OT Rant - Air Canada Aeroplan Miles Suck

[AndyMcV]

Ok.... in my opinion this program sucks.

I joined up with Aeroplan a few years back. I've had a couple trips to Europe and a trip to the US and have been using Esso gas to accumulate points. I'm sitting at 18,000 points.

First off their support for their program is awful. On every flight I've had I've had to go back and fight with them to enstate the points that I should have earned. In fact the last flight I had to Colorado Springs they would not enstate my points at all.

I use Esso gas to help accumulate points as well. For me to reach 25,000 aeroplan miles for a flight to Florida I'd have to spend $75,000.00 in gas. Hmm... maybe by the time I'm 230 years old! Am I the only one that thinks this is insane?

When you go to redeem your points for a flight you end up paying $100-200 for the ticket anyway because of taxes etc. Considering I can go to Buffalo and actually get my flight (yes round trip) for $100 - 200, I think Air Canada has a LOT to learn. It's too bad they have such a monopoly on Canadian air travel.

Just wondering if anyone else feels my pain.

 

[Allegro]

Well they don't make it easy to earn points that's true. Unless you travel a lot and great distances it will take you a while to chalk up points. It's also hard to get flights when you want to travel -- certainly don't plan any last minute excursions. I use a Gold Visa to earn my points and they add up quite quickly. I save those points for really special faraway vacation that I've been planning for a while. We had no expectation that they would be any good for our trip to Disney.

 

[drag n' fly]

A lot (including us) Aeroplan users just cash their points for gift cards as it is too much hassle. Lots of people in this forum use credit card point programs much easier to redeem for flights. We feel your pain and annoyance. Air Miles is just as bad.

 

[xipetotec]

I have to say i DO feel your pain.

GRANTED, we've travelled on my father's points ( he and my mother take me, the wife and kids ) to Orlando a couple of times now. BUT it's because he's travelled *A LOT*.

Aside from that, we've had to book our travel a full 356 days in advance to ensure we get the seats/flights we want for our group. It sucks that it's only for "select" seats on the plane. The way *I* see it is if you want to reward your customers for travelling with you, your points should be like cash. Meaning if there are seats on the plane, you can use your points for it. PERIOD. Alas, Aeroplan doesn't see it that way, and even with them taking away many blackout dates last year, it's still a major hassle to deal with them.

 

[amw]

Ok.... in my opinion this program sucks.

I joined up with Aeroplan a few years back. I've had a couple trips to Europe and a trip to the US and have been using Esso gas to accumulate points. I'm sitting at 18,000 points.

First off their support for their program is awful. On every flight I've had I've had to go back and fight with them to enstate the points that I should have earned. In fact the last flight I had to Colorado Springs they would not enstate my points at all.

I use Esso gas to help accumulate points as well. For me to reach 25,000 aeroplan miles for a flight I'd have to spend $75,000.00 in gas. Hmm... maybe by the time I'm 230 years old! Am I the only one that thinks this is insane?

I just heard that 25,000 points now only gets you a one way flight. Ummm.. was it not supposed to be for a round trip? Wow 50,000 points for a flight to the US, I might as well cut up my card now. There's no way I'll ever get there.

When you go to redeem your points for a flight you end up paying $100-200 for the ticket anyway because of taxes etc. Considering I can go to Buffalo and actually get my flight (yes round trip) for $100 - 200, I think Air Canada has a LOT to learn. It's too bad they have such a monopoly on Canadian air travel.

Just wondering if anyone else feels my pain.

Well I happen to love aeroplan but it is a frequent-flyer plan. They're not going to give you free trips for one or two flights a year.

My husband flies to the US for work weekly. Because he flies so regularly, we do fly as a family for free annually. Also, because he's super elite, we don't have to book far in advance and we only have to pay the 25,000 points per person. (I don't know where you got the redemption information, but it's wrong. A round-trip to FLorida is 25,000. We also have booked roundtrip to New York for 15,000.) Even before he was super elite, I was always able to get my seats because I'm an anal pre-planner (Put THAT on my tag, tag fairy!)

In the old system, there were complaints because if you didn't use/earn points regularly, you would lose them. I think the Esso program was meant to help that... you may not fly that year, but you're keeping your account active by earning a few points. There's no way it's meant for earning rewards because I agree, they don't give you enough per tank.

As for the taxes/airport fees... that's a complaint about our Cdn airports. It has nothing to do with aeroplan. You have to pay those taxes and fees no matter who you fly with out of Canada. So, yes, a "free" ticket costs $150 per person, but I'd have to pay that amount no matter what, unless you do go through American airports.

So, like any reward program, it's really only valuable if you actually use it a lot. The casual traveller is not going to benefit... but considering my kids are without a Dad on a weekly basis, I truly appreciate the free trips we can take annually. If it was twenty years ago, we would have the same work situation with no perks at all.

