Major Aeroplan Changes – Implications For Maritimers

The Aeroplan program is set to undergo a significant transformation on November 8, 2020 and many of the details have just been released to the public. It’s always an unsettling time before impending changes to a loyalty program, so it’s a relief to now be able to examine the differences. My primary concern is how it will affect Aeroplan redemptions out of airports here in the Maritimes.

Air Canada has a lot of information about the new program on its website. Details may also be found in its Flight Rewards Policy.

Aeroplan miles will change to “points” and your pre-existing balance will convert 1 to 1.

Flight redemptions will now involve a redesigned four zone reward map along with distance-based charts within the four zones.

North America
Atlantic
Pacific
South America

For all of the distance-based charts, go to the Aeroplan website. I’ve also included two of them later in this post.

First, I’ll briefly go over some of the main differences we’ll see in the new program:

No Fuel/Carrier Surcharges

Excellent. Gone are those high surcharges on Air Canada and certain partner airlines such as Lufthansa or Austrian Airlines. This is a very welcome development. It means we won’t have to book less convenient itineraries to fly partners like United or Swiss which don’t have them. Only the taxes and additional charges such as airport fees will remain on Aeroplan bookings.

No Fixed Reward Chart For Air Canada Flights

This sounds troubling. Dynamic pricing is not great for those with limited flexibility in their travel schedule. Although there will be no cap on seats available on points, we’ll have to see how these will price out in reality, as they will be tied to the actual airfare. I expect that sometimes the number of points required will be prohibitively high. Other times, when fares are reasonable, the point level will be acceptable.

New Fixed Reward Chart For Partner Flights

Flight redemptions on other airlines will continue to have fixed reward levels, and as before, seats will be limited. This is a relief because it provides a bit of certainty when saving for a redemption where a non-Air Canada flight is an option. Of course, many of the routes now require more points to book, but that was to be expected.

Partner Reward Booking Fee

Additionally, partner reward bookings will now have a $39 fee. Not a big deal amid the other changes but slightly annoying.

Stopovers For 5000 Points

No more free stopovers on a round-trip redemption. However, you can pay 5000 points for a stopover, even on a one-way booking. This is a great perk. Unfortunately, and strangely, no stopovers are permitted in North America.

Points Pooling

Members can now share their points with other individuals in a group of up to 8. This is a terrific feature for families whose miles are typically spread around multiple accounts.

Points + Cash

This already exists, albeit at a poor value. From what I’ve read, under the new system the cash portion is supposed to be priced reasonably. We’ll see.

What About Mixed Bookings?

Upon reading about the new reward pricing model, my first question was: what about when you’re flying both Air Canada and a partner airline? Here in the Maritimes, unless you’re flying Halifax to Newark on United, you’re going to have an Air Canada segment in your Aeroplan itinerary even if most of your trip is on a partner airline.

This aspect is not addressed in an obvious manner in the program info that I can see, but apparently the points required will be proportional. It’s not based on adding flight segments together as with British Airways’ Avios. Your Air Canada flight, because it’s in the dynamic system, may bump up the total points required for a trip flown mostly on a partner airline. But if the airfare for an Air Canada issued ticket is low, the total points should be in line with the partner point number. Anyway, I’ll be interested to see how this plays out come November 8th.

Flying from Halifax

In the future, I intend to take a closer look at the new program from the perspective of other Maritime airports, but for now I’m going to zero in on YHZ.

On the Aeroplan website there is Points Predictor Tool to help you get an idea of how many points will be required for specific destinations. As mentioned above, the partner mileage is fixed but the Air Canada miles will be variable depending on the corresponding airfare. Although the Air Canada redemption starts at a base amount generally equivalent to the partner number, we’ll have to wait and see what the availability actually looks like after it goes live.

North America

I’ll go through a few examples of economy one-way flight redemptions from Halifax for trips within North America.

Halifax to Boston

Old: 7500 (short-haul)
New: 6000 – 10,000

Because the non-stop flight is under 500 miles from Halifax, Boston could actually require fewer points in the new program.

Halifax to Montreal

Old: 7500 (short-haul)
New: 10,000 – 15,000

The route on itasoftware shows as 499 miles but the Points Predictor puts it into the band for flights 501 – 1500 miles. Do they figure the plane is going to take an extra wide turn departing Halifax Stanfield? Actually, I guess it just shows that one cannot rely on the mileage displayed on sites like ITA software as determinative. Air Canada presumably has its own list of distances between cities akin to British Airways’ Avios program. I recall a while back they “moved” the city of Boston to change the number of Avios points required.

Note that if you fly out of Moncton, it falls into the 6000 – 10,000 point band.

Halifax to Toronto

Old: 12,500
New: 10,000 – 15,000

Depending on the airfare, your flight to Toronto could be more or fewer points than it was previously.

Halifax to Newark

Old: 12,500 (non-stop on United)
New: 10,000 – 15,000

Same as with Toronto, could be better or worse than before.

