Guide to Booking Award Flights with ANA

The reward program for ANA has some very valuable sweet spots for both economy and business class redemptions to pretty much every corner of the globe. In addition, it’s pretty easy to rack up ANA miles from transfer partners making it a solid option for redemptions. However, the booking rules can be a bit confusing to comprehend. Here’s a guide for booking flights with both ANA and ANA partner airlines with ANA miles.

Star Alliance

ANA is a member of the Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance out of the big three (One World, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam). This means that you can use your ANA miles to fly on any of these other airlines (subject to availability).

Star_Alliance logo and members

The trick is to find availability for seats that can be booked with Star Alliance partners. The good news is that ANA is one of the best sites to perform searches for Star Alliance partner availability. Read about how to find Star Alliance availability here.

ANA Partners

ANA also has several non Star Alliance partners that you can book with.

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ANA non-alliance partners

How to Get ANA miles from credit cards

MEMBERSHIP REWARDS LOGO

Aeroplan is a transfer partner of  two major reward programs:

  • American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 ratio)
  • Starwood Preferred Guests (1:1)*

*Remember, when you transfer Starwood points in increments of 20,000 you receive an additional 5,000 in miles, so 20,000 points will earn you 25,000 Aeroplan miles. In addition, Starwood will often run promotions where you can earn additional bonuses on your transfers, such as up to ~25%!

ANA CARD
Just don’t

There’s also the ANA Card USA. It has an annual fee of $70 and offers 5,000 miles upon your first purchase. This abysmal sign-up bonus should be a last resort and I would only consider it if you just had to have the 5,000 miles and had exhausted all opportunities with American Express. 

Unique program policies

ANA has a few unique program policies. For example: 

  • You can book trips for up to 10 family members but they must all be registered
  • You can pool points with other family members but they must be registered and you must “apply” while paying for the application fee with 1,000 ANA miles
  • You can put reservations on hold for 24 to 48 hours by calling in (although YMMV)
  • Cancellations cost 3,000 ANA miles per person

In addition to these unique policies, there are several other booking policies. I don’t wont to bog down readers with all of them, so here are some of the important ones:

  • You must begin your trip within one year of ticket issuance
  • You can apply from 9:00 a.m. (Japan time) of 355 days before your boarding day (not including the date of departure) until 96 hours before departure.
  • You are able to change the boarding date or flight up to 24 hours before departure.
  • The name of the passenger, and the name of the individual supplying the miles cannot be changed.
  • The airline, passenger, sector, and route cannot be changed. (However, in certain cases where both ANA and Air Japan operate flights over the same sector, passengers may switch between the 2 airlines.)
ana-airways-logo
ANA definitely implements some unique booking policies

Fuel surcharges

You are almost always going to incur fuel surcharges when using ANA miles to book award flights. However, United Airlines is an exception, and thus can be a very valuable partner to redeem miles with. Air Canada and Air New Zealand are also great partners to use to avoid or mitigate charges.

The surcharges imposed by ANA aren’t the highest in the industry and many can be quite reasonable, but they are often pretty much impossible to avoid unless you book United Airline/Air Canada flights. For a closer look on fuel surcharges, keep reading further.

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Stopovers and Open Jaws

The rules section for “transfer partners” on ANA’s website is a little unclear but after playing around with bookings on the website and calling in to verify, I realized that the below rules apply to both ANA bookings and bookings with Star Alliance partners

1) One stopover is allowed on either leg

2) One open jaw is allowed subject to the following rules:

  • When the point of departure and final point of destination differ, both locations must be within the same country.

This means you can fly out of Chicago and come back to Houston, for example. (Confusingly, many regions like Europe and the U.S./Canada are considered one “country.”)

  • If the destination of your outbound trip and the point of departure of your inbound trip are different, they must be within the same area.

This is what confused me because they use the  term “area” versus “zone” and then they provide a small chart that doesn’t completely describe the areas. (See the chart below.) Thus, if you’re wanting to explore options for open jaw for inbound flights, I suggest experimenting with the website or calling in to see if the destination of your outbound trip and point of departure of your inbound trip fall within the same “area.”

November 25, 2016 update: the website is clearer on this point now.  

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  • For zones in which the destination of your outbound trip and the point of departure of your inbound trip are different, the required number of miles will be calculated by halving the required number of miles for each zone and adding them together.

The stopover can be combined with the open jaw rules for pretty flexible routing that can somewhat make up for the lack of one way redemptions in some cases.  For example, I was able to book the following on the website:

  • Outbound trip:
    • IAD -> LHR [stopover] -> CDG
  • Inbound trip:
    • LHR [open jaw]-> IAH [open jaw]

I called in just to make sure that this was a valid booking and didn’t get a 100% yes — it was more like, “we are pretty sure you can do that but the only way we can tell you for sure is if you transfer miles to ANA…” Thus, while this route should work according to the rules above, I’d always try to double check with ANA before planning on such a booking.

ANA sweet spots

ANA has several sweets spots that are worth mentioning.

