Disappointed with Aeroplan
 

A flight to London England from Toronto costs 60,000 Aeroplan points plus $591 in taxes and fees. The AirCanada site has a flight on for those days at $708. That tells me my 60,000 points are worth about $120. Strange. If I book on Delta points, the taxes and fees are $300 USD for a similar flight.
For Toronto to Honolulu via Aeroplan, the taxes and fees are $179. For Delta, it's $91. Why the big discrepancy between AC and Delta, and why are our Aeroplan points worth such a small portion of the total cost?

Currently I have over 100,000 points and find it hard to redeem when I run into things like the above.
Any comments?

I laughed when i saw the title. Half the threads in this forum could be called that.

A few things, several airlines do not change surcharges for redemptions. For example you can fly YYZ-EWR/ORD/IAD - LHR for 60000 points and a fraction of the taxes and fees on UA. I think a stop in EWR is worth saving $500, I aIso actually prefer UA Y over Rouge Y.

Consider flying out of BUF as well.

You might find this thread useful, too:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...rd-travel.html

Half?

Yes, simply that it's far better to do research about these realities in advance than after the fact. At least you know now and can plan accordingly for next time but there are a number of threads in the forum sticky about using AP on airlines with little or no fuel surcharges and therefore much lower taxes & fees.

Regardless welcome to FT!

IMHO, a Y redemption from Canada to the UK on AC is probably the worst use of Aeroplan points possible, for the reasons you've noted.

You've got 2 things working against you: the high fees AE charges on AC flights, and the high departure taxes out of any UK airport. You're better off looking at a redemption on a non-surcharge airline (United, Swiss, SAS), and looking at at least returning from a non-UK airport (I've done both BRU and DUB, CDG is also very easy). For your departure flight, I'd be trying to piece together an itinerary via ZRH to LCY on Swiss.

A couple comments.

1. If you're comparing Aeroplan to Delta, you're not comparing the same flights, so I'm not really sure the cost difference is relevant. At best, with DL, you're doing one stop for LHR-YYZ.

2. Economy class tickets are never going to be a lucrative redemption option unless you're Super Elite. Try business or first if you want to save money. I believe 100k is enough for a round-trip TATL in J.

3. Departing LHR is notoriously expensive.

4. As others have mentioned, try looking at other airline options if your goal is to minimize taxes/fees/surcharges. LHR-ZRH-YUL-YYZ, LHR-IAD/EWR/ORD/BOS-YYZ, etc. Basically avoid LH and AC.

Not anymore: NA - Europe 1 is 110K in J. Close enough though - easy to get the last 10K (multiple threads for that).

https://www4.aeroplan.com/use-your-m...-rewards-chart

Yawn. It's not like there aren't hundreds of posts on this subject.

Sure - the other half ..... about IT failures and the constant devaluation of Altitude benefits.

To be fair, we're not here to discuss the history of tank warfare.

Strange? Where have you been? Welcome to Aeroplan...

Get a toaster. :D

I came to say the same thing. "Disappointed in Aeroplan" is not a "question". (But welcome to FT.)
It's like "people love your sunny nature" is not a fortune. (Seriously, cookie-fillers - where are the tall, dark strangers of yesteryear?)
"Disappointed in Aeroplan" should be the forum name, short form. The long form would be "Disappointed in Aeroplan, and AC IT sucks. And pickles."

Too perfect.

Ftfy.

:)

See my signature thread on how to save YQ

You joined FT to complain about Aeroplan? must be really disappointed, sorry to hear that, but play the game!