Originally Posted by
jephdub
I'm new to this as well. I've been accumulating points for a while hoping to get the family on international business flights for us. Was hoping things were a bit easier finding good redemption value with availability, this doesn't seem like the case. Trying to look from YVR out to Asia for next year, any tips for finding availability? I do not have access to CowTool and am on trial for ExpertFlyer which I don't find that useful.
I was like you a few short months ago, and honestly, it will be difficult to find availability without putting a lot of effort into it.
A few tips I can offer though:
1. Be flexible with your dates - The best value for points are through partner airlines, and unfortunately, not every single date/route will be available for partner booking. By being flexible with when you can travel, you have a much higher chance of finding a J (or even F) redemption ticket on partner airlines.
2. Play around with routing - Using your home city to destination as the search result may not yield the best possible route with J/F availability. For example, I normally search YEG-TYO, which 99% of the time will show me Vancouver/SEA/SFO/LAX as connections for partner airlines with some J availability at 75k points, but wasn't what I wanted to fly and experience in J. However, one day I decided to search from YYC to TYO instead, and found a F redemption on ANA with Air Canada J from YYC-LHR, then ANA F from LHR-HND. This was a much better use of my points, and an experience I would prioritize over the west coast J flights. It does mean I have to book a separate flight from YEG to YYC, but it's well within my means to pay a cash fare to get to YYC and benefit from a much better redemption.
3. Search every day - Availability comes and goes in this world. Some airlines have scheduled times they release seats (Lufthansa being well known for their schedule), and others release them in batches at seemingly random times. This can include bookings from as short as 2 weeks to as far out as 10 months. As an additional point to this, search multiple times each day too, as the Aeroplan website doesn't have seemingly fixed times for it to update new availability. Some will update in the morning, then more will be updated and added in the afternoon.
Cowtool is definitely the best tool available for finding availability as it gives you the most flexibility with your search results. But with a little bit of effort on your part and watching for availability like a hawk, I'm sure you will eventually secure a trip or redemption that you will be happy with.