I realize I’m way late on this, mostly because I’ve been in “start up” mode with my new luxury travel consulting service. But hey, better late than never, I figure.

Last Friday Gary wrote about what appeared to be a glitch with the way Aeroplan was pricing award tickets, whereby first class awards were pricing at the business class cost, while business class awards were pricing at the coach cost. I didn’t write about it at the time because I figured it would be fixed within hours of it being posted, though as it turns out it wasn’t a glitch, but rather an unadvertised award sale.

It’s truly baffling to me that they would offer an unadvertised award sale. I’m not sure what they have to gain by doing that (you’d think they’d at least advertise it if they did, to create some goodwill after all the “taking” they’ve been doing lately), but then again I’ve been wondering if anyone is really awake at Aeroplan lately.

So while we don’t know how long the deal will last, there are some truly spectacular values to be had.

To start, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all, Aeroplan is transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. Points transfer instantly from Membership Rewards, while they can take about a week when transferring from Starwood Preferred Guest. Therefore I wouldn’t transfer from Statwood if you’re planning on taking advantage of this promotion, since I suspect it won’t be around by the time the points are in your account.

Second, it’s worth keeping in mind that Aeroplan is offering bonus points when transferring points from any of their partners, with the following bonuses:

The thing to understand is that the bonus points only post upon the completion of the promotion. That means you’ll need to transfer the full number of points required now, and then you’ll have extra points in your Aeroplan account in a few weeks that you can use for a future redemption.

Next, it’s worth keeping in mind that Aeroplan devalued their award chart back in July, so be familiar with their new pricing. Their Star Alliance award chart can be found here.

Next, keep in mind that Aeroplan has recently added fuel surcharges on just about all of their partner airlines, with the exception of Continental, United, and US Airways. That being said, fuel surcharges on Aegean, TAM,  TAP, and South African only kick in on December 14. So in the meantime that translates to some killer deals.

So while your strategy when redeeming miles should typically be to aim for a foreign carrier because they have better service, this is a case where it can be advantageous to fly a US carrier.

For example, for a Chicago to Tokyo award on United in business class, Aeroplan is presently charging only 75,000 miles:

Want to visit South Africa? If so, it’s only 100,000 miles on South African Airways in business class, and if you book by December 14, there are no fuel surcharges:

Want to go to Europe? Right now it’s only 60,000 miles roundtrip in business class:

Even better is that India only costs  100,000 miles in business class, while Australia only costs 80,000 miles in business class… if you can find the availability!

So if you’re in the position to book an award, you should definitely go for it. Just remember to stick to an airline on which Aeroplan doesn’t impose fuel surcharges, or your savings will be negated pretty quickly.

And keep in mind that the above bonuses don’t factor in the bonus points you can earn if transferring points from Membership Rewards.

Good luck!

Last week I wrote about the fact that Aeroplan, Air Canada’s frequent flyer program, began imposing fuel surcharges for award redemptions on partner airlines. Previously they only imposed fuel surcharges for award redemptions on Air Canada flights, so this was a big shock to many.

Realizing the backfire among members they initially only rolled out fuel surcharges for Lufthansa redemptions, though now they’ve announced more fuel surcharges that are on the way, as follows:

Fuel surcharges to flight rewards on the following Star Alliance airlines will be effective as of the dates noted below:

November 30th, 2011: Asiana Airlines, Thai Airways International, All Nippon Airways, Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, British Midland Airways

December 14th, 2011: Aegean Airlines, Japan Airlines, TAM Airlines, South African Airways, TAP Portugal airlines

These are in addition to fuel surcharges to flight rewards on Lufthansa that became effective on November 9th 2011 at 7pm.

Allow me to summarize. After next month you’ll be able to redeem your Aeroplan miles on US carriers, Swiss (which never releases award space in advance out of the US) and on Singapore Airlines (though Singapore hardly releases award space, so it’s more or less a moot point).

On the plus side they’ve given advance notice, which I can appreciate.

Gary, are you ready for round three?

#TeamSapphire for the win! All the more reason to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

In case you’re not up to date with the (playful) bickering going on between Gary and I, here’s a two minute summary:

Yes, I’m the whiny kid.

Aeroplan is offering a transfer bonus when converting hotel points to Aeroplan miles through September 18, 2011, with the following bonuses:

• Converting hotel points that equate to 5,000 or more Aeroplan miles earns you 1,000 bonus miles
• Converting hotel points that equate to 10,000 or more Aeroplan miles earns you 2,000 bonus miles
• Converting hotel points that equate to 25,000 or more Aeroplan miles earns you 5,000 bonus miles

Registration is required and the bonus can be earned a maximum of one time per hotel partner.

Now, Aeroplan miles aren’t quite as valuable as they once were due to their award chart devaluation that occurred on July 15, 2011.

There are still some great values, though. For example, business class from North America to most of Europe costs 90,000 miles, and they even allow two stopovers in addition to the destination, really allowing you to visit three places on a single award ticket.

