Ndtman

What's the best day to book flights? How many weeks ahead to book for less miles? Any cities very cheap for miles? I live in NL and seem like when I check dates it changes all the time

yyz_atc_qq

are you asking about classic rewards? or market rewards?

YOWgary

It depends where you're trying to go. Are you looking for economy tickets in Canada, business class tickets to Singapore, or...?

"The best day to book" is the day the seats are released, before anyone else has had a chance to get 'em. Unfortunately, this isn't on a set schedule. It's supposed to be 330 days before departure, but in practice it's been more random than that. So, start checking at 330 days out, but don't give up if you don't see them at that point.

"Booking for less miles" isn't a function of time. Once in a while, and not on a set schedule, Aeroplan will put a few cities on a Market Fare promo, so you might see Toronto-Paris in economy for 22,500 points instead of the usual 60,000. These promos only ever seem to be for Economy travel, never Business.

Read carefully when booking these promos, though - an award seat on YYZ-CDG comes with $601 in taxes and fees, when you can just buy the same seat on the same plane for $731 and save your miles for a more profitable redemption.

Ndtman

Market rewards and for economy class. It would be flying down to the us or maybe Europe but not further. Ok thanks for the 330 day thing

YOWgary

If you're looking to use points to go to Europe, you will save literally hundreds of dollars per ticket by reading this link in detail.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...demptions.html

For example, on a flight from Montreal to Zurich, in Economy, using Aeroplan miles, selecting flights on Swiss Airlines instead of Lufthansa will reduce your taxes and fees (known collectively as "YQ") by $540 per ticket.

Read the guide, and enjoy your travels!

flyquiet

What he said.

If the objective is to get the most product (distance and class of service) per miles redeemed, people around these parts tend to value redeeming for Business or last minute trips that you absolutely must make when only the most expensive tickets are left.

If you are flying Economy, and booking well in advance, you have the opportunity to actually buy the ticket for the cheapest fare possible. Redeeming miles spends your miles and costs you cash fees and deprives you of the opportunity to earn more miles by buying and flying the flight.

Ndtman

I will have to do some research. I always thought aeroplan was just for air canafa but I never flew to Europe before

Ndtman

Also What's the cheapest or best bang for your buck European city for the Canadian currency these day.

YOWgary

Generally speaking, these are the airlines on which you can use Aeroplan miles.

http://www.staralliance.com/en/member-airlines

Before anyone jumps on - I don't know the first thing about Adria or Croatia Airlines!

karachi

The British pound just took a major hit - otherwise, go to a place you want to see, and dont worry about the currency. I personally prefer places like Vienna, Istanbul, Prague, Venice, Florence which have a lot of history. You can always AirBnB it and eat at cheap places

Book ahead, check the market price of airtick on Google flights or Vayama, and then use your miles if it is worth it.

Ndtman

Thanks for all the help!

DrPete

With the occasional exception, the classic or fixed mileage rewards are are usually the best, but the seats allocated to them are limited. I find for flights within North America, if I book 6 months ahead there is usually good availability. If you can, be flexible with with your dates. Often midweek days like Wednesday can have better availability because most people want to fly from weekend to weekend, but of course no guarantee on what is available.


The market value rewards are essentially using miles converted to dollars to buy seats normally available for purchase. Usually, you need more miles than for classic rewards, but not always (ie of the cost tickets is really low at the time).

As others have stated, use you miles wisely: always check what the taxes and surcharges will be for a reward flight, and check what it would cost to simply buy a ticket. Take the difference between the two and divide by the number of miles needed for the reward to to get your $/mile return on miles. My rule of thumb is that anything less than 2 cents a mile is not worth it, and I generally dont use miles unless I can get more than 2.5 cents a mile. Of course that number will vary depending on how many miles you have and how much cash you have what what you perceive the value of each mile is. You can usually get gift cards a bit less than a cent a mile, so that also can put the lower limit what a mile is worth.

CanadaDH

330 might be the number with many airlines, but for flights on AC metal, it's normally 355 days out when they start releasing seats for Aeroplan redemption.

YOWgary

The problem being AC's scattershot approach to releasing availability.

For example, I often find it easier to book the TATL, trans-Asiatic and TPAC legs of a business class mRTW, than to find a single economy seat YOW-YUL or YUL-YYZ, as the latter don't necessarily release at 355,330 or even 300.

1Newflyer

Non-Euro currency countries.