Aeroplan’s stopover characteristic is easy and a fan favourite: You’ll be able to flip one journey into two for under 5,000 factors.
When reserving a flight from one area to a different, you may cease in a single metropolis and discover to your coronary heart’s content material (as much as 45 days) earlier than persevering with on the identical ticket to a different metropolis. Fairly than shopping for two separate tickets, this stopover profit can usually save tens of hundreds of factors if used correctly.
What’s higher? Aeroplan lets you add a stopover on a one-way flight. So you might flip a round-trip itinerary (two one-ways) right into a three-city journey for under 10,000 extra factors (5,000 per one-way).
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The extra factors must be straightforward sufficient to earn with Aeroplan’s quite a few transferable factors companions, together with American Categorical Membership Rewards, Chase Final Rewards, Capital One miles and Marriott Bonvoy. In case you are working low on transferable rewards, getting the Aeroplan® Credit score Card ought to have you ever up and working very quickly.
However there are some instances when it makes extra sense to guide separate one-way tickets. So, let’s contemplate when you must skip Aeroplan’s stopover characteristic to avoid wasting factors whereas nonetheless reserving your required route.
When it makes extra sense to guide 2 one-way tickets
One journey the place it may appear to make sense to guide a stopover can be a visit from California to go to Switzerland and Italy.
Reserving the stopover just isn’t too troublesome. Merely plug within the departure metropolis, the stopover metropolis (first cease), the vacation spot metropolis (second cease) and the stopover size within the stopover metropolis. Then, let Aeroplan value out your redemption.
This itinerary would come with a business-class flight on Air Canada’s Star Alliance companion Swiss Worldwide Air Strains from San Francisco to Zurich. Then, you may discover Switzerland to your coronary heart’s content material earlier than persevering with to Rome (additionally in enterprise class) for 95,000 factors.
In comparison with the price of reserving this ticket from San Francisco to Rome, connecting in Zurich (and never having the ability to correctly cease over and discover) for 90,000 factors, this seems to be a worthwhile endeavor.
How reserving 2 separate tickets is cheaper
Nonetheless, whereas this seems to be a very good deal, there’s just a little extra to the story for this redemption. Let’s evaluate this stopover itinerary to reserving two one-way tickets: one from San Francisco to Zurich and one from Zurich to Rome.
On this case, reserving a business-class award from San Francisco to Zurich would price 70,000 factors.
And the flight from Zurich to Rome would price 15,000 factors in enterprise class.
On this case, avoiding Aeroplan’s stopover characteristic and reserving two separate awards decreased the general ticket value from 95,000 factors to 85,000 factors. TPG values 10,000 Aeroplan factors at 1.5 cents per level, which means you’d get about $150 in financial savings. That is not too unhealthy for minimal further effort.
Associated: Why Aeroplan’s beneficiant stopover choice provides much more worth to Amex playing cards
Why reserving a stopover is dearer
Aren’t stopovers supposed to avoid wasting you factors? Typically with the Aeroplan program, they do. However this is not at all times the case.
For this instance, Aeroplan’s distance-based award chart is the explanation for the elevated price. This is a have a look at the loyalty program’s award chart for North America and Atlantic zones, which covers all of Europe, the Center East and Africa.
Reserving the flight from San Francisco to Zurich clocks in at 5,840 miles, putting it within the second pricing band for flights between 4,001 and 6,000 miles.
Because the flight from Switzerland to Rome (431 miles) pushes the overall distance into the third distance band from 6,001 to eight,000 miles, it will increase the price by 20,000 factors from 70,000 factors to 90,000 factors.
However, reserving the intra-Europe phase individually would solely price 15,000 factors for enterprise, primarily based on the intra-Atlantic Zone award chart. It might additionally stop the San Francisco-to-Europe phase from falling into a better value band and remove the 5,000-point stopover payment.
Associated: One of the best methods to maximise Air Canada’s Aeroplan program
Backside line
This is not to say that Aeroplan stopovers are at all times a nasty deal. The power to guide Aeroplan stopovers for under 5,000 factors is a superb deal that opens up the likelihood to guide multicity awards for a fraction of the price. There are many instances when it is sensible to make use of the characteristic, saving you hundreds of factors within the course of.
However as you have seen on this instance, this is not at all times the case. Generally, utilizing the stopover characteristic places you within the subsequent award chart pricing band. So you must at all times do the maths and double-check that including a stopover really saves you factors earlier than reserving.
