When Chase first added Air Canada Aeroplan as an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner in 2021, I compared United Airlines and Air Canada award prices on a number of routes to see which would be a better transfer partner for Star Alliance flights. In the original analysis (which I published 8/5/21), I found that United was almost always the better option for economy awards. For international business class awards, though, the results were split: sometimes Air Canada was better and sometimes United was better. And for international first class awards I found that Air Canada was better. Now, three years and several United MileagePlus devaluations later, I wondered if things had changed. Is Air Canada Aeroplan now always the better choice? I reran the analyses to find out..
United and Air Canada are both Star Alliance members. This means that you can use either one’s miles to book flights on Star Alliance member airlines when partner awards are available. The Star Alliance includes Air Canada, ANA, EVA Air, Lufthansa, Singapore, Swiss, Turkish, United, and many more airlines. Unlike Singapore Airlines (another Star Alliance Chase transfer partner), United and Air Canada never pass along carrier imposed surcharges. That can be huge when booking with some partner airlines like Lufthansa or Swiss.
So, given that cardholders of premium Ultimate Rewards cards (Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, Ink Business Preferred) can transfer points to either United or Air Canada, which should they choose?
In order to see which program offers better award pricing for U.S. customers, I ran a number of award searches across both United MileagePlus and Air Canada Aeroplan and I recorded the results. Here’s what I found…
Domestic U.S.
I looked at a number of one-way routes within the U.S. and recorded economy award prices. I would have liked to have also recorded domestic first class award prices, but United so rarely makes these available to partners that it was difficult to find enough data points. Note that United’s award pricing is dynamic and so real world results will vary.
Updated 9/9/2024:
| Route | United Miles Required | United Fees | Air Canada Miles Required | Air Canada Fees (Converted to USD) |
Which is Cheaper? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCA-EWR | 10,200 | $5.60 | 6,000 | $35 | Air Canada |
| ATL-IAD | 9,200 | $5.60 | 10,000 | $37 | United |
| LAX-EWR | 14,300 | $5.60 | 12,500 | $37 | Tie* |
| ORD-LAX | 14,300 | $5.60 | 12,500 | $37 | Tie* |
| DFW-ORD | 7,300 | $5.60 | 10,000 | $37 | United |
| DFW-DEN | 6,400 | $5.60 | 10,000 | $37 | United |
| SEA-DEN | 7,800 | $5.60 | 10,000 | $37 | United |
* With the flights from LAX to EWR (Newark) and Chicago (ORD) LAX, United charged around 2,000 more miles, but Air Canada charged $31 more in fees. If we value points at about 1.5 cents each, then the value of the difference in price in miles (~$30) almost exactly matches the difference in fees ($31).
As you can see above, United is often the better option for domestic U.S. flights. This conclusion hasn’t changed since the 2021 analysis.
International Flights
I looked at one-way flights from Chicago to a number of international destinations and recorded award pricing found on United and Air Canada. Here’s what I found…
Economy Awards
Updated 9/9/2024:
| From Chicago To: | United Miles Required | United Fees | Air Canada Miles Required | Air Canada Fees (Converted to USD) |
Which is Cheaper? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 36,600 | $5.60 | 35,000 | $57 | United* |
| Frankfurt | 40,000 | $5.60 | 40,000 | $57 | United |
| Tokyo | 60,500 | $5.60 | 50,000 | $57 | Air Canada |
| Mumbai | 49,500 | $5.60 | 70,000 | $77 | United |
| Johannesburg | 49,500 | $8.60 | 70,000 | $60 | United |
| Dubai | 47,400 | $7 | 55,000 | $58 | United |
* With the flight to London, United charged 1,660 more miles, but Air Canada charged $50 more in fees. If we value points at about 1.5 cents each, then the value of the difference in price in miles ($25) is significantly less than the difference in fees ($50).
United is usually the better choice for international economy awards. This conclusion hasn’t changed since the 2021 analysis.
Business Class Awards
Updated 9/9/2024:
| From Chicago To: | United Miles Required | United Fees | Air Canada Miles Required | Air Canada Fees (Converted to USD) |
Which is Cheaper? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 80,000 | $5.60 | 60,000 | $57 | Air Canada |
| Frankfurt | 80,000 | $5.60 | 70,000 | $57 | Air Canada |
| Tokyo | 110,000 | $5.60 | 87,500 | $72 | Air Canada |
| Mumbai | 88,000 | $8.60 | 110,000 | $60 | United |
| Johannesburg | 88,000 | $8.60 | 110,000 | $60 | United |
| Dubai | 88,000 | $25.90 | 90,000 | $104 | United |
With international business class awards, the results were mixed. Sometimes United was cheaper and sometimes Air Canada was cheaper. This conclusion hasn’t changed since the 2021 analysis, but in 2021 the advantage leaned towards United since United’s prices were very close even when they were higher. That’s no longer true.
