Happy New Year! As well as fireworks and elite status counters resetting, the Aeroplan changes (which I wrote a series of posts about here) now take effect today. This means there are some good changes and some not so good changes, the important ones I will be mentioning in this post.
Aeroplan Changes: One-Way Awards
One-Way awards will only require 50% of the roundtrip cost, instead of 66% with the previous chart. This is one of the most positive changes, so this means the one-way award chart will actually be reasonable. Aeroplan now lists the changes to the award chart here:
Aeroplan One-Way Award Chart
Some of the best values that have not been touched by the devaluation is Europe 1 which means a one-way award is only 30k in economy and 45k in business. Combine this with a fuel surcharge free airline, and this is one of the cheapest ways for a TATL business class award.
Aeroplan Changes: New Award Chart
One of the things that I didn’t like with the Aeroplan changes were further raises to the awards to Asia/Oceania/Africa/Indian Subcontinent, which meant that the value of the mini-RTW would go up even more. A business class mini-RTW to Asia now starts as 150,000 miles versus 125,000 miles that it cost yesterday and the 100,000 cost a few years ago. A first class redemption to the Middle East is now 230,000 miles which is borderline outrageous, especially if you have fuel surcharge on top of that. The new award levels are as follows (from North America) for a roundtrip:
New Award Chart
The other thing worth mentioning is the new market fares, which I’m surprised to say are actually really reasonable for the regular traveller. The market fares are basically setting the award cost of a ticket roughly equivalent to the cash cost. Distinction members get a further discount on these awards, which are not capacity controlled. Now these awards used to be called ClassicPlus and used to be outrageously pricy – think upwards of 40,000 miles on a economy domestic ticket. Now they’re actually fairly reasonable. I’ll be doing an analysis later, but the premium you’re paying to get non-capacity controlled awards is actually not to bad. Just to cherry-pick an example, YVR-LAX during spring break for some schools have no Y seats available at the saver level, but seats ARE available for a lot of flights for just a 4,000 mile premium:
Market Fare Award
As a comparison ITA Matrix is showing the lowest paid fare at $287. So your Aeroplan actually getting a 1.5cpm redemption here, which is not bad at all.
ITA Matrix
As a Distinction Black member I get up to a 25% discount on Market Fare Awards. I definitely won’t be redeeming for domestic coach anytime soon, but for the more typical Aeroplan user I would actually think this is not a bad deal, especially if you want direct flights on peak dates.
Aeroplan Changes: New TD Credit Cards
TD now has their official page online here with a list of their new Aeroplan credit cards for Canadians. The rumours which I talked a bit about here are true and most of the information about the cards and benefits are the same as what had been leaked a few days earlier. In my opinion, the offers aren’t really good especially as a new product, since TD really needs to capture more market share.
New TD Cards
I assume they’ll run a first year free promo IF new signups and numbers are as good as they predicted. But these offers are hardly good for churning at all especially given that Aeroplan miles are in my opinion worth less than they were yesterday.
But here’s to hoping for a new year filled with lots of award space, first class mistake fare from certain Asian destinations, and great promotions!
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Dreadful. Asia 1 to Asia 2 has doubled from 30k to 60k. Aeroplunk and AC have officially become the most devalued FF I know.
AFAIK Asia 1 to 2 has not changed.
All of the TD Aeroplan CC have annual fee for the first year. Hopefully they will waive for the first year soon.
Jeff -Are there any non-YG aeroplan carriers which fly to Europe non-stop from YVR? I have no interest flying to LAX, DFW etc extending flight time significantly.
Unfortunately not. 🙁
Thanks Jeff. Really sucks sometimes living in this part of the country 🙁
Jeff , you mentioned aeroplan is free of fuel surcharges but when I search Toronto to Frankfurt O/W on July 9 2014 and pick AC NS it gives me 223.50 in fuel surcharge. What am I missing. Searched thru my aeroplan account with 0 miles.
Stefan I don’t ever think I mentioned that Aeroplan is free of fuel surcharges. Flying certain airlines will incur fuel surcharge while others will not.
I wrote about that here in more detail which might be of use to you:
http://canadiankilometers.boardingarea.com/2013/04/29/fuel-surcharges-on-aeroplan-award-tickets/
add to previous post: That was in economy @ 30k miles.
FC even has higher FC. THANKS for your input.
Thank you for the link, Jeff. Happy to learn from a knowledgeable person.
Hi Jeff,
I have been using united rewards and ANA to build my own route to book Y seats as most carriers showed on aeroplan charge fuel or seats are in mixed category. What do I say when I call the aeroplan call center to book my multi stop itinerary? Do I simply refer to flight number, carrier and time as the united or ANA website?
Correct, feed them the flight info. Tell them first I would like flight xxx from aaa city to bbb city, then flight xxx from bbb to ccc, etc. just make sure the routing you’ve found is legal.
It seems that Market Fare awards are free of extra surcharges. Sample booking YYZ-YVR – 32,500 and $66 in taxes/fees – Classicflight – 25000 and $166 in taxes/fees. Even though I am SE and can get the classic award almost anytime, the 7500 extra miles maybe worth saving $100.
Only on some flights. It seems most international flights do have fuel surcharge, sadly.
Hey Jeff,
The CIBC aeroplan gold card is now free for the first year! The sign up bonus is 20,000 miles! Perfect for churners!
Also, do you know if the Aeroplan to USDM option is permanently gone at points.com? I can’t see it anymore.
Yes it is a great card! I think the Aeroplan to USDM points.com transfer should be back as I made a transfer just yesterday.
Great! I just read that you can also transfer Aeroplan to BA Avios, Asia Miles, AA Miles and WestJet Dollars if you have An Avion Visa Card. From AP to Esso to Avion then to either of the four. But the rate is about 1 AP : 0.7, but with the annual 50% bonus from BA it will be close to 1:1.
Correct, that ratio is too low for me though.
Hmmm I just checked points.com the rate is not so great anymore. 15k AP gives me 10,984 USDM, about 1 AP : 0.73USDM.
Change your address to a US one.