***This article is no longer relevant since the program was changed in 2020. We keep it as an archive.

If you want to discover a region of the world, it is more economical to proceed with a multi-city ticket rather than booking only a round trip! Explanations.

A multi-city airline ticket with Aeroplan

If you are a traveller and want to visit several cities/regions in the same trip, you can do so with Aeroplan. This option is not really promoted, especially since most of the time you will have to call Aeroplan to make the reservation.

You have the possibility to make a stop on the way to and from your destination. So, in theory, you have the possibility to visit 3 cities/regions during the same trip!

How to search for a multi-city route?

Of course, you can try your luck with Aeroplan with the “multi-city” option.

But this option works best when you are sure to find availability.

In most situations, you will have to do it the other way around, by searching by route to see all the options available. Here are the optimal steps to take when searching for a multi-city airline ticket:

1- Use Flight Connections

Rather than looking for specific cities, start looking at what you can find by region.

To do this, use Flight Connections. You’ll be able to see which airlines fly to a destination, and identify which airlines are members of the Star Alliance so you can book them on Aeroplan.

And do a reverse search: select the farthest point on the map from your starting location. This will be your final destination.

Let’s take an example from South Asia.

The main airports are marked in green: Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh…

You will have to pass over each of them to see the flights that go there. For example, Singapore:

You can analyze a line in detail as I did below with Istanbul, Zurich, Tokyo.

Here, I know that Star Alliance flights connect these cities. I will now have to find availability on Aeroplan.

2- Use Aeroplan to find flights to your destination

For a multi-city ticket, you’ll need to use Aeroplan to find flights between your destination (Singapore) and your stopover point, either inbound or outbound (Istanbul, Zurich or Tokyo).

You can either go through the Aeroplan website or use a tool to “automate” the search with the free Award.flights tool (Chrome browser only).

Let’s just do some queries with Aeroplan to find flights to:

• Istanbul
• Zurich
• Tokyo
• then between these 3 cities and our destination: Singapore.

For the one-way flight from Montreal, there is availability with:

• Turkish to Istanbul
• Swiss to Zurich
• Air Canada to Tokyo

You will notice that to these three destinations, there are very few taxes to pay! Don’t factor in the miles to spend, it won’t be the final price:

You can spend as much time as you want in any of these cities.

After that, let’s look at the availability to reach your destination, Singapore from one of your stopovers, Istanbul, Zurich or Tokyo.

Again, the fees are low.

You have reached your destination and you can spend as much time as you want there.

The return will be booked in the same way! Let’s take just one example, coming back through Tokyo.

This direct flight operated by Singapore Airlines costs very little in taxes! Once in Tokyo, you can stay as long as you want.

Now back to Montreal from Tokyo:

There are more matches here. But the taxes remain very reasonable.

3 – Book this route

To book such a complex itinerary, you’ll need to call Aeroplan. Agents are used to it, but here’s how it works for a multi-city ticket:

• Indicate your place of departure (Montreal) and your destination (Singapore)
• Then list each of the flights you found:

1. April 03 – TK36 – Montreal-Istanbul
2. April 09 – SQ391 – Istanbul-Singapore
3. April 17 – SQ634 – Singapore – Tokyo HND
4. April 24 – UA876 – Tokyo HND – San Francisco
5. April 23 – UA1401 – San Francisco – Chicago
6. April 24 – AC7590 – Chicago – Montreal

Assessment of this itinerary

In the end, the itinerary for a multi-city air ticket that I presented is called“mini world tour“. You can find other examples on forums such as flyertalk, under the English name “Mini RTW”.

Total cost: 90,000 Aeroplan Miles and approximately $200 in taxes.

Please refer to the Aeroplan award chart to find out the cost in miles for a route.

In this case, the destination was Singapore which is in the “ASIA 2” zone. The cost is 90,000 Aeroplan miles in economy class.

Note that you could also have chosen a destination city in the “ASIA 1” zone such as Hong Kong or Shanghai, and you would have paid only 75,000 Aeroplan Miles!

Conclusion on multi-city routes

With only 75,000 – 90,000 Aeroplan Miles, you have the opportunity to visit up to 3 cities/regions in one trip!

It would have cost you the same to simply travel to Asia.

While there for your multi-city ticket, you added a city in Europe and another Asian city in passing!

How to easily get those Aeroplan Miles

75,000 – 90,000 Aeroplan Miles are easily earned through credit card sign-up bonuses. You can check out the Aeroplan card rankings.

Here are my favorites: