Aeroplan: Overview of the New Search Engine

This article will be updated throughout the day.

Under the new Aeroplan program, all bookings have to be made directly on the Air Canada website by selecting the “Points” option.

If the multi-city option exists in the Aeroplan search engine, it is rather useless at the moment. You can’t add more than two combinations, and it doesn’t reflect the new stopover option (5,000 Aeroplan points per stop).

It’s only good for open-jaw open routes (such as Montreal-Paris / Nice-Montreal).

Aeroplan’s new search engine supports IATA City Codes. This means that you can target a city with multiple airports rather than each airport!

This is convenient for these big cities:

Afterwards, once your search has been launched, a screen will offer you several options:

You can filter based on:

• Stops
• Connecting airports
• Airlines

It is possible to sort the results by clicking “Sort and Filter” above flight schedules:

You can sort the results by:

• Earliest departure time
• Earliest arrival time
• Shortest trip
• Lowest price

By default, it is the “recommended” sorting that will generally offer the fastest options with Air Canada.

It is possible to adjust the display on the screen with different options by clicking “Sort and Filter” above flight schedules:

You can check different options to display in your results:

• Flight number
• Aircraft type
• eUpgrades
• Mixed cabin – Bar display

We would have liked these options to be enabled by default: it is convenient to immediately view the type of aircraft or the mixed cabin bar display. As in this example: the blacker the bar, the more the flight will be in business. Conversely, the less the bar is filled (red), the more the flight will be in the economy cabin.

Here is a Business Class option for Air Canada’s direct flight between Montreal and Paris:

As you can see, there are different options that can increase the cost in Aeroplan points:

• 50,900 points and $59 in taxes for the lowest fare option
• 60,400 points and $59 in taxes for the flexible rate option

Next, here are the options displayed for the return flight:

Taxes are higher here (France has recently added taxes for departing flights):

This round trip would therefore cost 100,600 Aeroplan points for a Basic Member with no Aeroplan credit card.

With the preferred pricing, available to members with Aeroplan status and/or holding an Aeroplan credit card,the rate may be lower.

Once logged in my Aeroplan account (35K status and with a TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite* Card), the route now costs 87,200 points. You save 13,400 points there.

This is the screen showing the complete itinerary:

As you can see, “redemption options” are possible: more points or fewer points. By default, the initial Points + Taxes rate is displayed. Here, 87,200 points and $233.42.

This is the Points + Cash option that we showed you here.

For example, if you want to pay airport taxes with your points (in the example above 23,342 points saves you $233.42), you will get a value of 1 cent per point.

On the other hand, if you don’t have enough points – or want to keep them – the cash option is to “virtually buy” points, paying 1.8 cents per point. (When the program was presented to us, the examples were on a value of $0.021 per point: Air Canada seems to be dynamically adjusting this option).

Anyway, this is a good surprise for this specific flight. Indeed, according to the Aeroplan reward chart, a flight reward with Air Canada should have cost between 60,000 and 160,000 points (one-way). While here, we get a return-trip for 87,200 Aeroplan points (43,600 points one-way!).

Air Canada had told us that there could be adjustments at both fare ends based on demand. Therefore, we can conclude that there will be good deals during the COVID-19 pandemic and the anemic demand for flights!

If you wanted to buy that same itinerary in cash, it would have been $3,943!

Which, in my situation, allows me to value the Aeroplan point at:

($3,943 – $233) / 87,200 = 4.26 cents per dot!

Here is another example for a Montreal – Cancun flight, in economy, with Air Canada.

3 options are available:

• Standard
• Flex
• Latitude

Thus, the cost in Aeroplan points in this example varies from 12,600 points to 23,600 points.

Here are the options for the return flight:

Note that if you wish to take the Latitude option to get 2 pieces of luggage for free (22,500 points), it will be wiser to choose business class for 21,600 points!

An evidence, when you look at the difference:

This round trip would therefore cost 24,100 Aeroplan points for a Basic Member with no Aeroplan credit card.

Once registered in my Aeroplan account (35K status and with a TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite* Card), the flight now costs 20,700 points. A gain of 3,400 points.

This is the screen showing the complete itinerary:

If you want to pay for that itinerary, that’s $693.

Which, in my situation, allows me to value the Aeroplan point at:

($693 – $139) / 20,700 = 2.67 cents per point!

Here is another example for a Montreal – Tokyo flight with Air Canada:

• 35,000 points in economy class
• 44,200 points in premium economy
• 63,500 points in business class

Here are the options for the return flight:

This is the screen showing the complete itinerary:

127,000 Aeroplan points and $106.51 in taxes, business class.

If you wanted to buy that same route in cash, it would have cost $6,721.

Which, in my situation, allows me to value the Aeroplan point at:

($6,721 – $106) / 127,000 = 5.20 cents per point!

What about economy class? This is the screen showing the complete itinerary:

70,100 Aeroplan points and $106.51 in taxes, economy class.

If you want to buy the same itinerary, it would have cost $1,205.

Which, in my situation, allows me to value the Aeroplan point at:

($1,205 – $106) /70,100 = 1.57 cents per point

Here is a situation that shows the bad aspects of the dynamic chart: Vancouver – Sydney. Probably one of Air Canada’s most popular flights.

570,000 Aeroplan points for a one-way business class flight!

Whereas according to the Aeroplan chart (North America – Pacific), it should have been between 130,000 and 300,000 points given that the distance (7,757 miles, according to GCMAP):

Montreal-Casablanca is a sweetspot that we identified from Montréal. And it’s confirmed:

• 29,000 points one-way in economy with Air Canada
• 48,800 points one-way in business class flight with Air Canada