Hard to believe the year’s almost over. It seems like only a few months ago that we were making our travel plans for 2014. Emily made it to Vegas for a bachelorette, we experienced Brazil during the world cup on the (relatively) cheap and made good on our budding tradition to take some time off at a cottage. We were three for four, with Washington left to go.
Our original plan was to visit Washington on Aeroplan points. We signed up for a TD Aeroplan Infinite Visa card for the welcome bonus points with the intent of redeeming a 2 for 1 promotion on a short haul flight. This is how it went.
Collecting Aeroplan Points is Easy
Collecting points seems like a no brainer- with over 150 partners, Aeroplan really seems everywhere. It’s somewhat of a no-brainer, if not only just to let the points accumulate over time to use on a rainy day. The points are there for the taking; we can collect them at the gas station nearest our home, the garage where I get my oil change and even my phone service provider. It doesn’t hurt that also accumulate points whenever I fly for work. I’m not super elite by any means, but I’ve still managed to rack up some 40,000 points this year. I figured I’d be in for a sweet reward at redemption time.
Finding Qualifying Flights is Hard
Aeroplan stipulates that a short and long haul flight within Canada and the US are worth 15,000 miles and 25,000 miles, respectively. With the 15,000 bonus points we got from signing up for the credit card, we had enough to get to Washington from Toronto. We searched online and even called the reservation line but we couldn’t make the dates work. We weren’t able to abide by the first rule of Aeroplan rewards redemption: Thou shalt be flexible with dates. In the end, it didn’t pan out and Washington turned out to be a no go.
Booking a Flight is Even Harder
Towards the beginning of November, Emily found a last minute vacation deal and we booked. We started to look again at redeeming the Aeroplan miles to offset the costs of our flights on one condition: we had to fly together as a family. Not unreasonable, but I realize it did limit our options.
I found a return itinerary that would get us to our destination and booked tickets for myself and the little guy. On the Aeroplan rewards site, Emily found a matching departing flight but was unable to find a matching return flight. We decided to redeem the one way flight with rewards, and to book her return flight separately.
Emily first tried to make the reservation online to avoid the $30 charge associated with going through the call center. The system spit out an error message telling her to make the reservation by phone. We tried to reach the reservation line for the better part of an hour, only getting a busy dial tone. Frustrated, we contacted technical support in hopes that they would be able to help with the online booking error. Long story short, we went full circle- tech support eventually told us to call customer support at the number that was’t connecting. For the next hour, Emily spammed the online reservation system until the rewards redemption booking FINALLY went through. It was a late night.
The Final Tally
The one way flight from Toronto to Tampa cost $265 including taxes. To redeem the flight with Aeroplan points cost 12,500 points + $117 in taxes and fees. We “saved” $170 by redeeming the points. The rate of return can be tricky to calculate because of the different ways miles can be collected, but in this case, we didn’t spend anything to accumulate these bonus miles. It would have been more lucrative to cash in on the 2 for 1 return flights but we’ll call it a win.
Have you had a better experience redeeming Aeroplan points?
That’s rough. I seem to be the only blogger around who gets good value out of Aeroplan and doesn’t have to go through endless hassle to do so. I think it’s because I learned all the rules of the game early on and I keep those rules in mind before I ever plan a trip.
Once you start trying to get Aeroplan to match your last minute or inflexible travel plans it falls apart quickly as you experienced. Have you read my Aeroplan guide? Hope it is smoother for you next time guys!
I have read through your Aeroplan guide. Lots of good information there and I can see how the points can really pull in your favour if you know how to use them right. We haven’t had the benefit of flexibility as of late, so I knew it wasn’t going to be the best redemption scenario. It’s nice, though, to have offset some of the cost. We don’t vacation too often in North America, but I think we’ll have to save up the rest of the points for a cross country visit.
Indeed, some savings are definitely better than no savings which is what people tend to not realize when it comes to Aeroplan. It takes work to find a good seat sale just like it takes work to book a valuable Aeroplan ticket. One thing is for sure, Aeroplan tickets are much cheaper than full fare tickets. That said, I hope they drastically overhaul the program to make a reward feel like a true reward. The only way they can do that is to completely devalue the program, which would also cause an outrage … so we’ll see what happens.
With all the negative press they get, they’re going to have to do something eventually.
You’re going to have to move to Atlantic Canada before you can take a true “cross country” trip my friend – Lake Ontario isn’t the Atlantic Ocean 🙂
I don’t see them making changes any time soon. As long as people are willing to blow points on a discounted fare, they’ll continue to get their value. One can always hope.
You mean there’s more to Canada east of Ontario? 😛