Thanks Winebug - Makes sense and a good lesson to keep alert indeed. I suppose I assumed in this case they'd give a courtesy call before taking this kind of action. All good for me but I can see how this could turn into a tough situation for someone in different circumstances.

Did I get this right, the only way to earn 100% miles on a deepest-discount flight is for AA?

AC is 50%, so is BA, AA appears to be 100% regardless of what airline you fly with? (AA or BA)

(well, and Delta Skymiles is a mess with 5x ticket price for lowest status members, which is basically like 50% of distance miles on the itinerary I'm looking at - even less on partners)

Until they change to a revenue-based model like DL and UA.

Is that predicted to happen? Do we know that it'll downgrade the miles earned? (e.g. will they retain roughly their value, to e.g. a 1k dollar 2k mile flight going from 1 mile earned/mile travelled to 2miles earned/1 dollar spent, or will they lose value like DL?)

Many people think it's just a matter of time.

When was the last time any frequent flyer change was favorable to low-value flyers?

... touche

They may not change to a revenue system, but they will at minimum drop the 100% accrual for deep discount economy I'd imagine, like BA did. No other OW carrier even comes close.

Also I think you are confused about your definition of "value". Spending $1000 to fly 2000 miles is 50cpm.

When AA and BA aligned their fare codes a number of years ago, BA bumped all of them up to 100%. Given that BA doesn't care now and dropped to 25% as the lowest, I think AA will go there too. Alaska still gives 100% even on lowest fare buckets if credited to AS or AA.

Stealing nothing is not exactly a steal!

I saw that, but for whatever reason AS only allows award flights to ZRH, no regular flights. Not even from SEA. I don't understand. -shrugs-

i have a booking on Alaska. ..fare class R...do i get 100% mileage if crediting to AA...I cant find the fare class on aa.com mileage acrual chart for Alaska. ?

https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/e...a-airlines.jsp

are you sure it's an AS fare R, operated by AS? Because there's no Business/R...

Sorry...its Deep discounted economy- says fare class R.....it shows as 100% acrual on AS website, but no mention on AA website...

I'd recommend checking the American Airlines forum. They're the experts, and this really isn't the right forum for questions like this.

Hello fellow Canadian FT'ers! 1 more week until Canada Day! Hope you all have a great week until then.

I am planning a trip for Winter and I would like to get your opinion on the best use or allocation of my points. My balance of points are as follows:

Aeroplan 147,550
Asia Miles 50,209
Avios 107,478
AMEX 251,292
SPG 20,000

I am flying out of YVR and some of the cities I want to go to in priority order are:

Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Berlin/Frankfurt
Barcelona/Madrid
Paris
Hong Kong
Tokyo

I don't need go to all cities but going to 3 or 4 of them would be nice.

+1 on that ... I am in the same situation with my UA status ... don't have to worry about the spend.

I haven't seen any churns for MP in Canada.

I would try to use Aeroplan to get to Asia on maybe EVA or Thai, in a round-trip business class ticket. You can get 2 stopovers plus destination, so you can hit up Tokyo, HKG, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh for sure. Might just use Avios from Tokyo-HKG on either JAL or Cathay if you want to hit up all 4.

Otherwise, Europe using Aeroplan again, with two stopovers and Avios on BA/Iberia for the intra-Europe short trips. Maybe YVR-Frankfurt-Paris-YVR with Paris-Barcelona on Avios (Iberia).

How many people are travelling with you? If it's just you, and with that amount of points you should be able to do everything in two trips. In business class or First.

As opposed to designing your itinerary, which takes a lot of time, I suggest you look at routings on your own out of Vancouver and out of nearby airports like SEA, SFO and LAX. Keep your options open to include these cities as it improves your flexiblity and allows you to test out some better products (e.g. ANA out of YVR has old angled seating in business, but SEA/SFO/LAX all have the new seating).

Probably the best (or at least simplest) course of action is to convert your Amex points to Aeroplan (as many as you need, no more) and fly Star Alliance airlines to do your Asia trips. Air Canada, but also EVA (low fees), ANA, Thai, Singapore (the latter only within the region, long haul premium cabins from NA not available using Aeroplan).

I don't know much about using Asia Miles, but you could potentially use those to book side trips within Asia if you were to use Hong Kong as a base (e.g. fly Cathay to Ho Chi Minh or Bangkok from HKG).

Avios pretty much sucks for long haul flights (although you have enough for YVR-HKG one-way on Cathay for 90k points). It's very limiting, charges you points per leg of trip. But it's useful for short haul flights. So if you can't find space from YVR to SFO for a "positioning flight" for instance you may be able to use Avios.

