Aeroplan: An Underrated Award Program with Exceptional Value

Aeroplan is Air Canada’s loyalty program and is quickly becoming one of my favorite programs. Aeroplan has an easy to use interface and while other airlines, most notably Delta and United, are dramatically increasing award prices, Aeroplan offers great opportunities from New York to Europe for as low as 60,000 points. Even better, Chase is currently offering a 30% transfer bonus to Aeroplan meaning business class awards can be had for under 48,000 Chase points. With all the great things circling Aeroplan, here’s why this program is quickly becoming my all time favorite.

1: Great Redemption Rates

Aeroplan has plenty of great redemption options of “saver award space”. Using just 60,000 miles, you can fly to Brussels from New York. Even better, if you want to fly to Rome via Brussels, with half a day in Brussels, it will only cost you 70,000 points. These are all lie-flat business class seats and is a wonderful way to use your hard earned points.

Example East Coast USA to Europe Flights

Business Class Seats to Brussels for only 60,000 Points
You can also fly from New York to Rome with a 6 plus hour stopover in Brussels
Want an even more daring itinerary, fly to Brussels then to Athens all in business for only 75,000 points

West Coast USA to Asia Flights

Spend a few days in Taiwan and then go to Seoul for only 80,000 points in Eva Air

2: Ability to Add a Stopover for Only 5,000 miles

Imagine flying to Dubai from San Francisco and stopping over in Paris. This stopover would only cost you an additional 5,000 miles and best of all you would be able to experience true business class on both segments, not the wonky empty middle seat found on intra Europe flights. The ability to turn a one way award flight into one with as many as 4-6 stopovers is absolutely a steal! This does take a little bit of planning so be prepared to do some heavy digging.

3: Easy to Use Interface for finding award flights

Aeroplan’s website is easy to use and while it would be nice to see a calendar similar to the one American Airlines displays, the site make it easy to find the flights I want. I think the site also works fluidly and I hardly come across any glitches. Air France for example is a very wonky site while, while Qatar Airways makes it a bit tough to book with points as you need to go through another portal.

4: Easy to Transfer Points

Aeroplan partners with Chase, American Express, and Capital One allowing you to convert their points into Aeroplan points. In addition, Chase and American Express periodically roll out transfer bonuses which further increase the power of your points.

Final Thoughts!

Aeroplan is quickly growing into one of my favorite programs. I have seen several blogs discuss the power of Aeroplan, but after booking a great trip for Jen and I, the verdict is clear. Aeroplan should be at the top of your wish list! Happy bookings friends!

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