Business Platinum Card from American Express
130,000 MR points
Analyzing the New Aeroplan Flight Rewards
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Business Platinum Card from American Express
- Earn 90,000 MR points upon spending $15,000 in the first three months
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- Also, receive a $200 annual travel credit
- Transfer MR points to Aeroplan and other frequent flyer programs for premium flights
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- Credits and rebates for business expenses throughout the year with Amex Offers
- Bonus MR points for referring family and friends
- Qualify for the card as a sole proprietor
- Annual fee: $799
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What tool do you guys use to make these trips? how can i find the layovers and stopovers? I have 400k in AMEX points I want to convert and do one or two epic trips… But I get lost in the searching on bookings process.
Canceled a booking but the points were not immediately credited back to my account.
Hi Ricky, on a round trip flight from YVR to YSB (through YYZ), I have redeemed 25k miles, and usually pay about $160 CAD in fees/taxes. With the elimination of the fuel surcharge, are you saying that this cash amount will be reduced, after the new program begins? I need to book this route for Christmas, and I’m wondering if I should book before, or after the change. Cheers!
Isn’t current YYZ to SIN 77,500 and not 75,000? So it’s not as bad as it looks.
Hi Ricky, great article as always. My wife and I (and an expected newborn) are looking at flying YYZ-ICN (Seoul) direct on business class in May 2021. Under the old Aeroplan, the only airline with direct availability is Air Canada. As a result, this would cost 300,000 points + $600 in carrier surcharges in total. Would you recommend that I lock this in now or that I wait until Nov 8 and book under the new Aeroplan (and avoid the $600 surcharge)? I’m leaning towards waiting for the new Aeroplan but I’m not sure if I’m missing something.
In the new program, this would still cost 150,000 points round-trip, without the surcharges. So it’s definitely advantageous to wait.
Excellent article Ricky. Maybe I’ve missed this somewhere in your reporting but what is happening to the Aeroplan tier status (silver, diamond, etc) which offered reduced points required on the market fare option? Low point options were often available between YYC – LHR. Will such deals still be available? Thanks.
The old Aeroplan status will only be converted into Aeroplan 25K status at a maximum. In the future, these low-point options will be replaced by “preferred pricing” on Air Canada flights under the dynamic model for credit card holders and Elite Status members. It remains to be seen how generous these discounts will be.
What if you already have 25K status and Aeroplan Diamond? Is it still only a maximum of Aeroplan 25k?
does anyone know if bookings made on the current basis will be honored after November 8, and further if you change one of these bookings after that date, will the change be based on the current system. As an example, if I book a flight from Calgary to Frankfurt today, for travel next March, will I be able to change it in February for the same flight at a later date without incurring a points penalty or any cash charge other than the change fee
Bookings made before Nov 8 will be honoured. However, changes made after Nov 8 will be subject to the new rules, not the old rules. The exception is in the case of involuntary schedule changes made by the airline.
Does anyome know if yyz-yvr-akl-sin-sgn or yyz-yvr-akl-sin-han is a valid routing under the new aeroplan program?
Both are under 100% the direct distance, so they should be good. Given that the “100% rule” is only a general rule of thumb, the former (+73.5%) strikes me as more likely to be valid than the latter (+97.7%).
Thanks. And changing HAN or SGN to HKG would be over mileage right?
Or maybe this will work – I was also thinking yyz-lax-akl-sin-hkg
That’s 98%, so again, in theory it should work but it’s just at the boundary.
Do you know if svx in Russia will be in the Atlantic or the Pacific zone? Looking at the colors on the map it seems to be the Pacific. TK flies there from IST. Typically it’s counted as Europe in most programs (ua, lifemiles, delta, aa).
Any idea if this would be logical one-way route. It’s way less than 100%, and it would even stay in the same bracket – so 85+30k for business?
Canada(Yul,yyz)-Germany-France-Italy-greece-Turkey-India-Thailand
This would be over the six-segment limit on a one-way bound. Also, there are no Star Alliance flights between France and Italy.
Yeah, Yekaterinburg looks like it’s in the Pacific zone to me.
It looks though like the Elite 25K status we get after racking up 100,000 points with a credit card cannot be used to reach higher tiers more quickly.
I have 2020 diamond status and when I look at my Altitude dashboard right now it shows Elite 25K status but the dials for both SQM and SQD don’t show anything credited there. It says I still need 35k/4000$ to get to Elite 35K.
Any indication otherwise?
No indication otherwise. That’s how it’s meant to be. There’s no shortcut to reach 35K, 50K, etc.; you’d still need to earn the SQM/SQS/SQD.
The best article i ever read on this new AeroPlan
Hi Ricky,
Thank you for the detailed post. This is certainly a lot to digest, and honestly I feel a tad overwhelmed. I should probably take enough time to digest all eventually!
