Aeroplan Program

Aeroplan is Air Canada’s independently run loyalty program. Aeroplan is One of the best loyalty programs for redeeming miles with Star Alliance Partners. You have to know how to make use of these miles to come ahead in the Points and Miles game, specially with the  Aeroplan program. Some carriers like Air Canada, Austrian and Lufthansa impose exorbitant fuel surcharges on the flight awards and pass them on to the consumers, where you would feel the value of the aeroplan miles in your account are worth less. But, by being smart about choosing the carrierers and by picking  more value providing destinations, when you are redeeming Aeroplan miles, you can come ahead in the Miles game.

Destinations:

First things first, when choosing to use the aeroplan miles you would want to choose airports that don’t impose airport departure/development tax on your ticket. Some example of these airports that impose high airport departure taxes are Panama(PTY=60$), Monteogo Bay ( MBJ=35$) in Jaimaca,(SJO=29$) in Costa Rica. Leaving Toronto(YYZ) airport using Aeroplan Miles would cost you around 47$ USD on United Airlines. On Air Canada flights, that amount is much more, as fuel surcharges are added on to existing departure/development fee. To the contrary, none of the airports in USA impose any kind of departure or airport development taxes on the passengers. Not that these taxes could be avoided in every case, but by being aware of these taxes and surcharges could help us make more prudent decisions when it comes to using your hard earned Aeroplan Miles for redeeming reward flights.

In the case above you could see when departing from SFO(Sanfrancisco) to YYZ( Toronto), there are taxes and fees that amount to 7.40 CAD, on the United Airlines ticket, which happens to be a member of Star Alliance. But, when traveling from YYZ to SFO the taxes and fees stand at 63.26 CAD, on the same United Airlines flight. So, from here we can see that purchasing a one way  ticket into Toronto will cost less with respect to, out of pocket expense than a round trip or a one way flight out of Toronto. Remember that the amount of miles required for award ticket remains the same in both directions, which stands at 12,500 Aeroplan miles.

Oneway/Round Trip:

Where ever possible or applicable try to get a inbound flight into Canada with Aeroplan miles, as the outbound flights from Canada carry the Air travel security fee, US immigration and customs user fee, Airport  improvement fee,US agriculture fee that are imposed on Award tickets purchased through Aeroplan. When I travel from USA to CANADA, I would use Aeroplan Miles for my inbound flights into  Canada and choose to purchase my outbound flight out of Canada with cash if it makes sense.

Carriers:

As Aeroplan program covers the star Alliance partner airlines, it’s  always lucrative to use the aeroplan miles on airline carriers that don’t charge customers for fuel surcharges. I am talking about Air Canada and Lufthansa in specific, as these two Star Alliance members charge customers exhorbitant fuel surcharges on the award tickets. The members of Star alliance are Adria Airways,Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Avianca, Avianca Brazil, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Egypt Air, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Swiss International Air, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines, and United Airlines.

 

I would be giving some examples here on how this carrier selection could save you some cash. As mentioned here already Air Canada, Austrian and Lufthansa have to be avoided, as they pass on fuel surcharges on award tickets.

Example 1:

In the example above, the outbound award ticket from Newark,USA to Oslo,Norway is costing 30k Aeroplan Miles with out of pocket cost of 7.50 CAD. The inbound award ticket into Newark, USA would cost 30k Aeroplan Miles with 50.90 CAD in taxes when choosing to fly by Scandinavia Airlines(SAS)

Example 2:

Here in this example I want to demonstrate the kind of surcharges added by airlines like Air Canada and Lufthansa that you would want to avoid.

This is the itinerary that takes me from Toronto(YYZ) to Oslo(OSL) on Lufthansa and Air Canada. The round trip here costs me 60k Aeroplan Miles and I would have to shell out 684.56 CAD, I need out of pocket expenses. This the exact kind of itinerary I would want to avoid when using Aeroplan Miles. When you have closer look at the break down of the charges, you would notice that there is a carrier surcharge of 525 CAD. That is what, is eating into your wallet. Being smart about avoiding carriers that impose carriers surcharge is the way to go for award ticket purchases with Aeroplan program.

Example 3:

After seeing example 2, you know what you want to avoid, but then what alternatives do you have now?. This is what I would like to show in example 3.

In the example 3, here you see that by choosing carriers like United and SAS you would be paying 60K Aeroplan Miles for a round trip award ticket from Toronto to Oslo, but the out of pocket cost for this itinerary drops down to 164.66 CAD. The reason for this being, these carriers don’t impose any fuel surcharges on award tickets. This could be seen in the breakdown chart above for the out of pocket expenses on the award ticket.

Outbound Flights from USA: 

This could be thought as an extreme, but not uncommon as, I do know of instances in which Canadians have crossed the border to board transcontinental flights, where they were able to save on air tickets. The same would apply for transatlantic or transpacific flights. In the past I had learnt from my co-passenger seated next to me, who was traveling from Vancouver to Toronto to be with her family for Christmas. She had taken a flight out from Seattle to come to Toronto, than travel from Vancouver to Toronto. She was able to save on her journey this way than take a transcontinental flight within Canada. Buffalo, in New York State on the east coast is another airport across the border that could be used, in case you come across a good bargain on the ticket. 

By being flexible with your itinerary and looking for all the options And alternatives will definitely save you money no matter which destination you travel to, either using award tickets or revenue tickets.

CONCLUSION: 

Aeroplan Miles, best use comes by booking with partner airlines. When I was planning my trip from Sanfrancisco to Toronto, 3 days ahead of my departure date, I had gone to both United and Aeroplan websites to make my booking and found the same award ticket was costing 75$ extra on United website. The reason being United charges 75$ booking fees for flights award tickets booked 21 days before the travel date. This booking fee could be avoided only when you carry status with the United Airlines. To the contrary Aeroplan does not have this kind of special charge. So,if Aeroplan has open awards available in their inventory for united airlines flight( Star Alliance), at any time before your travel date you could book the flights for the same price. There is no extra booking fee you would have to pay for partner award ticket with Aeroplan Miles. 

By having deeper understanding of the loyalty programs, you would be able to make use of your Miles to have greater travel experiences. Your Miles are very valuable and hope this post was able to throw some light on this fact. 

Updated on 04/02/2019