I’ve written in the past about how Air Canada Aeroplan is my single favorite frequent flyer program for redeeming points. Aeroplan is a program you should care about even if you never fly with Air Canada.
Continue reading: Aeroplan’s Amazing Suite Of Airline Partners
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Why do you think they generally charge so much to fly on their metal vs partners? I feel like it’s the opposite for most other airlines
If I book an Aeroplane award on united metal (ORD-DEN) and I'm premier silver with united, do I get premier benefits on my flight (complimentary checked bag, better seat at check-in)?
" the head of a certain airline loyalty program" you chatted with wouldn't be from Alaska MP would it?
The rather negative attitude you encountered fits their business model these days, and their indifference to their members needs. Their inability to negotiate good deals for their customers has been in steady decline for several years now.
Their much-trumpetted reforms to the MP program have been a fizzer so far, with indicernable positive benefits.
The needed reforms are a wholesale change of personnel in MP. in my considered opinion.
Good on Air Canada, however I find that they do not make many seats available on these partners and also find that United has far more availability and options when trying to book from Europe to Canada. For example it seems extremely rare to find Europe to Canada with routing on United through the US...unless you're booking with United points.
Award compensation fare is so low that they would never want you to redeem for themselves.
Love aeroplan but wonder how long they can sustain this business model. They allow all sorts of things that other airline programs won’t do. Aeroplan seem to have a ‘can do’ attitude. Surely this must come at a cost and I wonder how profitable it is. Their website is fabulous as well and you don’t need to ring the call centre at all.
I used to like alaska mp but they look positively antiquated compared to aeroplan.
Aeroplan must be attracting huge amounts of cash to fund their business with their regular points sales. Also the Canadian dollar exchange rate is a plus for non US miles and points people compared to the very expensive USD.Aeroplan would definitely be affecting mileage plan and avianca miles sales.
Ben, love the blog but I'm puzzled by one aspect of your Aeroplan comments. I'd estimate that something like 85% of Aeroplan members are Canadian. The cards you promote are all - to us - "international" ones and unavailable. There are, however, many Canadian-issued credit cards which feature Aeroplan currency (Amex Canada, TD, CIBC all have multiple flavours of native or potentially Aeroplan issuing cards). Am I correct to presume you don't mention these because the related affiliate offers from them aren't attractive for you? Personally, I see ads for them all the time so I find it odd. I know the Chase Aeroplan card is fantastic but it's not even available to 85% of Aeroplan members. Call me Puzzled In Toronto...
I like your comments about the quality of the program and can attest that it was a good program because Aeroplan was an independent company until Air Canada bought it a few of years ago. The quality of the program has been deteriorating since then, like all other such programs.
I am finding it very frustrating that I can only find Air Canada flights to most of the locations I want to travel to. I would prefer to fly Singapore Airlines, Eva, Turkish, etc., and it is almost impossible to find these flights even though I know they are available. Also, Aeroplan "marries" their multiple airport transfer flights together, so one cannot change one section of the flight even though one can see availability. Is there an easy way to find other airline flights?