Just in time to make one of my 3 Cards 3 Continents awards out of date before we set off on our trip (grrr), Air Canada Aeroplan has announced some award chart changes that will take effect on September 1, 2022. The vast majority of changes are award price increases, though as these things go the increases are relatively mild. Still, it’s a bummer to see these awards increase in price just as travel is really roaring back and so soon after I’d written about reasons to love Aeroplan and the future plans I was already dreaming about booking.
The changes
There are a lot of changes here. Most awards that increase in price are increasing either 5,000 miles or 10,000 miles (none increase more than 10,000 miles). Additionally, some new short-distance bands have been created that will make some cheaper redemptions possible if you’ll be covering relatively short distances.
One small bright spot is the addition of premium economy awards in some markets. Those awards may be easier to snag and a way to get a semi-premium experience at a slightly reduced cost.
In terms of the greatest increase from a percentage standpoint, economy class awards of 1,601+ miles wholly within South America increase from 15,000 miles to 20,000 miles. That’s an increase of 33%. Most increases are more like 10% or less.
The smallest increase is between North America and the Pacific in the 7,501 – 11,000 mile band. A business class award with those parameters increases in price from 85,000 miles to 87,500 miles. That’s kind of annoying since most programs require transferring in even increments of 1,000 points, though I think you can transfer an amount ending in 500 miles from Capital One (but note that the minimum transfer is 1,000 miles as I recall).
Here is the full list of changes:
Between North America and Atlantic
- 6,001 – 8,000 mile distance band
- Business (Partner): Increases from 85,000 to 90,000
- First (Partner): Increases from 120,000 to 130,000
- 8,001+ mile distance band
- Business (Partner): Increases from 100,000 to 110,000
- First (Partner): Increases from 130,000 to 140,000
Between North America and Pacific
- 7,501 – 11,000 mile distance band
- Business (Partner): Increases from 85,000 to 87,500 pts
- 11,001+ mile distance mile band
- Business (Partner): Increases from 105,000 to 115,000 pts
- First (Partner): Increases from 140,000 to 150,000 pts
Between North America and South America
- 0 – 2,500 mile distance band (new band with reduced pricing)
- Economy (Air Canada): 20,000-45,000 pts
- Economy (Partner): 20,000 pts
- Premium Economy (Air Canada): 35,000-100,000 pts
- Business (Air Canada): 40,000-150,000 pts
- Business (Partner): 40,000 pts
- First (Air Canada): 60,000-175,000 pts
- First (Partner): 60,000 pts
- 2,501-4,500 mile distance band (no change vs. original 0-4,500 distance band)
Between Atlantic and Pacific
- New 0-2,500 mile distance band (new band with reduced pricing)
- Economy (Air Canada): 25,000-50,000 pts
- Economy (Partner): 25,000 pts
- Premium Economy (Air Canada): 30,000-65,000 pts
- Business (Air Canada): 40,000-75,000 pts
- Business (Partner): 40,000 pts
- First (Air Canada): 50,000-100,000 pts
- First (Partner): 50,000 pts
- 2,501-5,000 mile distance band (updated from 0-5,000 miles)
- Premium Economy (Air Canada): 50,000-75,000 (new; not currently offered)
- 5,001-7,000 mile distance band
- Premium Economy (Air Canada): 65,000-80,000 (new; not currently offered)
- 7,001+ mile distance band
- Economy (Partner): Increases from 60,000 to 65,000 pts
- Premium Economy (Air Canada): 80,000-110,000 pts (new; not currently offered)
- Business (Partner): Increases from 100,000 to 110,000 pts
- First (Partner): Increases from 130,000 to 140,000 pts
Within South America
- New 0-1,600 mile distance band (new band with reduced pricing)
- Economy (Partner): 10,000 pts
- Business (Partner): 20,000 pts
- First (Partner): 30,000 pts
- 1,601+ mile distance band (updated band with increases in partner pricing)
- Economy (Partner): Increases from 15,000 to 20,000 pts
- Business (Partner): Increases from 30,000 to 35,000 pts
- First (Partner): 50,000 pts (no change)
Overall, I don’t find these changes too bad, though I have obviously been very enthusiastic about their current award chart, so I’m disappointed to see it change so relatively soon after the new program launched. The new program only launched less than two years ago, and realistically most people have only been getting back into the swing of international travel over the second of those two years. Still, excellent values remain, particularly if you maximize Aeroplan’s flexible routing rules and a stopover on a one-way award for 5,000 miles. On the other hand, those looking to book a simple there-and-back round trip award will likely continue to be turned off by Aeroplan’s award pricing since most awards become even more expensive.
