Best uses of Air Canada Aeroplan points (ways to maximize that 75%-150% Bilt transfer bonus)

Air Canada Aeroplan can be an incredibly powerful award program that is particularly appealing to people who enjoy the thrill of the hunt in terms of piecing together great awards. Aeroplan isn’t a one-size-fits-all program, but it is definitely a valuable tool to keep in your belt. Given the coming February 1st Bilt Rent Day transfer bonus to Air Canada Aeroplan, which will offer a 75% transfer bonus for members with no Bilt status all the way up to a 150% transfer bonus for those with top-tier Platinum status, I wanted to publish a post with best uses of Aeroplan points to give newcomers to Aeroplan the key details and some suggestions for how you might use that bonus. I have a small Bilt balance from past referrals and I fully intend to transfer it all to Aeroplan on Rent Day.

Air Canada Aeroplan basics (9 things to know)

The key things to know about Air Canada Aeroplan are:

1. Their award chart offers a mix of zone-based and distance-based pricing. In other words, you look at the zone of origin and zone of destination and then consider the distance flown to determine the pricing. Inevitably, shorter itineraries cost less than longer itineraries….though once you’ve hit the top distance band, you can add considerably more distance without continuing to increase price. You can find full award chart details in our Air Canada Aeroplan Complete Guide.
2. Air Canada Aeroplan has more airline partners than any other airline program. You have access to the entire Star Alliance but then also twentysomething additional airlines as well.
3. You can mix and match partners on an award. Want to fly to Europe on a Star Alliance carrier like Lufthansa and then continue to Hanoi, Vietnam on Bamboo Airways before ending up in Singapore via Singapore Airlines from Hanoi? You can do that. You can even add a stopover in one of those places….
4. Aeroplan allows one stopover of more than 24 hours on a one-way award for 5,000 additional miles. Layovers can be up to 24 hours, but you are only allowed one stopover of more than 24hrs in each direction. Note that stopovers are not allowed within North America.
5. A one-way award can consist of up to six flight segments.
6. Aeroplan allows circuitous routings. The maximum distance of an award is double the straight distance from your origin airport to your final destination airport. In other words, if your final destination airport is 10,000 miles away from your origin airport, your award can consist of up to 20,000 miles flown. You can backtrack and zigzag so long as it doesn’t exceed that maximum distance.
7. Aeroplan’s change and cancellation fees are on the high end. Standard fees are $100 CAD per ticket for changes or $150 CAD for cancellations done online. That said, Aeroplan offers the option to pay more miles for a refundable booking.
8. Aeroplan has access to more availability with some partners (like Singapore Airlines and occasionally United) and less availability than you’d expect with others (like Etihad and ANA at the moment).
9. Many awards can be booked online (including some stopovers), but more complex bookings require calling Aeroplan customer service. The good news is that most phone agents are highly competent, understanding what can be done and how to do it. The bad news is that the hold time to reach an agent can easily exceed 2 hours at popular times — and sometimes the system won’t even let you wait on hold, instead telling you to call back before hanging up on you).

Best uses of Aeroplan points for great value

Travel within a single zone

Because Aeroplan offers a mixture of zone and distance-based awards, flights within a region can sometimes be a bargain, particularly short-distance flights in markets that tend to be expensive.

Hawaii for cheap from the west coast (as few as 5K Bilt points one way!)

Aeroplan offers distance-based pricing within north America, but that means that awards to Hawaii can be a strong value from the west coast even before the transfer bonus — or downright incredible thanks to the Bilt bonus.

For instance, Los Angeles to Maui rings in at 12,500 miles one way.

That’s fewer than 8,000 points for a member with no Bilt elite status at a 75% transfer bonus. If you have Bilt Platinum status, that’s 5,000 Bilt points one way to Hawaii.

Even from the far east coast, Air Canada becomes a potentially good deal with a transfer bonus. Boston to Maui rings in at 22,500 miles one way.