Halifax to New York LaGuardia

Old: 7500 (short-haul)
New: 10,000 – 15,000

With the elimination of Air Canada short-haul redemptions (7500 one-way), there will no longer be an option to save by connecting in Montreal. Washington DC, which always required a connection, will also be gone as an Aeroplan short-haul sweet spot.

Halifax to Orlando

Old: 12,500
New: Unknown

This is a tricky one. The Points Predictor Tool won’t give me an answer. If I check Halifax – Tampa it spits out 12,500 – 17,500. But for Orlando, it struggles to produce a result. Perhaps because Orlando is on the edge of the distance band. The flight shows as 1497 miles on ITA software which would put it in the 10,000 – 15,000 category. This issue reveals a weakness of the distance-based reward system and I expect Orlando will end up in the 12,500 – 17,500 band, along with Tampa, even if it’s technically under 1500 miles.

Halifax to Vancouver

Old: 12,500
New: 17,500 – 25,000; Partner: 22,500

This is where the new program is going to sting for those of us in Atlantic Canada. Previously (and until November 8th) we could get a flight to the west coast at excellent value with Aeroplan. If booking a round-trip, you could even add in a free stopover almost anywhere in Canada or the U.S. That’s out the window.

Halifax to Los Angeles

Old: 12,500
New: 17,500 – 25,000; Partner: 22,500

Same with U.S. cities on the Pacific coast. This devaluation is not quite as painful, however, since airfare to American destinations is often cheaper than to western Canadian cities.

Halifax to Honolulu

Old: 22,500
New: 17,500 – 25,000; Partner: 22,500

Hawaii can potentially be a better deal in the new program, and considering the long journey from the Maritimes, it would be a good business class redemption at 35,000 points one-way (the equivalent of a one-way in economy to Europe), assuming you can find availability.

Moving on to the Atlantic zone, those of us flying out of Halifax face an unusual scenario.

North America – Atlantic

Halifax to London Heathrow

Old: 30,000
New: 35,000 – 60,000 points

There is only one Air Canada route to Europe from Halifax, which is the non-stop to London Heathrow. While there have been seasonal routes to Europe on WestJet, Condor and Icelandair, the Air Canada flight was special because it was year-round.

When the Boeing 737 Max 8 came on the scene, the wide-body aircraft previously flying this route was replaced with the new plane. And we know what happened after that. No more non-stop to London Heathrow – the route was suspended.

Although I’m at peace with having to fly west to Montreal or Toronto or south to Boston or New York before heading over to Europe, I know many people really dislike having to go in the wrong direction at the beginning of their trip. It’s so nice to be on your way across the pond moments after take-off. The Air Canada flight to London is also nice and short, relatively speaking.

However, in the current version of the program, the London Heathrow flight is a total non-starter for an Aeroplan redemption. The surcharges are so high you might as well book WestJet to London Gatwick if your flight is in the right season.

That brings us to these Aeroplan changes. As shown above, the Points Predictor tells us it will be in the 35,000 – 60,000 point range because it’s 4000 miles or under. According to ITA software, it’s well under 4000 at 2847.

The low mileage number Halifax – London means onward destinations are possible with partner airlines such as SAS, Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss and LOT. Checking a few on the Points Predictor, I see cities like Vienna or Warsaw in the same range of 35,000 – 60,000 points because flights to those places, connecting in London, come in under 4000 miles from Halifax. Whether those would be readily available at the lowest level of 35,000 one-way in economy or 60,000 in business is an open question, but the potential exists.

Unfortunately, for most European destinations, having to connect somewhere in North America is likely going to bump up the miles to the next band of 4001 to 6000 miles which means 40,000 – 70,000 points.

Although the Halifax – London Heathrow flight can in fact be booked for travel beginning in late October, we’ll have to see where things stand when the new program takes over and in light of any progress with the Max 8’s return to service. Presumably if you book it and the Air Canada makes a change to your itinerary, there won’t be an issue. But there’s a lingering cloud of uncertainty over the route in the midst of an even bigger cloud of uncertainty with COVID-19 and its effects on the airlines.

Conclusion

My thoughts are still a work in progress. I expected the changes to be a mix of positive and negative, and that’s indeed the case, however I need more time to figure it all out. And perhaps I won’t really have a firm opinion on the new Aeroplan until we’re able to see actual availability.

I like the dropping of the “fuel surcharges” and the pooling of points. The stopover on one-ways even at an extra 5000 points presents interesting potential for creative itineraries. There are definitely bright spots in the mix.

Still, on the whole, I think Atlantic Canadians may have gotten the short end of the stick with the new distance-based program, especially for long-haul domestic redemptions. (On that note, hopefully WestJet restores its wonderful Member Exclusive Fares)

It would be nice if Air Canada would occasionally offer discount promotions for redeeming Aeroplan points from non-hub, regional airports to perhaps compensate for the overall disadvantage the new program appears to represent for some Canadians.

As is always the case with loyalty program changes, try to get past the disappointments, learn the new angles and see if you can still make it work for your travel goals. Weigh your options with other programs and forge ahead.