Executive to become available on the  flight that my wife was one, I did find one seat available but the routing was Cranbrook / Calgary (Executive) / Winnipeg (overnight), then Vancouver (Economy) then Honolulu (Executive).  Does this make any sense????

On the return flights, there was again, one seat in Executive and one in Economy (February 16^th) again 356 days in advance, but was not able to book as travelling onward to Cranbrook, on the 17^th (which was outside the 356 day limit).  I could have booked both seats and then paid the $90.00 each fee the next day for the travel to Cranbrook, and again monitored each day to see if additional Executive seats became available and then pay an additional $90.00 for the upgrade which I choose not to do.  This rebooking fee (when seats are initially not available) certainly seems to be a great rip-off.   Why cannot Aeroplan have a wait-list??

I set my alarm and got up and online as soon as the Montreal office opened but the one Executive seat available the previous day (HON – YVR) was “no longer available”.

This is extremely frustrating in having a lack of seats 356 days in advance and so I am seriously reconsidering continuing my membership with Aeroplan.  What is the sense of collecting points (I have over 450,000 miles and my wife currently has about 50,000)?

2.      Aeroplan insists that you take the “next flight out” which is very ridiculous, I believe.  This means that arriving in an international airport late at night, then getting up at 4:00 AM for the “next flight out” only to wait at a connecting airport 6 hours for the “next flight out” to my home airport.  I would have preferred to sleep later, take a decent connecting flight to then arrive at my home airport.

3.      Aeroplan also charges higher taxes than paying for the same flight, same date, and same destination.  It is very easy to check and then feel disgusted.  For trips to Europe, the trick is to get on flights operated by Swiss or United. I arbitrarily chose some dates in June 2014 to test this on. Flying on the default choices that Aeroplan.com suggested had me paying $646 in taxes and fees.  Forcing the flights to choose Swiss Air flights reduces the fees from $646 to $188 per person for the same route.

A friend is flying from Toronto to Glasgow.  If she flew Air Canada she would have to pay over $1,000.00 in taxes, however, she is flying to Newark and then on to Glasgow and will pay $265.00 in Taxes.

4.      One is charged full points when flying in Executive, even if, on a 14 hour trip, with four segments, only one segment is in Executive (2.5 hours).  Again, they are inflexible with this.

5.      The routing is very ridiculous…  Vancouver to Edmonton to Denver to San Francisco to Kona.   Or, Calgary to Edmonton to Vancouver to San Francisco.

On a recent search, traveling from Vancouver to Cranbrook, one routing was Vancouver to Kelowna, with a wait of 9 hours, then to Calgary, (overnight) then to Cranbrook….  A time of 27 hours.  The direct flight to Cranbrook is 90 minutes.

6.      When one is flying Executive Class, using Aeroplan points, one is sometimes transferred to the low cost Rouge subsidiary of Air Canada, and still charged the regular Aeroplan points for Executive.  Seats in “Premium” in Rouge not as shown on the advertising nor are the meals or service anything close to what is available on Air Canada “Executive”. Advertising tells one about the on board entertainment suiting "all your go too gadgets".....what they fail to tell you is that only Apple is supported....forget Android completely!!!  Rouge has also received a very poor reputation in just a few months of “servicing” Western Canada.  It should be avoided at all costs but Aeroplan gives one no other alternative.

7.      Writing to Aeroplan, one gets a form letter that indicates that they really do not care nor read what has been sent.  I was told to “book 356 days in advance to get the best available seats”, (when that is what I complained about) then I was told that “Air Canada only releases seats throughout the year”.  Also, the form letter did not address any of my issues.  Even writing a personal letter to executives in the Vancouver and Montreal offices did not rate a response.

8.      Finally the “Classic Plus” is an insult to any clear-thinking individual.  Why would anyone pay over 400,000 points for a 15,000 ticket?

Any suggestions as to getting and travel value from this card would be greatly appreciated.  Aeroplan has been a total joke in the last decade.

I will be looking for another travel card ASAP.

