Andrew Yiu

Many people asking me this, I can confirm for you the award levels for an Aeroplan award to DEL is going to be 75K for Y and 100K for J.

Guava

This is my guess as well given that India can be easily classified under the "Asia" category. However, the less obvious thing is how this will affect Star-Alliance award bookings to India using Aeroplan miles? I dont' have the numbers in front of me but I know it costs A LOT MORE MILES than 100K for J. And given a Star Alliance awards can mix AC as part of it, any insights on how this might change?

Andrew Yiu

Nothing will change with the Star Alliance levels. In order to qualify for a Star Alliance award, there has to be 2 or more Star Alliance carriers in it. So if you are simply flying YYZ-DEL-YYZ and back, you'll be automatically be charged 75K/100K. So you fly more than 1 carrier = being charged more, make sense doesn't it? (140/200 in this case).

rishiboy

Hey Empress - I thought you said this flight is bookable now on aeroplan.com ?? I don't see New Delhi yet

Andrew Yiu

Bookable by calling Aeroplan. The website hasn't been updated with 'DEL' yet.

FlyerGoldII

I wonder whether there will be a SE/E discounts for an Aeroplan award on this route, during certain times of the year - as there is now with AC flights domestically, and certain international flights?

[This message has been edited by FlyerGoldII (edited 07-07-2003).]

Guava

I think it's disappointing to see Aeroplan overcharging certain destinations like India. There is no other Alliance asking 140K for an economy class award to India from North America. In fact, 140K is good enough for First class on some very good carriers. I thought they might changed the reward redemption level with the introduction of this route as AC tends to hold *A awards chart consistent to its own redemption level. What I mean is for zones where AC does fly, like South America, 75K is the parameter for J class for only AC flights or *A flights. Also, Aeroplan is known to play with zones such as changing Spain into Europe 1 instead of Europe 2 now that Spanair is part of *A. I guess it's just my wishful thinking that Aeroplan will be more resasonble with certain destinations like India, Middle East and South Africa once they realize the points level asked is unreasonable.

There could be but nobody will know until next January or so. To be honest, I wouldnt' count on it. With just one flight a day, hmm...and Aeroplan has been following a trend of cutting these seasonal discounts as well for the past 2 years so my guess is as good as yours. Maybe you can ask yourself a question, is there a particular period of the year where demands for India will be low? If so, then maybe that period will be available.


[This message has been edited by Guava (edited 07-07-2003).]

cslusarc

Guava, I agree Aeroplan is overcharging for many destinations. But then again I think they are undercharging on others.

Lets compare three Long Haul International rewards YYZ-DEL, HNL-SYD and YYT-LHR.
Thanks to Empress for verifying that the YYZ-DEL a 14500 mi return trip will ding your Aeroplan account 75K points for W and 100K points for D. On a business class trip,
your reward would cost about 6.9 points per mile travelled.
While the shorter 10130 mi return trip from HNL to SYD would cost your account 60K for W and 80K for D. A business class reward seat would cost about 7.9 points per mile travelled.
Even shorter, the 4620 mi return trip from YYT to LHR would also cost your account 60K in W and 80K in D. A business class reward seat would cost about 13 points per mile travelled.

Can you guess which reward I would most likely want to take?

If we applied the median cost of 7.9 points per mile cost on YYZ-DEL, a business class reward would cost about 115K points. When we applied the 7.9 points per mile cost on YYT-LHR it would cost about 36K points.

In North America, why should it cost more to redeem a reward on YYC-YWG than it does on YWG-YYZ which is a longer distance away?

What I think Aeroplan should do is divide the world in to smaller areas, like having several regions covering Canada and US.
Or Aeroplan should divise a distance based reward chart simular to Air New Zealand's AirPoints.

Guava

Your perspective is interesting but I don't agree with your method of measuring awards. They contain some rather misleading variables. I don't have the time to discuss it now but I will get back later. What I'll say is you shouldn't base on the distance of travel as a parameter to see whether an award is overcharge or undercharge. Plus, I think HNL-SYD return is 90K in D not 80K, just a small observation.