A few commenters have mentioned this in the past, but I just now had a chance to try this out. With Air Canada Aeroplan award bookings, it’s possible to book higher priced flexible awards while your plans are uncertain and later change them to lower priced awards once your plans firm up. That’s awesome. I’ve long been frustrated by the fact that Air Canada didn’t eliminate change and cancellation fees the way the U.S. carriers did in the past few years (see: Airline Change Fee Quick Reference Chart), but this trick helps make up for that deficiency.
I recently used Aeroplan miles to book a business class flight from London to Chicago. For that nonstop United flight, Aeroplan charges either 60K miles or 74K miles. The latter is a “Flexible Reward” which allows you to change or cancel the award flight for free.
I chose the Flexible Reward partly because my plans weren’t yet 100% certain, but mostly because I wanted to tag on a United economy flight from Chicago to Detroit and I couldn’t get aircanada.com to put the flights together into one itinerary. I figured that this was a great chance to try out the trick: I booked the nonstop flight for 74K and a week or so later I called to add on the United economy flight from Chicago to Detroit. The agent I spoke with at first priced the adjusted award based on the Flexible Reward price, but then I asked him to price it at the “Lowest Reward” price. He did and I got miles back.
Notes & Observations:
- I was able to change to a “Lowest Reward” price when making a material change to the ticket. I don’t know for certain that I could have changed to the lower priced reward without making any other changes. I assume one could, but I didn’t test that. If you’ve tried that, please let us know!
- The flight distance from London to Chicago is 3,953 miles. That’s just barely under the 4,000 mile distance in order to lock in Aeroplan 60K business class awards crossing the Atlantic.
- The flight distance from Chicago to Detroit is only 235 miles, but that’s just enough to push the entire award (London to Chicago to Detroit) to Aeroplan’s next award price: 70K.
- Since my new itinerary was in a higher distance ban than the original itinerary, my new price was 70K instead of 60K and so I only got back 4K points per person.
- It would have been cheaper for me to book the original flight at 60K, and separately book the economy leg from Chicago to Detroit for 6K per person with Aeroplan. I would have paid a little bit more in taxes that way, but I would have saved 4K miles per person, which would have more than made up for the extra taxes. Once I realized my mistake, I was too lazy to call Aeroplan back to try to fix it.
How to get Air Canada Aeroplan miles
The following table shows which transferable points programs transfer to Aeroplan:
| Rewards Program | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Chase Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Citi Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Capital One Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Bilt Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Wells Fargo Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
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if i book on United with my aeroplan points, will i get refunded if i need to cancel the flight at a later date?
Yes and if you booked it as a flexible award there won’t be a cost to cancel.
Is it possible to change from Lowest award to Flexible award?
Also, I was told by an Aeroplan agent that I cannot add segment to my existing booking. Is that a HUCA thing?
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[…] Book higher mileage-priced Air Canada Aeroplan flexible rewards for free cancel flexibility, then ch… to get points back. […]
Aeroplan has offered this flexible option for awhile now. You either pay for the option to cancel with more miles when you book, or you pay for cancellation later when you need to. Which is better depends on the likelihood that you may need to cancel. You can calculate the break-even probability (of cancellation) based on your valuation of AC miles. If you’re more likely to cancel than the break-even probability, then you should pay upfront with more miles. Otherwise, just book the flight with fewer miles (and pay the cancellation fee if you have to cancel later).
Would it be accurate to say that this works better for partner bookings since the price is fixed (at each level)? If you book AC flights, then the prices are dynamic, so your Flexible reward could end up much cheaper than the Lowest reward a few weeks/months later when your plans are firmer?
Great question. I don’t know how they handle AC flights
Yeah it’s dynamic for AC so the lower price award may have crossed the initial price of the higher prices award by the time someone decides to change. So beneficial only with partner awards.
Yes – you’re correct about this
I was able to confirm that this is also possible even without a materialistic change to the itinerary. In other words, it is possible for the same itinerary, just the award level change.
This is more of a HUCA – have been told a number of times no to this request – and have heard corroborating dp’s from other frequent users of Aeroplan. Back in the day it was easier – but over the past year, its become much more of a HUCA thing
It’s a great trick but as an Aeroplan enthusiast I am so sad to see it published. Not even the Canadian blogs have done that.
I have seen it written and discussed before.
Oh ya, where? I have yet to see it written
Yep, it’ll be dead in 6 months.
This has been discussed everywhere for a looooong time.
This is great info!
If you had booked Detroit to Chicago separate, would they have checked your bags all the way thru or would it have caused checking in again etc?
I have a flight booked from LAX to Montreal, then Montreal to Venice. All 1 trip, biz class lie flat etc.
But I could save some miles doing the above. I would lose lie flat from LAX to Chicago tho.
Great that we have choices. Always good food for thought. Thanks for sharing.
As long as the airlines involved have interline agreements, you should be able to get bags checked all the way through when possible. Still, as LkS pointed out (below), there are advantages to having everything booked as a single ticket, especially when problems occur
As of about 2016, it’s not sufficient for the airlines to have interline baggage agreements. Most US carriers and many European carriers won’t through-check baggage on separate tickets even if it’s from themselves to themselves. Mostly only the Asian legacy carriers will still do it, in my experience.
I am new to points… If you had booked Chicago to Detroit separately to save the 4k extra points per person, would that then have been a separate ticket number or would they have linked the domestic and international legs for you after you made the reservations? I am willing to spend more points/money to get a domestic + international flight on the same ticket for a big trip so that if the domestic leg is canceled or delayed it is still on them to get me to my final destination.
This is a good point. Normally separate=separate. Pickup bags if checked, check them again, go back through security, etc. I’ve had a hard time linking paid and points reservations on the same airline, for example. But I have no experience with AC.
Edit: And most importantly, no guarantee of a protected connection, as you point out. I don’t know that for sure but it’s always my fear.
Great point. There is an advantage to having them on a single ticket
To me this value exceeds “4k minus extra taxes,” so I was expecting that to be your rationale before I read “too lazy.”
Well what happens if when your plans are set the lowest reward is gone?
As long as the award is already booked, changing to the Lowest Reward is not dependent upon award space being available. There wasn’t any more award space on United from London to Chicago for my flight when I made the change.
but you have to wait for hours for an agent. don’t they charge $40 for using an agent?
Yes, there was a long wait.
No, they didn’t charge me anything to change the ticket via an agent. There was an additional $11 per person in taxes, but that’s it.
If you have elite status there is barely any wait time.If you dont have elite status wait times are usually 1-2 hrs long consistently. So glad i got star gold
Last year I used Aeroplan to book a business class ticket from Vancouver to Sydney at the Flexible Reward rate. I was surprised to discover that it gave me access to the AC Signature Suite. I’m not sure that would have happened at the Lowest Reward rate.
I agree not sure it would give Signature Suite access
That’s true: the lowest rate would not give you access to that. In my case, I’m not going through Canada at all, so it doesn’t matter to me.
Having accessed signature suite previously on a paid ticket i dont think its worth it. Maybe try it once and done. I was also there for 10hrs but even then i dont think its worth the extra points. Nice perk if you have to fly rev. Also the suite doesnt have showers so had to shower at the regular lounge. Also The suite opens later in the day than the regular international MLL so thats also another thing to consider if youre flying early in the morning.