There are a few award redemptions that are just too lucrative not to take advantage of, and for me one of those has been the Aeroplan first class award from North America to Asia for 120,000 miles roundtrip in first class, allowing one to route via Europe. Just a couple of examples of the awards I’ve booked through Aeroplan include Tampa to Chicago to Zurich to London to Istanbul to Hong Kong to Bangkok to Munich to Zurich to New York (trip report here), and Tampa to Washington to Tokyo to Singapore to Bangkok to Tokyo to Seoul to Frankfurt to Seattle (trip report here).

Understandably these types of awards weren’t especially profitable for Aeroplan, so they recently announced that they would be modifying their award chart as of July 15. Kudos to them for giving some advance notice, and I certainly can’t blame them, since the region pairs that saw the greatest mileage increases were those that were previously most taken advantage of.

Anyway, I’ve had a bad habit of booking award travel fairly close to departure lately, and I tend to think that one of the most enjoyable aspects of travel is the anticipation. So this time around I booked my award 10 months in advance. I’ll be doing this one with a friend, since premium cabin travel can only be so much fun alone, in my opinion. Actually, I kind of take that back, since I had a pretty damn good time in the Qantas A380 first class suite for over 30 hours last week, but still.

For once, however, the trip isn’t just about maximizing the amount of time in the air, but more about maximizing the time on the ground and also getting a good mix of airlines in (since my friend hasn’t flown first internationally quite as much as I have).

Anyway, we’ll be flying from San Francisco to Munich in Lufthansa first class and spending about 22 hours in Munich (which technically isn’t considered a stopover). Then we’ll fly from Munich to Zurich to Bangkok in Swiss first class, allowing us to experience both the Lufthansa first class lounge in Munich and the Swiss first class lounge in Zurich.

Then a couple of days later we’ll fly from Bangkok to Hong Kong in Thai first class. Thai’s in-flight service is quite good, though the real show stopper is the ground experience — despite Bangkok to Hong Kong being only a two or so hour flight, you get all the first class ground services, including an hour-long full body massage in the first class spa.

Then after a couple of days we’ll fly from Hong Kong to Seoul in Asiana business class, and after a quick overnight fly from Seoul to Frankfurt in Asiana first class. After yet another overnight we’ll fly from Frankfurt to Seattle in Lufthansa first class.

Anyway, while I’ve just about tried all the products before, I’m nonetheless excited about it, because first class cabins are constantly harder to get into due to many airlines eliminating first class and also more competition for the same seats, given that consumers are getting smarter not only in terms of using their miles, but also in terms of earning more miles through means other than flying.

Now I should probably go ahead and get started on the report from the four continent trip I returned from yesterday. It would be a lot easier if I weren’t headed to Paris this weekend!

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…

Through April 30, Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is offering bonus miles for points transfers from hotel programs to Aeroplan. If you transfer the equivalent of 5,000 Aeroplan miles, you get 1,000 bonus miles, if you transfer the equivalent of 10,000 Aeroplan miles you get 2,000 bonus miles, and if you transfer the equivalent of 25,000 Aeroplan miles, you get 5,000 bonus miles. Registration is required here.

Essentially, if you convert 20,000 Starwood points to Aeroplan you would earn 30,000 miles. That’s because you get a 5,000 point bonus for every 20,000 Starwood points you transfer, and another 5,000 Aeroplan miles through this promotion. Now, you’re limited to one bonus per hotel partner during the promotion, so you can’t transfer 100,000 points and get 150,000 miles from any single program, for example.

But in this case, since I already have a sizable Aeroplan balance, I’ll probably convert 20,000 Starwood points into 30,000 Aeroplan miles, given how favorable their award chart is.

Air Canada’s spun off frequent flyer program, Aeroplan, is making some interesting changes on the elite qualification front for next year, per this FlyerTalk thread. While the number of miles and segments required to qualify for status isn’t changing, there’s an added requirement — at least 10,000 elite qualifying miles or five segments need to be on Air Canada in order to qualify for any status level.

