Getting Close to Havana on *A?
 

I may have a trip coming up in Dec / Jan to HAV for a wedding (I live in Vancouver, Canada). I'd like to go on points, but my *A options are pretty limited when it comes to travel to Havana. I can fly AC, but they only have one flight a day and by the time the trip is firmed up it's probably safe to assume there won't be any reward seats left.

Assuming I want to get "close" to Havana on points and then buy a ticket for the last leg, where would you suggest I fly to on *A that's "close" to Havana (Miami of course won't work :)). Puerto Rico? Mexico somewhere? Presumably I'd need an airport that's serviced by both a *A carrier and a carrier servicing Havana, i.e. Mexicana, Cubana etc.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

Geoff, AC had several flights a day into Varadero, which is only a 2 hour bus trip from Havana itself, during last year's northern winter as well as flights into HAV from Montreal as well as the daily from YVR.
Flights into Vardero last northern winter season offered by AC were from YVR YYC YYZ YUL YHZ & YOW from memory. They may not be showing as yet, but I'd check aeroplan.com to see if anything from YYC to VRA in particular is loaded and available for reward bookings.

Other Cuban destination options, (although slightly further away from HAV than what VRA is), that AC offer would be Cayo Coco, Holguin and another Cayo something or other! AC offers 5 destinations in Cuba over the winter season.
Cheers.

>AC had several flights a day into Varadero

Thanks Al - I thought these other flights were "Air Canada Vacations" travel packages, and therefore un-bookable with Aeroplan miles.

Is this not the case?

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver

Geoff I see availability in December and ret in Jan for both Varadero and HAV.

NAS is close and AC, UA and US all fly there
around $270 from there to HAV on Cubana RT

Maybe on some of the pairings it might be, but have seen both normal fares and rewards available for VRA before, albeit some time since I last looked! Am sure I stumbled on rewards to VRA when tooling around on aeroplan.com once upon a time.