Here’s a summary of the sweet spots for ANA:

  • North America to Europe
    • Business class: 88,000 miles
    • Economy: 55,000 miles
  • North America to South America
    • Business class: 88,000 miles
    • Economy: 55,000 miles
  • North America to Africa and the Middle East
    • Business class: 104,000 miles
    • Economy: 65,000 miles
  • North America to Japan 
    • Business class: 75,000 miles
    • Economy: 40,000 miles
  • North America to Asia 1
    • Business class: 80,000 miles
    • Economy: 45,000 miles

Keep reading below to see details on booking these sweet spots and to see how much you would pay on fees.

North America to Europe

ANA offers one of the cheapest and most efficient ways to get to Europe with award bookings. Take a look at the award chart below.

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Notice the sweet spot from North America:

  • 88,000 in business class

Compare that to the following

  • Aeroplan: 110,000 miles
  • American Airlines: 115,000
  • Delta: 125,000
  • United: 115,000 miles (140,000 miles if booked with alliance partner)

Here’s a real world example of a flight between IAD and LHR. First, you can see how much this trip would cost on United’s website.

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United offers flights from North America to Europe for 115,000 miles but only if you fly with United. Partner airlines require 140,000 miles!

So you’d be looking at 115,000 miles assuming you were able to find United availability. If you booked the same trip on another partner airline, you’d be looking at 140,000 miles!

Now, take a look below at how much this same flight would cost with ANA miles.

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ANA requires only 88,000 miles and $183.70 to fly business class roundtrip to London from North America

88,000 miles plus $183.70 in fees to fly business class from North America to Europe is an absolute bargain, espcially given the product level of ANA.

And the deal is even sweeter when you book with Air Canada because the fees go down to $68!

But remember, those low fees are with flying United and Air Canada. Here is an example of what you’re looking at if you can’t get around the fuel surcharges

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North America to Europe with TAP Portugal requires $613 in fees
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North America to Europe with Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa requires $497 in fees

As you can see, the fuel surcharges can be pretty hefty and so I’d try my best to find availability on a United or Air Canada flight to avoid the charges.

Getting more value with stopovers 

Now let’s say you wanted to add a bit more value to the prior trip from D.C. to London  by making London a stopover en route to Paris, and let’s just throw in an open jaw back to Houston so you can see how it works.

So this flight path is going to look like this:

  • IAD -> LHR [stopover] -> CDG
  • CDG -> IAH [open jaw]

This route is legal because it has one stopover in the zone of your destination [CDG in Europe] and you are returning to the same zone of your departure [United States and Canada]. (You could also make your second leg depart from anywhere within the same “area.”)

So let’s see how much more we’d pay in fees.

ANA booking ANA booking

So that’s $155 more in fees to get the extra addition of Paris to your London trip.

If you searched long enough you could probably find better stop over deals than this but I noticed that a lot of the stopovers in Europe would incur pretty significant fees. For a true budget flyer, it might make more sense to just buy a one-way ticket on a budget airliner to your desired stopover location and then open jaw back from there to North America.

For example you could do:

  • IAD -> LHR
  • London -> Paris [with budget airline]
  • CDG [open jaw] -> IAD

And finally, don’t forget about economy flights from North America to Europe… at only 55,000 miles, that’s not a bad deal at all.

Therefore, ANA is one of the best options for getting to Europe from North America! 

North America to South America

Getting to South America can be a lucrative way to redeem ANA miles, too. In fact, with the potential for lower surcharges, I’d argue there’s even better value in flying to South America than to Europe in business class.  For example, Houston to Rio De Janerio is only 88,000 miles in business class and the fees are only $62!

Here are the miles required by other airlines or this route.

  • Aeroplan: 110,000 miles
  • American Airlines: 115,000 miles
  • Delta: 150,000 miles
  • United: 110,000 miles
Screen Shot 2016-04-10 at 11.57.59 AM
88,000 miles and $62.24 for North America to Brazil in business class!

Getting more value with stopovers 

Let’s say you were planning a larger scale trip to South America where you wanted to see Rio de Janerio, Santiago Chile (and maybe take a flight to Easter Island), and Lima, Peru (and take a short flight to Cusco to get to Machu Picchu).

For the same amount of 88,000 miles you could get to Rio de Janerio, Santiago, Chile, and Lima, Peru. You’d still have to cover your tickets from Rio to Santiago, Easter Island, and Cusco, but having everything else worked out with business class tickets for only 88,000 miles would be great.

A sample flight path would like this:

  • Outbound: IAH – YYZ -> GIG
  • Inbound: SCL[open jaw] -> LIM [stopover] -> IAH

This is all legal because your inbound leg departs from the same area (SCL in South America) as the destination of your outbound leg (GIG in South America) and you only have one stopover on your route (LIM which is also in the area of your destination).

The best part of this routing is that your fees would only come out to $101.25.

Take a look at what this itinerary looks like booked on the ANA website. Again, when I called in to verify this route I got the same “we’re 99% confident you can book this route but you’ll need to transfer your miles to ANA for us be sure.” 

