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Aeroplan: the best flight redemption between UK / Europe and Middle East
I’ve been in the miles and points game for like eight years now, and my international background / connections mean that I dip into loyalty programs of countries besides the UK. Yet Air Canada’s Aeroplan never entered my horizons until very recently, and it turned out to be an excellent redemption program for people living in the UK or Europe.
My friend told me about Aeroplan when he booked Bangkok – London in Oman Air’s first class for only 100k points. I will only focus on the Middle East redemption today however, as I think that’s where Aeroplan’s biggest edge lies.
[The Advantages]
Aeroplan has the the following advantages when it comes to flight redemptions:
- Extensive partner network, including many non Star Alliance carriers
- Easy to book online
- No carrier-imposed surcharges
- Adding a stopover for only 5,000 points
I don’t want to expand too much here, but not charging YQ alone can save you at least £300 for a long-haul return flight compared to British Airways and Etihad Guest etc.
[Getting Points]
I have the US Amex Platinum card through global transfer, and Aeroplan is a Membership Rewards conversion partner in the United States. I can transfer my MR points to Aeroplan at 1:1 ratio and it’s instant.
Aeroplan is not a MR conversion partner in the UK. However, it is with Marriott Bonvoy (60,000 Marriott points = 25,000 Aeroplan points) which is accessible globally.
[Pricing]
You can find Aeroplan’s redemption chart here. Europe and the Middle East both fall into the Atlantic Zone, so the following pricing applies:
Depart from UK or Europe, you are most likely looking at the 2,001 – 4,000 miles range, which means a one-way business class redemption costs only 45,000 points.
Most importantly, you can book the following carries on Aeroplan’s website, and availability is usually pretty good:
- Etihad
- Oman Air
- Gulf Air
- Egypt Air
Obviously Star Alliance carriers such as Lufthansa and Swiss are also available, but they are probably less exciting and availability is worse.
For a LHR – DXB / AUH business class return redemption, here’s roughly what each program wants:
- Aeroplan: 90k points + £313
- British Airways: 100k Avios + £717
- Etihad Guest: 125k miles + £687
- Emirates Skywards: 117.5k miles + £931
Assuming that 1 Avios / point = 1p, two people travelling together on BA’s 2-for-1 voucher is still no better deal than Aeroplan. It contrasts even more sharply if you look at the one-way UK inbound flight only.
I booked my Dubai flight on Egypt Air departing right before Christmas. There’s one Etihad flight with empty business class seats left but unfortunately the arrival time is inconvenient. I’m still quite happy though to find any available for the festive period.
You can also redeem in first class for 60,000 points per way, but availability is much harder to find.
[The Catch]
Aeroplan charges up to C$100 (£64) for changing your ticket, and C$150 (£96) for cancellation. It is much more expensive than Avios tickets with British Airways, although still manageable. Flexible Rewards are possible at the time of booking which can be changed / cancelled for free, however they are at least 20% more expensive which kind of defeats the purpose.
You can cancel your booking for free within 24 hours, which is inline with the other programs.
How to redeem Etihad Guest miles on Air Serbia
Etihad doesn’t belong to any airline alliance, however they’ve got quite a few airline partners and some of the partner redemptions are great in value. I accrued some Etihad miles when flying with Philippine Airlines a few years back, and I’ve always wanted to visit Belgrade, so why not book an award ticket on Air Serbia?
Although I managed it in the end, the process was far from pain-free and there’s very little up-to-date information on the Internet, so I’ll try to give some detailed tips today. First of all, although you are using Etihad Guest miles, you don’t talk to Etihad at all for the booking – the whole process involves Air Serbia only!
[Pricing]
You can find all information on Air Serbia’s website here. As you can see, you could redeem Etihad Guest miles on:
- Award ticket
- Cabin upgrade
- Air Serbia Premium Lounge access
- Additional luggage allowance
Booking an award ticket in business class is the best option. A one-way ticket between London and Belgrade costs 10410 miles in Economy and 14834 in Business, whereas cash prices are usually £150+ and £300+ respectively!
Air Serbia flies to many other major European cities such as Berlin, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Stockholm. Their only long-haul destination at the moment is New York, which costs 44970 / 64082 miles.
Obviously you still need to pay taxes and charges. For London – Belgrade in business class it’s €94.64 (!!), and for Belgrade – London it’s only €22.59.
[Transferring Miles]
Even if you don’t have any Etihad Guest miles, it’s very easy to acquire some. They are a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, so you can transfer your MR points to Etihad Guest miles at the ratio of 1:1.
Although Amex’s website quotes a 48-hour lead time, the transfer is actually instant, which is very useful.
[Ticket Rules]
As explained in their conditions:
- You must book at least 24 hours in advance
- You can change for a €25 fee
- You can cancel for a full refund, less 10% of the Etihad Guest miles
I booked my London – Belgrade trip in business class, and it’s in the I fare bucket. I’m not sure how many award tickets Air Serbia releases per flight, but it seems to be on the generous side.
