MikeAero

Hi everyone:

I have approximately 130k Aeroplan miles and 30k Diners Club points.

I would like to use my points to book flights to Hawaii.

Is there any way to combine these points? I've never used Aeroplan toward flights to Hawaii before, will they throw a bunch of restrictions at me?

Thanks for any help!!

flyboy99

Welcome to FlyerTalk! I can't comment on combining the points but redemption to Hawaii is definately available. Depends on your dates and destination, redeeming during peak season will be tough though. Maybe give a little more info on dates and destination, and class of service. You'll need 45K for an economy ticket and 80K for a Business class ticket and 110K for First Class. Keep in mind, flights on AC metal will have high fuel surcharges, check *alliance flights.

Shareholder

Diners Club hasn't been an Aeroplan partner since arch competitor Amex came on the scene and it was phased out. However, there may be a way of converting your Diners points into AE miles if you also collect SPG points. IIRC SPG points can still be converted into AE miles and Diners points can be converted into SPG points. Not sure you'd end up with much more than 10K AE miles from your 30K Diners points, considerably less than when Diners was an AE partner and the exchange rate was 1:1.

2250 DC points = 750 SPG points so you'd get a bit more than 10K SPG points and these would convert to 10K AE miles. (I think it's a 1:1 conversion, but SPG throws in another 5K of airline miles for every multiple of 20K SPG points converted.)

Points.com also converts but the conversion rates are absurdly poor.

IluvSQ

But I believe that SPG points earned on credit cards cannot be converted to AE,
only those earned on stays. ( That was in effect while MBNA ran the SPG cards,
I don't know if the ame rule applies now that Amex runs them).

Ancien Maestro

Welcome to FT!

You have enough points to fly Y Classic to Hawaii currently, and based on your point balances, you can almost get 3 tickets.. 135,000 AE miles for 3 tickets..

We've been flying to Hawaii on point redemptions for 8 years, and got one coming up Spring Break 2012..

payam81

All SPG points, including those earned on SPG AMEX, can be converted to AP. 20K + will get a 5K bonus and AP runs a bi-annual (or thereabouts) promo where they tack another 5K to 25K transfers making for 30K AP miles during the promo.

superdawg

Like Shareholder said, your 30K Diners Club Club Rewards Points will get you about 10,000 Starpoints which equates to 10,000 Aeroplan miles. Your other option is use only your Aeroplan miles for the redemption and then charge the fees/taxes from that redemption onto your Diners Card and redeem the Club Rewards points against that charge as your 30K is worth $510 in statement credits towards travel charges.

Ancien Maestro

This would make sense, as the Diner's points transfer in the described method would lose 66% of its value..

I would try to stick it out in Diner's Club as the worth looks like 1.7 cents per miles..

MikeAero

Thanks for the help, folks.
Sorry for being dense, you're dealing with a noob here: So I can redeem my Diners Club points to pay off $510 in charges on my Diners credit card, as long as they are travel charges? Would that include fees/taxes on Air Canada flights from an Aeroplan redemption?
BTW, my hope is to travel from Victoria, British Columbia, to Hawaii in spring 2012, dates are flexible, two adults and two kids ages 6 and 9. I'm assuming redeeming my AP points with Air Canada is the best bet here?
Very grateful for any help, thank you!!

Ancien Maestro

I would contact Diners Club to get a sense of what they can do for ticket redemption..

If you have just AE points (that is converting from Diner's Club to AE points), you will need the 4 tickets at 45,000 miles per classic ticket.. You will need to pay the taxes on these tickets..

I personally just redeemed for 4 tickets to HI my family and going on spring break.. and the amount for fees are exactly $172.08 per ticket booking online..

If you phone in to AE, it will cost you IIRC $30 plus GST per ticket.. free online.. Any changes to the ticket is $90 plus GST..

becreative

Yes

Diners club is pretty flexible. It does not matter who your travel provider is. as long as you charge it to diners, you can call in and ask for your points to be used for covering that charge. You get 1.7c/point rate for travel redemption and 1c/point otherwise (or lower with toasters i think).

Boogie711

Do yourself a favour. If you`re going to be anywhere near Seattle, look at flying to HNL out of there instead of on Air Canada metal.

If you use Aeroplan miles to book a flight on United, Continental or US Airways, you`re going to pay about $50 in fees for all four of you. If you go with Air Canada it`ll be $500+.

Welcome to Aeroscam.

Ancien Maestro

Agree.. a flight designating out of the US would result in less fees..

and good tip on the AE redemption with *A partners originating cross border for Canadians..

Tax Dude

Yup, I just booked two reward flights from YYZ to HNL in J for Spring break and the fees/taxes were $185.26 pp. AC through YYC on the way out and CO to SFO then AC to YYZ on the way back. Still a lot cheaper than buying J or Latitude to u/g now.

Tangoer

Diners Club? The 70s called - they want their credit card back.