Star Alliance carrier Air Canada’s Aeroplan loyalty program is one of my favorite airline programs to redeem miles through, because they have some excellent redemption opportunities. It’s through Aeroplan that we previously redeemed for Singapore business class from Frankfurt to JFK, and then we used that same opportunity for our flight to Europe this coming November, also with Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately, Aeroplan’s value may be decreasing as of June 1st.

1. Air Canada Prices Redemptions by a Combination of Zone and Distance
2. Aeroplan Devalues Redemptions Across Many Categories
   1. Between North America and Atlantic zones
   2. Between North America and Pacific zones
   3. Within Atlantic zone
   4. Within Pacific zone
   5. Between Atlantic and Pacific zones
3. Summary

Air Canada Prices Redemptions by a Combination of Zone and Distance

Before we look at what’s changed, let’s look at how Air Canada prices redemptions. First of all, Air Canada Aeroplan differentiates between Air Canada flights, select Air Canada partners (including United, Etihad, Emirates, FlyDubai, and a host of small Canadian airlines), or ‘other’ Air Canada partners, many of which are also in Star Alliance. Those include for example Singapore Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Thai Airways, Swiss and Lufthansa, among others.

For Air Canada and the above ‘select partners’ pricing is dynamic with a ‘starting at’ number, while all other partners have fixed pricing. It stands to reason that those redemptions are therefor the most interesting, and the better value. The system is a combination of zones and distance. The zones can be seen below:

Then there are categories based on whether you fly within a zone or between zones, and the origin-to-destination distance you fly on your itinerary.

Consider the example below. For the 0-500 mile distance tier for flights within North America, there is a line for Air Canada and select partners, and there is a line for all other partners. While all other partners has a fixed redemption price, Air Canada and select partners have a ‘starting at’ and ‘median’ number, to give an idea of how much prices can fluctuate. For example, while business class tickets will start at 15000 minimum, the median is actually around 20.000. At the same time, all other partners are at 15.000, so that’s a better value.

Now let’s have a look at what’s changing. Note that I’m highlight other partners, primarily because the Air Canada pricing is dynamic and is generally rather high anyway.

Aeroplan Devalues Redemptions Across Many Categories

Air Canada has released updated award redemption pricing for essentially all flights, which you can see here (though I’ll cover what’s changed). Changes are coming to many of the redemptions, and for the most part redemptions increase, with a rare decrease as well, here and there. But, expect to pay more for the redemptions you may be most interested in.

Note I didn’t see any changes for flights within North America, between North America and South America, within South America, between Atlantic and South America and between Pacific and South America To be honest, some of these probably have little to no practical redemptions anyway, so changes there would be useless anyway.

Between North America and Atlantic zones

I’m happy to say that all business class redemptions on other partners seem to stay the same. So, 60.000 miles for Singapore Airlines JFK-FRA or FRA-JFK remains, as well as equally well-priced redemptions on e.g. Swiss.

• Economy redemptions 0-4000 miles are 2500 miles cheaper, while those 4000 miles and up increase by 2500-5000 miles.
• Business Class redemptions remain unchanged.
• First class redemptions remain the same up to 4000 miles, but over 4000 miles are all increasing by 20.000-25.000 miles.

Between North America and Pacific zones

The redemptions between North America and Pacific zones had some excellent sweet spots, in particular business class from North America to (South) East Asia via Europe for 87.500 miles. Unfortunately this is changing, with further changes in all cabin classes:

• Economy redemptions under 5000 miles and over 11.000 miles are 2500-5000 miles cheaper. However, the 7500-11.000 miles bracket becomes 5000 miles more expensive.
• Business Class redemptions specifically in the 7500-11.000 miles bracket goes up by 15000 miles to 102.500 miles (was 87.500). This is quite sad, since this was an excellent Aeroplan sweet spot.
• First Class redemptions between 5000-11.000 miles become 10.000 miles more expensive.

Within Atlantic zone

There’s numerous changes here throughout all classes:

• Economy redemptions 1000-6000 miles are going up by 2500-7000 miles. Especially 4000-6000 miles is hard hit with the 7000 miles increase.
• Business Class redemptions under 4000 miles actually decrease by 2500-5000 miles, so that great. Over 4000 miles they increase by 10.000-15.000 miles, however. So, you may be able to get some better value benefit out of this change for flights in Europe.
• First Class redemptions 2000-4000 miles increase by 10.000 miles, though I don’t think there is much first class availability anyway.

Within Pacific zone

Unfortunately there are some significant increases for flights within the Pacific zone:

• Economy redemptions over 1000-5000 miles increase by 2500-5000 miles, while redemptions over 5000 miles actually decrease in price by 2500-5000 miles.
• Business Class redemptions under 2000 miles remain unchanged, while those over 2000-7000 miles see a big increase of 12.500 miles. Over 7000 miles the price goes down by 5000 miles.
• First Class redemptions remain unchanged.

Between Atlantic and Pacific zones

There are some massive changes to business class redemptions for flights between Europe/Africa and the Pacific zone:

• Economy redemptions over 5000 miles increase by 10.000 miles.
• Business Class redemptions see big increases across the board, with increases of 7500-20.000 miles.
• First Class redemptions, like business class, go up by 5000-20.000 miles across all distance tiers.

Summary

Overall, there is no doubt that devaluations are bad, but in the grand scheme of things, these devaluations are not terrible. Most of them are in line with what other programs have been doing. They definitely do get rid of sweet spots of the program, such as the North America to Pacific redemption of 87.500 miles that as of June 1st will cost 102.500 miles. On the other hand, the overall decrease in cost of business class flights within the Atlantic zone is a net positive. This devaluation therefor isn’t a reason to avoid Air Canada Aeroplan, as useful redemptions, particularly between North America and Europe, are still available.