RightOn via the blog

Well two years running I have tried to use Aeroplan to either Cancun or Dominican Republic from Ottawa during a shoulder season of October or November. Bad news! This 4 hour flight was available for 40,000 points per person for a 14 hour one way flight with 1 or 2 stop overs. The return was even better (haha) at 15 hours. This year 15 hours and 16 hours are available to either location. Thought I might use my distinction benefits and for 47,500 one way and 49,000 return I can also get there in 16 hours and 18 hours. What kind of joke is that? Last year, we were fortunate to have enough Air Miles for my wife and I to fly round trip with a direct flight there (4 hours) and a one stop in Toronto for a 6 hours total trip return for 4400 points each plus $438.00 taxes and fees. Great!. This year Air Miles has the Aeroplan times and the Air Miles is not 4400 but 5800 miles. Takes a decade to earn that many points for two with Air Miles. Same applies to Nassau.

Not only is that disgusting, this month we tried to book a flight from Montreal to St. John's Newfoundland and we cannot get there with a classic fare unless we wait 10 hours in Halifax. Our return would be 8 hours for a 3 hour flight. For this "free" flight we would have to pay $396.00 for two for taxes and fees! I looked up the taxes and fees and all are acceptable except the carrier fuel charge of $54 per person. Did Air Canada forget that oil has dropped by more than half price and the surcharge is another money grab and was only warranted with the per barrel cost of $110 or so. At less than half of that, this charge should be dropped. Time for consumer protection to kick in. And I am an Air Canada shareholder but that is a rip off!

Response on the blog to the above story
Master Nerd via the blog
Those flights to Cancun/Dominican certainly suck. Regarding the fuel surcharges, it's not quite so simple. The problem is that even though oil prices have dropped, so has the Canadian dollar. Jet fuel is predominantly purchased from the US in USD, and is paid for months in advanced. So really, any savings they are getting are largely a wash with the weak Canadian dollar and the long term time-scales of purchasing jet fuel. WestJet is feeling the same pinch as well. On the flip side, US airlines should be raking it as long as their dollar is strong and oil is cheap. Strangely, I've noticed that you can save a little money if you book AC codeshare flights on the United website, even if they're all on AC metal.

Happy travels!

Craig R. via email

I have a ton of Aeroplan points I have been trying to burn. I recently had to travel to Vancouver, and thought here’s a chance. Not quite. I could book a direct flight from Toronto to Vancouver no problem, in fact I had several direct flights to choose from. But when it came time to book the return trip, the only options between Vancouver and Toronto involved an overnight stop in Regina.  So I changed my travel dates and … same thing. I even went as far as to change the travel dates by six months – that gave me a choice of over nighting in Regina, or Saskatoon. No direct flights home, regardless of what I did. That is just plain stupid.

Had another business trip come up – Amsterdam this time. So I looked at Toronto to Amsterdam routings, all of which involved a stop someplace so even the shortest travel time was over 10 hours. An economy seat is 60,000 points return. Then by the time you pay all of the fees, taxes, surcharges and other costs that Aeroplan never really talks about, it turned out my “free” flight was going to cost me almost $700. At the time, a direct flight on KLM cost $825, all-in, and took two hours less. Talk about a no-brainer. 

Tried looking at the same trip in business class. With all the fees, the Aeroplan booking would cost me 90,000 points and about $1,400 – far less than the $4,000 to buy a business class seat outright. But then you look closer, and it turns out that the only time you’re actually in a business class seat is on the short connecting flights – in every single instance, the long trans-Atlantic leg was in economy!!! The default routing took me from Toronto to Washington Dulles supposedly in business, then from Dulles to Amsterdam in economy. All flights on United. So I checked United’s website and found the aircraft used on the Toronto – Dulles leg doesn’t even have a business class cabin. So why is Aeroplan charging me for business class when I would have been in economy the whole way?  That is just plain deceptive.

One more example - I needed to fly to Rome. I could do it in economy for 60,000 Aeroplan points and about $700 in fees, but every option involved a horrid connection. Looked at Market Value flights and they have direct flights – yay! Then I see the direct route would have cost me 600,000 points, not 60,000. You have to be kidding me!!!!  At the end of the day, I paid cash for a direct flight on another airline. 

How they get away with false advertising and insane hidden fees without going to jail is beyond me.