Keep in mind that these changes will take effect on September 1, 2022. New awards booked after that date or existing awards that get rebooked after that date will be subject to the new pricing. Here’s hoping nothing gets messed up with my 3 Carss 3 Continents plans in the days before we set off for the trip . .
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[…] Devaluations never stop…Aeroplan increases redemption rates for many awards. […]
Where are these 105k business class awards to Pacific? I can only find things priced at 230k or above for a 1 way. What am I missing? In particular searching from IAD to Phnom Pehn.
Many blogs have written about the unprecedented lack of award availability almost across the board right now (including Ben at One Mile at a Time and Matthew Klint at Live and Let’s Fly). It’s very hard to find saver space on almost any airline right now, so what you’re seeing are “anytime” rates on Air Canada flights (which are probably mixed with partner flights since I don’t think Air Canada flies to Phnom Pehn).
However, if you’re willing to do a few searches, you can piece it together yourself and call to ticket. For instance, I just looked up options in late September where you could fly a combination of Egyptair with Etihad or Oman Air and Singapore Airlines and get there in business class (not mixed cabin) for 105K. I have had almost no luck at all finding award flights across the Pacific on any carrier right now, so you’re probably going to need to go through Europe / Africa / Middle East to get there. But that’s not an Air Canada issue but rather a widespread issue of airlines not releasing much award availability right now.
But, again, the nice thing here is that you can search routes served by Air Canada partners and figure out how to piece this together. You can have a maximum of six segments.
Thank you. Is there a guide anywhere explaining how to find and piece together these segments? I feel I’m in the dark on this process.
Not really. That might be a good idea for a post I guess. This post would be a good primer:
https://frequentmiler.com/aeroplan-nicks-ace-in-the-hole-for-3cards3continents/
But as an example, here’s an example of things I searched for you:
I picked those from the many options because neither of those were mixed cabin — it was all business class. The thing is you need to know that the price you pay will be the North America to Pacific price (105K miles). None of that is on Air Canada, so it’s all at saver level. Disregard the price from IAD-MCT and the price from MCT-PNH separately as you’re not paying those separately.
If I didn’t find availability with those airports, I’d try other hubs. Since based on that search I know there is availability from IAD-CAI, maybe I could search the rest of it originating in CAI and find an even better option. If I saw an option to Muscat that was something like IAD-FRA-MCT and there was business class availability (not mixed cabin), then since I would suddenly know that there was availability to get to Frankfurt and I know that many Star Alliance airlines fly from Frankfurt, I would perhaps try searching from FRA-PNH on the day when the first flight would have you arrive in Frankfurt. I know, for example, that Thai Airways flies from FRA to Bangkok and maybe they also fly to Phnom Pehn (I don’t know?), so maybe you could save some time / distance flown.
That’s the general approach. With Air Canada, you have some additional options though. If you’re DC based, maybe try searching some stuff out of JFK. For instance, maybe the Air Serbia flight has availability from JFK to Belgrade and maybe there is a better option onward out of Belgrade, etc.
Thanks so much!
BR released a lot of saver business class inventory a couple dates ago. They don’t fly to IAD so you would need to position to ORD/JFK
Nick your reply was a blog post in itself. Lots of value there, thanks.
Thanks a lot Nick… Just kidding, but in all seriousness, very frustrating. I just spent all my aeroplan points on two F 11,000+ flights with a stopover to the pacific for 145k. It would now be 155k. There is still “a little” value in the program, but you have to use the stopover and loose routing rules. There’s almost no point to use the program for a direct flight anymore.
I would rather them tighten the rules on the outlier RTW type routings & bring more value to the typical biz redemption. For most AA & AS brings more value & may lead more folks to their cards. Especially with the relative ease of mid-tier status qualification. The only other upside to Aeroplan – besides said routing how you want – is the availability of transferrable miles.
With Aeropla’s increases & change / cancel fee’s, Lifemiles shines a bit brighter for *A redemptions on anything with one or two segments on a one way award.
With how much focus Air Canada has had on Areoplan since buying it back this isn’t too surprising. They are paying a lot more attention to their program now. I would speculate that adjusting the redemption rates will be the new normal for the program.
I have to admit that this is a major letdown. Not the increases, which are comparatively mild, but the fact that Aeroplan is doing it now.
They have prices that are already on the higher end of the spectrum. This only makes that worse.
They basically bragged about how their new program was one where they want customers to find value and if they got taken to the cleaners by a few they wouldn’t stop offering that bargain for the rest as a result.
