Aeroplan Overview (2): Earning Miles, Redemption Pros, and Fuel Surcharges

In the previous post, Introduction to Air Canada Miles Aeroplan (1) - Award Redemption Analysis, we already covered some of the classic sweet spots for redeeming AC miles. Today, let’s put aside award charts and route maps and look at some other strengths and weaknesses of redeeming with Aeroplan.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

In general, when you book flights with miles, you can reserve tickets for about a year out. But that “about a year” is actually a subtle distinction, and it varies by airline. For example, UA can only search award space up to 338 days out, while AC miles can book award tickets up to 356 days out. In other words, if an airline releases award space more than 338 days in advance, you may be able to book it with AC miles, but not with UA miles. That creates a gap of nearly three weeks. For example, if today is 351 days before next year’s August 24, then you can already use AC miles to book the following ticket:

If you only have UA miles, you would not be able to book it yet, because UA can only book 338 days out as of today, which means only flights through August 10:

You would have to wait until two weeks later, on September 21, to book that ticket, and just hope that AC miles users have not already redeemed all the available seats by then. If you have AC miles, you can take your time during that three-week window and lock in your itinerary without worrying about UA miles users grabbing the seats first.

This is not limited to U.S.-Europe awards. On U.S.-China routes, many airlines had already released award space for next year’s August 24 as well:

Each airline releases only a certain amount of award space at the beginning. So if you notice that, after UA’s 338-day window opens, return-to-China award seats on ANA, Asiana, EVA, and others are no longer available, it may well be because AC miles users already booked them.

Here are two small tools that may come in handy someday:

1. Check how many days remain until a given date: https://daycalc.appspot.com/
2. Find out what date is XXX days before a given date. For example, if you have a target travel date, you can use this to figure out when you can start booking with UA or AC miles: https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

Infant Tickets and the 21-Day Close-In Booking Fee

OneMoreDay generally does not travel with a Baby, but if you absolutely have to travel with a child under age two, do you need to buy a ticket? Yes. Even though the child will be held in your lap the whole time and does not need a separate seat, a ticket is still required. On long-haul flights, you may be able to reserve a bassinet, but you already know what economy class is like, so in general, parents traveling with a child are better off in business class.

If you redeem with UA miles, an infant can travel free within the U.S.; on itineraries between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, you only need to pay taxes and fees. But on international routes, you need to pay 10% of the full-fare ticket price plus taxes and fees. On flights back to China, that can already mean two to three hundred dollars in economy, and business class is even more expensive. You can see the details here. OneMoreDay does not recommend redeeming this way.

By comparison, Aeroplan is much more generous in this area. No matter what kind of itinerary you redeem with AC miles, or where in the world you are going, adding an infant ticket is no problem: $50 or 5,000 miles in economy, $100 or 10,000 miles in business class, and only $125 or 12,500 miles in first class.

Another program that is just as generous as AC in this respect is the BA Avios redemption program we mentioned before. If the adult ticket is booked with miles, you only need to add 10% of the miles plus taxes and fees to add an infant ticket, which is also quite good.

Finally, let’s talk about close-in ticketing fees. UA and AA both charge a $75 close-in booking fee for tickets issued within 21 days of departure (although UA can avoid this fee by taking advantage of the free changes allowed within 24 hours). But award tickets issued with AC miles and BA miles do not incur a close-in booking fee, so they are great for truly spontaneous trips.

Fuel Surcharges

After comparing so many pros and cons of UA miles versus AC miles, AC miles may seem to have the upper hand so far. But if you are a UA miles fan, this is where you finally get some good news, because AC miles do impose fuel surcharges on some airlines. In fact, I think many people living in North America have grown accustomed to the fact that UA and AA miles do not charge fuel surcharges. For many airline programs, fuel surcharges on award tickets are actually the norm; not charging them is the exception. So which airlines have no or low fuel surcharges when booked with AC miles?

First are the airlines we know best: UA, Air China CA, and Air China’s little brother, Shenzhen Airlines ZH. There is quite a bit of business and first class space from the U.S. West Coast, but the East Coast is much stingier with premium-cabin availability—they would rather fly with empty seats than release them for awards.

Next is EVA Air BR from Taiwan. Its transpacific routes include Taipei to Los Angeles LAX, San Francisco SFO, Seattle SEA, Vancouver YVR, Toronto YYZ, New York JFK, and the then-new Houston HOU route operated with a Hello Kitty aircraft:

Then there is the premium Singapore Airlines SQ. Unfortunately, with AC miles you can only redeem economy class on SQ, not its business or first class. For round-trip travel between China and the U.S., if you do not want to route via Singapore, you can consider these three solid SQ routes: Los Angeles LAX-Tokyo NRT, San Francisco SFO-Hong Kong HKG, and San Francisco SFO-Seoul ICN:

There is also Asiana Airlines OZ, whose reputation used to be average, and which falls into the low-fuel-surcharge category. Its North American gateways include New York JFK, Chicago ORD, San Francisco SFO, and Los Angeles LAX. So if you are in California and want to head back to China, AC miles give you plenty of choices. And for those on the East Coast and around the Great Lakes, do not lose heart: UA, Air China, Asiana, and EVA do not require high fuel surcharges for trips back to China.