As far as Europe goes, Jerry Hung started a useful thread in the Air CAnada/Aeroplan section that talks about how to get to Europe using Aeroplan while minimizing fuel surcharges (YQ is the acronym you'll see). You should get some routing ideas on that for the European stuff.

There's also a big discussion on mini-round-the-world (RTW) trips using Aeroplan. Something I know nothing about, but could be useful to read.

Your request is wide open, and can go in many directions as you can tell from this respose. You should do a lot of research (figuring out routes and which carriers serve them is a big part of that). Then come back with some specific questions.

OK. What do you think of this plan?

- Convert 40,000 AMEX points to receive 30,000 Asia Miles to top up my Asia Miles balance to 80,000. Use this 80,000 for YVR-NRT RT on JAL business class.

- NRT-BKK RT with a layover in SGN for 30,000 Aeroplan miles with Asiana and Thai Air in J.

- While in BKK, do a BKK-HKG RT from for 30,000 Avios with Cathay in J.

Hi, I am new here. Just wonder how to use Aeroplan on Eva or Thai?

Also when I try to book stopover YVR-Paris, it only allowed LHR and cost more than don't select own stopover. (on BA website)

Thanks

When you book on the Aeroplan site from YVR to TPE or BKK, it will give you Eva Air and Thai Airways options.

Yes, stopovers cost more with BA. If you want to stop in Paris to go to LHR, then try booking with Aeroplan.

Sounds like you have it figured out already. The intra-Asia Aeroplan J award is amazing value.

I had to do a double check....is it only 80k Asia Miles RT in J YVR-NRT? That's amazing value. Is there a catch?

Edit: Just did a quick check on the Asia Miles award chart. Looks like the one world partner chart is showing points required for total miles flown, not just the distance between cities. YVR and NRT are ~4700 miles apart = 9400 miles distance flown. that bumps you up to award zone 7 which requires 95k Asia Miles for a RT ticket. Better than Aeroplan for J. So you'd need to transfer 60k Amex points. Which brings you to a total of 110k "points" vs. 150k Aeroplan requirement for the same flight. BUT....you may to loop in a few of those other cities you plan on visiting on one Aeroplan award rather than having to spend the extra 30k Avios and 30k Aeroplan for those side trips.

Before I go further, though, this discussion shouldn't be on the Milesbuzz board (mainly to talk about credit card offers in Canada).

People with a U.S. address need to do both.

Thanks^

Hello,

I'm currently doing a trip in Asia visiting 3 cities on the same ticket : Bangkok, Shanghai and Seoul. I used 150k Aeroplan for a ticket in Business. The routing is YUL-BKK (via IST with TK), BKK-PVG with TG, PVG-ICT with OZ and finally ICT-YUL via LAX with OZ and AC

I'm not an expert so I used the service of http://canadiankilometers.boardingar...an-kilometers/ very professional. I gave him the cities I wanted to visit with the approx. dates and he build an routing.

$100 Gift Card for TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite via https://www.ratesupermarket.ca/deals/td/100/ (apply before July 31st)

if both have an avion, move RBC to pooled joint esso account then since both persons can use the esso points, move to second persons RBC avion then to BA.

Canada Amex MR has a 25% bonus on transfers to Avios

http://catalogue.membershiprewards.c...r_participants

Is this a promo? Or is this the new going rate?

Here is the thread that talk about this:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...25-2015-a.html

YES! The day has finally come! I've been waiting about 2 years. :D

So it must be a good deal then?! I am just planning to transfer some points to get a one way BA tik.^

Well, the deal isn't go great anymore unless you only travel in economy class as the BA devalued their Avios in April 2015.

Mine is just below 700, and I got approved...Applied, called the next day, was asked about the kind of business I have. Done deal.More free points ^

Avios transfers don't excite me... for Europe , Avios are kind of useless.But great for short haul.

I made the mistake of applying over the phone. I had to fax T4 and NOA for 2 yeas. It took 2weeks but approved . They also checked my credit twice in the last two weeks.

Yikes.I wonder why there is a difference between applying online vs on the phone. Glad I applied online... it was painless.

Can't remember if this has been posted before but the CIBC Aerobiz 20,000 bonus is distinction eligible. My wife applied online with no issues. I will apply in Aug as I only cancelled it in Feb.

Yep, many can confirm the 20K is dDistinction eligible
not that dStatus are that useful

Has anyone had the experience of entering the wrong Aeroplan number during the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Business application and had the bonus points deposited to someone else' account? I just did that and I'm trying to get my 20k back. =(