 

[MinnieMommy]

We love aeroplan. It's Air Canada we're not thrilled with!

I agree, it's only benficial if you "plan ahead". Miles also accumulate faster if you collect using an "aeroplan" credit card. It is frustrating that "free" tickets still require you to pay all of the lovely taxes. , but you'd be paying for those same taxes on a purchased ticket as well.

As a previous poster mentioned, we also save our points for destinations further away than WDW. You are also able to tweak it a bit to work for your plans. For instance, aeroplan allows you to include a stopover for your flight. So, you could arrange two mini vacations in one, if you'd like. Fly from POINT A to POINT B and stay for a few days, then fly from POINT B to POINT C for a longer vacation, then fly from POINT C home to POINT A. We've done this and LOVE it!

For us, it's a better option than airmiles.

 

[damo]

We have no problem with Aeroplan. We've used it multiple times and have had great luck with it. As long as you plan in advance, you should be able to get short haul flights for 15,000 return and longer haul for 25,000. Credit card balances accumulate points quite quickly.

If I depended on Airmiles, I would wait an entire lifetime for any trip.

 

[MikeyNS]

We find Aeroplan to be fairly decent, especially when you don't want to fly fairly short notice to fairly popular destinations. Because we're DVC members we usually plan 11 months in advance and have always been able to grab flights from YHZ-MCO with no issues. Yes the taxes suck, but it's not an Aeroplan issue. We have to pay taxes and such on our Avion flights as well. 25,000pts is for round trip, and Aeroplan just had a "sale" where you could get round trip flights for 20,000pts. Great deal!

 

[nelljay1973]

I can't say that I love Air Canada, but I can say that we love Star Alliance and Aeroplan...in fact we rarely fly Air Canada. We fly Star Alliance, ie United, Air New Zealand.

We haven't changed our habits at all, we are by no means frequent flyers, just that when we do fly, it is to the other side of the world! I've now made 3 trips home to Australia and after our trip to Florida in Feb (on Avion points), my DH and I should have enough..ie 75,000 to fly via star alliance back to Australia.

A good thing to note is that Air Canada has introduced the 7 year rule. Your miles now expire 7 years from when you accumulate them.

 

[Calgary DISHeads]

I hate Air Canada, Aeroplan - all of it but because I am a frequent flyer, almost super elite I use it because it's free. I'm not going into a rant over customer service.... :group hug: but what I did not know is that you could use aeroplan miles on star alliance partners - does it cost more miles? If I had known I would have flown United to Orlando at Christmas instead of my flight through Toronto which has an 80 minute connection time, and I didn't know I had to clear customs in Toronto (have always flown through the States to Orlando) - lady at aeroplan actually told me I'd never make it! But was unable to provide a solution. Sorry, I promised not to complain about service.... A quick way to get 15,000 points is to sign up for a CIBC Aeroplan card - costs I think $120 a year, but worth it for 15K points for us.

 

[SaskDisNut]

but what I did not know is that you could use aeroplan miles on star alliance partners - does it cost more miles?

I used Aeroplan for our flights in May. We flew AC Jazz to Winnipeg and then United to Orlando through Chicago O'Hare. Coming home we flew United to Denver and Calgary and then home on AC Jazz. It cost 25,000 points for each flight so no it didn't cost anymore to fly on a Star Alliance partner. I did all my booking online as it gave me all the flights that were available with including the Star Alliance flights. Once I booked, I then called an Aeroplan 800# and was connected within minutes to an agent so that I could pay the airport fees and taxes.

Would I use Aeroplan again? Probably, but it took me years to save up 100K points to get 4 flights. So realistically I'll probably look at other airlines next time.

 

[nelljay1973]

but what I did not know is that you could use aeroplan miles on star alliance partners - does it cost more miles?

Oh yes, Star Alliance is the way to go...being that you are a frequent flyer you should know that you accumulate via star alliance, hence you can redeem that way. We always use the star alliance method, for example, my DH flew out to Australia using aeroplan for 75,000 miles redeemed via Star Alliance...the exact same flight via Air Canada would have cost us 75,000 at minimum with the most common being 110,000 under the Classic plus system. To get the 75,000 option for classic flights you would have to book the 360 days in advance, because I swear they have maybe 2 seats on the plane at that rate. To fly with Star Alliance costs 75,000 whether I booked 1 week out or 7 months out - if the seats are available...75,000 it is!

 

[Calgary DISHeads]

Oh yes, Star Alliance is the way to go...being that you are a frequent flyer you should know that you accumulate via star alliance, hence you can redeem that way. We always use the star alliance method, for example, my DH flew out to Australia using aeroplan for 75,000 miles redeemed via Star Alliance...the exact same flight via Air Canada would have cost us 75,000 at minimum with the most common being 110,000 under the Classic plus system. To get the 75,000 option for classic flights you would have to book the 360 days in advance, because I swear they have maybe 2 seats on the plane at that rate. To fly with Star Alliance costs 75,000 whether I booked 1 week out or 7 months out - if the seats are available...75,000 it is!

