Air Canada’s new Aeroplan frequent flyer program is now live (read about it here). I logged in to see if award pricing met expectations and I was pleasantly surprised to find that awards booked on Air Canada itself (as opposed to partner airlines) were often cheaper than expected based on Aeroplan’s new award charts.
For example, as you can see above, Air Canada flights within North America under 500 miles should cost between 6,000 and 10,000 points for economy or between 15,000 and 25,000 points for business class. In practice, I’m seeing that awards operated by Air Canada are often cheaper than advertised. One example is the short flight from Toronto to the NYC area where you can book economy for as low as 4,800 points and business as low as 11,600 points:
I searched many destinations flown by Air Canada and found the same pattern in almost all of them: award prices are frequently lower than expected. Here’s a table showing cheaper than expected awards. Lower than expected awards are bolded and underlined.
| From Toronto To | Distance (Miles) | Economy Expected | Economy Observed | Business Expected | Business Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico City | 2,015 | 12.5K-17.5K | 10,600 | 25K-60K | 19,800 |
| NYC | ~400 | 6K-10K | 4,800 | 15K-25K | 11,600 |
| LAX | 2,175 | 12.5K-17.5K | 9,700 | 25K-60K | 21,700 |
| Denver | 1,315 | 10K-15K | 10,000 | 20K-35K | 18,900 |
| Honolulu | 4,649 | 17.5K-25K | 20,700 | 35K-70K | 35,100 |
| Liberia | 2,306 | 12.5K-17.5K | 12,600 | 25K-60K | 44,800 |
| Panama City | 2,383 | 12.5K-17.5K | 12,000 | 25K-60K | 22,700 |
| Hong Kong | 7,810 | 50K-90K | 36,600 | 85K-200K | 69,500 |
| Santiago | 5,332 | 40K-70K | 33,200 | 60K-200K | 71,800 |
| São Paulo | 5,075 | 40K-70K | 31,900 | 60K-200K | 48,700 |
| Frankfurt | 3,953 | 35K-60K | 29,200 | 60K-160K | 47,900 |
| Delhi | 7,246 | 55K-80K | 44,000 | 85K-200K | 66,300 |
| Edmonton | 1,675 | 12.5K-17.5K | 9,800 | 25K-60K | 19,900 |
Additional Findings
- As expected, award prices flying Air Canada are not consistent (that’s why they show a range in the award chart). I expect that I could find lower than expected pricing on all of the above flights if I tried different dates.
- In all cases that I checked, partner awards priced correctly according to the award chart.
- Award pricing for mixed awards with Air Canada and a partner were inconsistent. Often they priced according to the partner award chart, but in a few examples I found lower than expected pricing like above. It didn’t seem to matter whether Air Canada flew the shorter or longer leg.
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On Nov 9 I tried to book a flight from Vancouver to Kitimat BC, and the rate was 40,000 points for return flight under the new Aeroplan. The same flight was booked 1 week prior using the old miles for 15,000 miles, why such a difference? Both flights were for travel within 2 days of booking.
When I can get the website to work, all the awards (USA to Europe) I’m pricing are $$$ — makes United Mileage Plus awards look like a bargain. Somehow the fees seem higher too— not to mention the change and redeposit fees —how 2019. I’m not getting it
That’s true. The new Aeroplan is more expensive (except when heavy fuel surcharges would have been required before). It’s only on the edges that I see excellent value opportunities: these really require booking interesting long-distance itineraries with stopovers (which are not yet available online).
I guess in an era where trips to Chicago and NYC require quarantines ….. these seem like exotic destinations these days . Going forward what MR programs will be best overall for Europe rewards on Star? It’s clearly not AC. I’m earning all these MR on this Amex Biz Blue and am starting to wonder how I can use them to get to Europe on Star.
For each star alliance award that you want to book, you’ll ideally check the price with each of these:
Tried their website and after fifteen minutes in trying to search, everything I got are all website errors.
Strange. I haven’t encountered any errors. Did you go to aircanada.com? That’s where I start my searches.
That was my problem,too, until today.
[…] Aeroplan awards cheaper than expected when flying Air Canada […]
Were you able to find partner awards online, or did you have to call? I was looking for a multicity Australia to Asia to US, nothing showed up, not sure if it was just lack of availability though.
Yes, I see partner awards online. That said, they are supposed to totally overhaul the award search functionality next year. Right now you can’t book awards with stopovers online (multicity prices as separate awards)