How to find Aeroplan flights

[Investor7]

1) I just joined Aeroplan, but can't find many flights from Sydney. Is it because Aeroplan points are designed for limited kinds of use? I guess that would make sense, otherwise everyone would use them. For example, when I search Sydney to Bangkok, there are no direct flights even though Thai is a partner. It only gives flights via Tokyo or HCM City. If I search for flights from Sydney to Delhi, then there are no results, even though Air India is a partner.

2) Flying Sydney to Tokyo on ANA business class seems to be impossibly cheap - 45k points x $22 (when points are bought on sale) = $990 for business class (one way). Am I making a mistake? The normal price is $4,400. Even at full price for the points, it's $1800, which is still well below half price.

 

[RooFlyer]

Is it because Aeroplan points are designed for limited kinds of use?

Aeroplan points are a very flexible, frequent-flier currency for flying on Star alliance airlines.

Like all almost frequent flyer programs, there are occasional limitations or bottlenecks on availability on particular routes. There is also information currently that aeroplan is withdrawing certain availabilities because of milage brokers manipulating the program. I don’t know if that is influencing what you’re able to see right now.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

1) I just joined Aeroplan, but can't find many flights from Sydney. Is it because Aeroplan points are designed for limited kinds of use? I guess that would make sense, otherwise everyone would use them. For example, when I search Sydney to Bangkok, there are no direct flights even though Thai is a partner. It only gives flights via Tokyo or HCM City. If I search for flights from Sydney to Delhi, then there are no results, even though Air India is a partner.

2) Flying Sydney to Tokyo on ANA business class seems to be impossibly cheap - 45k points x $22 (when points are bought on sale) = $990 for business class (one way). Am I making a mistake? The normal price is $4,400. Even at full price for the points, it's $1800, which is still well below half price.

The key thing with Aeroplan is the airline partners be it Singapore Air or ANA needs to have award seats available. Most airlines will dedicate a couple seats on each flight for award travel and those seats are shared with not only their program but partner programs like Air Canada, United, Lufthansa, etc. So basically you need to find a date and routing where there is availability. This is not WebJet. This is not Expedia. You cannot simply book whatever flights you want with a partner, there must be availability.

Now how do you find such availability? One tool I would recommend using is Seats.aero which lets you select origin and destination and it'll then tell you the dates you want. Here's a result I found with the tool for the Sydney to Bangkok trip on Singapore Air:


Not bad considering there isn't an airline in Thailand I am aware of that is an Aeroplan partner that I would bother flying.

-RooFlyer88

 

[levelnine]

1. Thai Airways tend only to release last minute availability in J, so you'll probably see some for flights in the coming days/weeks.

2. The catch with ANA is that they tend only to release last minute availability in J (if you're looking for more than one passenger). And the ability to get beyond Japan can be difficult. But very good if your end destination is Japan and you are happy to risk a last minute booking.

 

[anyonebutqantas]

Another difficulty is that often when availability pops up its with a very dubious option like Air India.

 

[Investor7]

One tool I would recommend using is Seats.aero which lets you select origin and destination and it'll then tell you the dates you want.

Thanks. That's fantastic. I want to travel the world randomly and in Business class. The biggest costs are usually Europe to USA and USA to Australia. But using that tool, I saw west coast to Australia for around $1800 (using the cheapest points), whereas Google Flights shows $7,300 for the same flight.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks. That's fantastic. I want to travel the world randomly and in Business class. The biggest costs are usually Europe to USA and USA to Australia. But using that tool, I saw west coast to Australia for around $1800 (using the cheapest points), whereas Google Flights shows $7,300 for the same flight.

There’s no mistake here. That’s the going price. There are some real sweet spots, like the fares to tokyo you found.

There is availability to the USA and Europe, but some routes to the USA are extremely full, so any award seats might have long gone.

Yes, Air India can pop up, but far from dubious. It’s great to have an option to complete a flight to europe. The difference between not flying at all, or doing one sector on Air India and still going, will be appealing to many. (There is really nothing ‘wrong’ with Air India… it’s just not ‘too tier’ with all the bells and whistles. But at $4400 return Australia to Europe, if a sector or two are on AI, not too much to complain about!)

 

[auriga]

Was playing around a bit with aeroplan booking engine yesterday.
It seems that connections often do not show up.
Eg, Syd to Sin available, Sin to BKK available, but SYD to BKK often won't show up.
Same thing with connections to Europe.
Note, I was mainly looking at flights thru SIN, so whether it is an SQ thing or not, I am not sure.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Was playing around a bit with aeroplan booking engine yesterday.
It seems that connections often do not show up.
Eg, Syd to Sin available, Sin to BKK available, but SYD to BKK often won't show up.
Same thing with connections to Europe.
Note, I was mainly looking at flights thru SIN, so whether it is an SQ thing or not, I am not sure.

Yeah, that happens. But it also means you can do some creative routings You need to call though, and the booking fee isn’t waived for bookings you can’t make on line.

But $25 is well worth it!

