My favourite Aeroplan redemption (Pacific)
My favourite Aeroplan redemption is travelling within the Pacific region. For 25,000 points (40k in J and 55k in F) you can travel in economy anywhere in the region. What’s so special about these redemptions is that typically getting from island-to-island, or from Australia/New Zealand to some of these small (but beautiful) Pacific islands can be prohibitively expensive.
Let’s take the following example: Perth (PER) to Nuku’alofa (TBU). If I were to pay for this ticket, the cheapest fare I can get is for $1418:
Now if we go on Aeroplan, we can get the entire ticket for 25,000 points (+ $199 in taxes. NZ doesn’t have YQ, but there are a number of Australian taxes):
This is an excellent value. You can also route your flight to another region (i.e. through Asia) so long as it’s a published routing by the airline. You can build a 23 hour layover in Asia on this ticket.
Here are the places that qualify under Aeroplan’s Pacific region:
What stopover rules apply for Pacific award bookings? Example, can a SYD-AKL-RAR have a multi-day stopover in AKL with RAR as the destination?
Tried looking on Aeroplan but haven’t come up with anything.
I can’t imagine why not. AP allows a stopover on a r/t. Try searching award inventory flight-by-flight on the United.com engine, and if you find something that works, first try the Aeroplan engine to book, and if that fails, call AP and manually pull the flights.
Thanks for the response. Yeah, I would’ve thought so too. I get the following on Aeroplan after searching for available flights (confirmed w/ Flisea.com):
‘Your requested itinerary is invalid and cannot be booked on one reward.’
Just dug a bit deeper into Aeroplan’s terms and conditions, found this:
28.4. Intracontinental travel (travel within the same continent) except for travel within Canada/Continental USA, or between Canada/Cont. USA and Hawaii/Puerto Rico/Mexico/Central America/Caribbean: Stopovers are not permitted. One open jaw is permitted.
Makes sense now, didn’t realize stopovers weren’t allowed on intracontinental travel outside of NA. Good to know!
Ya learn something new everyday, thanks!