Note: you could probably find better routings not flying through Canada but I just wanted to show  how much value you could get from 88,000 miles!

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Total fees number to only $101.25!

Also, economy awards from North America to South America can really be bargains at only 55,000 round trip!

North America to Africa and the Middle East

104,000 in business class to Africa and the Middle East in business class is another bargain, in my opinion. Availability might sometimes be an issue, especially without the added flexibility of one way awards but being able to get to places like South Africa and Dubai in business class for 104,000 miles round trip is pretty phenomenal.

  • Aeroplan: 165,000
  • American Airlines:  140,000
  • Delta:  170,000
  • United: 140,000 (160,000 on partners)

Just keep an eye out for those surcharges, as you can see on the routes below they can be quite pricey. (Partner Etihad is known for having little to no surcharges, so seek availability with them.)

Screen Shot 2016-04-10 at 12.24.14 PM
$498 in fees with Turkish Airlines
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$593 in fees with Ethiopian Airlines

Also, economy awards from North America to Africa and the Middle East can really be bargains at only 65,000 round trip!

Getting more value with stopovers 

Don’t forget that Africa and the Middle East are part of the same zone (Zone 8). That means you would be able to combine a trip to the Middle East with your trip to South Africa. I struggled to find some availability for this trip so I wasn’t able to price out the fees but with enough time and willingness you could probably secure this route for a mere 104,000 miles.

Partner Restrictions

There are some restrictions when booking with certain partners that you should be aware of:

  • There are unavailable periods during which flight awards may not be used.
  • Even if your itinerary includes ANA flights, the Chart of miles required for Partner Flight Awards will apply if the itinerary includes even one flight partner airline.
  • Flight award passengers cannot use Suite Class, First Class and Business Class on certain aircraft flown by Singapore Airlines (A380, A380 and B777-300ER).
  • Flight awards for Hawaiian Airlines flights can only be used only be used for flights within the Hawaiian islands.
  • EVA Air Elite Class cannot be used.

Check here for more specific rules.

Sweet spots booking directly with ANA

When you book directly with ANA you are subject to different rules. They operate with a different map and on a seasonal basis.

 

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They have low season, regular season, and high season, which change for different years. Take a look at the season chart for North America/Europe and Japan.

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There are some real sweet spots for getting to Japan and Asia 1 (China, Guam, Hong Kong, Macau, Philippine, Taiwan).

The following rates apply during low season:

  • North America to Japan 
    • Business class: 75,000 miles
    • Economy: 40,000 miles
  • North America to Asia 1
    • Business class: 80,000 miles
    • Economy: 45,000 miles

The drawback is that you’re going to have to pay fuel surcharges for ANA flights. The good news is that they really aren’t that bad. In fact, as you can see below, the total fees for flying ANA from North America to Japan are actually cheaper than those including a United flight!

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Since there is one partner leg on this trip, the partner rate of 90,000 miles apply
Screen Shot 2016-04-11 at 6.45.09 PM
Only 75,000 miles and $85 in fees for round trip business class to Japan is great!

Remember, that while one stop over is allowed on ANA  flights, no stopovers can be made for flights departing from Japan.

Final Word 

So there you have it, ANA is one of the most valuable transfer partners of American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood and should definitely be considered an option if you’re planning a trip from North America to any of the zones discussed above. 

Cover Photo by lkarasawa via Flickr. 

 

 

 

Review of the Platinum Card® from American Express

The Platinum Card® from American Express is one of the top travel cards for individuals looking for a host of travel benefits, such as premier lounges access, Global Entry, hotel and rental car status, and solid purchase protections. The Platinum Card® comes with a pretty hefty annual fee, so many potential applicants wonder if it’s worth it to apply. Here’s a review of the Platinum Card® from American Express that will shed some light on whether or not this card is for you.

Charge card vs Credit Card

I’ll start off with the basics.

The Platinum Card® from American Express is a “charge card,” which means that it must be paid off in full each month or else you face a hefty monthly fee. The benefit to a charge card is that you’re not restricted to a credit limit and so you have a little more flexibility — you just need to be able to keep yourself in check to make sure you’ll pay off your balance in full each month.

PLATINUM CARD

American Express will often offer you the opportunity to “pay over time,” however. This essentially turns your charge card into a hybrid credit/charge card and allows you to carry a balance. Typically, American Express will monitor your spending habits for approximately one year and then offer you this option (though sometimes it comes sooner).

In addition to being able to carry a balance, there are two benefits to the pay over time option. One, American Express does not conduct a hard pull on your credit when they check your eligibility. They run a soft-check in conjunction with their own internal credit check system. Second, American Express will usually offer you some kind of incentive and reward you with Membership Rewards for opting into pay over time.

American Express Transfer Partners

American Express cards like the Platinum Card® earn you Membership Rewards. They are generally considered one of more valuable reward currencies and these points can be transferred to several different airline and hotel partners. Below is a list of the eligible travel partners.

