gcashin

Not from what I can see.

According to AC, their travel vouchers are just as good as cash. Except you can't use them to purchase points in this promotion. And you can't use them towards eupgrade co-pays. And you can't use them at the airport (baggage, LMU's), or anything onboard (AC Bistro, Duty Free). But they're still just as good as cash ;-)

24left

I love your enthusiasm. As for stocking up on Aeroplan points, reminds me of when there is a sale on cases of clementines/mandarins... 🍊 .... ✈️

Adam Smith

Once you fill in your address, the taxes will calculate. GST everywhere in Canada, PST etc as applicable. No taxes for non-Canadians, but that's the same as always.

Cheaper than buying the miles at the usual price, sure, but given how much miles have devalued in the new program, it's debatable whether it's good value. If it works for you, great

I think the max you can buy under this promo is 350K per person, so 700K for two.

mapleg

On the fence on this one Have about 600,000 points right now (some are in a booked award that I will likely cancel) but I can always use them some time in the future.

I can buy 140,000 points for $2100 plus tax, which for me is $2373....with those points and $105 I can book a J return trip to Japan. So under $2500 all in, and I have never found a J fare to Japan at that price. Normal price is 2 x that or higher with odd sale...

Hmm

canadiancow

AC was selling YVR-TYO P fares around that price last June/July.

musicscrip

Not gonna see this price next year for sure so why not buy aeroplan and redeem J when there is free cancellation/rescheduling if you book before April 30?

mapleg

But I am going from YYZ... I seem to vaguely recall them going down to $3200 or so for a short while, and there were also similar prices to Taipei, but that's about it really.

mapleg

You can go higher:

Eligible Participants can buy a minimum of 3,000 Aeroplan points and up to 350,000 Aeroplan points per transaction; up to a maximum total of 1,000,000 Eligible Aeroplan points:

canadiancow

It was $2000 USD from YVR, $2200 USD from YYZ.

I used to think Aeroplan was worthwhile for:
1. F
2. Last-minute
3. IKK

3 is dead. 2 is going to be interesting to watch as travel picks up.

But I generally find even for J that you can often find cash fares that beat redemptions.

Yes, at this price, you will beat a sale fare by ~$200, but it means you're spending the money now rather than later, and you will need to find cheap space on AC or I space on partners to beat the sale prices.

It's one thing if you happen to earn a bunch of points through other means, but I would not personally buy points to use on flights to Japan in J.

EdmFlyBoi

There were J class fares YYZ-HND for about $2200 last fall. Of course the challenge with that was the flights were all ultimately cancelled due to COVID. I have kept kicking my booking down the road.

Yes there is the ongoing question of devaluation, however the partner tickets are still available at fixed amounts which does give some degree of cost certainty. If you are planning and booking far enough out, there is also the ability to book J and F fares on partner airlines. This is potentially a way to snag an F class round trip Asia to Europe for $3K total (200000 points). There is also the flexibility of cancellations and changes for free if you happen to be SE (with I suspect most of us that are will likely continue to be to the end of 2022 should AC choose to extend all of us again - yes I know that is a different thread).

24left

Earn, churn, buy and transfer. These are some of the ways people have acquired their Aeroplan points. (I've left out a couple we don't talk about in polite company. )

Looking at this promo, the tiered approach and the offer for 100% bonus at buying anything over 60K points is better than some other offers AC had for buying points, IMHO. There are people who are buying and others who are taking a pass because they might already be sitting on a boatload from cancelled trips.

The thing is, we don't all have the same interests in how and where we want to use them. Some people will add to their stockpile. Some have trip ideas in mind for when they can resume travel. Others think trips will cost way more points than they might have in the past.

As for destinations, there are those who just want to take their kids away for a week, while others want TPAC F.

I would not challenge someone who thinks using points for J to Japan or Taiwan is the best use just because AC had low J cash fares, nor would I disagree with someone who set a value to their Aeroplan points in terms of something like cents/point, even if I don't. It doesn't matter what fares AC had last year when people are looking at planning now based on what is available now. As noted, one can always buy an Aeroplan trip and if there's a great cash fare, cancel one and buy the other.

The added challenge in the equation for anyone who wants to book something with these points, is not knowing if and when the countries they are hoping to fly to, will be open to foreigners. Not everyone wants to keep booking trips that get pushed out or sectors getting cancelled by AC or the partners.

Some people I know are doing some planning now, not because they can travel but because they don't want to lose their optimism.
.

marbuck

Just received an email offer from Aeroplan, offering double points if you purchase 60,000 points or more -- that works out to 1.5 cents per point, certainly as good a "cash price" I've seen for some time.

The drop down menu on the link goes as far as 350,000 points for $10,500 -- and you would receive 700,000 points.

I suppose the biggest risk with this offer is potential devaluation/inavailability of suitable flights when it comes time to fly.

As it is, we are planning travel to Athens, Greece next April (still outside the booking window) based on the hopefully reasonable assumption that COVID will be under control by then. Right now, points tickets are available (at least two tickets) on AC via Frankfurt (last short stretch to Greece in economy) at 67,000 points, suggesting that our cost for European travel with this sale would be less than $1,000 return in business class most of the way.

I suppose this points sale is designed to pull cash into the coffers when there is little revenue coming in from actual travel, but I think (unless others here can point out problems) that this one is worth rolling the dice.

mgn2000

I am in the process getting a US based credit card. (Amex US ). I dont have time to get the card and buy the points for this promo.. For Future, Can I use the US Credit card and avoid the HST ( 13% ONT ). I will have a US Billing address for the Credit card. My address for Aeroplan is a Canadian Address.

Bravada04

I bit the bullet and purchased the 60,000 with a 60,000 bonus. It still seemed like a "somewhat" of a better deal than paying cash. Usually fly to Asia each winter so we will see? Second guessing it but I figure someway, shape or form I will end up spending the money on business class and not necessarily with AC if I can help it! I don't play this game too often so hopefully I didn't make a mistake!

drvannostren

I know you're kind of an expert in this forum, and I've dropped off during covid as travel has been basically impossible...

I'm not usually into last minute, and when I am it's in Y. I'm no longer super elite, so IKK doesn't really apply to me anymore, my status is with Asiana and will be for the forseeable future. I've also never used miles for F because I didn't really think it was worth the upcharge because I never found and long haul F that appealed to me.

But what I'll ask is, does the value still exist for mini-RTWs and multi stop itineraries? I've been making my AP miles work really hard for me over the past few years with multiple mini-RTWs in both Y and J. I know they dropped the 2nd stopover, but that was SUPPOSEDLY coming back, dunno if that's happened yet or not.

But even just a single stopover if the routing rules are flexible can extract pretty good value. Like if I can get a multi day stopover in Tokyo on a J award to SYD, that's a flight that would cost way more than the miles are worth. That's my kind of redemption. For me it's almost never going to be YVR-PEK in J as a redemption, because I know the value is more heavily weighted to just paying for the ticket. Is there still value in the program for me, in your opinion?

I don't think I'm going to be purchasing more miles, I was thinking about it, but I bought during the big promo back in the summer anyway and haven't touched my miles since then, so I don't NEED more. But it is attractive to run at least one of these buy a ticket, then cancel for miles and bonus transactions.

A "for instance" booking I'm looking at that I think would likely be better with miles is...YVR-VVO (if available to VVO, if not, just to PEK/ICN/NRT) then return MOW-YVR, all done around Christmas/NYE. I'm gonna try and attend World Junior hockey in Siberia in winter 2022. Far away, sure, variables are present, but a one way from Russia and a one way to Russia/Far East would likely be crazy expensive with cash.