aeroplan v. air miles

[wrldtravlr345]

I've often wondered what points are easier to accumulate to use for Disney vacationing? I'm sure they both have their advantages/drawbacks but was has been your experience?

 

[calgarygary]

If you travel a lot, aeroplan will definitely be easier to accumulate through Air Canada, other airline hotel and car rental partners. If you are collecting through retail partners primarily, airmiles will accumulate faster especially if you use their bonus offers - ie at Safeway you can often get 200 bonus miles if your grocery bill is large enough.

 

[Cottager]

We're able to accumulate Air Miles quickly by subscribing to the various vendors email blasts and receiving unadvertised special bonuses. You can use the points for Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens, or Sea World tickets in Orlando/California along with air fare. Of course, we used to get Air Miles when we flew with West Jet but they're canceling their Air Miles program and coming out with their own. Guess I won't be influenced to pick that airline on my business trips anymore. I'm sure I won't be able to buy park tickets with their own rewards program.

 

[minnie56]

Last weekend we wanted to redeem Aeroplan miles for Dec..of course-they wanted the maximum miles--like double---soooo we used Air Miles, 2200 per person and SO easy!!!!!!!!!!!!! Booked exactly the Air Canada flts we wanted in the 1st place.

 

[damo]

In 15 years I've accumulated about 1000 Air Miles points. Not enough to do much of anything. We don't even have a Safeway here.

 

[minnie56]

I hear you--it takes forever. We did a Major Kitchen reno last year thru Rona for the most part and as the payments were in lumps as the job went along we made sure to time with triple Air Mile days! My DH went to London-England in the summer and we had enough left over for this upcoming trip for 3 of us to Orlando. First time it ever worked for us and it was a breeze!

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

I find Air Miles to be a joke unless you have them linked to a credit card like American Express. Sobey's (a grocery chain) takes the card but you only get points on very select items. I find all that bloody card ever does is get me entered into contests. Aeroplan, on the other hand, accumulates quickly. I've redeemed my points a bunch for airline tickets. You get a whack every time you travel. We get points at quite a few hotels and when we get gas.

 

[minnie56]

I have an awful lot of miles with Aeroplan but I get more and more ticked off every time I try to redeem. I don't always know where I want to go and when a year out - and that seems to be when you can get seats at the minimum mileage redemption point!

I tried the other evening to get flights for my DD and her BF to New York City. For the lowest miles (15,000pp) they offered ridiculous times! Such as departing YYZ at 0015 and sitting at YOW for 5 hours then departing to LGA in the morning! Sure-lose a whole night waiting! To get times that were 'reasonable' they wanted almost 50,000 for the 2 of them and then the taxes were $343 or thereabouts! Soooo I booked them on Jetblue from Buf at $267 for the 2 of them and applied a $104 credit that I had on file to the booking. They leave in the a.m (0825) and return at night giving them the optimum time there.

AT times, I really hate Aeroplan!!!!!

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

It's true that Aeroplan involves some planning. You can't expect to get a seat at the last minute. But I think that's true of most of these programs. It's also true that you'll likely have to take the milk route. But it's free!

 

[minnie56]

It's not even always last minute that I cannot get what I want. NYC was in mid Dec and I looked for myself and DH for Feb and again, the want to route me using Star Alliance through 'somewhere' for min mileage.

It's not free by any stretch..there are the taxes (significant) and never mind all it costs me in the first place to get them, whether by credit card or flights!!!!

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

It's not even always last minute that I cannot get what I want. NYC was in mid Dec and I looked for myself and DH for Feb and again, the want to route me using Star Alliance through 'somewhere' for min mileage.

It's not free by any stretch..there are the taxes (significant) and never mind all it costs me in the first place to get them, whether by credit card or flights!!!!

Like I said, they are always typically going to re-route you. Those are the seats they put aside for Aeroplan redeemers. I do beg to differ about last minute. Trying to book a mid-December trip now is last minute in terms of redeeming any sort of reward points. I wouldn't advice booking any less than 6 - 8 months in advance for that kind of trip.

Ok. Sorry, it's next to free. As far as spending money on the flights that earned you the points, I assume you would have done that anyway? You aren't just going on plane trips to earn more trips. Same with credit cards. You don't just buy more stuff than you normally would for the points, I hope. I think the last time my taxes and extra charges were like $50 and I flew from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. I consider that a pretty good deal.

All that being said, you haven't encountered the same problems with Air Miles?