 

[Investor7]

I looked over the weekend and the last two days and there's almost nothing for Direct Business Class international flights from Sydney. But I found that MileagePlus had heaps of Award flights, including BKK and LAX from Sydney. Thai Airways is also available from Sydney. So, as others suggested, you can ring AC/AeroPlan to see if they can book them for you. BTW, AeroPlan had no StopOver for 5k options that worked. For example, SYD > HND > BKK produced "Mixed Cabin" results.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I looked over the weekend and the last two days and there's almost nothing for Direct Business Class international flights from Sydney. But I found that MileagePlus had heaps of Award flights, including BKK and LAX from Sydney. Thai Airways is also available from Sydney. So, as others suggested, you can ring AC/AeroPlan to see if they can book them for you. BTW, AeroPlan had no StopOver for 5k options that worked. For example, SYD > HND > BKK produced "Mixed Cabin" results.

Was united a saver award? That should map to aeroplan.

Are the stopover, there were no flights, when searching each sector individually, for business class all the way? If you can find business class on each sector you might be able to call. Shouldn’t be married segments with a stopover.

 

[Investor7]

Was united a saver award? That should map to aeroplan.

Are the stopover, there were no flights, when searching each sector individually, for business class all the way?

United were MileagePlus flights. Aeroplan has some problems with scammers, so they aren't showing all the available Award flights. You have to find the flights on MileagePlus, for example, then phone AeroPlan.

One Stopover example is SYD to BKK via Japan. It gives Multi-cabin results, not Business all the way even though there are individual flights for Business for both legs.

Here's the AeroPlan story: What's Happening with Aeroplan Partner Award Availability? | Prince of Travel

 

[MEL_Traveller]

United were MileagePlus flights. Aeroplan has some problems with scammers, so they aren't showing all the available Award flights. You have to find the flights on MileagePlus, for example, then phone AeroPlan.

One Stopover example is SYD to BKK via Japan. It gives Multi-cabin results, not Business all the way even though there are individual flights for Business for both legs.

Here's the AeroPlan story: What's Happening with Aeroplan Partner Award Availability? | Prince of Travel

But for UA awards to be available in partners they generally have to be the lowest award fare available… so saver awards.

Was the availability on UA the lowest possible?

I just searched SYD-BKK via HND, 4 day stopover, 10 July connecting on 14 July. Business class showed on all flights, correctly pricing at 90k plus 5k for the stopover. Carriers VA and SQ.

There were other flights that were mixed cabin only, but the stopover function correctly paired the two sets of flights I found in business class.

 

[Investor7]

But for UA awards to be available in partners they generally have to be the lowest award fare available… so saver awards.

Was the availability on UA the lowest possible?

How do you know if it's "saver awards"? I'm using Seats.aero.

I just searched SYD-BKK via HND, 4 day stopover, 10 July

Thanks. I must have been doing something wrong.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

How do you know if it's "saver awards"? I'm using Seats.aero.


Thanks. I must have been doing something wrong.

The saver award is the lowest level award available, i think 80k? It can’t be a dynamically priced award. The equivalent would be a Qantas classic award seat, rather than an ‘any seat’ award which is $ converted into points.

Using the aeroplan example it would be an air canada 80k award business class Au-USA, rather than the 300k plus seats which you can get on any flight, any time.

 

[Investor7]

The saver award is the lowest level award available, i think 80k?

Oh, there is different levels of Award seats. So if MileagePlus has a flight with a similar number of points, then it should show in Aeroplan? Here's an example for Business Class:

MileagePlus: SYD > ICN = 63k points on 5 & 12 & 14 Sep.
Aeroplan: SYD > ICN = 60k points on 5 & 12 & 14 Sep - it's available because 63k is close to 60k.
MileagePlus: SYD > BKK = 55k points on many days in October
Aeroplan: SYD > BKK = nothing available because it's usually 45k points which is much lower than 55k points.

 

[levelnine]

Oh, there is different levels of Award seats. So if MileagePlus has a flight with a similar number of points, then it should show in Aeroplan? Here's an example for Business Class:

Don't use United's website to search for award flights on United — identifying saver award flights that are made available to partners is a hassle. Use a partner program such as Lifemiles or Eurobonus.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Oh, there is different levels of Award seats. So if MileagePlus has a flight with a similar number of points, then it should show in Aeroplan? Here's an example for Business Class:

MileagePlus: SYD > ICN = 63k points on 5 & 12 & 14 Sep.
Aeroplan: SYD > ICN = 60k points on 5 & 12 & 14 Sep - it's available because 63k is close to 60k.
MileagePlus: SYD > BKK = 55k points on many days in October
Aeroplan: SYD > BKK = nothing available because it's usually 45k points which is much lower than 55k points.

Close, but it doesn’t always work that way. Levelnine has a good suggestion, although LM can have pretty patchy availability.

Partner awards on United are usually always saver awards. But there was a known problem with Thainews aviary’s availability. That may be in the process of changing given recent reports.

 

[auriga]

How do you know if it's "saver awards"? I'm using Seats.aero.


Thanks. I must have been doing something wrong.

I don't think you are necessarily doing something wrong.
From my little playaround on aeroplan, shown availability is dramatically reduced once there are connecting flights or stopovers, despite individual sectors being available.

 

[Investor7]

All of the past week, the availability from Sydney (Direct Business) has been only Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea, and Vancouver. Nothing to Japan. But last week, there were plenty to Japan, and IIRC, some to LAX and SFO. Maybe ANA releases Japan flights in blocks every few weeks or maybe it's seasonal? I'll keep watching. Brisbane to Vancouver (Direct Business) seems to be constantly available.