That’s about 13,000 Bilt points one way with a 75% transfer bonus or 9,000 Bilt points one way with a 150% bonus. That may sound like something to write home about, but consider that Bilt Rewards transfer partner Turkish Miles & Smiles charges just 7,500 miles one-way for a domestic flight, so you could get to Hawaii for ever fewer points without a transfer bonus.

That said, Turkish can be significantly more challenging to deal with, so some with Bilt Platinum status may be happy to pay just a small margin more to book through Aeroplan.

Chicago to Miami for 33% fewer miles than United

Aeroplan’s distance-based pricing can be advantageous within the United States when you can find partner availability on United Airlines. Shorter-distance flights can often be a better value via Air Canada Aeroplan than booking via United.

For instance, United will typically charge 15K miles for a flight from Chicago to Miami.

But Aeroplan only charges 10K miles for those same flights.

If you were to catch a transfer bonus (like the coming 75-150% transfer bonus from Bilt to Aeroplan), you could use less than half the miles to book via Aeroplan compared to what you’d pay through United. Do note though that Air Canada Aeroplan charges a $39 Canadian Dollar partner booking fee that United does not charge.

Note that you can not add a stopover within North America.

Explore remote Canada for far less (Northwest territories for cheap!)

Air Canada offers access to some remote destinations in Canada that would otherwise be expensive to visit — and in some cases they offer incredible value for getting to those places.

For instance, if you wanted to fly from Chicago to Yellowknife in the Northwest territories, it can be quite expensive at times whether with miles or money. For instance, on April 11th cash rates start around $350 one way and United is charging 32,500 miles for a multi-stop award.

However, Air Canada Aeroplan will only charge you 12,500 miles for a one-stop itinerary on the same day.

With a 75% transfer bonus from Bilt, that’s just over 7,000 Bilt points one way (15K would be more than enough for a round trip!). If you’ve got Platinum status and a 150% transfer bonus, you could get a ticket to a remote stretch of Canada for just 5,000 Bilt points. That’s pretty incredible.

Intra-Africa flights for great value

We often see more extreme examples of how distance-based pricing can provide excellent value in other parts of the world. For instance, the distance from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Nairobi, Kenya is less than a thousand miles. Cash prices tend to be quite high, with economy class ringing in at $376 or more and business class often costing well over $1,000.

But those same flights via Aeroplan cost just 7,500 miles one-way in economy or 15,000 miles in business class (and yes, this would be flat-bed business class on a 787 on this 2.5hr flight).

Barcelona to Amsterdam with a stopover in Zurich

This can also come in handy sometimes when traveling around Europe. For instance if you wanted to travel from Barcelona to Amsterdam, you could do it via Zurich and stop over there for a few days for an additional 5,000 miles, which saves you a little bit over booking two separate flights.

Slightly longer intra-European itineraries actually save you more miles over booking separately.

For more on this concept, see: Aeroplan short haul awards: a nice value in the Atlantic zone.

Intercontinental sweet spots with Aeroplan points

Add a stopover for 5K miles

As discussed above, one of the most exciting features of the Air Canada Aeroplan program is the ability to add a stopover of more than 24 hours to a one-way award for 5,000 miles. You can only add one stopover of in each direction, but this means you can easily visit two destinations on a single ticket (keep in mind that layovers are otherwise limited to up to 24 hours).

This feature is particularly useful with Aeroplan given the wide breadth of partner airlines and the ability to mix and match those airlines on an award ticket. This opens many possibilities.

East Coast to Western Europe from 60K in business class

While Air Canada Aeroplan awards to Europe can get pricey from the west coast, they can be a solid deal from the east coast given that routes like New York or Boston to Frankfurt, London, Paris, Zurich, Geneva, and Barcelona all cost just 60K miles one-way in business class. You could potentially fly United, Air Canada, TAP Air Portugal, or Lufthansa within the 60K business class distance band (up to 4,000 miles flown). In some cases, you may even be able to add a stopover for just 5,000 additional miles.

Keep in mind that the cost here increases as distance flown increases, so the award cost can rise depending on the length of any connections.

