uwbrother

I need 10,000 points before all airlines start charging surcharges. I was looking at CIBC and this caught my eye:
What does it mean? Fine print says to check aeroplan. I did but it doesn't say anything. Does it mean I can use points for any available seat?

Thanks. Want to book my first mini-RTW, stopping at at least two additional cities on my way to Tokyo.

ucc

That's what they call classic plus flights. If you want to be insulted, go search a flight at aeroplan.com and scroll down.

DaveTO

Too late - CIBC welcome bonus posts after the first month. Your only possible hope would be to get approved for the Amex Gold Rewards, receive the card, spend $500 and have the purchases post within the next 10 days.

The AMEX - Aeroplan transfer is immediate, but with all the logistics involved in getting the card, I'm afraid that you'll miss the Nov 30th deadline.

You can still fly on the non-surcharging airlines after Nov 30th.

uwbrother

That's the plan. I am hoping to book something this year before all airlines get the idea. It seems like it's only a matter of time before they all start surcharges

yycworldtraveler

I would make the booking now since it's a complex RTW itinerary and pay AE the $0.03/mile for the missing miles. That will likely be cheaper than waiting and paying the fuel surcharge on most *A partners when you have another 10K miles.

uwbrother

Uh, I built the itenerary I wanted and Classic+ wanted 450,000 points for Economy (business is 175,000 in Classic). So CIBC isn't realy doing anything. Scam!

ABG

you can transfer points from another account at 1.5cents right now or just do an account top up when you go to redeem (online or via call centre)

MtlFire

I've got this card, not entirely sure what they meant either. But I don't have access to anything that I didn't before having the card

I think as mentioned above, that's a benefit of Aeroplan and has nothing to do with being a cardholder or not.

Souvlaki

Some benefit, eh? 450,000 PLUS a whole heap of insane surcharges.

BA, here I come.

jarusoba

Really?

uwbrother

That's actually not a bad idea. I tried to book it online and topup will cost me less than fuel surcharge. Boy, I am glad I posted here . Time to waste a few more hours to build an itenerary.

As I understand, Swiss and Singapore and UA do not charge fuel surcharge, right?

Souvlaki

Yes, definitely. The BA changes absolutely blow for NA-based passengers. They are actually quite brilliant if you are based (or partly based) in the UK. And since BD is a generally crappy airline, and I'm sick of transferring T3 to T1 at LHR, and since BA actually has a first class product, and since you can do a couple of cheap tier points runs in domestic F on AA to get BA Gold, and the BA lounge in T5 makes the London Lounge look sick, and........

You can fly BA ex-EU in Z for a fraction of the price of Z on AC. 2 return in Z on BA gets me Silver, which is equivalent to AC*E.

Would'a probably stayed with AC if LH still provided decent value for AE miles. But they all got stupid and went way too far. Too bad -- I was the kinda AC*E they should love -- 90,000 miles this year, mostly in Y and B, and not having to shell out for SE services.

I was within an inch of doing an MR to hit SE for 2012. Not a chance now.

jarusoba

Fair enough. If you're mainly plying between Europe and Canada, and want to buy Z fares (versus AC's Y & B fares) BA can be a better choice.

For poor souls like myself, who are based in Canada but want to travel to both Asia and Europe, we'd have to be stuck with AC.

Souvlaki

If your biz travel is mostly in Canada, lamentably you are right. Literally no choice if you want reward travel and status perks.

yscleo

That's AE for you. I've seen it often. Actually it's more often that there's no flight available at all. Then if it's available, it's 3 connections, with with insane amount of points needed. Hey, but at least they can say they have flights available that you can redeem your AE points for.