First Class Awards
Updated 9/9/2024:
| United Miles Required | United Fees | Air Canada Miles Required | Air Canada Fees (Converted to USD) |
Which is Cheaper? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JFK to Mumbai | 220,000 | $5.60 | 130,000 | $57 | Air Canada |
| Chicago to Tokyo | 220,000 | $5.60 | 150,000 | $57 | Air Canada |
| Mexico City to Frankfurt | 165,000 | $73.49 | 100,000 | $102 | Air Canada |
In the original analysis, Air Canada’s first class award prices were always better than United’s but United was only about 20% higher. Now, thanks to recent devaluations, United’s first class award prices are waaaaay higher.
Beyond the Price
There are factors beyond the award price that are worth considering:
- Flying United or Air Canada: When you want to fly United or Air Canada, it’s often the case that your only option is to use that program’s own miles because they don’t always release seats to partners. For those of us in the United States, this gives an advantage to United (whereas Air Canada has the advantage for Canadians). Advantage United (for U.S. residents).
- Partners: Both airlines are Star Alliances members and so they have many partners in common. However, Air Canada has many more non-alliance partners than United. These can make booking international awards much easier. Further, the two programs don’t always have the same access to Star Alliance award space. For example, Air Canada seems to have much better access to Singapore Airlines awards whereas United seems to have slightly better access to ANA awards. Advantage Air Canada.
- Change Fees: United has no award change or cancelation fees. Air Canada imposes fees unless you pay for higher priced awards. Advantage United.
- Stopovers: Air Canada allows adding a stop-over to a one-way award for only 5,000 additional miles. United offers a similar feature (“Excursionist Perk”) for free, but it is much more limited and complicated, and it only works on round-trip itineraries. On the other hand, United’s Excursionist Perk can be used in creative ways to extend your trip and use fewer miles. See: Maximizing (and understanding) United Excursionist Perks. Advantage Air Canada (for most uses).
Conclusion
The general conclusions from 2021 haven’t changed:
- For economy awards, I found that United was usually the better option.
- For international business class awards, the results were split: sometimes Air Canada was better and sometimes United was better.
- For international first class awards I found that Air Canada was better
Even though the big-picture conclusions haven’t changed, it is now the case that when United is a worse choice it is sometimes a far worse choice. In 2021, that wasn’t the case. At that time, when United’s prices were higher, they were only a little bit higher. Now, they are sometimes far higher.
So, which is a better transfer partner from Chase? There’s no single answer. My recommendation is to do award searches in both programs before transferring from Chase Ultimate Rewards. Transfer to whichever one offers the best combination of price and other features (such as waived award change fees). For economy awards, the best answer will often be United, but for business and first class awards it pays to look closely at Air Canada’s options as well.
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Customer service on AC is abysmal. They have limited hours and endless hold times.
chase has transfer bonus 20 to 30% to Aeroplan, never has it on United. This should also part if the equation. On top of that AC seems to always having more award space than UA even on Star oartners.
I’m surprised United held its own against Aeroplan. Nice article.
For Chase customers a better test might be to compare United with Hyatt. It’s hard to do but that’s the choice most UR collectors face.
United tends to have much better Copa Airlines availability.
Most of it is phantom and AC is much better priced on that route
Hi Ben, I’ve wonder the same myself. Even sent an email to FM mailbag. Pasted below to see my process. Appreciate any insights. Note the pricing for 38.5k business.
(Note – email sent 7/16/24. Availability is now totally different, but I monitored and it stuck around for a while)
I discovered something interesting and hoping you can help shed some light on whether I’m seeing real availability or not.
Searching with United I’m finding plentiful business availability from US to Panama City (PTY) on Copa Airlines. For example, LAX-PTY 12/20/24, return 1/5/25 I’m finding 8 business seats. That’s prime holiday vacation dates and lots of seats! I didn’t test it as far, but I’m finding lots of business availability across dates and also on other direct Copa routes to PTY (SFO, DEN).
Phantom test 1 – searched on United app and website. Book show the same availability. Test pass.
Phantom test 2 – Searched on ANA, Air Canada, and Avianca found completely different availability. For the noted itinerary above, all show NO business availability. I’m finding almost no business availability for other dates. Test fail.
Phantom test 3 – Called United and a rep confirmed the number of seats available and said they were available to book with the points as shown online. I asked multiple times to confirm and was assured that the seats are available to book. Test pass.