East Coast to Western Europe from under 33K miles in economy, under 49K in premium economy

Paris from under 20K with the transfer bonus

Air Canada Aeroplan offers fairly standard to high economy class pricing, with partner awards starting at 35K miles one way to Europe (and increasing at longer distances). However, Air Canada sometimes charges fewer miles on their own flights — and given a transfer bonus of 75% or more, you’re looking at fewer than 19K Bilt points one way for economy class from New York to Paris.

If you have the points to spare, I find the premium economy pricing far more attractive given what I would expect to be a more comfortable experience. While the 48.4K miles feel a bit high to me in comparison to the fact that Aeroplan might charge as few as 60K miles for business class depending on the routing, this is still a strong deal at 28K Bilt points for a one-way premium economy class ticket to Paris with a 75% transfer bonus (or 20K with a 150% bonus!).

Business or first class to Africa with a stopover

Aeroplan partners with many airlines that serve Africa, giving you a pretty wide range of potential stopover points and complex itineraries if you’re looking to visit more than one destination in Africa.

With partners that include Egyptair, South African Airways, Ethiopian, Etihad, Oman Air, and Air Mauritius, you have quite a few options for stopovers if you would like to visit more than one destination on a one-way award.

Fly long-haul Lufthansa & Oman First Class for as few as 58K points one way

I find the first class pricing particularly interesting for those with a large enough balance to swing it and those flexible enough to wait until Lufthansa releases first class availability to partner airlines. That’s because connecting in Frankfurt in first class provides the opportunity for the “full” Lufthansa first class experience (including a visit to the first class terminal). If you’re able to find availability, you could do something like fly from Zanzibar, Tanzania to Muscat, Oman in Oman Air business class and then continue on from Muscat to Frankfurt in Oman Air first class and connect to Lufthansa first class from Frankfurt to as far as Los Angeles for 140,000 miles — or pay 145,000 total miles and have a stopover of a few days in Muscat or Frankfurt on your way home from Zanzibar. That would cost as low as 58,000 transferred Bilt points if you have Platinum status! In first class! Even for those with no status, 83K points for an itinerary like that with the stopover seems excellent.

If you had Bilt Platinum status and 116,000 Bilt points, you could potentially book that round trip in first class and stop in Frankfurt in one direction and Muscat in the other!

Given the fact that Aeroplan adds no surcharges beyond the $39 CAD partner booking fee, this could be a great way to get 11.5hrs of Lufthansa first class, 7.5hrs of Oman Air first class (and that’s to say nothing of the 5hrs of business class from Zanzibar to Muscat!).

Pacific Zone can be a sweet spot for an award to both Asia and Oceania

Air Canada’s Pacific Zone is huge, which makes it a particularly good value at the extremes for those looking to build a stopover itinerary. While the sweet spot information above focuses on business class, note that economy class ranges from 35K-75K, which isn’t a great deal on its own, but with a stopover for 5K additional miles and a huge transfer bonus, it could still be a solid deal.

Other programs charge similar numbers of miles each way, but the key making Aeroplan a sweet spot here is the flexible routing rules and ability to add a stopover. Australia and New Zealand can be notoriously difficult destinations to reach directly from the United States. It becomes far easier to get Down Under if you can route via Asia or perhaps via Europe — but not all programs will allow you to route via a a third region. Air Canada not only allows you to route either way to the Pacific, but they also add the ability to stop over on the way.

This can make Aeroplan a great way to get to Australia in particular given the number of partners around Asia that fly to Australia (and the fact that Virgin Australia is also an Air Canada partner). This creates far more possibilities to get Down Under and far more opportunities to build a trip with more than one destination.

