Advertiser Disclosure: FrequentFlyerBonuses.com has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. FrequentFlyerBonuses.com and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Terms Apply.
FFB may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the FrequentFlyerBonuses.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. FrequentFlyerBonuses.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Taken from our Canadian site, Rewards Canada
About a year ago we posted about a targeted offer from Aeroplan whereby select members could use their Aeroplan miles to pay for the taxes and fees on award flights. The good news from
Aeroplan today is that this test run obviously provided good results as
the option to use miles for taxes and fees on Aeroplan award tickets
will become a regular thing coming this April.
Here is the news from Aeroplan:
Aeroplan Members will soon have the option to fly cash-free!
Aeroplan Members will soon have the flexibility to use their Aeroplan
Miles to cover the cost of taxes, fees, charges and carrier surcharges
when making a flight reward booking via aeroplan.com, the Aeroplan
Mobile app or through Aeroplan’s Contact Centre.Here is how it works on aeroplan.com:
1. Find your flight reward via aeroplan.com
2. Select ‘Pay it all with miles’ when given the choice online about taxes, fees, charges and carrier surcharges
3. Enjoy your cash-free flight!This option will be available to members in early April for both of
Aeroplan’s Flight Reward products. In Fixed Mileage Flight Rewards,
which offer the best value in the industry with a fixed number of seats
exclusively offered to members on Air Canada and Star Alliance and in
Market Fare Flight Rewards which provide access to any available seat on
Air Canada at competitive mileage levels that vary based on market
fares at time of booking.
What we don’t know yet is what the redemption rate will be. Back in
March of 2015 it was 1,200 miles for every $10 of taxes and fees. I have
a phone call with Aeroplan later today so I will see if they will
reveal this to me at that time and update this post accordingly!
UPDATE:
Alright, just finished an interview with John Boyton of Aeroplan and have a few more details:
– The launch of this feature is just one more of the many changes we
have seen from Aeroplan to make the user experience better (ie one way
flights at 50% etc.) and was based upon the many tests they ran last
year just like the one we had mentioned.
– An exact launch date in April has not been set but they will pass
along the date to us to pass along to you as soon as it is set
– and the one item everyone is curious about, what about the redemption rate?
Aeroplan wouldn’t let me know exactly what the rate will be because it
will actually be dependent on the location you are flying to. For
example the redemption rate for an award ticket to the U.S. will be
different than Europe, Australia and Asia. My guess at this time is that
higher priced locations (think International) with large carrier
surcharges will see a better ratio than flights within Canada or to the
U.S. where charges are lower. This should hopefully alleviate some of
the sting of those dreaded surcharges for those who choose to redeem
miles for them but to what amount it will alleviate we’ll have to wait
and see. John did say it will only be a slight variation for all
destinations.
