Multi-city to save miles with Air Canada Aeroplan

I recently ran into an interesting quirk when looking for award availability to get my family to Europe. In some cases, it is actually possible to save miles when booking awards on Air Canada Aeroplan by using the multi-city tool. This won’t always save you a lot, but it does open the opportunity for some mixed cabin pricing that won’t be quite as good as what you used to be able to get with Avianca life miles. It may be a better deal than booking via Avianca now that they have dumped their awesome mixed cabin pricing (and especially so when Lifemiles doesn’t even show the award availability you need, as was the case for me).

The new Air Canada Aeroplan chart from North America to the Atlantic zone

As a reminder, earlier this month, Air Canada Aeroplan changed its award chart, slightly increasing the cost of many business class awards from North America to Europe (among other changes).

While some award prices increased, the shortest-distance awards to Europe remained unchanged. A Business Class award between North America and the Atlantic Zone that covers up to 4,000 miles flown costs 60,000 miles one way. As an example, New York JFK to Frankfurt covers 3,846 miles flown, according to the Seats.aero Great Circle Map tool.

However, itineraries covering between 4,001 and 6,000 miles, which would include many single connection itineraries from the east coast to Europe, now cost 75,000 miles one way on partner airlines (previously 70K miles).

While it’s a bummer that Air Canada Aeroplan raised award prices on those slightly longer connecting itineraries, you can beat the award chart at its own game by using the multi-city tool.

New York to Billund, Denmark, as a single ticket (or separate tickets)

My family has plans to go back to Legoland in Denmark this summer. I had long ago booked our flights to Europe, but we’ve had to change plans. As a result, I needed to find a new way to get five passengers to Europe in business class during the summertime travel period.

I found some connecting itineraries from New York and Boston to Billund, Denmark, for 75,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points and about $143 CAD in taxes and fees one way.

However, I was a bit put off by the newly increased price of 75,000 points per passenger one way. In the past, that would have cost 70,000 total miles per passenger. While the increase isn’t huge, it adds up to an extra 25,000 miles for five passengers.

I was also put off by the long layover in Frankfurt. That 75K business class itinerary shown above included:

• Lufthansa departing New York JFK at 3:40pm, arriving in Frankfurt FRA at 5:25am
• Lufthansa departing Frankfurt FRA at 4:15p, arriving in Billund BLL at 6:00pm.

That didn’t seem like a terrific plan since it would mean an 11-hour layover in Frankfurt. There were later departures (as late as about 10pm) available via New York or Boston that could connect to the same flight to Billund with a layover of 5-6 hours.

And the award price seemed even less attractive when I considered the fact that New York JFK to Frankfurt, Germany, still costs 60,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points one-way. That should be true whether you fly Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, or even United if you could find award availability.

That’s a solid deal for getting to Europe in business class, though Lufthansa does not generally offer a cutting-edge business class product.

I wondered whether it was worth paying an additional 15,000 miles per passenger to connect to Billund (since the price for the connecting itinerary was 75,000 miles). Perhaps I could just book New York to Frankfurt via Aeroplan, and then buy separate tickets to Billund. The leg from Frankfurt to Billund turned out to be quite expensive at $355 per passenger in economy class. Paying the additional 15,000 miles per passenger wasn’t actually a bad deal.

However, while the cash price of the leg from Frankfurt to Billund was high, there was plenty of award availability on the route. Since Frankfurt to Billund is a short-distance Star Alliance award, I briefly considered trying to book that second leg separately as an award ticket. United Mileage Plus would charge 6,000 miles one way for an economy class award from Frankfurt to Billund. If I booked the legs separately (booking the long flight with Air Canada Aeroplan points and the short connector via United Mileage Plus), I could save a net 9,000 miles per passenger, using a total of 66,000 miles per passenger to book:

• New York JFK-Frankfurt FRA in business class on Lufthansa for 60,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points per passenger
• Frankfurt FRA-Billind BLL in economy class on Lufthansa for 6,000 United Mileage Plus miles per passenger

Booking separately started to look a bit better yet when I looked at flight options for separate tickets.

I had been hoping to arrive in Billund earlier than the 6pm arrival that the 75K itinerary shown above would allow. As fate would have it, United showed availability for an Air Dolomiti flight at 8:50am, arriving at 10:10am.

The timing of that connection would be perfect: it would mean a shorter 3.5hr layover in Frankfurt (since JFK-FRA would arrive at 5:25am and this flight would take off at 8:50am) and a morning arrival was a better fit for our plans.

But I wasn’t sure that booking separate tickets was a great idea . . .

New European entry procedures make separate tickets risky right now

When I considered things more carefully, I was less comfortable booking separate tickets. New rules recently went into place that require all those arriving in Europe for the first time since April 10, 2026, to go through additional procedures to record biometrics (fingerprints and digital photos) both upon arrival and first departure from the Schengen Zone. Stories have been reporting lines that stretch for hours in some cases (read more about this at View from the Wing). While 3.5hrs should be plenty of time to connect on separate tickets in Frankfurt, I feel less confident about that this summer than I would in ordinary times.

