We are planning a trip to Europe in 2019 or 2020. Celebrating our 30th anniversary so it will be a trip of a lifetime. Checking flights on the website, and the tax and fees on Air Canada flights seem to be nearly the same as just paying cash for the flights in the first place. I've been checking for flights from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto and choosing Manchester, London, Rome, Venice, and Paris as destinations. It's not making sense to me to use 120K in aeroplan for two people, and still pay over $1200 in most cases. We have a lot of stops we want to make in Europe so I like the idea of being able to book flights that have multiple stops with long layover times between so we could do a little sightseeing between flights. Is that really where the value to using Aeroplan points comes in, or am I just going about this all the wrong way? I know this is probably the most basic newbie question, so if you can direct me to a link or thread that explains all the codes (no idea what "F", "J", etc mean!) and how to book flights cost effectively, I'd be grateful.