Buying Air Canada Aeroplan points

[flycaio]

Have the points landed in your account? If so, you might need to ring, hours have been expanded and are now anything but 5-7pm Australian Eastern Standard Time

Yes, points land instantaneously.

But cannot pay for the carrier fees (45K + CAD100).

I will try to ring them one more time.

 

[I love to travel]

Yes, points land instantaneously.

But cannot pay for the carrier fees (45K + CAD100).

I will try to ring them one more time.

Be prepared to wait for up to 90 minutes

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Be prepared to wait for up to 90 minutes

It’s not uncommon for waits of 120 mins!

Sometimes non-status members can’t even join the queue!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Just thought I'd share I booked my partner a business class seat from Brazil to Germany using Aeroplan points for close-in travel. Total cost 80,000 points + $87.80 CAD in taxes and fees:



Two things are remarkable about this booking. First, I managed to find availability from Paso Fundo (a small regional airport in the south of Brazil) to São Paulo which tends to be a rare sighting. Second, I was able to find a direct routing to Europe. This is important since for travel between Europe and South America the award chart is really simple: flights under 7000 miles attract a cost of 80K points in business whereas anything above that amount is 100K points. Considering São Paulo to Zurich is already very close to that limit at 5,957 miles, there really isn't a whole lot of wiggle room. For instance, often times you may find availability out of Buenos Aires (EZE) or Santiago (SCL) to Europe on Aeroplan. But that flight between Brazil and Chile or Argentina puts you well over the 70000 mile limit.

I was short ~70K points and bought the 74K points during the recent 85% bonus promotion for $1,500 CAD. So all in I'm out of pocket $1587.80 for this. Not bad considering a last minute connecting flight on Azul would've set me back $1056 CAD and that ticket wouldn't even include luggage (this includes 2 bags @ 32 kg).

One more point regarding baggage: those eagle eyed may have noticed that the first leg of that award ticket is operated by GOL and is in economy class. Ordinarily that would not come with any baggage whatsoever. However, there's two things to keep in mind here. First, GOL has an interline agreement with Swiss meaning they will not only transfer luggage and handle check in for them, but will also (in theory) follow IATA regulations when it comes to determining which baggage policy to use. Second, since this trip is entirely outside of Canada/USA, the IATA Most Significant Carrier rule comes into play for determining what baggage policy to apply. To make a short story long, the baggage policy that applies to this itinerary will be firstly the airline crossing IATA zones (in this case that would be Swiss as that crosses IATA zone 1 which consists of the Americas to zone 2 which is roughly Europe,Middle East & Africa). So in other words, Swiss baggage policy which for business class is 2 bags @ 32 kg applies.

As for myself (and I know this isn't Aeroplan related but likely of interest for those following at home), I ended up booking Toronto to Frankfurt using my Velocity points for a total of 80,500 points + $128 AUD in taxes and fees. For those following at home and asking, how on earth did it cost 80,500 points for business when the going rate is 62,000 on United or 70,000 with Air Canada, I should point out that on the date I wanted to travel, I could find availability on United between Washington Dulles and Frankfurt but only availability in business class on Air Canada down to Dulles. In these cases where you have awards coming from two award charts, each segment is priced out separately. In theory I would need to call Velocity to make this booking, but thanks to the multi-city workaround I was able to do it all online:



Whether it was worth forking out all those points for business class, I'll leave that up for discussion. What I will point out is that since I'm starting my journey in Canada, the first marketing carrier rule would apply, which means for baggage if my first flight was Air Canada business, I would have that business class entitlement of 2 bags @ 32 kg for the whole journey to Frankfurt. The argument favouring business class would be access to the Polaris lounge in Dulles (I haven't been to that one before) the better catering and of course the lie flat seat (my flight is at 10 PM).

-RooFlyer88

 

[RooFlyer]

It’s not uncommon for waits of 120 mins!

5am Montreal time seems to be the sweet-ish spot, I've found.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

5am Montreal time seems to be the sweet-ish spot, I've found.

The huge advantage of gold through HSBC is that calls are answered pretty much instantly. I’ll be sad to see that go

 

[flycaio]

It’s not uncommon for waits of 120 mins!

Sometimes non-status members can’t even join the queue!

5am Montreal time seems to be the sweet-ish spot, I've found.

Managed to call them tru the call centre but still the same error

PAYMENT DECLINED

It’s a ... joke, the card worked perfectly fine to buy 156K of Aeroplan Points, but doesn’t work to redeem the flight?

Tried Amex, CBA and Wise, all three declined
Tria via website, app and call centre.

Such a joke

 

[Sunnyj]

@flycaio did the call centre offer a solution?