Connecting on separate tickets is risky because it means that we would have to retrieve our checked bags and go through the check-in process again, along with airport security. Furthermore, if we missed the connecting flight while traveling on separate tickets, we wouldn’t necessarily be protected on the next available itinerary. As I thought about it more carefully, that made separate tickets seem pretty unappealing. I felt more comfortable booking on a single ticket, but I was disappointed that my one-way award search on the Air Canada website only showed options with 5 to 11-hour layovers.

That’s when I got the idea to try something different.

New York to Billund with the multi-city tool

While the Air Canada search tool was not showing the connection I wanted when searching for a one-way award from New York to Billund, I realized that I could try the multi-city tool to book the connection I wanted. By setting it up as a multi-city search on the Aeroplan website, Air Canada prices the legs separately and adds up the cumulative cost.

I had only previously considered using the multi-city tool when searching for complicated multi-city routings, perhaps with a stopover. I hadn’t considered using the multi-city tool for a simple connecting itinerary to Europe. In this case, a multi-city booking works out to be advantageous.

As stated above, New York to Frankfurt costs 60,000 miles one way in business class.

Frankfurt to Billund measures just under 400 miles flown. As such, it fits in the first pricing band on the Air Canada Aeroplan award chart for the Atlantic Zone. That means that awards cost 7,500 miles one way in economy class or 12,500 miles one way in business class.

That means that if I booked both legs in business class as a multi-city award instead of as a simple one-way, Air Canada Aeroplan would charge me a total of 72,500 points (60K for JFK-FRA + 12.5K for FRA-BLL) instead of 75,000 points (the cost of an award from North America to the Atlantic Zone that covers 4,001 to 6,000 miles flown). By booking as a multi-city award, I would save 2,500 miles per passenger. While not a huge savings, it would add up to a total savings of 12,500 points since we’ll have five passengers on this trip.

Pricing gets a bit better with the second leg in economy class.

Since that Air Dolomiti flight that I ultimately wanted was only available in economy class, it would only cost 7,500 Aeroplan points one way. By searching for a multi-city award instead of a one-way award, I was able to first select the transatlantic flight I wanted from JFK to Frankfurt and then manually pair it with the Air Dolomiti flight from Frankfurt to Billund.

While the screenshot above (which is not for my dates, but shows the same flight combination) shows multiple redemption options, the standard award pricing would be the button that indicates 67,500 miles per passenger. That would save me 7,500 miles per passenger over paying 75K per passenger for the entire North America-to-Atlantic-Zone award as a business class award (37,500 miles total saved across 5 passengers). Note that the taxes & fees are still $142.50 CAD, the same as if we had used the simple one-way search and paid 75K miles.

Yes, it would mean connecting in economy class, but since intra-European business class is typically just an economy class row with a blocked middle seat, that didn’t matter to me here. And, on the plus side, it should mean that bags could be checked all the way through from New York to Billund, without the need to pick them up and re-check them in Frankfurt. That greatly increases the odds that we could make our connection, even if immigration formalities take a bit longer than usual.

That definitely beats separate tickets. If we booked separate tickets, we might need to pay for checked bags on Air Dolomiti, and we’d have needed to go through check-in and regular airport security lines instead of simply connecting at Frankfurt as transit passengers. And, since Air Dolomiti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa, and we’d be on a single ticket, if we missed the connection, either due to a delay of our incoming flight or a delay in entry procedures, I expect that Lufthansa would automatically rebook us on the next available flight to Billund.

While I have booked a couple of very complicated multi-carrier Air Canada Aeroplan awards before, I had never considered using the multi-city flight search tool for a simple connecting itinerary to Europe without a stopover. However, in this case, using that tool added connecting options that weren’t available when running a simple one-way search, giving us the opportunity to arrive at our destination earlier while being protected if we missed our connecting flight. And doing it this way, I’d be saving 37,500 miles to boot. That seemed like a nice win!

Bottom line

While I have long been familiar with the Air Canada Aeroplan multi-city tool and the ability to book complex itineraries including stopovers and multiple airlines, I had never considered using the Air Canada Aeroplan multi-city tool for a simple connecting itinerary to Europe without a stopover. However, this technique can save you miles over the standard award chart. The savings won’t be huge if you want to fly both legs in business class, though paying less beats paying more in my book. If you don’t care about the leg within Europe being in business class, you can save miles with a build-your-own-mixed-cabin-award, thanks to the cumulative pricing. It’s not quite as good as Avianca Lifemiles mixed cabin award pricing of old, but it beats paying the full Air Canada Aeroplan pricing of new. I expect this same technique could likely be used in other regions as well, but because of geography and the multitude of relatively short connecting options in Europe, this is probably more likely to save you a handful of miles in Europe than in other regions. As a family traveler, each handful of miles adds up, and I appreciate the opportunity to save miles for another trip.

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