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Aeroplan woes

Chrispee

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I'm not sure if I'm just here to complain, or solicit help, but I'm having absolutely no luck using my Aeroplan miles. From all my research, the only way to make them kind of work is for multi-leg European flights and/or by flying on Star Alliance partners other than Air Canada? Every time I try to book a flight the taxes and fees make it not worth using the miles and I either buy the flight with cash or use Alaska miles instead... :wall:
 

LannyPC

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I see from your profile that we are close to being neighbours. And yes, I too have posted on here about my unhappy feeling with Aeroplan.

So I've come to the conclusion that I am not going to go out of my way for Aeroplan points. I will accumulate them if convenient but not get any special credit card for them.
 

Dori

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The taxes are the killer. If you can find a routing on, say, United, their taxes seem to be much less. I haven't had much luck with Aeroplan. Reading the threads on Flyertalk can often prove helpful.

Dori
 

PrairieGirl

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I have found that as long as the flight ORIGINATES in Canada, you will be stuck with very healthy "taxes and fees" no matter which airline you use FF miles on. And it isn't just Aeroplan, we find the same with our United Mileage Plus Plan as well.

We make several one-way flights to and from AZ over the winter and when the flight originates down south, the taxes and fees are nominal and make using one of the plans effective. The leg down? Not so much, we just pay cash and save the miles for another trip back home.

Since you live in BC, try originating your flight from Seattle (if you can find a cheap way there) and see how that works.

LeAnn
 

Chrispee

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Yes, I guess we will have to go somewhere from Seattle and fly United. It's not just the taxes, it's also the fees that are killer. Taxes/fees using my Alaska miles on a flight originating from Vancouver to Hawaii are $60 USD, whereas if I used Aeorplan miles the taxes/fees would be over $130 CAD. With 3 of us flying, that really adds up.
 

am1

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Yes, I guess we will have to go somewhere from Seattle and fly United. It's not just the taxes, it's also the fees that are killer. Taxes/fees using my Alaska miles on a flight originating from Vancouver to Hawaii are $60 USD, whereas if I used Aeorplan miles the taxes/fees would be over $130 CAD. With 3 of us flying, that really adds up.

$60 us and 130 cdn is not that much difference at the moment. Is it possible that the fees flying out of yvr are always going to be higher than us airports?
 

Chrispee

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$60 us and 130 cdn is not that much difference at the moment. Is it possible that the fees flying out of yvr are always going to be higher than us airports?

Yes, as Dori said the taxes are higher flying out of Canada, but the numbers that I gave were for both Aeroplan and Alaska miles flying out of YVR.

$60 USD is around $80 CAD right now, so for the 3 of us we'd be paying an extra $150 in "fees" for our flights using Aeroplan (not including the extra 5k points that Aeroplan charges over Alasaka for Hawaii). The real problem is I have lots of both points so I very rarely end up using my Aeroplan points as it always costs more.
 

Krystyna

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Aeroplan

We tried to use our Aeroplan points for flights from Toronto to Phoenix...told there were no seats available for Aeroplan members...and I was booking nearly a year ahead. We booked with our travel agent and it turns out we are on a Rouge flight (the budget airline for Air Canada) but still paying Air Canada prices....they want you to use your card but it's frustrating not being able to get a flight using up the points. I wonder if I will get points on my Aeroplan card on a Rouge flight ...I should have asked...but likely the answer will be no.
 

Chrisky

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Chrispee, I understand your frustration about the fees. When we have used our Aeroplan pts., if the fees are less than actually buying the flight, we use our points.

We always used to support AC and generally had good service, but twice now in the last year they have totally irritated us. Once by totally changing our direct return flights from Rome and once putting us on an AC Rouge return flight from Barbados. My DH is tall, and would never have been able to sit in their 29" pitch seats. When we asked to at least upgrade to Premium Economy they wanted to charge us for the upgrade because we were changing our seats!! We refused, they were the ones who had changed our regular flight to a 'tin can' no frills flight. So in the end they did not charge us.

Lannypc - "So I've come to the conclusion that I am not going to go out of my way for Aeroplan points. I will accumulate them if convenient but not get any special credit card for them." That is exactly what we have done. We have used up what Aeroplan points we had, cancelled our AC credit card and now have a credit card that accumulates points. We can use these points on any airline, and we can also use the points to cover all taxes as well.

We are much happier with this system. So when we see a seat sale to wherever we want to fly, we then book our flights online and use our points to pay for the flights.

Flyertalk has a few threads going about unhappy AC customers and their awful Rouge planes.
When we did use our AC points, I found we had to book 354 days in advance to get the flights we wanted.
 
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Dori

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We are heading to Vietnam next week, and I have enough Aeroplan miles, but the routings offered were ridiculous! 35 hours and 2days!! what a crock!

dori
 

happymum

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And points needed are going up this fall. From 25K to 30K for North America flights and business flights to Europe are up by 20K each!
 

LynnW

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You are right about flights originating in the US. We are driving to Los Angeles the end of Oct and decided to fly to Nashville for a week and then back to LA. We are then spending some time in Carlsbad and Palm Springs. We found great flights using Aeroplan miles at the times we wanted. Just one stop in Houston.

As some of you know I am with Expedia CruiseShipCenters and am looking after the Tug/Lov cruise group and if you do cruise you can use your Aeroplan miles if you book through Expedia. You also earn miles on your cruise.

Lynn
 
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