Best strategies to accumulate 350-400K Aeroplan points for a YVR-BKK trip in J?
 

Hi

I want to go from YVR to BKK in business class for a trip in 2023. We want to do this as we will have less than a 2 year old and if I am every going to do business class it seems like this is the time to do it.

I figure I will need like 75K to 85K per person per trip or 300K to 340K in points. I got right now 60K in points.

I been looking at churning cards but we don't spend enough to do cards like the Amex Business card and such.

The best I came up with is

1 x CIBC business card
2 x TD/CIBC Visa infinite cards

This would get us 60K in bonus points with not too hard to do minimum spends but now apparently you can convert your buddy passes to 30K in Aeroplan points which if we could do would be another 90K in points.

Now the prince of travel guy thinks this option will be past April 30th, but other people are saying April 30th is the last day to do it. Even if I sign up today I doubt I will get the buddy passes in time before April 30th.

If that all works out I still think I would need to buy at least 50K in points with the 100% bonus top up. Yet I don't know if I should first try and get the buddy passes and see if I can convert them and then hope I can buy points at a later point or if I should buy the points before April 2nd and hope the buddy passes convert.

Each way seems a bit risky so any suggestions?

Hi there,

I think it is a horrible idea to start signing up for credit cards, and spending money for no reason other than to get points you can use later. Your strategy has a flaw; all of those credits card have an annual fee + major spending to get those miles. To get 350K miles, you will spend a minimum of $100K, and you may not get J class seats within the milege redemption you are looking for, or the routing you wish. Why not save $$$, and buy the cheapest r/t J class YVR-BKK, which you can easily get for $3.5 - $4k?

The CIBC & TD VI cards have first year free promos and only require $1000 in spending to get the signup up bonus. TD Business card is also first year free and requires $5000 within 90 days to get the signup bonus. Assuming 3 buddy passes and all the bonuses, that's 150K points for $7000 in spend over 90 days which doesn't sound too onerous. You can cancel the cards before they renew to avoid paying the fees next year if the perks are not of interest. That still leaves OP 100K points short which they could cover by buying 50K and getting the 100% bonus on purchases. The real risk here is getting the buddy passes converted as those are close to 100K points.

There is a churning forum on FT, but the Canada section is pretty barren. r/ChruningCanada on Reddit is the best place to discuss this sort of strategy with other like minded folks.

All of those credit cards have the first year free, after that I may not keep most of them. I am also not sure what you mean major spending.

Most of the cards are $1000-$3000 over 3 to 4 months. That is nothing compared to most of the other cards.

I don't know what a J class is but I am guessing it is Business class. When I did some random dates (I can't do 2023 yet) 2 business tickets cost around $11,000 so not sure where I can get them for 3.5 to 4k?


Yes exactly. Compared to other cards the spending is not too bad. I would also look at the CIBC business card and sacrifice the 5K extra you get with the TD Business card and say 2K in spend.

Yeah the big risk is if I can't convert the buddy cards. This is why I maybe should wait and hope a new buying promotion comes again? I think this is the second promotion? So there could be others. If it does not come up well my plan is in the garbage but at least I am not out like $1800-$2300 from buying points.

I will check out the redit one but I just don't spend enough money to really be able to churn too many cards like the Amex Platinum cards. Otherwise I probably could do it all without buying points, best I think I can do is get 50% in points and buy 50% when a promotion comes.

See this post in the Buddy Pass thread

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33131547-post14.html
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I have checked that out and aware that you can only get the buddy pass per card type that is why I would get 1 business card (1 buddy pass) 1 Infinite for myself (1 buddy pass) and 1 infinite for my wife (1 buddy pass).

Would like to get her a business card as well but that would mean we would have to spend 8K in 4 months which would lead to us buying stuff that would not be in our regular spending and I am not going to start spending more money just to try to get points.

Thanks for the added details.

Welcome to FT, xiaobao123!

It's actually pretty simple. Don't fly AC.

@xiaobao123
Yes, J or C is used to refer to Business Class.

I believe @aircanada_loyal's price point was for a single ticket. I am not sure where you were searching for YVR-xxx-BKK, but I'm looking at GF (Google Flights) for Feb 2022 (since it does not go out to 2023 at this point). Flying ANA YVR-HND-BKK is showing as $4,323 CAD. While I understand that your objective it to get various credit cards to earn the points you will need to buy 2 business class to BKK, since this thread is also a discussion, other options are presented - which may help you or others who may drive by.

Please report back on how your strategy works.
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Keep in mind that Air Canada can change the number of points required for an award anytime they like, and if you do collect enough points then there's no guarantee that you'll be able to find 2 seats in J on the same flights when you want to fly.

For what it’s worth: The only time I didn’t mind flying long haul economy was when my kids were small. I just used their legroom space. I am a tall guy. We flew a few US to Argentina and Europe flights that way. It wasn’t great, but not terrible either.

A two year old is a job in itself so no time to enjoy J very much. Sometimes I would put my wife up front as she carries the load most of the time and deserved a break.

I am not opposed to that, trust me I am not a fan of AC and actually I rather fly their star alliance partners if possible.


Yeah, I think he was as well and I was referring to 2 tickets (most of my posts will be like that as I need 2 tickets so might as well talk about 2 tickets). Yeah I did look at google flights and did find around 4K for a ticket I think it was with Japan airlines. Still 8K is too steep for me to swallow for tickets and actually right now I think I could buy 300K in points in areoplan and pay like 5K and that would be enough for business class. So not sure if it is best option right now paying cash.

Yes please provide any and all options I have. If I can find a better way to do this I am all for it.

Well all AC flights have dynamic pricing so I am focusing more on star alliance partners (can you just do a search star alliance partners?). The program is quiet new and with flying taking such a hit I think it is unlikely major change would happen in 2 years after they brought out the program but it could happen but everything is a risk. I am trying to be open with flying though as in anytime within the first 5 months of 2023 as I did notice that many of the flights offer 10% to like 80% business class so I will really have to sit down and play around with the dates to find one that is 100% business.

That was an option I was thinking of if we only can get 1 business class ticket then I would just let me wife have it. Again I am sure we can manage in economy if needed but I think if we ever do business it is the time when we can get the kid for free in business as I am not going to pay 3 full fares ever for business class.