Aeroplan has imposed a new, more restrictive pricing system for award travel.
But there’s apparently an interesting situation that’s arisen, maybe they want to make things go down a bit more smoothly with the introduction of these new rules!
Every award is pricing based on the first stopover you book. If you stopover domestically, you can travel anywhere in the world for the cost of a domestic award.
First class to Europe? South America? No problem, just pay the domestic award price.
As Canadian Kilometers explains,
The “real” price will show on the first screen, but when you click through, the lower price is displayed instead. In order to click through to book, you’ll need at least 50% of the miles required of the “original” price. Of course if you begin/end in other zones, you can get a business or first class “mini-RTW” for the price of a simple domestic.
American Express points transfer instantly to Aeroplan. You should book these awards online only, do not try to book them with an agent over the phone.
Three years ago there was another short-term discount on Aeroplan awards, and it was honored. And this summer they honored the ‘special offer’ failing to add fuel surcharges onto Asiana awards.
So getting booking an award through Aeroplan. Fly from your home city, stop somewhere in the US (your international departure gateway city) for 24 hours or more. And then continue on anywhere in the world you want to go and find space and that the website will offer you and price!
The entire point of the new award pricing system is that you are supposed to be able to do only and exactly what it tells you and offers to you — that the computer decides what is permitted and at what prices, rather than objective published rules. So I have to defer to the computer here and assume this is all correct.
I wouldn’t make non-refundable hotel plans around these tickets, I would wait a few days to know for sure that they will be honored — although if the tickets originate in and return to the U.S., if Aeroplan issues tickets and charges a credit card for taxes — it will be hard for them to raise the price after issuance (although they will argue that showing a higher price earlier in the process covers them). At a minimum, and though I advise against non-refundable travel arrangements made immediately following these tickets, Aeroplan would likely be on the hook to cover those costs if they didn’t honor the tickets.
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Yeah right. Don’t hold your breath that this will be honored.
United 4 miles to hkg
Ugh, if only I could immediately link my Aeroplan account to my Amex MR account. Lesson learned here… Link all my airline and hotel programs now in case I need to transfer points quickly later. 🙁
@Jonathan – link is usually instantaneous
Can I link my aeroplan account to a family member’s Amex MR account?
@ncSam generally since June you can only link an Amex Membership Rewards account to a frequent flyer account in the name of a cardholder on the Amex account. Why not transfer to their Aeroplan account (create one for them if need be) and redeem a ticket in your name with it?
@Gary Wish that were the case. I linked two MR accounts to my existing Aeroplan account and am still waiting for it to show up in the linked accounts list. 🙁
@gary – thanks! with my luck the “sale” will be over by then, but worth a shot.
@Jonathan Sign out and then sign back in. I have also had success when I used a private browsing session.
Having trouble finding a booking out of DC..to anywhere. Any examples?
I booked first SFO-LAX-SCL-SFO. Priced at 50k miles.
OK thanks for the help guys. Got the accounts linked.
Not having much luck with booking but will keep plugging away. Anyone else successful in booking?
This might get honored but solely out of APs goodwill, not on the DOT ruling. A similar scenario transpired in the 4-mile island where the DOT has made it clear that the DOT ruling against price hike does not apply in this scenario.
Im having trouble getting it to price RDU-EWR with 2 day stop over…Examples?
Trying to book LGA-YUL-ATH-LGA. Got it to price at 25K but there’s $655 in surcharges. Any way to avoid that?
Can I fly from New York to Sydney, Kingsford Smith, AU (SYD. In business for 50K? I have no Aeroplan miles but have a lot of American Express and Starwood. How long does the transfer take?? How do I link the Amex accounts?
thanks
Crap! This deal is up on Flyertalk. Hat tipping Flyertalkers are gonna kill this deal!!!
@Jasper – where on flyertalk? I looked around and can’t find it.
@Phil http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canada-aeroplan/1625014-glitch-error-ac-award-pricing-blogs.html
Once more the greedy American sharks go after the vulnerable and then complain when the rest of the world is let in on it! You know it’s not a SALE but rather a glitch. But keep dreaming boys!
Might be dead. The multi destination option seems to have gone away.
Multi city tab taken offline
I was just 2 minutes away from all business class SFO-BOM.
SO 15,000 MILES FOR A COACH TICKET ANYWHERE?
Looks gone now- the multicity option is not available on the rewards booking site.