I anticipate that I will be using up my Aeroplan points when booking a trip between Halifax and Seoul to see my family, preferably in business or higher due to the length of the trip. Comments seem to indicate Atlantic Canadians are getting the short end of the stick, so I suppose this kind of trip is no exception? I still hope that there are some sweet spots I can take advantage of under the new program…
Now imagine writing it 😉
Atlantic Canadians will be hoping for the YHZ-LHR and YYT-LHR routes to return eventually, in order to make use of those routes without paying YQ and benefiting from the distance-based chart from their locale. Going to Asia though, yes the prices will be going up, unfortunately.
Hi Ricky,
I have a question about multiple one-way bounds combination: Do you have to get back to the original city at the end of the itinerary?
Taking your example in the article, can I do YVR-SYD-BKK; SIN>JNB>LHR>YYZ as a valid itin?
Thanks
Yes, that would be valid.
Sorry if I missed this, but I only see one chart indicating the points needed for each mile range for trips between North American and Atlantic zones. Where can I find the other award charts for travel between NA and the other zones?
Hi David, it was my oversight that I hadn’t included all the award charts in the original post. All 10 charts are now included.
Thank you! Just finished reading everything you’ve published these past few days! Your effort in writing all of this up is really appreciated.
My pleasure! There’s certainly lots of information to digest. 🙂
Great article as usual.
I’m still trying to grasp all of the effects.
At this point I think all of the redemption changes are very negative if one lives in Newfoundland. Am I correct or am I reading that wrong?
I’d agree with that – Atlantic Canadians feel short-changed – at least until the normal route network including YYT-YHZ, and YHZ-LHR, and YYT-LHR are restored.
So far, I like it! However, one thing comes to mind. Atlantic Canada residents seem to be getting short changed (again?). Any Eastern Hemisphere travel usually requires a connection through YUL or YYZ. Since we’re going with distance, this could potentially add up to 1200 miles (eg, YYT – YYZ connection), which would bump up the required redemption miles, I mean, points. Also, YYT had it’s connection through YHZ but AC has cut most of the regional flights to YHZ from NB. So, YYT flight is now a connection through YUL or YYZ. Again, a higher rate of redemption. It would be nice if these factors could have been brought into consideration. How can we get this feedback to them?
Hi Duane,
I agree with your assessments that Atlantic Canadians are short-changed – at least until the normal route network including YYT-YHZ, and YHZ-LHR, and YYT-LHR (that was still around before COVID right?) are restored. I’d encourage you to share your feedback here: https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/aeroplan/feedback.html
Only because it’s left us pretty stranded we should note that it’s been longer than since Covid.
YYT-LHR disappeared after the MAX planes started dropping out of the sky.
Westjet also discontinued YYT-DUB.
how to check flight distance between home and destination?
try either of these
https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/calculators#form:range_rings
https://www.greatcirclemap.com/?routes=
the bottom one allows you to type in a route and comes back with combined distance
Great Circle Mapper: gcmap.com
A guide to using this app will be coming very shortly, that’s for sure.
Since we will be booking into different fare types (Flex for example) would we then be able to use our eupgrades similar to a paid far ?
Yes, all Aeroplan redemptions on Air Canada will now be eligible for eUpgrades.
Thank You Ricky for spending great deal of time in writing this article!
I have one question perhaps the same question from many others who are expecting to take the Etihad first class from SYD-AUB-JFK for 100000 miles one way without a stopover, with the new reward rule how many miles and fees will this ticket be, and if it is worth to get a stopover with extra 5000 miles? Trying to see if I should cancel the existing booking and rebook with the new reward rule. Thanks!
SYD-AUH-JFK is actually 110,000 miles right now. Take a look at the “First Class” section in the article – it’ll be 140,000 points in the new program, plus 5,000 points if you want a stopover.
Up to you if the extra stopover is worth 35,000 points to cancel and rebook!
I meant 110000 miles one way
As my eyes glossed over reading Ricky’s fantastically detailed info and comments from others, me thinks I am going to pay for someone to do the hard work for me….lol! I’ve only ever booked award flights on easy peasy routes and I barely had a handle on the old Aeroplan bef the new Aeroplan showed up. I have to say a lot of you folks are amazing to have grasped the Aeroplan game so well and share with us all.
So, lets see YYZ-AUH.
I can route YYZ-AUH-NRT-SIN-AUH (since its less than double the distance?) – and pay the mileage required for the highest 11000+ miles band?
Under the strict 100% rule, this would fall under, but keep in mind AC stated this was a “general rule of thumb” rather than a strict rule.