Travel bloggers largely crowed about the new program despite the substantially higher prices in many cases by saying something along the line of “These people genuinely understand our points and miles mentality and set up the new system for us.”.
Now that the new car smell has faded, I’m less disappointed with the substantial devaluations of the new program from the old but sure didn’t expect enhancements so soon. It just bodes ill when this is happening so soon after the rollout.
Really well said. Travel bloggers, including FM, crowed about the new Aeroplan due to the possibility of fancy huge trips with stopovers, when for most people who just wanted a biz class flight to Europe, it was a major devaluation. And now they’re chipping away at the value of the fancy huge trips. Nick is letting them off easy in this post IMO.
I understand the perspective you have on that, but my feeling is that we already have a multitude of reasonable ways to get to Europe (for instance):
-34K off-peak on Iberia from some east coast cities
-88K RT via ANA on Star Alliance
-45K each way via Turkish on Star Alliance
-61K on some oneworld routes via Asia Miles with Cathay (with lower surcharges)
-57.5K with AA miles
-63K with LifeMiles on Star Alliance, but with just one economy class segment, this can easily be below 60K, no fuel surcharges — and I’ve cobbled together some below 50K and certain specific routes price even less)
-55K (saver rate) on Air France / KLM. No surcharges if flying Air Europa
So I wasn’t particularly upset when Aeroplan got rid of 55K to Europe and changed up their program substantially. Their old award chart didn’t have many standout values that couldn’t be replicated for about the same price elsewhere. If you just want a business class flight to Europe, there are lots of other options for less, the same, or only marginally more than what Aeroplan used to charge.
Personally, I would much rather a program that is a unique outlier in the way they let you put together partners / make creative routings / add a stopover for 5K miles because those things enable awards that are almost unheard of through other programs. I know that those things won’t necessarily match what you or the next person wants, but I think the sense of interest you may be citing from travel bloggers is because the program is highly unique rather than a copy of what everyone else is doing. It’s kind of like Tesla — an electric car won’t be ideal for everyone. It wouldn’t make sense for me – not just because of the price tag but more so because of the lack of suitable places to charge where I would typically be driving. But I can appreciate what makes it unique and different and advantageous for many people whose circumstances don’t match mine. I guess I would rather see Aeroplan try to do something different than just be another program charging about the same price for the same awards as everyone else.
The new Aeroplan program isn’t for everyone. I one thousand percent understand that. Many awards won’t be a good value unless you value unique routings / access to a wider range of partners that can get you to places that others can’t / the ability to add a stopover. And that’s fine — if those things aren’t your bag, Aeroplan won’t be for you in the same way that Singapore KrisFlyer won’t be for you if you don’t want to fly Singapore in premium cabins (or we could come up with lots of other examples). But the thing is I can’t really think of many situations where they were the standout best deal before the program changes — which is probably why I had only once or twice ever booked an Aeroplan award before. Those simple point-to-point round trips can be booked through most other programs for a better deal and for the most part, they frequently could have been before as well.
All that said, I strongly agree with the disappointment in seeing award chart changes so soon. That really stinks and I agree that it doesn’t bode well for the future. We’ll see how that shakes out.
These are fair points. I guess with Amex points being so easy to get these days, ANA should be the dominant routing choice for roundtrip to Europe if avoiding high surcharge airlines, which you used to have to worry about with Aeroplan before the change. Though it seems the airlines that are high surcharge have changed….I seem to remember you used to have to avoid flying Air Canada on Aeroplan awards but now they are a low surcharge airline for ANA.
Doesn’t ANA require that anyone flying be specifically related to the account holder?
Yes, technically. In practice, they aren’t known to be particularly diligent about investigating the relationships you list, but you’d do nearly as well with Turkish for flights to/from Europe (with surcharges on a few airlines, same as ANA, and almost the same pricing at 45K each way but with no need to book round trip). Of course, Turkish can also be a challenge in that I think they won’t let you book for others until you’ve made a booking for yourself, so then LifeMiles is probably your next best bet.
We know it was you, Freddo! I can imagine the conversation:
“Hey, did you know that under our rules is technically possible to fly from Singapore to Ulan Bator his Istanbul on one award? I had a guy today trying to book it.”
“Yeah, I had a guy book an award from Vienna to Singapore but routed through Bali. . ”
“Oh, what was your guy’s name? Reyes? You’re kidding!”
LOL, that’s gotta be it
Incredibly disappointing after just 2 years. Remember, you used to be able to fly biz class to Europe for 55k. So now 2 devals in close succession. Lame.