Airlines

Membership Rewards Airline Partners
Membership Rewards Airline Partners
Membership Rewards Airline Partners
Membership Rewards Airline Partners

These partners do not have all have the same transfer ratios as you can see below:

  • Delta Skymiles
  • Club Premier AeroMexico
  • Aeroplan Air Canada
  • Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
  • MilleMigilia Club Alitalia
  • ANA
  • Asia Miles
  • Avios British Airways (250 points = 200 Avios)
  • Emirates Skyrewards
  • Hawaiin Airlines
  • Iberia Plus
  • JetBlue
  • KrisFlyer Singapore Airlines
  • Virgin America (200 points = 100 Elevate points)
  • Virgin Atlantic

Hotels

Membership Rewards Hotels

  • Best Western Rewards
  • Choice Privileges
  • Hilton HHonors (1,000 points = 1,500 HHonors points)
  • SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) (1,000 points = 333 Starpoints)

There are a few things to keep in mind about Membership Rewards:

  • Bonus transfers are occasionally offered allowing you to transfer your points to partners for higher ratios. Check this thread for a history of these transfer bonuses.
  • Your Membership Rewards cannot be freely transferred between you and any friend or family members
  • They don’t expire as long as you remain a cardholder

Redeeming Points

If you don’t decide to transfer your Membership Rewards to other travel partners you can always utilize them for travel redemptions or purchases.

Membership Rewards can be redeemed in the following ways:

  • Between .5 and 1.0 cent per point for gift cards
  • 0.6 cent per point for a statement credit/charge
  • 1.0 cent per point on air fare
  • 0.7 cent per point on hotels, cruises, and vacation packages.

Aside from maybe using them for air fare to earn or maintain elite status, I personally do not think these are good redemption rates. I just wrote a post on booking airfare on Aeroplan (a transfer partner of Membership Rewards) and showed how you can redeem points on a round trip from the U.S. to Paris in business class with stopovers in Geneva and Brussels, with a redemption rate of over 10 cents per point. That means you could get over 5X the value when transferring your Membership Rewards to Aeroplan for that particular redemption. Compare that value to the above redemptions worth at most 1 cent per point and you can see why it’s usually discouraged to redeem in that way.

Caribb
Aeroplan can be an extremely valuable transfer partner of Membership Rewards

Photo by Caribb via Flickr. 

However, depending on the circumstances (no availability with travel partners, short on cash, etc.), it might make sense for you to redeem your points through the Amex travel portal, so don’t rule out the possibility entirely. Just make sure you consider all of your options before redeeming at what will usually be a sub-optimal rate.

Sign-up Bonus

There are several different sign-up offers for the Platinum Card® that appear for this card.

Here are the main offers:

  • 40,000 Membership Rewards after you spend $3,000 within the first 90 days of opening your card. This is the current main public offer.
  • 75,000 Membership Rewards after you spend $5,000 to $7,000 within the first 90 days of opening your card. This is a targeted offer with a pretty high spending requirement, so it’s not recommended for everyone. 
  • 100,000 Membership Rewards after you spend $3,000 within the first 90 days of opening your card. The best Platinum offer but it is a highly targeted offer usually only received by people who do not currently hold any Amex cards. 

Amex Platinum Card

One bonus per lifetime

You need to know that American Express has a once per lifetime rule for receiving sign-up offers for its cards. There are some exceptions to this and you can read more about them in the American Express application rules article.

Bonus Category Earning

The Platinum Card® does not have any bonus categories for spending. This is probably the biggest weakness of the Platinum Card® compared to cards like the Citi Prestige.

There are a couple of ways to earn bonus rates on certain categories, however. For example, you can earn 2X on purchases made through Amextravel.com. In addition, with Amex Offers, you can often earn 2X at certain retailers, such as Target, Amazon, etc.

Amex Offers
Not exactly bonus categories, but still something!

Benefits

You can read more in-depth about the American Express Platinum Card benefits here, but here’s a run down on some of the top benefits.

Priority Pass

Here’s a detailed breakdown of my favorite benefits of the Platinum, but in a nutshell this card confers a host of benefits to you making it worth it including:

  • Priority Pass airport lounge access (worth $400 per year)
  • Centurion Lounge Access (including free access for two additional guests); Delta Lounge Access (when you fly with Delta)
  • $200 annual airline credit (essentially reducing the annual fee to $250)
  • $100 statement credit for Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check (a Godsend that’s good for 5 years!)
  • Add up to 3 authorized users for only $175 per year (for all 3)
  • Gold status with Hilton and Starwood
  • Free Boingo Wifi subscription (worth $120 per year)
  • Rental car benefits like express check-in, free upgrades, and discounts with status.
https://flic.kr/p/qfAvYn
Comfy seating at an Amex Centurion Lounge

Photo by Mighty Travels via Flickr 

The Priority Pass lounge access along with Centurion lounge access are some of the most valuable benefits of the Platinum Card®. If you’re interested in relaxing in comfy lounge areas and enjoying complimentary meals and adult beverages, you should definitely look into these benefits.