What’s the significance of this? Well, nowadays many people are savvy and don’t necessarily credit miles to the programs of the airlines they fly with most. You see, Air Canada’s middle tier status only requires 35,000 elite qualifying miles, and gets you Star Alliance lounge access whenever you’re flying a Star Alliance airline. So I know plenty of people that fly around 40,000 miles/year on United, and choose to credit those miles to Aeroplan for the lounge access. The even more common scenario is that someone flies substantially over 100,000 miles/year, and credits their excess miles to Aeroplan. Now, whether or not that’s worthwhile is for a whole different post, because I actually don’t think it’s always worthwhile given the complications that come with constantly switching frequent flyer numbers on reservations.

More than anything else, I find this interesting from Aeroplan’s perspective, especially since they’re a spun off frequent flyer program. Now, I have no clue how they’re compensated by Air Canada and how Air Canada compensates them, but I’m not totally sure if I understand the reasoning behind this. If anything, I would expect a non-spun off frequent flyer program to have this requirement. I guess the question is, do other airlines pay Aeroplan substantially less than Air Canada does for miles that are credited to them? Isn’t it in a way beneficial for Aeroplan to have a lot of members that don’t frequently fly with Air Canada, since (theoretically) they will redeem fewer upgrades for travel on Air Canada and use fewer of their accrued benefits? Does Aeroplan pay substantially less for lounge access to Air Canada lounges compared to partner lounges?

Anyway, I’m not expecting any good answers, though I’m sure there’s some reasoning behind it. Ah, the airline industry secrets that I’m just dying to know…

What I find most interesting is that most Aeroplan members in the FlyerTalk thread above are applauding the change. I don’t necessarily see it as a negative change, but then again I don’t see why anyone would be happy about it either. If someone has top tier status but never flies with Air Canada, what threat do they pose to other Aeroplan members?

Through December 5, Aeroplan (Air Canada’s frequent flyer program) is offering some very nice transfer bonuses from all of their hotel partners and American Express. In my opinion Aeroplan miles are already the most valuable mileage currency, so any additional bonus is only a huge plus. If you convert points into the equivalent of 20,000 or more miles, you get a 5,000 point bonus. In other words, if you transfer 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points, you get 25,000 Aeroplan miles, and if you transfer 20,000 Starwood points, you get 30,000 Aeroplan miles. They are also offering bonuses for smaller transfers — a transfer which equates to up to 9,999 Aeroplan miles earns a 1,000 mile bonus, and a transfer which equates to up to 19,999 Aeroplan miles earns a 2,000 mile bonus.

(Tip of the hat to David)

Per Musings of The Global Traveller, Air Canada has introduced a lifetime status program as follows:

1 million status miles for lifetime elite (Star Alliance gold)
2 million status miles for lifetime elite for yourself and a nominated partner (Star Alliance gold)
3 million status miles for lifetime super elite for yourself and lifetime elite for a nominated partner (Star Alliance gold)

This is quite a rewarding program. It’s worth noting that this is based on status miles, which would include class of service bonuses for flying premium cabins, though apparently only those flown on Air Canada and Jazz (and not partner airlines). There are airlines on both sides of this. American counts all miles towards elite status (even those earned through credit card spend), while United counts only “butt in seat” miles towards lifetime status.

While three million status miles is a lot, lifetime Super Elite status along with lifetime Elite status for a nominated partner is quite a reward! Kudos to Air Canada for this.

You can earn 250 free Air Canada Aeroplan miles by joining Aermove by June 30, which takes about a minute. Can’t beat that!

(Tip of the hat to Gary)

Through April 30, Aeroplan is offering 1,500 bonus miles for hotel point transfers that convert into at least 10,000 Aeroplan miles. Most transfers from hotel points to airline miles aren’t a good value, except for Starwood transfers, which can be a great deal. Aeroplan is no doubt one of the most attractive transfer partners given their generous award chart and liberal routing rules. So if you convert 20,000 Starwood points, for example, you get 26,500 Aeroplan miles (5,000 standard bonus and 1,500 bonus through this promotion). While it’s not a huge bonus, it’s something, especially if you would make the transfer anyway.

Registration is required here.

Through December 15, all Star Alliance airlines are offering status matches to their Star Alliance Gold levels for those with Hong Kong addresses that can prove status with another program. You also have to have one flight to credit to one of those programs. You simply have to register and send either your elite card or mileage statement along with a ticket for a Star Alliance flight that you plan on crediting to that program.

