Is there any way to use Aeroplan points to get a RTW ticket? I looked all over the aircanada site and could not find any info about this.

Thanks
Ron

It is possible to travel around the world using your Aeroplan points and flying United.

Around the World
Eco 180.000
Biz 240.000
First 360.00

More info on http://www.aircanada.ca/aeroplan/partners/united.html

Thanks.

Interesting that these UAL awards are cheaper than the new "Star Alliance" RTW award (eco is 200,000 points), which you can see at:
http://cms.lufthansa.com/de/fly/en/m...216075,00.html

Also interesting that the lufthansa website states "From now on, award levels will be the same for all Star Alliance airlines*." I wonder if that means UAL will adjust the price of their RTW to conform with this.

Any idea where I can find UAL's RTW award rules?

Thanks
Ron

If you are booking an Aeroplan reward you have to look for the rules at AC--since they are ticketing, and at UA.

The problem you will run into is that the UA reward is UA metal only (plus AC in allowable zones). So you are restricted to a North America-NRT-HKG-DEL-LHR-North America routing.

UA will no longer be flying into DEL from either HKG or LHR by month's end, so that award will not be valid any longer. The only other way is to book one ticket to Europe, another on LH to Asia or Australia, and a third on AC back to Canada. Of course, you will then have the same trip in reverse since AC does not issue one-way awards. However, STAR is going to have a multi-carrier series of awards soon which can be claimed by Aeroplan and Mileage Plus members. LH has just jumped the gun on introducing it. We may find more details in the next Aeroplan newsletter.

Well actually it was SK who introduced the mixed award where you can mix several Star Airlines in one award a couple of months ago.

I am quite sure that UA has already stopped all flights to/from DEL so that award is already invalid.

Actually, I have not been able to get a clear answer about the "Star Alliance" awards and whether they will be available from all *A members or not. According to the info on the LH site, it seems that the idea is that all airlines will have (at a minimum) these awards. The LH rep on the US SEN line was very confused about the new awards and said they had just gotten a load of information and it was difficult for them to understand the rules (the "three continents" award specifically is very confusing). I asked him if this award system was designed by *A (rather than LH), and if yes, did that mean all *A members would offer them... he did not know the answer. When I called both AC and UA award desks, they knew ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about these awards and said that it was an LH-only thing. As far as I know, SK and ANA already offer these awards.

I think this is a really important issue, because if all airlines standardize on these awards, it means many awards will cost more points. For example, a eco ticket to Hawaii now costs 40k in aeroplan, under the star alliance awards it is 50k. As I understand, nothing would prevent aeroplan from offering it for 40k, but why should they do it if everybody else is standardized on 50k? This might be a case where we actually LOSE flexibility and benefits because of *A co-operation.

Ron

Don't understand the confusion b/c nothing had really changed:

Each FFP sets its very own rules.
M&M lets you earn easier (more min. miles, the very same miles on any *A flt, clas of service bonus). On the other hand, you'll have to "pay" more for awards than with other FFP's like AC or UA.
M&M site states
It's quite obvious this is for M&M awards only meaning, that there is for example the very same amount of miles to be deducted for FRA - BKK instead of different amounts till now ... no matter what airline you fly (TG, LH, SQ)

Ah, now I understand.

I was confused. I was thinking that the "star alliance" awards meant these would be standardized awards OFFERED by all *A members. Now I understand that it just means that it is Lufthansa's offering to standardize awards claimed from other *A airlines through LH.

Now everything makes sense...