Victor S. via email

I have been an Aeroplan member for more than 20 years and have been booking business class seats for about 8 years now down to the same location in the Caribbean with no problems until this year. About 9 years ago, I was told by a Aeroplan representative that to get tickets in high demand times, like March break, booking 1 year in advance would be the best chance to get the seats. This is what I have been doing- waiting as soon as the flight becomes available shortly after midnight almost 1 year in advance. I did not have any problems until this year when I tried to book for March 2016 for a direct flight from Toronto to the same location. I actually thought I had two business class seats as I was at the booking screen but when I clicked on book, a message came up that the Itinerary was no longer available. I tried several other days and received the same message. I called Aeroplan and spoke to a supervisor and a couple of days later to their customer complaints group and received the same story that they couldn't help as they do not control when Air Canada makes the seats available. They could also not explain why it appeared tickets were available only for the tickets to be pulled at the last second. I told them that I did not have issues in the past and whether they could call Air Canada and ask them what had changed after all these years- they refused to do so. What a poor customer service. I told them that I would be looking at other rewards programs like the WestJet program and whether I should be keeping my Amex Aeroplan plus platinum card. Honestly they could care less. Well since then, I have enrolled with WestJet rewards program and now waiting for my RBC World Elite MasterCard to be sent to me. Aeroplan should care a little more as there are other alternatives in the market and the credit card companies that provide affiliated cards like AMEX, TD and CIBC should care because some of these cards have large annual fees. Maybe if these credit card companies put some pressure on Aeroplan, Aeroplan would be having serious discussions with Air Canada to stop playing games with the availability of business class seats. I had to use 240,000 Aeroplan points for 2 business class seats for 2016 with the Market fare program (and that was with a 35% discount given I am a d Diamond distinction member) instead of the normal 120,000 points using Classic Flight.

I think the government should investigate whether Air Canada and Aeroplan are in collusion to get customers to use more points than should be required under ClassicFlight, given what appears to be a change in seats becoming available, as they both have a vested interest in devaluing the points.

And we were fortunate enough to receive a response from Aeroplan:

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for letting us take the opportunity to respond to the member stories you’ve received. We always listen to our members and try to make improvements based on their feedback. In fact, we used a lot of member feedback to make major changes last year. I have shared all of the comments with my team and we’ll be looking at each closely to better understand what matters most to our members and where improvements can be made.

Before I answer, I wanted to take a moment to touch on how the more recent changes will help members get the most out of the program.

Essentially, Aeroplan provides a combination of great value and availability through two complementary flight reward options; ClassicFlight Rewards and Market Fare Flight Rewards.

ClassicFlight Rewards are seats on Air Canada and over 25 Star Alliance airlines, exclusively offered in Canada to Aeroplan Members at fixed mileage levels. No other program offers this kind of value.

Based on member feedback, last year we launched Market Fare Flight Rewards to offer access to any seat at any time on all Air Canada flights at mileage levels that vary based on market fares at the time of booking. So when flights are all booked on Classic, members can also look for seats through our Market Fare Flight Rewards.

And, top accumulating Aeroplan Members have access to reduced mileage levels of up to 35% on Market Fare Flight Rewards in addition to bonus mile offers and exclusive privileges.

I’m really proud to say that last year alone, our members redeemed for 1.9 million flights. More people than ever were able to find what they were looking for. In fact, Aeroplan puts more people in more reward seats than any other loyalty program in Canada.

But we know we have a ways to go and things to improve. We aren’t done. We want to have better support and solutions for our members and we continue to work on that.

There were a few themes in the comments received and I’ve addressed them below.

Layovers – We show members all routes that we have in our system. While some flights may have a longer connection time or a layover, we want to let our customers decide what works for them. Some of our members enjoy a longer layover to be able to tour another city and some don’t want to have to rush between connecting flights. If you aren’t finding an ideal flight on our exclusive ClassicFlight Rewards, a good option is to check out our Market Fare Flight Rewards, which offer access to any seat at any time on all Air Canada flights – these might have the flights you’re looking for.

We know it’s new and we have to work harder explaining Market Fare Flight Rewards but its great value and more schedule options for our members. It may not be as great a deal as Classic but it provides access to every seat on every flight for Air Canada routes.