The other benefits add up in value pretty quickly, too. The $200 annual airline credit, $100 statement credit for Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check, along with elite hotel status, free Boingo, and rental car status, all combine for a substantial amount of value that more than pays for the annual fee when all things are considered.

And don’t forget about the authorized user policy. For only $175 you can confer the full benefits (minus the $200 airline credit) of the Platinum Card® to up to three additional cardholders, that’s easily $1,500 worth of additional benefits for only $175!

Other Benefits

Some other highlights of the Platinum Card® include:

Amex Offers

Amex Offers are promotional offers that are available to all Amex cardholders. Some of these offers will essentially provide you with free money, often giving you back $5-$15 off purchases at different online retailers. If used consistently and effectively, you can easily save yourself $100-200 a year on items you would’ve likely purchased anyway.

Foreign Transaction Fees

  • No foreign transaction fees
https://flic.kr/p/d8vJdq
No foreign transaction fees for the Platinum

Photo by Jesús Pérez Pacheco via Flickr

Annual Fee

  • $450, not waived the first year

The annual fee is basically reduced to $250 with the annual $200 airline credit, so it’s really not quite as high as it might seem. And as seen above, the benefits this card can confer on you are far, far more valuable than $250, so always consider the return in value you are getting when looking at paying a high annual fee for a premium card like the Platinum Card®.

Travel protection

For damaged, stolen, or lost baggage, Amex may cover:

  • Replacement cost of carry-on baggage up to a maximum of $3,000
  • Replacement cost of checked baggage up to a maximum of $2,000 for each covered person on a Covered Trip

Car rental coverage is “excess,” which  means that Amex may reimburse the Cardmember only for losses/expenses not covered by plans, such as personal auto insurance or other sources of insurance. A Cardmember must first seek payment or reimbursement and receive a determination that other plans do not provide coverage before excess coverage will reimburse the cardmember.

This excess coverage may cover:

  • The cardholder for 1) the actual cost to repair the Rental Auto, 2) the wholesale Book value minus salvage and depreciation costs, or 3) the purchase invoice price of the Rental Auto minus salvage and depreciation costs.
  • Certain necessary covered medical expenses incurred as a result of an accident by the Cardmember or a Passenger are payable up to a maximum of $5000 per person.

Purchase protection

The Platinum Card® has some of the best purchase protection since it protects up to $10,000 per claim — that’s much higher than many other credit cards.

Here are some of the highlights of the protections:

  • Covers your new purchases for 90 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
  • Extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of five years or less.
  • You can be reimbursed for eligible items that the store won’t take back within 90 days of purchase, up to $300 per item, $1,000 per year.

Final Word

The Platinum Card® from American Express can bring you exceptional value while providing you with a range of travel benefits. The lounge access to hundreds of lounges around the world, $200 annual statement credit, Global Entry, elite hotel status, and authorized user policy all are premier benefits that help set the Platinum Card® apart from many other cards.

 

 

Guide to Booking Flights with Aeroplan Miles

After several disappointing (and quite drastic) devaluations over the past few years, Aeroplan miles aren’t quite the valuable currency they once were. However, there are still some valuable perks and ways for you to redeem Aeroplan miles that surpass other airlines. This article will highlight some of the most valuable ways to use Aeroplan miles when booking trips.

640px-Aeroplan_logo.svg

Star Alliance

Aeroplan (Air Canada) is a member of the Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance out of the big three (One World, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam). This means that you can use your Aeroplan miles to fly on these other airlines (subject to availability).

Star_Alliance logo and members

The trick is to find availability for seats that can be booked with Star Alliance partners. The good news is that Aeroplan has one of, if not the best, websites to perform searches for Star Alliance partner availability. Read about how to find Star Alliance availability here.

How to Get Aeroplan miles from credit cards

MEMBERSHIP REWARDS LOGO

Aeroplan is a transfer partner of  two major reward programs:

  • American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 ratio)
  • Starwood Preferred Guests (1:1)*

*Remember, when you transfer Starwood points in increments of 20,000 you receive an additional 5,000 in miles, so 20,000 points will earn you 25,000 Aeroplan miles. In addition, Starwood will often run promotions where you can earn additional bonuses on your transfers, such as up to ~25%!

I personally value the transferability to Aeroplan because I live near a United Airlines hub and fly them often. United transfers at a 2:1 ratio from SPG and is not a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, so I originally thought I was out of luck. However, because I can book United flights with Aeroplan (sometimes with far fewer miles as shown below), I really value the transfer potential here.

There’s also the TD Aeroplan Visa, which offers a 25,000 mile sign-up bonus. You get the 25,000 miles with only $1,000 in spend within the first 3 months of account opening and the $95 annual fee is waived the first year so it’s not a bad deal.

aeroplan-visa-platinum-card

These three options make it pretty easy to accumulate miles for Aeroplan and can make life a lot easier for folks who rely on United Airlines for reward seats.

Avoid costly fuel surcharges

The first thing to look at when redeeming Aeroplan miles is avoiding fuel surcharges. These fees can put a huge dent in your wallet and really take away from your savings.

