Testers able to snag basic seat from Aeroplan on Air Canada 96% of the time in tests
 

It's getting easier to buy airline seats with frequent flyer miles, annual ranking suggests CBC News

There's some good news for air travelers: it seems to be getting easier to actually get a seat on a plane from reward points.

That's the main takeaway from an annual ranking of the efficiency of frequent flyer programs at 25 of the world's biggest airlines.

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U.S. discount carrier Southwest got a 100 per cent score — meaning the testers were able to get an acceptable seat, 100 per cent of the times they tried. The discount airline benefits from the fact that the vast majority of its flights aren't long haul over oceans but are rather short haul flights between mid-market U.S. cities, and often have multiple flights per day to squeeze people in.

Second overall was Air Canada, with a score of 96.4 per cent when booking with Aeroplan points. That was an improvement of 6.4 percentage points from the previous year's level.

Already at:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29761223-post18.html

If you are happy to pay scam fees and fly Y I actually find AC isn’t too bad. Especially compared to say.. OW (specifically BA points and spending where partners space seems exceedingly rare - but that’s a different discussion).

If you want Intl J, (especially Oz/NZ), or more than 2 seats, or scam free... You are often SOL and want to be looking bang on opening days, t-355/300 whatever.

I personally think this deserves it’s own thread.

It depends on the route a lot too. On trunk routes, like YYC-YYZ there's almost always X class availability though usually very early in the AM or late PM. Same with YVR and YUL from YYZ. But other routes, not so much and I class even less.

With YQ added it for non-status fliers, in many cases a "Market Fare" reward is only 4-5,000 miles more in NA, so you end up redeeming that to save the $42YQ each way and get a better connection.

Also seems the CBC article ignores the member exclusive on WS, where WS releases 4 seats per flight for NA flights at a very reasonable 125WSD + $50 tax. You can get a roundtrip NA flight for 250 WSD. Oh well, the more people who completely misunderstand that system, the more flights for me ;)

I'd be curious which long haul flights they are doing, because X space long haul isn't hard to find but it's all on high YQ carriers ;)

People on FT ought to remember that the vast majority of Aeroplan customers view Aeroplan as a way to redeem a flight from A->B, let alone A->Bx->turn->Cx->A, let alone doing all of said flights in J/F.

We are the few and the proud, and we all collectively want to maximize our miles by flying the premium cabins, and yes, we are often disappointed (less so if you are a SE and redeeming for J using IKK). If, however, you are a regular individual, all of the acronyms I just used are meaningless.

So beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For the vast majority of Aeroplan customers, they get what they want out of the program. Yes, we whine and complain, but we're looking for the best rewards which most Aeroplan customers don't even know what they are.

Perspective is key here.

In the past 12 months I have never been able to get the flight I wanted withot using IKK. It very much depends on route and time of day. Try flying YXE - anywhere without using IKK - unless it’s the 5am YXE - YYZ flight 😋.