Availability – To help members find the flights they’re looking for, we introduced Market Fare Flight Rewards – this means that if there is a seat available on any Air Canada flight, it is available for you to book using your Aeroplan Miles. (Distinction members also enjoy reductions of up to 35% on every seat, every day.)

Our members also have access to Star Alliance flights (Star Alliance is a network of 27 member airlines with more than 18,000 daily flights to more than 1,300 destinations in 193 countries)

Our inventory (seats) get loaded into our system throughout the course of the year. There are often a number of seats that get loaded within the last month before a travel date. If a member checks 100 days out and there isn’t anything, it doesn’t mean there is never anything - It just means members might have hit that window where inventory hasn’t been loaded by the airline yet. That’s why we always encourage members to check back online at aeroplan.com where it’s easy to look up.

One-way travel – Based on our member feedback, last year, mileage levels for one-way flight rewards decreased and require only 50% of the miles needed for a round-trip flight to give members more flexibility with their flight rewards. We’ve received great feedback as a result of this change.

Business Class - Aeroplan’s flight rewards, especially Business Class and First Class are still amongst the best value in the industry. It’s very popular so we recognize it’s sometimes harder to get the exact seats you want. Another option to consider is Premium Economy seats. Aeroplan Members can now also use their miles for the Premium Economy cabin on applicable Air Canada flights when booking flight rewards. Most other programs really don’t provide this at all so it’s a great feature for our members that they can’t get elsewhere.

Surcharges – Just like every Canadian loyalty program, Aeroplan does not determine the carrier surcharge: the amount is determined by each airline carrier individually and varies based on their own costs, destination, cabin type and other variables.

All major loyalty programs in Canada are required to collect carrier-imposed surcharges. Aeroplan only applies these surcharges where applicable on behalf of our airline partners. 100 per cent of the surcharges applied are passed directly to Air Canada. Similar to all other loyalty programs in Canada, the carrier surcharge for all Aeroplan Flight Rewards on International itineraries is the same as the surcharge that Air Canada collects on all of their revenue tickets purchased by customers. The only difference is that airlines embed the charge into their airfare whereas it’s identified separately in an Aeroplan flight reward booking.

Questions/comments - All rewards may be booked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, via aeroplan.com. If you have questions or a more complex route, members can call Aeroplan’s Contact Centre at 1-800-361-5373 from 7am until midnight ET. We also have a special section on Aeroplan.com designed to assist members with answers to frequently asked questions that can be found here.
Thanks to everyone who shared feedback. We remain committed to listening to our members and making ongoing enhancements to the program.

John Boynton, Aeroplan’s Chief Marketing Officer

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Thanks to everyone who submitted their stories, thanks to Aeroplan's John Boynton for providing a response and the stories whether they are good, bad or ugly don't have to stop here. Feel free to comment below with your stories if they weren't included in the above!


Here are a few of Rewards Canada's Aeroplan Resources:

• Air Canada / Aeroplan - Bonus Mile Offers 
• Which Card Earns the Most Aeroplan Miles 
• 5 Tips to Avoid or Mitigate Fuel Surcharges on Award Tickets
• Which credit cards can be used to cover award ticket taxes, fees and surcharges?
• Travel Hacking 101 - Earn 100,000+ Aeroplan Miles free*

Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Call for stories on Aeroplan

In light of today's piece on CBC with Canadian's frustrations with the Aeroplan program we figured what better time to run the Aeroplan Redemption Stories again! Our first Aeroplan Redemption stories summary ran in March of 2012 and can be read in full here.

So here we go:
Rewards Canada's Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is where we reach out to our subscriber and viewer base to tell us their stories of reward program redemption. We want to hear good stories, bad stories and of course plain old ugly ones! We will compile the stories together and post them right here on our blog as a summary in the near future. For our latest edition of this feature we are once again asking for stories about Aeroplan

If you want to share your Aeroplan Redemption story or lack of being able to redeem story with the rest of Canada whether it is good, bad or ugly,  leave a comment below or email us at info@rewardscanada.ca. You can send us a couple of sentences, a whole story or feel free to submit a video! Then watch for our summary edition of Redemption Stories to be posted within the next few weeks.

For guidance and/or examples here are links to the past Redemption Stories
Air Miles
Aeroplan 
Capital One Aspire


We look forward to hearing your stories!!