For example, take a look at the next two flights below.

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Notice anything different?

There’s a huge difference in the price. It’s a difference of $190 USD vs $834 USD due to fuel surcharges, so always do your best to book with a partner that does not incur fuel surcharges when booking with Aeroplan.

The following airlines do not carry surcharges when you book them through Aeroplan:

  • Air China
  • Brussels
  • EgyptAir
  • Ethiopian
  • EVA Air
  • Scandinavian
  • Singapore
  • Swiss
  • Turkish
  • United
  • LOT (has small surcharges)*

Stopovers and Open Jaws

Aeroplan is one of the rewards programs that allow for stopovers and open jaws and they are pretty generous with those. If you’re unfamiliar with these concepts, I suggest reading up on maximizing open jaw and stop overs. In short, stopovers allow you to break up a route so that you can spend time somewhere on your way to your destination. So if you are flying from Chicago to Paris, you could stop over in Geneva en route to Paris.

Open jaws on the other hand allow you to return or depart from from a different destination. So, for example, you could fly from Chicago to Paris and then have your return route be London to Chicago. You would be responsible for getting from Paris to London, however.

Stop overs and open jaws can get a little complex but they can add significant value to your redemptions, essentially offering you free one-way flights.

Air Canada Christian Junker
Air Canada has very generous open jaw and stop over rules.

Photo by Christan Junker via Flickr. 

So here’s a breakdown of the Aeroplan rules on stop overs and open jaws.

On roundtrip rewards, stopovers are permitted as follows:

Travel within Canada or between Canada and the Continental USA (not including Hawaii/Puerto Rico):

  • One stopover permitted in addition to the point of turnaround. One open jaw is permitted in lieu of the one stopover.

Between Canada/Cont. USA and Hawaii/Puerto Rico/Mexico/Central America/Caribbean:

  • Rule for rewards containing only Air Canada flight: Two stopovers are permitted in addition to the point of turnaround. One open jaw is permitted in lieu of one stopover.
  • Rule for rewards containing a minimum of one flight on a Star Alliance partner other than Air Canada: One stopover is permitted in addition to the point of turnaround. One open jaw is permitted in addition to the one stopover.

Intercontinental travel (travel between two continents):

  • Two stopovers permitted in addition to the point of turnaround. One open jaw is permitted in lieu of one of the two stopovers.

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.

North America to Europe

Paris
Aeroplan is one of the best ways to get to Europe from North America. Photo by Daniel Gillaspia

I think the best way to utilize Aeroplan miles right now is to book flights from North America to Europe. For Aeroplan, Europe is divided into two regions (Europe 1 and Europe 2). I’ll use a booking to a country found in Europe 1 as an example of how lucrative these redemptions can be.

Europe 1 consists  of the following countries:

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • The Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • The United Kingdom

Let’s say you want to go from Chicago to Paris in business class on Swiss Airlines. This trip will require 110,000 Aeroplan miles. Compare this with the miles required when booking with other airlines:

  • United: 140,000 miles (with alliance partners)
  • American Airlines: 115,000 miles (no stop overs)
  • Delta: 125,000 miles (no stop overs)

As you can see, it’s a great deal but the deal gets even better. That’s because on international flights, Aeroplan allows:

  • “Two stopovers permitted in addition to the point of turnaround. One open jaw is permitted in lieu of one of the two stopovers.”

In this case, the “point of turnaround” would be Paris and so you’d be able to book two additional destinations with this itinerary, free of charge. I’ll show you how it would work.

Let’s say you wanted to visit Geneva, Switzerland and Brussels, Belgium in addition to your destination: Paris France. Your trip would look like this:

  • Chicago (ORD) -> Geneva (GVA) [stopover] -> Paris (CDG)
  • Paris (CDG) -> Brussels (BRU) [stopover] -> Chicago (ORD)

Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 9.28.23 AM

In order to find availability for this route, I would suggest researching on Aeroplan’s website, segment by segment to that you can find the best flights available and then call in to book them. Below are the steps I recently took to search for the above trip, segment by segment.

Here’s the first leg, from Chicago to Geneva.

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The second leg from Geneva to Paris…

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Now you want to head from Paris to Brussels…

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And finally, it’s time to go home again to Chi-Town.

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So let’s breakdown how much you’d spend if you booked these reward flights separately.

You would have spent 155,000 miles, or 45,000 more miles for these flights if you did not utilize the stopovers!  Instead, you’re only using 110,000 miles to see three countries in business class for a grand total of  ~$175 USD in fees — pretty remarkable value in my opinion. 

And let’s see how much you would be paying in cash  for these same flights.

  • Chicago (ORD) -> Geneva (GVA): $7,617
  • Geneva (GVA)  -> Paris (CDG): $430
  • Paris (CDG) -> Brussels (BRU): $603
  • Brussels (BRU) -> Chicago (ORD): $3,025

The total cash price of these flights is $11,675.

Subtract the taxes and fees and you come out to $11,500 USD worth of value. The cents per mile value for your 110,000 redemption thus comes out to 10.45 cents per mile. That is a great redemption rate!