If it were allowed, you’d pay the 8,001+ distance band for North America–Atlantic.
ooops YYZ-ORD-NRT-SIN-AUH
So disappointed by the new flight rewards value.
My typical roundtrip route YYZ to GRU will now cost at least 80,000 points on economy, which today is what I would pay for a Premium Economy seat. On the other hand this same route involves taxes of $377, so if later I the the only costs is $39, that means I’m being forced to pay for taxes using points at the cost of 0.0169 cpm. No idea if this is a good deal or not but doesn’t seem like it.
That’s an interesting way of thinking about it. 1.69cpm is neither terrible nor outstanding, although keep in mind you’ll still need to pay the regular taxes and fees (like airport fees), just not the carrier-imposed surcharges.
Hi Ricky,
So i have a routing question. What if I route from yow-ewr-puj-bog-clo-mde-ctg-pty-sjo-yyz
All layovers of less than 24hr
GCMAP:6352miles
Will I need just need 22500 pts . Will it be considered 1 way as no MPM is there now
One-way bounds are limited to six segments now, unless the overall itinerary is a round-trip or multi-city.
Also, while there’s no MPM figure, illogical routings between two points still won’t be allowed. The general rule of thumb provided is that a routing is no longer logical if it’s over 200% above the direct distance.
thanks
This wouldn’t work. You have over 6 segments and the distance for calculation is yow-yyz, which is 226 + within 100% = 451 miles. I doubt that routing is under 451. I am pretty sure you will be charged two one ways on the NA-South America chart.
thank you. I reread the advance routing part.
Wrong on so many levels. Did you read the post? Have you ever redeemed an aeroplan point? How in the world do you think this is possible? Ricky, do not answer this fool.
Sorry for pinching your nerve. You could do yow-ewr-puj-bog-clo-mde-ctg-pty-sjo
under old rules as total MPM was below the yow-sjo limit. Now that the new chart just had fixed points above 2751 miles within North america, I wanted to ask Ricky if there is a loophole. Cleary I missed his advance routing section and spent more time on the aeroplan charts. Loopholes like these have existed in other point programs. Etihad’s redemption on Maroc air is one example.
Thanks RIcky for all this info! Looking forward to tomorrow’s article on complex routing.
Two questions right now (maybe they’ll be covered tomorrow?)
1. Which chart is used if a ticket crosses multiple zones? For example, from YYZ to GRU would cost 60,000 points in business, but if I go YYZ-LIS-GRU, would it still cost 60k or would it be 100k because it looks at the furthest zone travelled?
2. For a route like EVA’s TPE-VIE via BKK, would the distance be calculated as TPE-VIE direct or TPE-BKK-VIE?
Allow me to get back to you on #1. But then again, maybe this is one of those situations where we should give it a go ourselves when the new search engine arrives. 😉
For #2, I’m disagreeing with Alice here – it should be the direct distance TPE-VIE for the purposes of calculating the distance, as long as you’re booked on a single flight number (and therefore BKK is listed on your itinerary only as a technical stop). This is how every loyalty program has done it, including the current Aeroplan when calculating MPMs.
Ricky for #2, am I missing something? We use TPE-VIE to calculate distance to piece together a valid itinerary, but we use TPE-BKK-VIE to calculate culminated distance traveled to know how many points will be deducted.
I think he’s asking about EVA Air Flight 61/62, which makes a stop in BKK between TPE-VIE. If someone is booked on TPE-VIE on this flight number, then it’s the TPE-VIE direct distance that counts for calculating the routing distance.
Yes, that’s what I meant. Thanks for the clarification!
From everything that I have read so far, it seems what is logical, so no backtracking.
1. Origin – destination. So for this, it would be NA-South America chart, 60k points. You can route YYZ-LIS-GRU as that would fall under the permitted miles (YYZ-GRU being 5075, so your total segments need to be under 10,149 total).
2. For the purpose of valid itinerary, it would be TPE-VIE. For how many points you will be deducted, it will be TPE-BKK-VIE. So this would be Atlantic-Pacific region chart. You would pay 50,000/80,000 points for this in economy/business.
Thanks Alice! For number 1, this has to certainly be one of the huge sweet spots? We would basically be adding an extra segment from Atlantic to South America for no cost at all (YYZ-LIS 60k, LIS-GRU 80K if booked separately).
Sorry Dan, seems I am mistaken. Someone asked a similar question on the other blog and yyzbarista said it violates the IATA zone rules. Sure enough, when I tried to do a multi city cash fare, it says I need 3 separate tickets. So, maybe not. Sorry to get you all excited.
Ah well, no worries! I figured it is probably too good to be true. But as Ricky suggested, I will definitely still try it out when the new search engine comes out.
