<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by cslusarc:
Guava, I agree Aeroplan is overcharging for many destinations. But then again I think they are undercharging on others.
Lets compare three Long Haul International rewards YYZ-DEL, HNL-SYD and YYT-LHR.
Thanks to Empress for verifying that the YYZ-DEL a 14500 mi return trip will ding your Aeroplan account 75K points for W and 100K points for D. On a business class trip,
your reward would cost about 6.9 points per mile travelled.
While the shorter 10130 mi return trip from HNL to SYD would cost your account 60K for W and 80K for D. A business class reward seat would cost about 7.9 points per mile travelled.
Even shorter, the 4620 mi return trip from YYT to LHR would also cost your account 60K in W and 80K in D. A business class reward seat would cost about 13 points per mile travelled.
Can you guess which reward I would most likely want to take?
If we applied the median cost of 7.9 points per mile cost on YYZ-DEL, a business class reward would cost about 115K points. When we applied the 7.9 points per mile cost on YYT-LHR it would cost about 36K points.
In North America, why should it cost more to redeem a reward on YYC-YWG than it does on YWG-YYZ which is a longer distance away?
What I think Aeroplan should do is divide the world in to smaller areas, like having several regions covering Canada and US.
Or Aeroplan should divise a distance based reward chart simular to Air New Zealand's AirPoints.</font>
Your perspective is interesting but I don't agree with your method of measuring awards. They contain some rather misleading variables. I don't have the time to discuss it now but I will get back later. What I'll say is you shouldn't base on the distance of travel as a parameter to see whether an award is overcharge or undercharge. Plus, I think HNL-SYD return is 90K in D not 80K, just a small observation.