As Gary points out, Asiana would give you status for at least two years, and maybe even four, and as a Star Gold with them you’d get access to lounges on any Star Alliance itinerary.

Tempting….

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: TPA-ORD on United
Part 3: ORD-ZRH on Swiss
Part 4: ZRH-LHR on Swiss and LHR-IST on Turkish
Part 5: InterContinental Istanbul
Part 6: Istanbul
Part 7: IST-HKG on Turkish
Part 8: InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong
Part 9: InterContinental Hong Kong
Part 10: Hong Kong
Part 11: HKG-BKK-MUC on Thai
Part 12: MUC-ZRH-JFK on Swiss
Part 13: JFK-TPA on Delta

———————————————————————-

It was the end of May and I had no real international premium travel booked for the summer. I was going to be busy, so time was limited. My brother and I try to take one big trip together every year (some of you might remember our trip to Malta last year), so this seemed like a good time to plan something together. Unfortunately my brother is in an accelerated MBA program which leaves him with virtually no time off, since he has summer classes as well.

I needed to be back home by August 24, which is when my classes started, while my brother couldn’t leave before August 14, which was when his summer term ended. Well, that kind of narrowed down our options. Nonetheless I was determined to find a good award which would maximize both our in-air experience and our destination cities. As most of you probably know, getting there is at least half the fun for me.

While we had no clue where we specifically wanted to go, I had a general idea. I was sitting on 240,00 Aeroplan miles (Air Canada’s spun-off frequent flyer program), and Aeroplan had recently liberalized their routing rules to allow awards from the US to Asia to go via Europe. For 120,000 miles per person in first class, this seemed like the perfect award.

There were two products I definitely wanted to fit into this award. First, we both wanted to try Swiss’ new first class product, which is on their new A330-300′s. Swiss is also one of my brother’s favorite airlines, since they have his favorite champagne in first class (stay tuned for that). I also wanted to fly Turkish Airways on one of their leased 777-300ERs from Jet Airways, which are flown from London to Istanbul and Istanbul to Asia. They also seemed to have amazing ground services in Istanbul.

This worked out well since Istanbul was always a city I wanted to visit, and I figured we could also visit Hong Kong, a city I have visited many times but my brother hasn’t. It would be a good opportunity for me to put my “tour guide” skills to the test.

Anyway, piecing together this itinerary was quite an adventure which took a couple of days, but I couldn’t have been happier with the end result. After a surprisingly quick one hour call to Aeroplan, and 120,000 miles and $200 in taxes per person later, we were sitting on this award.

Day 1, TPA-ORD, UA0859, 0909-1055, United Economy, 2hr46min, 320
Day 1, ORD-ZRH, LX0009, 1915-1100 +1, Swiss First Class, 8hr45min, 333
Day 2, ZRH-LHR, LX0332, 1205-1300, Swiss Business Class, 1hr55min, 321
Day 2, LHR-IST, TK1992, 1630-2220, Turkish First Class, 3hr50min, 77W
(Stopover, two days)
Day 4, IST-HKG, TK0070, 2350-1440 +1, Turkish First Class, 9hr50min, 77W
(Destination, three days)
Day 8, HKG-BKK, TG0639, 1845-2025, Thai Business Class, 2hr40min, 333
Day 9, BKK-MUC, TG0924, 0050-0715,  Thai First Class, 11hr25min, 346
Day 9, MUC-ZRH, LX1101, 0930-1030, Swiss Business Class, 1hr, AR1
Day 9, ZRH-JFK, LX0014, 1300-1545, Swiss First Class, 8hr45min, 333

For more details about why I chose this particular routing, see my original post on the award from back when I booked it.

You’ll probably notice that my award starts in Tampa but ends in New York. This is because of Aeroplan’s ten segment award rule. Flying back to TPA would have taken two more segments, which would have put me at 11 segments. Also, given that my classes started the same day I returned home, I decided to just book a $99 ticket on DL from JFK-TPA. Thanks to my Northwest Platinum status I was expecting an upgrade as well, so that was no big deal.

In the end our award trip would be 10 segments and cover over 24,000 miles. I hope through the report you’ll see why I’d choose such a crazy routing when there were more direct routings, and most importantly why getting there can be half the fun…