If you are flying eastbound, remember the 90,000-mile round-trip business class award between the U.S. and Europe mentioned in the previous post (now increased to 110,000; see Air Canada Miles Devaluation: How Should We Respond?)? If you fly Lufthansa, the $800-$900 in fuel surcharges will probably hurt. Airlines between the U.S. and Europe that have no YQ or low YQ include:

• UA
• Brussels Airlines SN, based in BRU, with North American destinations including New York JFK and Washington IAD
• LOT Polish Airlines, based in Warsaw WAW, with North American destinations including New York JFK, Chicago ORD, and Toronto YYZ
• Swiss International Air Lines LX, based in Zurich ZRH, with North American destinations including Montreal YUL, Boston BOS, Newark EWR, Chicago ORD, New York JFK, Los Angeles LAX, Miami MIA, and San Francisco SFO
• Turkish Airlines TK, based in Istanbul IST, serves the following North American destinations: Montreal YUL, Toronto YYZ, Boston BOS, Chicago ORD, Houston HOU, Washington IAD, San Francisco SFO, New York JFK, and Los Angeles LAX, with future service to Atlanta ATL and Miami MIA as well.
• SAS SK is based in the three Nordic countries. Aeroplan blocks SK in its system, so you can’t ticket these awards online; you have to call AC to book. Its North American destinations include Chicago ORD, Houston IAH, Washington IAD, San Francisco SFO, and Newark EWR, with future service to Los Angeles LAX and Miami MIA as well.
• TAP Air Portugal, based in Lisbon LIS, serves Newark EWR and Miami MIA in North America.
• Singapore Airlines SQ: for transatlantic flights, only economy can be redeemed. Its Europe–North America round-trip routes are New York JFK-Frankfurt FRA and Houston IAH-Moscow DME.
• Air New Zealand NZ: its Europe–North America round-trip route is Los Angeles LAX-London LHR.
• Ethiopian Airlines ET: its Europe–North America round-trip route is Los Angeles LAX-Dublin DUB.

For example, if you want to fly from New York to Paris next spring, one way to avoid fuel surcharges is to connect in Warsaw. First, use UA to search for the nonstop JFK-WAW flight; you can see my introduction to redeeming UA miles for the method. You’ll find that on March 7 there is a nonstop LOT Polish Airlines business class flight from JFK to WAW, operated by a Boeing 787 with fully flat business class seats:

Still using UA, you can also find a business class award seat from Warsaw to Paris on March 8. That means these two segments can be combined into one complete JFK-WAW-CDG all-business-class itinerary. After finding the space, go to Aeroplan’s website, search One-way JFK-CDG, and book the ticket there (Update: the one-way price has increased to 55,000; see Aeroplan devaluation: how should we respond? for details):

4. How can you earn AC miles?

Of course, you can earn them by flying and staying at hotels. But for students and working people in the U.S. who don’t fly or stay at hotels that often, what’s the shortcut to building up AC miles? Transferring points from credit cards is a great option. As we can see in the three major bank points systems and the guide to using SPG points, both AMEX MR points and SPG points can be transferred to AC miles, and these two points currencies are also the main sources of AC miles for OneMoreDay.

MR points transfer to AC miles at a 1:1 ratio. For ways to earn MR points, see ymlulu’s guide to Membership Rewards (MR).

SPG points transfer to AC miles at a ratio of 20,000 SPG points to 25,000 AC miles. In addition, SPG-to-Aeroplan transfers have an Extra Bonus promotion twice each year. For example, from June 30 to August 24 this year, transferring hotel points to AC miles came with the following extra bonus:

For example, if you have 40,000 SPG points, under normal circumstances you can transfer them into 50,000 AC miles. With a promotion like the one above, you could transfer them into 50,000 + 10,000 = 60,000 AC miles, enough for two people to fly round-trip between China and Southeast Asia. This is also one of the classic uses of AC miles.

The right way to use SPG points for AC miles is to get the SPG credit card when there’s a big 35,000-point offer, then wait for one of the twice-yearly AC transfer promotions before moving your points over.

If you want to learn more about the SPG credit card, see ymlulu’s introduction to the SPG credit card. For more on using SPG points, you can also read ymlulu’s guide to using SPG points.

Related reading:

Introduction to Air Canada Aeroplan (1) – Award Redemption Analysis

Guide to SPG Points (Starpoints)

Guide to Membership Rewards (MR)

How do you earn Air Canada miles? How do you use AC miles? How do you use SPG points? How do you use MR points? How do you use Aeroplan miles? How are infant tickets priced with Air Canada? Does Aeroplan have an expedited ticketing fee?