Aeroplan announced changes to its award chart today. There’s one piece of good news and several pieces of bad news. Let’s start with the good news: previously, Aeroplan one-way awards required either the origin or destination to be in North America. In other words, you could not redeem a one-way award from Beijing to Singapore, but you could redeem a one-way award from Beijing to San Francisco. With today’s update, Aeroplan announced that all award tickets can now be redeemed as one-way awards. This greatly improves the flexibility of Aeroplan redemptions.
Now for the bad news. These award chart changes will take effect on December 15. You can view the new award chart at this link.
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US-Europe Devaluation
The round-trip pricing between China and the US is unchanged, but round-trip business and first class between the US and Europe 1 are increasing from 90,000/125,000 to 110,000/140,000! In our previous article Aeroplan Introduction (1), we mentioned that round-trip business class between the US and Europe 1 cost only 90,000 miles, which was one of Aeroplan’s sweet spots. Now it has increased to 110,000, a 22% jump. That’s a pretty big increase, though still within the range many people expected. Round-trip business and first class between the US and Europe 2 are also increasing from 105,000/145,000 to 115,000/160,000.
Devaluation for Intra-Asia 1 Awards
Those increases are already significant, but compared with the next one, they look small:
That’s right. In Aeroplan Introduction (1), we also introduced another sweet spot: round-trip awards within Asia 1 for 20,000 miles in economy or 30,000 miles in business. This bargain redemption was widely appreciated—for example, just 30,000 Aeroplan miles could get you a round-trip business class ticket from Beijing to Singapore. But starting December 15, round-trip awards within Asia 1 will jump all the way to 40,000/80,000. That pricing is even more extreme than UA’s!
This basically means that aside from round-trip China-US and US-Europe awards, which remain fairly average, Aeroplan no longer has much of an edge on most other redemptions. Still, there are replacement options for these devalued awards.
China-Europe Devaluation
Between China and Europe 1, economy/business/first is increasing from 75,000/105,000/145,000 to 80,000/150,000/210,000.
Between China and Europe 2, economy/business/first is increasing from 75,000/105,000/145,000 to 80,000/150,000/220,000.
Europe 2 is closer to China, yet first class requires even more miles than Europe 1... hard to understand...
How to Respond
Take US-Europe round-trip awards as an example. The ANA miles we previously covered require only 88,000 miles for round-trip business class between the US and Europe. Korean Air (KE) miles require only 80,000 miles for the same trip. Both are better deals than Aeroplan even before this devaluation. ANA miles can be transferred from AMEX MR and SPG points, while KE miles can be transferred from Chase UR and SPG points, so there are still plenty of ways to earn them. If you’re based on the US East Coast, Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles is another good option for Europe, with round-trip pricing at just 80,000 miles.
As for round-trip awards within Asia 1, LifeMiles can handle that. It’s still on sale now, and round-trip awards within North Asia are also 20,000/30,000. We’ll cover LifeMiles in a future article.
For China-Europe routes, Alaska Airlines miles can book round-trip business class on Cathay Pacific departing from Hong Kong for only 85,000 miles. If you want to stay within Star Alliance, ANA’s 100,000-mile round-trip business class option is also a good choice.
Aeroplan also adjusted which countries fall into each region. Maybe they saw OneMoreDay’s earlier complaints about the geography skills of Aeroplan’s award team, because this time the regional breakdown makes much more sense. For example, Asia 1 and Asia 2 now look like this, with Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand all moved into Asia 2:
Europe’s zones now look like this:
Luxembourg has finally been moved into Europe 1, and Poland has finally returned to Europe 2, east of the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain is now officially complete (you can see the reference in this article).
This Aeroplan devaluation is another reminder not to put all your eggs in one basket. Diversifying your miles and points helps protect you against devaluations like this. That’s why OneMoreDay likes flexible points currencies such as UR, MR, TYP, and SPG points, which can be transferred to a variety of mileage programs. Mileage devaluations are the long-term trend; the only question is when they happen. Hoarding miles is not a smart strategy. The best mindset is to enjoy them while you can and redeem them in time.
Related Reading:
Aeroplan Introduction (1) – Award Redemption Analysis
Aeroplan Introduction (2) – Earning Miles, Redemption Strengths, Fuel Surcharges