 

[calgarygary]

In 15 years I've accumulated about 1000 Air Miles points. Not enough to do much of anything. We don't even have a Safeway here.

damo - in the past year I have collected just over 4,000 airmiles. We had managed to use airmiles for our trips down to Florida but with the end of the Mosaic West Jet deal, doubt that flights will be a good future use of our airmiles. Safeway makes a huge difference in how fast we could collect them.

 

[minnie56]

'That kind of trip"? Toronto-LaGuardia? I do expect difficulties if I want to go to Paris 2 months out but with the multitude of flights they offer to LGA daily, I do not. The re-routing thing is Aeroplan's latest ploy I am afraid to make us cough up more miles for our flights.

Air Miles--called last Saturday for Dec flights to Orlando..picked AC flights I wanted and away we went! Aeroplan wanted 40,000 miles per person..for what should be 25,000.

I am a long time Aeroplan user...they are making it harder all the time.

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

'That kind of trip"? Toronto-LaGuardia? I do expect difficulties if I want to go to Paris 2 months out but with the multitude of flights they offer to LGA daily, I do not. The re-routing thing is Aeroplan's latest ploy I am afraid to make us cough up more miles for our flights.

Air Miles--called last Saturday for Dec flights to Orlando..picked AC flights I wanted and away we went! Aeroplan wanted 40,000 miles per person..for what should be 25,000.

I am a long time Aeroplan user...they are making it harder all the time.

By "that kind of trip", I was referring to one that you purchased with points. It doesn't really matter where you're going. They only put a certain number of seats aside for each route.

And the re-routing is hardly the latest ploy. I've redeemed 4 times and the last time was in 2003. Every single time I've had to take the milk route.

I'm glad it worked out better with Air Miles. Unfortunately for me, it would take me years upon years to collect enough points to go anywhere. I'm glad they make their planning easier though.

 

[minnie56]

Well-I never have had the milk run and the last time I redeemed was Jan07. I know they have a few seats allotted in each class per flt but that isn't what they claim. They say they are making it easier and if there are seats-they are available to Aeroplan but at too high a cost most of the time for me.

I don't know-seems each time I look at perhaps using some of my miles there is a new roadblock.

 

[maxie]

damo - in the past year I have collected just over 4,000 airmiles. We had managed to use airmiles for our trips down to Florida but with the end of the Mosaic West Jet deal, doubt that flights will be a good future use of our airmiles. Safeway makes a huge difference in how fast we could collect them.

Absolutely!! On today's grocery shop at Safeway I spent $250 and earned close to 400 Airmiles with all the bonus offers.

 

[disneynovic]

We have both Aeroplan and Airmiles; DH earns Aeroplan almost exclusively by flying, however you can earn miles through PIN numbers on Quaker/Tropicana products too. I'm the Airmiles earner, with 2 associated credit cards(one for business), Rexall and Esso, I earn quite a bit each month. HOWEVER, I have never been able get a good reward flight anywhere with either plan. I do use the rewards for hotel stays, and attraction tickets. From just saving for one year on both plans, I got Universal Studios tickets for the five of us for one day, a 3 day MYW pass for one child, and 4 hotel room stays!

 

[minnie56]

I have approx 500,000 miles
I really don't want to use them for Hotels and Park passes. Took a lot to earn them and I want something 'meaty' for them!

 

[leaffan]

I do agree that you have to plan in advance if you want to redeem your Aeroplan but in my case it was worth it. I got 7 flights to Orlando for next May for my family to go to Disney. 5 of them are going to fly from Toronto to Orlando with a 1 1/2 hour layover in Dulles DC however I did get 2 direct. All for minimum miles and taxes etc were only $86 per ticket. For us it was well worth it. I did have to book in late August for next May but we all decided we would book flights first and then book everything around that. Usually flights from Toronto are very expensive and so we go to Buffalo. Don't have to do that this time!!

 

[shaycamp21]

We have a Visa Avion card and so far I've found it quite easy to redeem points. In the last three years we have gotten our flights (2x round trip to Orlando and 1 time one way to LA) free (except for the taxes) for the the 4 of us. You have to book a minimum of 2 wks in advance and there are no blackout dates and you can book with any airline. There is a catch though with 30 000 points you have a credit of up to $750 to use toward one ticket which we have gotten around with SW flying out of Buffalo. We book the most expensive ticket we can find (i.e. Las Vegas for New Years) and then cancel the flight (with SW there is no penalty to cancel) and have the money in credit form to rebook for the 4 of us.