Complex partner awards

6 countries, 5 airlines, 5 days: Maximizing a single one-way award

Where I think Air Canada Aeroplan really comes together and gets exciting is in the ability to mix and match partners to create a long, interesting journey that offers the chance to visit multiple places. A couple of years ago, during our 3 Cards 3 Continents challenge, I flexed the power of a long award from North America to the Pacific Zone when I flew the following route:

That was:

• Washington, DC to Cairo, Egypt on Egyptair in business class
• Cairo, Egypt to Istanbul, Turkey on Turkish Airlines in business class
• Istanbul, Turkey to Muscat, Oman on Turkish Airlines in business class
• Muscat, Oman to Bangkok, Thailand on Oman Air in business class
• Bangkok, Thailand to Singapore on Gulf Air in business class
• Singapore to Cebu, Philippines on Singapore Airlines in business class

That entire itinerary would cost 115,000 miles in business class (and I should note that it would have cost the same number of miles to end up in Australia, and I nearly did fly to Perth!).

In my case, I had ~16hr to 20hr+ stopovers in each city along the way, so I got to see the pyramids of Egypt, take a cruise on the Bosporus in Istanbul, snorkel with whale sharks in Oman, visit the Grand Palace in Bangkok, get a Michelin bib gourmand crispy curry puff in Singapore, and end up in Cebu with its lush beauty all without a stopover of more than 24hrs. That said, for a total of 120,000 miles you could recreate that itinerary with a stopover of days or weeks in any one of those cities along the route. Read more about my experiences booking and flying that itinerary here: Nick’s 6-country, 5-airline Air Canada Aeroplan award ticket.

I’ve also written about a trip I have booked this year where I’ll start in Venice after a “free” MSC cruise (that I got via casino status matching) and fly to Mauritius for about a week en route to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Flying in business class on SWISS, Air Mauritius, and South African Airways, this booking cost me 85,000 miles and $137 per passenger and will help make for an epic summer adventure (well, North American summer, anyway).

Again, an itinerary like that is particularly unique for several reasons:

• Aeroplan allows a very circuitous routing with backtracking and plenty of extra hours in the sky if you want it. You are allowed to fly double the straight distance from origin to destination (and in the example above, the full distance is almost twice the distance from the origin (Venice) to the destination (Victoria Falls), which creates opportunities for complex bookings.
• Air Canada has some unique partnerships. They are one of the few options for booking Air Mauritius flights and those Air Mauritius flights can be combined with Star Alliance legs like those on SWISS and South African Airways in that example.
• You can add a single stopover to a one-way for 5,000 additional miles. This is especially notable with Air Canada Aeroplan because of their unique partnerships, which allow for stopovers in locations (like Mauritius) that would be more difficult to reach and likely impossible to add as a stopover with most other programs.
• Because of the ability to mix and match partners, it can be easier to find opportunities for very long layovers. For instance, on my trip to Mauritius and Victoria Falls, I have a layover in Johannesburg of 23 hours and 55 minutes between my Air Mauritius flight to Johannesburg and my flight to Victoria Falls, giving me a chance to do some sort of sightseeing there if I want.

Aeroplan is a frequent flyer nerd’s dream given the routing possibilities like those above. If all you wanted was a straight flight from Europe to Victoria Falls, there are probably some other ways to get there that would be more direct and probably cost fewer miles, but if you want to piece together something with a cool stopover and/or route a specific way to get a long enough layover to spend a day sightseeing in an intermediary city, this program can work out really well.

Lap infant tickets

For international awards, Air Canada Aeroplan charges only $25 CAD or 2,500 points per direction of travel for a lap infant.  That’s far cheaper than most competing programs!

The following is quoted directly from Air Canada’s new flight rewards policy (found here):

Infants under the age of 2 and not occupying a seat may accompany an adult
travelling on a Flight Reward and will require a separate ticket for travel, subject
to the below:

• For travel wholly within Canada, no fare will apply and the infant requires a ticket.
• For travel between Canada and the United States, no fare will apply and the infant requires a ticket.
• For all other itineraries, a discounted fare of CAD25 or 2,500 Points will apply per direction of travel and the infant requires a ticket.

Where applicable, taxes, fees and charges will be assessed and must be paid in
cash.

Only one infant under the age of 2 not occupying a seat is permitted per adult
travelling. Children over the age of 2 will require their own seat and Flight Reward ticket.

