Amazing Deal Alert: Reduced Price Aeroplan Awards
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
It was recently reported by Matthew at UPGRD, that Aeroplan awards were pricing at incorrect levels. And this time around, the error was in favor of the passenger - basically you can get business class for the price of coach and First class awards for the price of business class.
Aeroplan is an instant transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, so if you have any award travel in your future, you should definitely check out this deal. Remember, Amex will let you advance up to 60,000 points if you are a Platinum cardholder and 15,000 for most other charge cards. Aeroplan even confirmed to View from the Wing that this is a legitimate "sale" on awards and it may end any time.
What I love about Aeroplan are their flexible routing rules. For example, you can fly to Asia via both the Atlantic and Pacific so you could do JFK-Frankfurt (stop)- Tokyo (stop)- JFK and you can mix multiple Star Alliance partners. These are called mini-Round the World trips and I wrote about them here.
What isn't so great are their fuel surcharges, but honestly at these discounted mileage rates, I will still pay ~$500 and 75,000 for a business class trip around the world! FYI: Check here for my update on fuel surcharges.
Aeroplan.com is a pretty good booking engine, so I recommend building your ideal trip before transferring any Amex points to Aeroplan, because once they are there they can't be transferred back. Aeroplan won't show the taxes/surcharges on the award, so you may need to call to find out before you transfer the miles. The Aeroplan service center number is 1-800-361-5373. You can sign up for a free Aeroplan account here.
I haven't had too much time to price out lots of awards, so feel free to share any good finds.
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