Aeroplan adding Virgin Australia partnership

Air Canada’s Aeroplan announced today that effective January 19th, Virgin Australia will be added to the list of Air Canada’s partner airlines. This means that members will be able to both earn and redeem miles for travel on Virgin Australia.

While this news likely feels fairly irrelevant given the pandemic and Australia’s apparent intention to keep borders closed for quite a while, it’s actually great news for those looking to get to the many out-of-the-way destinations served by Virgin Australia while using Aeroplan miles to do it. As expected, you will be able to combine Virgin Australia flights with Star Alliance-operated flights on a single award. Just a little while ago, we reported on the incredible United award availability on routes worldwide; one of my examples was a glut of availability on the nonstop United flight from Houston to Brisbane. Being able to connect onward in Australia on Virgin Australia would be great.

You’ll also be able to earn miles on paid Virgin Australia flights as per the following chart:

Obviously booking right now is incredibly speculative. I wouldn’t transfer points from Membership Rewards to Aeroplan to book travel to Australia at the moment, even given the fact that a lot can change in 10 months. But when I am able to travel again, this will certainly be something I keep in mind, especially thanks to the fact that Aeroplan now allows a stopover on a one-way for 5K additional miles. I’d be happy to stop in Australia and then continue on to Samoa or the Cook Islands or something like that for an additional 5K miles. I look forward to a time when we can book that type of trip again — and when it comes, Aeroplan will be at the top of mind.

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