Aeroplan flight bookings take planning, patience
Redeeming miles for travel rewards takes lots of research, persistence, flexibility, creativity
For years I’ve been collecting Aeroplan miles in hopes of booking a dream vacation for my family. And soon, that dream will become reality.
I just redeemed120,000 Aeroplan miles to travel to Edinburgh, Scotland, next summer. It’s the first trip across the pond for our family of four and we plan to stay for one month — 12 days in Scotland and 18 days in Ireland.
I’ve been covering Aeroplan for years as a freelance writer for the Toronto Star, and through my Rewards Cards Canada blog. This experience has taught me many of the pain points Aeroplan members feel when they redeem miles for flight rewards.
For example, I wrote about one Aeroplan member who tried to redeem miles for two business class tickets to Glasgow, Scotland, only to find out his “free reward” would cost him $2,200 in fees.
Other readers complained that carrier fees and fuel surcharges levied by Air Canada on flight rewards often add up to more than the cost of booking a flight directly with the airline.
All of this could soon change, however, when Aeroplan’s new owners sign off on the deal and take over the program
On my family’s 2019 vacation, I want to minimize fees and maximize the value I get from my points. Here are five lessons learned about Aeroplan: 1. Avoid Air Canada Air Canada is part of the Star Alliance and, for now, Aeroplan members can redeem their miles on any of the 27 partner airlines.
Some of those partners, such as United Airlines, don’t impose fuel surcharges, so you can save hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars by flying on one of those airlines instead of Air Canada.
Trouble is, the Aeroplan flight search tool will often display only the Air Canada flights. A savvy customer looking to maximize his or her points while minimizing fees will have to do some extra research. 2. Check Google Flights Check Google Flights (google.ca/flights) for the direct flights or flight combinations that best match your trip. Then search for those routes on the Aeroplan flight search tool. You can filter the routes on Google Flights to show only Star Alliance members (or even one member in particular) to help you zero-in on the best available options. 3. Be flexible with your dates and itinerary For weeks we had an itinerary set in our minds. We wanted to fly business class from Calgary to Dublin on United Airlines, and then fly home business class on United from Edinburgh to Calgary.
Two things in our favour were our flexible dates (leaving any day between June 12 and 26, 2019) and our willingness to book up to one year in advance.
While Air Canada allows customers to book 355 days in advance, United only opens up their flights for booking 330 days out.
I started checking once that window opened, hoping to score business class seats the moment they became available, but no such luck. I couldn’t even find economy seats on United to Dublin next June.
Eager to book our accommodations and map out the rest of our journey I tried another option: doing our trip in reverse with the Scottish destination first, and flying into Edinburgh. Bingo!
I couldn’t find business class seats, but I did snag four economy seats on a great route from Calgary to Chicago to Edinburgh. Best of all, the fees and taxes on four tickets amounted to just $345.64. 4. Call a booking agent If you do have trouble finding exactly what you’re looking for — especially with a more complicated itinerary — then contact an Aeroplan agent by telephone. You’ll pay a $30 booking fee if the agent completes the booking on your behalf, but it’s a small price to pay to avoid wasting time searching for flights on your own. 5. Be patient As you may have noticed, I’ve only booked one-way tickets to Scotland. That’s because our expected return date is currently outside the booking window. We’ll have to wait a few weeks and then go through this process all over again.
With Aeroplan, you aren’t penalized for booking a one-way ticket instead of a round trip. It’ll cost 120,000 Aeroplan miles to get four economy seats on our return journey to Canada — the same as it was on the way to the U.K.
If we can find business class seats on the way home from Dublin, then we’ll pay 220,000 Aeroplan miles. Final thoughts It pays to learn the ins and outs of rewards programs to help maximize their value, while minimizing fees and hassles.
Altogether the trip will cost us between 240,000 to 340,000 Aeroplan miles and around $700 in fees and taxes. That’s compared to booking directly through Air Canada and paying approximately $4,500 for four round-trip flights.