For my Belgrade – London flight the business cabin had already sold out when I called to redeem, but they somehow still managed to fit me in. A couple of days later they told me it was a mistake and downgraded me to economy instead, alas…
Economy award ticket is booked into the N bucket, which comes with a free 23kg checked bag. You can pay for seat selection and other services, for example:
- Seat selection: RSD 902 – 1578
- Seat selection + priority boarding: RSD 1167
- Sear selection + fast track: RSD 1173
- Premium lounge + fast track: RSD 2322
I paid for seat selection + fast track (€9.99), which lets me select any seat including front / exit row, so apparently a good deal. I can access the premium lounge with my Priority Pass already.
[Contacting Air Serbia]
Once you are ready and have sufficient Etihad Guest miles, you can find your local contact number and call them. All calls are handled by the call centre in Serbia, and they operate long hours. I used the UK number 020 37 695 856.
All the representatives I talked with (and believe me there are many…) are very familiar with the award ticket booking process. Here is what it usually looks like:
- Provide your name, contact information, flight details and Etihad Guest membership number
- Air Serbia has a dedicated back office that checks availability and your Etihad Guest account information
- You’ll be asked to call back in a few hours or the next day
- If everything’s good, they’ll take your credit card details and issue the ticket
So it takes two phone calls and potentially a day to redeem an award ticket, which isn’t the simplest, but not too bad either. I had a nightmare when booking my first ticket though, as my Etihad Guest account turned out to be locked for some reason so I had to sort it out first; then Air Serbia’s back office was unavailable so I had to wait a few more days. But in general, their call centre staff know what they are doing and are very helpful.
I hope you find this article useful!
Convert you Marriott / HSBC points into Etihad miles and earn 40% bonus
Etihad is no stranger to the game of selling miles or offering point conversion bonuses. A very good offer was just made available if you are a member of Etihad Guest.
- Deadline is April 30
- Convert points from participating partners into Etihad miles to earn 40% bonus
- If you convert into between 10,000 and 20,000 miles, you also earn 40% tier miles on top
- The maximum tier miles you can earn is 20,000
Here are the most relevant participating partners:
- Marriott: 3 points = 1 mile
- Hyatt: 2.5 points = 1 mile
- Accor: 4,000 points = 2,000 miles
- Shangri-la: 1 point = 1 mile
- HSBC UK: 2 points = 1 mile
40% is the best bonus that Etihad has ever offered. If you convert 60,000 Marriott points in one go, you should receive (20,000 + 5,000) * 1.4 = 35,000 miles, which isn’t a bad deal at all. We have an article on how to redeem Etihad miles, but I’m not sure how easy the redemption process is in real life.
For those who are already active Etihad Guest members, the tier miles bonus is a great addition too. However, as you need 25,000 tier miles for Silver upgrade, it’s not possible to take advantage of this offer to become an elite member from scratch.
Claim 1,500 free Etihad Guest miles
It’s Etihad’s 15th birthday this year and they’ve launched a promotion to celebrate.
You can check out the promotion page here. The sweet spot is, you only need to give your name, email address and Etihad Guest membership number, and 1,500 miles will be deposited into your account by September 15th. It appears to be open to all Etihad Guest members.
1,500 miles probably won’t get you very far, but it’s free! I actually collected some Etihad miles a few years back when flying Philippines Airlines and they are going to expire in five months. The 1,500 miles should extend their expiry by another 18 months of which I’m very grateful.
On the off-chance that you plan to book an Etihad award flight within the next few days, they are also running a Redemption Offer. Book an Etihad flight using miles by September 6th and you can benefit from a 15% rebate.
Etihad Gold, Dragonpass Prestige & Lifetime GHA Platinum for joining A Small World
Today let’s talk about a niche membership programme – A Small World (ASW).
A Small World is a paid membership scheme. There are multiple membership levels you can choose when signing up, and they come with benefits including hotel / airline status, award miles and more importantly, “member-only exclusive events”.
I have no idea how those events are like and I didn’t find much information online either, so let’s focus on the airline / hotel benefits today.
There are four different levels:
| Access | Lifetime | Prestige | Signature | |
| Validity | 1 year | Lifetime | 1 year | 1 year |
| Fee | €80 | €390 | €5,200 | €19,950 |
| Award Miles | – | – | 250,000 (Miles & More or Etihad Guest) | 1,000,000 (Etihad Guest) |
| Airline Status | – | – | Etihad Gold | Etihad Gold (*2) |
| GHA | Platinum | Platinum | Black | Black |
| Jumeirah | – | – | Silver | Gold |
| Dragonpass | – | – | Prestige | Prestige |
| Sixt | Gold | Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
And from my point of view, there are two opportunities here.
Lifetime – Pay €390 and you get lifetime GHA Platinum and Sixt Gold. It doesn’t sound too bad, especially the former which comes with solid benefits when you stay at hotels.
Prestige – the annual fee is definitely not cheap. However, the 250,000 award miles is worth around €3,000 already, and whether the remaining benefits are worth €2,200 is anyone’s opinion.
Best ways to use your Etihad Guest miles
Not belonging to any airline alliance, Etihad Guest is not a frequent flyer programme that many people know about. However, it does have many partners, and I credited my Philippines Airlines tickets to it last year (as I had no other choice, obviously…), so let me talk you through the highlights of their redemption opportunities today.