Many people value Membership Rewards at around 2 cents per point so if you transferred Membership Rewards to Aeroplan for this redemption you arguably more than quintuple the value of your points!

One way awards

With Aeroplan you can book one way rewards for 50% of the value as a round trip reward. Don’t get confused if you come across articles stating you need to be traveling to or from North America to book a one-way reward ticket — that rule was changed recently in December 2015. Now, you can book one-way rewards for 50% of the value of a round-trip ticket from anywhere in the globe.

No stop overs on one way flights

Aeroplan does not allow stopovers on oneway flights. From their rules:

  • “Stopovers are not permitted on one-way flight rewards.”

Lap-child fares

Aeroplan is known for having some of the best lap-child fares. Basically if you’re going to be flying with an infant on an international flight, you’ll incur the following expenses:

  • Economy Class – $50 or 5,000 Aeroplan Miles
  • Premium Economy Class – $75 or 7,500 Aeroplan Miles
  • Business Class – $100 or 10,000 Aeroplan Miles
  • First Class – $125 or 12,500 Aeroplan Miles

These are some of the best rates that you will come across, so if you’re going to be traveling with a little one then definitely consider Aeroplan.

Cancellation fees

The cancellation fees are pretty reasonable for Areoplan. If you cancel a booking 22 days before departure, you pay $90 and get your fees refunded and points redeposited to do as you please with them. If you cancel within 22 days of your departure, you must use those points within one year of booking on a single reservation, or you lose those miles.  

For example, let’s say you have a flight booked for next week and you cancel it today. You will then have one year from the time of booking to use those 110,000 miles. But if you use that credit for a 60,000 mile redemption, you lose out on 50,000 miles so be careful. Also, if you cancel within 22 days of your departure, you won’t be charged the $90 fee until you rebook your flight.  

Phone service

Aeroplan has some of the best customer service phone representatives that can make finding your flights much easier. Sometimes the reps might even be able to find you flights that weren’t showing up on the Aeroplan website. Unfortunately, they charge you a $30 fee for booking over the phone and it’s very rare for them to ever waive the fee. But considering the level of service and potential savings you might come across, the $30 fee isn’t that big of a deal.

RTW options

I’ll have to reserve another post to discuss the RTW (round the world) options at length but Aeroplan is known for having some valuable “round the world” redemptions due to their stop over and open jaw policies. To read more about booking a RTW trip with Aerplan check here.

Overall, don’t discount Aeroplan, especially if you’re interested in getting to Europe from North America with a couple of stopovers, because that redemption value is definitely among the best!

Cover Photo by Caribb via Flickr. 

 

 

 

 

The Citi Premier vs The American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card

[Offers contained within this article may no longer be available]

The American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card and the Citi Thankyou Premier are two of the best travel rewards credit cards available right now. They both offer great earning potential through bonus category spending and pretty good sign-up bonuses as well. Here’s a comparison of the two cards that will give you a better idea of which card is better for you. 

Charge card vs Credit Card

Don’t forget that the Citi Thankyou Premier is a credit card and the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Cards is a “charge card.” A charge card must be paid off in full each month or else you face a hefty monthly fee. The benefit to a charge card is that you’re not restricted to a credit limit and so you have a little more flexibility — you just need to be able to keep yourself in check to make sure you’ll pay off your balance in full each month.

Transfer Partners

Citi Thankyou Transfer Partners

citi-logo

Airlines

  • Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific)
  • EVA Air
  • Eithad Guest
  • Flying Blue (Air France, KLM)
  • Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer
  • Malaysia Airlines Enrich
  • Qantas Frequent Flyer
  • Qatar Airways Privilege Club
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  • Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
  • Virgin America Elevate (1,000 pts = 500 Elevate points)
  • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotels

  • Hilton HHonors (1,000 pts = 1,500 HHonors Bonus Points )

American Express Membership Rewards Transfer Partners

Airlines

  • Delta Skymiles
  • Club Premier AeroMexico
  • Aeroplan Air Canada
  • Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
  • MilleMigilia Club Alitalia
  • ANA
  • Asia Miles
  • Avios British Airways (250 points = 200 Avios)
  • Emirates Skyrewards
  • Hawaiin Airlines
  • Iberia Plus
  • JetBlue
  • KrisFlyer Singapore Airlines
  • Virgin America (200 points = 100 Elevate points)
  • Virgin Atlantic

Hotels

  • Best Western Rewards
  • Choice Privileges
  • Hilton HHonors (1,000 points = 1,500 HHonors points)
  • SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) (1,000 points = 333 Starpoints)

I’d probably give a slight edge to American Express for having more hotel partners and for having domestic airline partners like Delta, Virgin America, JetBlue, etc. You can still use some of Citi’s Thankyou partners to book on domestic airlines by booking through alliance partners but it just makes things a little bit more complicated (although a little extra legwork can often save you some miles).