I'm new to this frequent flyer stuff - just started circumnavigating the globe this year actually... I did know I accumulated points via star alliance but it never clicked in that I could book flights, never even noticed it on the aeroplan site. Now I'm super grumpy as I could have probably used a lot less miles than I did for our Christmas trip, (40K each) and had more dates to choose from (it was a rush planning job - booked a month ago). Plus could have flown through the states and avoided the customs in Toronto issue.

Oh well, live and learn I guess. One more great thing I have learned from these boards. Thanks everyone!

 

[calgarygary]

The OP has posted misinformation about Aeroplan and has been corrected by other posters. I just wanted to add that if you want to educate yourself about frequent flyer programs, one of the best places on the web is flyertalk.com/

 

[sean-1966]

I've redeemed miles for a flight once. Worked out OK. The points I have now will go to WDW tickets when I get enough for 2.

 

[Subrbnmommy]

We've given up using them for travel but, we've been buying our WDW passes as well as Seaworld passes.

Makes it worthwhile for us!

 

[bavaria]

Well I happen to love aeroplan but it is a frequent-flyer plan. They're not going to give you free trips for one or two flights a year.

And this is the winning response. Aeroplan is a FREQUENT FLYER program, not a rewards program (although Aeroplan has been misguidedly marketing it as such in recent years)

For frequent flyers, it works very well, as some other posters have already shown. I have had well over 1 million miles deposited into my Aeroplan account over the years, going back to the days of Canadian Plus.

I currently use United Mileage Plus as my primary FF plan, and fund my Lufthansa and Aeroplan accounts as required. For instance, I transfer all of my Amex rewards to Aeroplan. (Although I fly over 150,000 miles/year, I have only flown AC once in the past two years for either business or leisure, and that was a 1 hour flight) This gives me great flexibility within the Star Alliance network to purchase rewards tickets with the best routing and lowest taxes.

As with any transaction, those who are educated about the program will find the most benefit. Gary made an excellent suggestion to visit www.flyertalk.com. There is a lot of misinformation about frequent flyer programs, as already witnessed on this thread, and learning about how to best use your miles can only benefit you.

I cringe whenever I see the 'consumer reports' type clips in the media bashing Aeroplan or other frequent flyer programs, as they usually feature the infrequent leisure traveller who is trying to use gasoline purchases to fund their trips.

 

[bavaria]

I'm also going to dispute the comment that one has to book 51 weeks out in order to get a rewards ticket. I only plan my vacations 0-14 days in advance, and am always able to get flights that work for me, usually on my first choice of carrier and first choice of routing.

Granted, it is easier to find one or two tickets rather than four or five, but many airlines return inventory short term - again, if you educate yourself, you may be pleasantly surprised.

In my case, I know that Lufthansa returns space, so I can easily book myself a last minute vacation. During World Cup last summer my friends and I all booked Lufthansa tickets to MUC with 3-5 days notice. This was definitely a peak 'special event' period yet we all managed to book our vacation.

I also know that United now has a 'short in' booking fee for last minute bookings, so if I am going to consider a trip using Mileage Plus I either plan on the fee, or use my AC or LH miles.

And for those of you earning AC miles but flying UA often you may want to consider a status match and a switch to Mileage Plus. UA gives double miles to certain tiers of elite members, making miles add up all that more quickly. (Not to mention the huge benefit of Economy Plus seating)

 

[AndyMcV]

....as they usually feature the infrequent leisure traveller who is trying to use gasoline purchases to fund their trips.

Yep, that's me. I guess I got caught in the marketing hype from Air Canada promoting Aeroplan. I was misguided in thinking that this would be a nice benefit for ANYONE choosing to fly with Air Canada. Hmm.. what a thought. I didn't realize it was only for people who fly with Air Canada every other week.

 

[bavaria]

Yep, that's me. I guess I got caught in the marketing hype from Air Canada promoting Aeroplan. I was misguided in thinking that this would be a nice benefit for ANYONE choosing to fly with Air Canada. Hmm.. what a thought. I didn't realize it was only for people who fly with Air Canada every other week.

It is a loyalty program, for people who use their product, or their partner products.

I don't stay at Fairmont hotels, so why should I expect them to reward me with free nights? I don't rent with Avis, so I don't expect free rental days from them.

There has been a lot of good advice in this thread, which will hopefully clear up some items for the infrequent traveller. You can choose to take the advice, or not. But if you do take the advice, you may find yourself flying on a reward ticket more frequently than in past.