In most cases hotel transfers to airline miles aren’t a good value, with the exception of Starwood points. If you transfer 20,000 Starwood points to Aeroplan you would usually receive 25,000 miles (they offer a 5,000 point bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer to an airline partner), and through this promotion you would earn an additional 5,000 miles. That makes a total of 30,000 Aeroplan miles for a 20,000 point transfer.

Not too bad at all, especially since I’m currently crediting my one night Hyatt stays to Aeroplan, thanks to the 2,500 Aeroplan miles per stay that they’re offering through September 30.

(Tip of the hat to Loyalty Traveler)

Between July 1 and September 30, Hyatt is offering 2,500 Aeroplan miles per Hyatt stay. Registration is required. This is five times the normal number of miles earned, and you can earn this bonus a maximum of 10 times (for a total of 25,000 Aeroplan miles).

While Aeroplan’s award chart will soon be devalued somewhat, Aeroplan miles are still worth somewhere around two cents each, so you’re looking at about $50 worth of value in miles per stay.

Hyatt lets you earn either miles or points for any given stay, and you have to state your preference for miles at check-in by giving them your Aeroplan number if that’s your earning preference.

While you miss out on base points by choosing miles, you’re still eligible for the Diamond welcome amenity bonus, and if applicable, the 2,500 point Diamond bonus if a club lounge is closed on a weekend. While it’s not relevant at the moment since Hyatt isn’t running any “Gx” bonuses, you can’t earn those when you choose miles as your earning preference.

Anyway, in the absence of any other promotion or “Gx” bonuses, this is a great option for Hyatt stays over the next few months now that their second quarter promotion is over.

Per Gary, registering at HomeHardware.ca earns 100 free Aeroplan points.

I love Aeroplan, which is Air Canada’s spun-off frequent flyer program. For the past several years I’ve woken up every morning asking myself when the Aeroplan honeymoon would be over. It’s thanks to Aeroplan that I’ve been able to take trips like this one (from Tampa to Chicago to Zurich to London to Istanbul to Hong Kong to Bangkok to Munich to Zurich to New York) and this one (from Tampa to Washington to Tokyo to Singapore to Bangkok to Tokyo to Seoul to Frankfurt to Seattle), each for only 120,000 miles in first class. Best of all, since Aeroplan is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, it wasn’t all that tough to come by Aeroplan miles.

Obviously in the long run those kinds of award costs were unsustainable. While I don’t have the slightest clue how much American Express pays Aeroplan for miles transferred to their program, I can’t imagine that amount covered the cost that Aeroplan had to pay their partner airlines for awards like the ones above.

So as of July 15, 2011, Aeroplan will be adjusting their award charts a bit.

Aeroplan has two award charts — one for travel on Air Canada, and one for travel on their Star Alliance partners. I couldn’t care less about the Air Canada reward chart, because Aeroplan imposes fuel surcharges for awards tickets on Air Canada, while they don’t for award tickets on their Star Alliance partners.

For the most part the changes are reasonable, I suppose fair mileage “inflation” over the years, given that they haven’t made any changes in a long time. For example, business class from the US to most of Europe goes from 80,000 miles to 90,000 miles, which is still a bargain. Some award prices are even going down. For whatever reason Aeroplan was always incredibly overpriced for travel to the Middle East, Africa, and India, charging about 50% more than the likes of Continental, United, etc. So those award prices are going down, though they’re still overpriced compared to the competition.

But then there are a few awards changes that sting. US to Europe first class awards are going from 100,000 miles per person to 125,000 miles per person. They’re still priced below most of the competition, though it is a 25% increase. I can totally understand that. The same goes for Australia, where business class goes from 100,000 miles to 135,000 miles for business class (a 35% increase) and 140,000 to 185,000 for first class (over a 30% increase… ouch!).

What really, really, really bites, though, is that my favorite award, between the US and Asia, goes from 120,000 miles to 175,000 miles. That’s over a 45% increase!

Look, I wish I could be mad at them, but I really can’t. I’m betting that 45% increase mostly reflects how much those kinds of awards cost them, given how many of us booking first class awards travel via Europe to get to Asia.

More than anything else, this massively decreases the value of American Express Membership Rewards points. In the past I would say that 80% of awards I’ve booked for people through Membership Rewards have been either through Continental or Aeroplan — I would book awards through Aeroplan for travel to Europe, South America, Australia, and most of Asia, while I would book awards through Continental for travel to Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia “region 2″ (places like Indonsia, Malaysia, etc.).

Well, as of September 30, Continental’s partnership with Membership Rewards ends, which is a huge loss for the program. At least there was still Aeroplan, though now they’re not looking like quite as good of a deal anymore. There’s always All Nippon Airways, which is also in the Star Alliance, though the issue is that points don’t transfer to them instantly and they don’t allow holds in the meantime, so by the time you transfer points the award space will likely be gone. They also impose fuel surcharges on awards, which makes them less attractive.

If anything, this change increases the value of Starwood points (as they have more partners) and decreases the value of Membership Rewards points.

Anyway, to my friends at Aeroplan, I don’t blame y’all. Sucks for me, but you guys have always been very reasonable and while these are huge increases for certain regions, there haven’t been any other increases in a long time, so…