“Importantly, Air Canada confirms that the amount of available seats that you see in today’s Fixed Mileage Rewards will be roughly on par with the amount of seats bookable at the lowest end of the published dynamic ranges in the future.”
How does this relate to the “preferred pricing” for Aeroplan credit card holders? Is that additional inventory? Or does that mean if you don’t have an Aeroplan credit card, you’ll see LESS availability at the low end than you see in fixed price awards now?
It’s all the same inventory; however, it just means that Aeroplan credit card holders and Elite Status members may see the occasional “discount” on the same seats compared to what regular members might see. These discounts can even bring the pricing below the published price range, just as they can go above the published price range too in a combined ~10% of instances.
Sorry, I’m still not clear here.
Is Aeroplan taking these “discounts” into account when they make their claim that (roughly) the same amount of available seats will be at the low end of the dynamic pricing vs fixed mileage seats today?
If the answer is YES, then that would suggest that if you *don’t* have one of these cards, you’ll see LESS availability (without paying a premium) than you do now.
If the answer is NO, then that would suggest that if you *do* have one of these cards, you’ll see MORE availability (without paying a premium) than you do now.
While the claim was made in a general sense, AC also emphasizes that engaging with the program via credit card ownership and earning status will make a meaningful difference towards how likely a member is to see prices at the lower end of the range, compared to, say, the middle of a range.
Everyone sees the same amount of availability but what you pay depends on your elite status and/or having an AC affiliated card because having those will give you a “discount”. It is the same concept as the current market fare. We all see the same ability, but the person who has diamond status will pay less miles then the one who has black, silver or no status.
Let me give an example.
Let’s say for a particular flight, there are 10 seats available for fixed mileage rewards.
AC’s claim leads me to believe that there ought to be the same 10 seats available at the lowest end of the dynamic pricing under the new program.
Will everyone see those 10 seats and be able to book them?
Or will non-cardholders see only, say, 5 of them (meaning you’d have to choose a different flight if you don’t want to pay more)?
Everyone will see those 10 seats and be able to book them.
Any words on Star Alliance Upgrade Awards?
Excellent Article Ricky. Thanks to the May promotion on elite status, all four of my family members are elite, and sitting with miles in their account – looking forward to the new “family pooling” option and the pricing discounts based on elite status and holding credit card.
It looks like the points needed to do a mRTW to Asia / Australia in business class have increased significantly. If I wanted to do a trip of this nature in 2021… should I try to book one before November 8?
Yes, I would say so. However, you’d be able to do two stopovers after November 8, as opposed to one now.
You can but keep in mind that any changes you make post November 8 will be subject to the new program policies, regardless on when the ticket was booked. So no placeholder itineraries.
What if the change is involuntary? i.e. due to IRROPS?
Saw this answered below, please ignore. Thanks for such an informative article Ricky.
Argh that’s actually a big killer. I want to book a mRTW (and probably still will) but a big part of that has always been about swapping out for award space as they become available.
Great article, Ricky! Some pretty exciting stuff here.
My heads spinning. Lots of info. Thanks Ricky for the great write up.
I love this new award redemption, it is so flexible. I have so many thoughts swirling in my head and can’t wait to play around with the new program. Australia and New Zealand will be easier to get to now. So much fun to play with, I’m excited!
“but only after I’ve locked in a few favourable awards before the transition happens, of course!” AC is on to us, I thought I read somewhere that any changes made after November 8 will be subject to the new rules, even if the booking was made prior to November 8. So if you don’t make ANY changes to the favourable awards then you should be fine. But what about involuntary changes, would we be subject to the new program in that scenario?
That’s correct.
I imagine involuntary changes will allow a waiver of any points/fees differences. Will follow up with AC about this.
When you shared this point: “weighted average based on the respective distances flown”, I’m like BOOM I don’t have to worry about getting home! Ricky I gotta say the number of complex points you are able to convey is “off the charts ” pun intended.
Thanks as always for the massively long and detailed articles, Ricky!
Quick note: the first picture under Advanced Routing appears to be incorrect? It shows YVR-BKK-SYD instead of Los Angeles as stated in the text.
Eagerly awaiting the Mini-RTW article tomorrow, since my original plan got cancelled back in May. Its horribly amazingly convoluted routing is not going to play nice with distance-based rules. 😛
Ah yes, meant to write Vancouver. Thank you and maybe have some Advil handy for tomorrow’s complex routings article. 😉
I noticed the fifth freedom flight Santiago-Buenos Aires on Air Canada doesn’t exist on the “Within South America” chart. It only shows pricing for partner flights.
Then it must be free, right? Checkmate Aeroplan
I had asked AC about this too! This was the response:
We’re not publishing an Air Canada rate at this time given there’s a single AC flight within the South American region (currently suspended due to COVID).