One way that they differ is that Citi allows you to transfer your points to other people – a benefit that makes booking way less of a headache in a lot of scenarios. The only issue with Citi’s transfer policy is that once you transfer the points they expire within 90 days, so make sure you have a plan. Unfortunately, American Express does not offer this benefit.

Just like American Express, Citi sometimes offers temporary specials that offer bonus transfer rates to certain partners. Sometimes these rates will give you great deals like 50% more points when you transfer, so always be on the lookout for them.

It’s important to note that several of these partners are members of both programs like Flying Blue (Air France/KLM), KrisFlyer Singapore Airlines, Virgin, and Hilton HHonors. This makes it really easy to accumulate enough points for business and first class tickets on these airlines.

Point Redemption

You can redeem Citi Thankyou points for gift cards, statement credits, and for travel. Gift cards are redeemed at a value of 1.0 cents per point while statement credits redeem for .7 cents per point. With the Premier you can also redeem points for 1.25 cents per point through the Citi ThankYou Travel Center. The deal gets even sweeter if you have the Citi Prestige because you’re able to redeem points at 1.33 cents per point for any airline and 1.6 cents per point on American Airlines.

Membership Rewards can be redeemed for between .5 and 1.0 cents per point for gift cards and only .6 per point for a statement credit/charge. If you go through Amex Travel you can redeem at 1.0 cent per point on air fare but only up  to .7 cent per point on hotels.

I think Citi definitely wins this category with its much better redemption rates for flights and statement credits, although I pretty much always advise against travelers using points for statement credits and usually don’t recommend redeeming points through these portals. 

Tip: Sometimes these travel portals offer decent deals but other times you can find much cheaper rates by going through online travel agencies (Expedia, Booking, etc.) or by booking directly through the hotel. 

Sign-up Bonus

Citi Thankyou Premier

Citi Thankyou Premier

  • 40K to 50K (currently 40K) when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months
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Premier Rewards Gold Card

  • 25K to 75K when you spend $1,000-3,000. The 75K offer is highly targeted and rare and the 50K offer, while also targeted, is far more common to receive.

This comparison is a bit close and really hinges on when you catch the bonus. I think the 50K Membership Rewards for spending $1,000 in 3 months is one of the best sign-up bonuses that I’ve come across, so I would say that’s the winner. However, the standard public offer is 25K and compared to the lowest offer of the Premier (40K) that falls short. Most people value Membership Reward points more than Citi Thankyou Points but even with that in mind, I still say the winner is the Premier since the standard public offer is at least 40K versus 25K.

Tip: Try using Incognito/Private browsing windows on the American Express website to get the 50K offer to appear for you.

Bonus category earning potential

Citi Thankyou Premier

  • 3X on Travel (this covers an extremely broad range of expenses).
  • 3X on Gas
  • 2X on Entertainment (This includes movie theaters, some sport events, museums, tourist attractions, amusement parks, and more)
  • 2X on Dining

Premier Rewards Gold Card

  • 3X on Airline Tickets (4X through the Amex Portal)
  • 2X on Dining, Groceries, and Gas
  • $100 Airline credit for fees and incidentals
Citi Premier Bonus Categories

This is a tough comparison because the Premier Rewards Gold Card offers 2X on groceries, a category that many people probably spend a lot on. At the same time, the Premier offers 3X on the following items: airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, travel agencies, gas stations, commuter transportation, taxi/limousines, passenger railways, cruise lines, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, campgrounds and trailer parks, time shares, bus lines, motor home/RV Rental and boat rentals and also offers 2x on entertainment.

That’s a long and valuable list for 3x earning opportunities. Thus, while I like that the the Premier Rewards Gold Card is valuable for those who shop a lot at grocery stores, I think the Premier is the better point earner for the average traveller. (I’d just rely on another card like the Premier Rewards Gold Card or Everyday Preferred so that I’d earn a bonus rate on supermarkets.)

Personally, I use both of these cards so I didn’t have to choose just one and I think it would be a good idea to think about getting both if you are interested in earning both Membership Rewards and Citi Thankyou Points.

Tip: “Amex Offers,” which gives American Express cardholders exclusive discounts and rebates for quality stores, can also add a lot of value to the Premier Rewards Gold Card. On average, I probably save at least a couple of hundred dollars per year by using these offers, so it’s definitely something to factor into your consideration.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

Both cards have no foreign transaction fees.

Annual Fee

Citi Thankyou Premier

  • $95 waived the first year

Premier Rewards Gold Card

  • $195, waived the first year

The Premier Rewards Gold Card’s annual fee is essentially reduced to $95 if you can make good use of the $100 annual airline credit. Still, it’s nice to not have to jump through hoops to get the annual fee down to $95. Thus, I’d give Citi a slight edge for the annual fee.   

Final Verdict 

I think the winner is the Citi Thankyou Premier, although I wouldn’t recommend on holding out on the Premier Rewards Gold Card. Again, I’m a big fan of building up points for the big three (Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thankyou Points, and Membership Rewards). Thus, I think it’s good to get on board with at least one good rewards-earning card from each program. Both the Citi Thankyou Premier and the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card fit that bill. 

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