YOWie

I know there are lots of posts about how ridiculous the YQ charges are on Aeroplan but in looking for a reward to Europe for my wife that matches a flight-pass booking I'm on, the point really got driven home. Before anyone blasts me for not booking J or F on a YQ free carrier, I know that Y rewards aren't the best value but I was vainly attempting to use them for a companion type reward.

Aeroplan reward YOW-LHR return is 60,000 miles + $627 YQ
AC Tango fare YOW-LHR return is only $912 ($245 +$627 YQ)

Making the value of Aeroplan rewards on the airline that it pretends to be the frequent flyer program for worth 0.4 cents/mile ($245/60k) while a Birks gift card yields more than double that at 0.82 cents/mile ($500/61k).

Maybe the program should be rebranded cardoplan.

At this rate I'll just buy a ticket, maybe that's what the program wants us to do.

jcamp028

I feel your pain. There's very little value left for Y flights. Still value left for J or higher.

I find 15,000 points for a creative shorthaul to still yield value. For instance, I've redeemed for YOW-YWG and YOW-Iles du madeleine (fares are pricey to here).

Other than that, I bought a new car last summer that takes premium fuel, at which point I redeemed 200,000 points for esso gift cards.

Basically, creative short hauls or J flights for me! Y to europe is a waste...

Reid

Completely agree. I tend to use the miles to fly to some odd places. Flying YOW - MGM this week. Flight was $498 OW if I booked through US Airways (only 1-stop option). Ended up getting the flight for 12,500 miles (during the OW promo) + $73.11 in fees. This valued my miles at 3.4cents per mile.

jcfontario

I agree that creative short hauls are the best use of points. I have recently used YUL-YYT and Ottawa to New Orleans at a reasonable point and scam charge level. I have found that J class overseas has been just as rare, if not rarer than Y class. I tried to get a seat for my wife to either Beijing, Hong Kong or Singapore this summer on J and most of the redemptions were 200 K miles and up. Plus the routings were bizarre (Toronto to Zurich then Beijing?) with over half of the flight in Y. Didn't seem to matter howw early or late I booked, availability sucked. The direct Toronto or Vancouve flights showed absolutely no seats sold, yet no seats had been made available either. Looks like everybody will be getting toasters for Christmas next year!

cmgalan

Interesting. I booked a mini rtw trip in J this week that begins yyz --> pek. Saw plenty of availability direct on AC but am using UA instead through ord to avoid scam charges. Flight is July 11 for 2 pax. We are travelling onward (all in J) to hkg, bkk and cdg before flying to yyz (via yul) on AC on July 24. 125k AE points each.

canolakid

have done both- biz between Japan and Australia was easy to find but still paid YQ- albeit much much less than a paid biz class ticket would have been.
Latest greatest was a HP ultrabook- the Christmas gift was a hit with my teen and no YQ!
As always, what you value vs what others say you should value is the decision only you can make. I am entering a spend the points while they still are spendable so am drawing down all my balances.

rankourabu

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...ive-value.html

xLuther

Toasters and short haul Y are how I spend my AE miles

YEG-YWG flight for wife, surcharge $ 62.21