Phantom test 4 – book one leg, one seat. Unfortunately I can’t complete this without transferring points as I have a nill United mileage balance. No test.
Any other ways to check whether the space is real without transferring and attempting to book? Any other insights here?
A recent data point on this: I booked Business class LAX-PTY-SCL on Copa using United miles when other partners (Aeroplan & Lifemiles) were not showing availability. The booked itinerary shows up on Copa’s site too and I was able to select seats. So the extra availability on Copa using United miles is real. From what I gather reading online, this is due to special relationship between United and Copa inherited from Continental days.
Greg, it would be great if you could add Avianca LifeMiles to make this for a three way comparison. I’ve found LM to consistently offer better award pricing than both.
I’m also very surprised that this analysis didn’t weigh cancellation costs more seriously. United standard awards are really equivalent to AC’s Latitude awards, which are typically ~2x their Standard awards. The value for AC Latitude awards is so laughable, I have a hard time squaring the admiration of AC I hear from FM with the admiration of award flexibility. Am I missing something?
A key factor to me is thar UR is the only transferrable points program for United whlie several transfer to Aeroplan. So for me Chase points go to United while MR or C1 go to Aeroplan. But the comparisons are still useful for the decision on which transfer to do.
Great analysis. One question for Greg. For the Chicago-Tokyo flight in business, was this on ANA?
I can’t remember what it was, but it wasn’t ANA because Air Canada isn’t showing ANA awards online these days (you have to call to book ANA)
Thank you for publishing this. After all the devaluation talk, I largely just assumed United had few uses. However, I don’t have United miles, so I never really searched the program. Good to know these miles are often still useful, as I am constantly bombarded with advertisements for the Explorer card. I suspect I’ll have to pick one up one of these days.
That’s my thought as well – might as well pick up a United card to have a “backup stash” of United miles to book.
Hard to imagine I would transfer many miles from Chase to United especially since Aeroplan does frequent transfer bonuses but for those instances where United is cheaper even with the transfer bonus plus free cancellation/changes when I’m not ready to commit to an Aeroplan award, it could be useful.
In the first class chart, Mexico City to ____ is cut off after “to”. I would love to know where you can fly first class from CDMX for 100k AC miles.
Fixed: Frankfurt
Great analysis!
Maybe an additional miscellaneous value sections:
Air Canada: Occasional Chase transfer bonus to Aeroplan (don’t think I’ve ever seen a United transfer bonus) as well as easier to accumulate with other Bank Programs.
United: Ability to rebook a flight for free if it gets cheaper and the net points differential goes back to your account (utilize this a lot for a family of 4 since the dynamic pricing model has implemented via seats.aero pricing alerts). United award bookings count toward PQP status which is a nice if trying to maintain lower United status levels. Also the family points sharing pool appears to be functioning better than Aeroplan (I think this service is unavailable on new Aeroplan family accounts at the moment).
I have used United’s free cancellation and rebooking more times than I could ever count. The (often) higher redemption rates are so so worth it to me because of this.
I’d add one more point in favor of Air Canada. The Chase-Aeroplan card comes with a 10% transfer bonus which also stacks with any occasional 20-30% bonuses on the Ultimate Rewards side.
Great points!
I haven’t been able to find ANY access to ANA with Aeroplan over the last few months of looking for close in ANA J space to TYO, so I’d say United has more than just a little better access, infinitely more it seems. I’m having a real hard time burning this last 50k aeroplan cert from a couple of years ago. Please Aeroplan, don’t make me fly united transpacific!
I recently booked 4 one-way economy flights from Osaka (KIX) to Tokyo (HND) for 5K miles and $5 each as backup flights in case the bullet train ($100 each) got delayed for some reason. I was able to cancel those flights 4 hours before without any penalty.
Despite the devaluations, United miles still can have value. 😉
Is your opinion any different now that Chase has an Aeroplan card?
No
I think the taxes and fees are a bit off for first class awards. LH would be the only bookable star alliance first class award option from Europe-US. The direct flights are populating with $132 for UA and $213 for AC. Maybe the $5.60 and $37 are for UA or AC metal but neither operate first class.
No, I listed the fees that were shown on each website for flying Lufthansa first from US to Germany. Fees might be higher in the other direction.
[…] I transfer my Chase Ultimate Rewards point one to one to United and Hyatt. Sometimes to Southwest and only if I have a specific award in mind that makes sense flying Southwest. But maybe I will have another option going forward to replace United? United vs. Air Canada: Which is the better Chase transfer partner? […]