Either way, this is a fantastic value for those booking a lap infant ticket. Many programs charge 10% of the adult revenue fare for an infant ticket, which can easily be hundreds of dollars (and in first class sometimes more than a thousand dollars one way to hold your infant on your lap!). Some programs charge 10% of the adult miles price, which is a significantly better deal in most cases. But with Air Canada Aeroplan, the cost is the same flat rate on all awards. Paying just $25 Canadian Dollars or 2,500 points is the best deal in lap infant award travel.

Expanded partner availability

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Air Canada Aeroplan enjoys expanded award availability with some partners. For instance, Singapore Airlines typically does not release much business class award availability to most partners. However, Air Canada Aeroplan has wide access to Singapore Airlines business class award space. As noted above, you’ll pay just 60,000 miles one-way for Singapore Airlines business class from New York to Frankfurt. Singapore would charge 81,000 miles in business class for that route.

Air Canada Aeroplan charges just 60,000 miles — and often has access to six or more seats.

With a 75% transfer bonus (such as the one being offered for Bilt members with no elite status), you’d only need 35,000 Bilt points for a one-way business class award from New York to Frankfurt. That’s less than half the normal price via Singapore Krisflyer, which is typically the only other way to book Singapore business class since they don’t tend to release that space to partners.

I should note it would be that same price if you flew on Lufthansa or on if you flew instead on SWISS to Zurich or Geneva.

I have sometimes also noticed more availability on United flights than what is available to other partners. Air Canada seems to put segments together that other programs do not, which can sometimes make United connecting itineraries together that you won’t find elsewhere.

See An Air Canada advantage: far more award space with some partners for more on this.

Aeroplan is a great program for daydreaming

I’ve many times found myself daydreaming over Air Canada Aeroplan awards. I find Aeroplan to be the most fun program when it comes to searching for availability and considering possibilities because there are so many possible combinations.

Several times I’ve written about crazy ideas I’ve come up with at the hands of Aeroplan:

• Aeroplan plans for future dream trips
• Another trip down the Air Canada Aeroplan rabbit hole
• Anatomy of an Aeroplan award

But it’s not all rainbows and sunshine: Aeroplan drawbacks

Finally, I have to mention a couple of the key drawbacks of Air Canada Aeroplan.

First, if you’re west coast based, the distance-based pricing to Europe just isn’t going to make much sense. You’ll generally be better off using a zone-based program like Avianca LifeMiles (though with a huge transfer bonus, the math might change).

Second, Air Canada Aeroplan’s customer service has been difficult to reach and at times very inconsistent. While I find phone agents highly competent in booking complex awards, actually reaching an Aeroplan agent can be quite a feat sometimes. I wish they would hire more help on that front. More troubling yet is the inconsistency we’ve seen during service failures. For instance, Etihad released tons of first class space to Aeroplan last year and later cancelled tickets. Aeroplan initially talked the talk in fixing things, but over time we got plenty of reports from people who did not receive what was promised. Unfortunately, customer service just hasn’t been what one would hope (though we haven’t seen many similar instances similar to that Etihad situation).

Lastly, the “best” itineraries don’t always show up online. It is possible to book a stopover online, but there are often far more options than what the tool can show. That’s not unreasonable given that I’m sure they need to design a tool that can return results in a timely manner. Still, this means that it takes a bit of study and effort to piece together a really cool award. See Anatomy of an Aeroplan award for more on that.

Bottom line

Just a few days ago, I said that if my transferable currency accounts were being shut down, Air Canada Aeroplan would be the place I’d park very many of my transferable points. Thankfully, I’m not in the situation where I need to park a large sum of points. However, given the incredible transfer bonus being offered by Bilt on February 1st, I do intend to transfer out the balance of my Bilt points. I know that I can get amazing value for my points with Air Canada Aeroplan and given the 75% bonus for me, I just can’t turn that away. I’m not yet sure which of the above I’ll use the points for, but I am very confident that I’ll put those points to good use in relatively short order thanks to numerous sweet spots that become a lot sweeter with such a huge bonus.

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.