Aeroplan Tickets

In general, Aeroplan seats (as always, in limited quantities) are made available 355 days in advance.
So for a return ticket, by default you can book 355 days before the return flight.

However:
- A few airlines release seats to Aeroplan at different times, e.g. 330 days out.
- On popular routes, for premium seats, or if you have >2 ppl, seats may disappear like hotcakes (unless you have priority access to additional seats as a status frequent flyer). In such instances, you might find bookable Aeroplan seats have already all been taken on your outbound trip by the time the 355 day window covers the return. If this is a concern, see if you can book your Aeroplan reward as 2 one ways. (It has consequences on stopovers/open jaws and booking/change fees, however.)
- It is hotly debated, and ultimately rather unpredictable, if airlines will release additional seats closer to date of travel. Some (e.g. Lufthansa) have pretty routinely done that with unsold inventory as you get closer to date of travel, some do so very rarely. Certainly best to not count on it, but keep checking and it might be worth changing your ticket if you had to accept a suboptimal routing.

Thank you. I will look into this and see what works best.

Economy class awards in general are what you see is what you get. So book as soon as spaces are available is usually advisable.
Premium award spaces can get more complicated - some airlines do have their own schedule for releasing business and first class seats.
For example, in my experience booking on Turkish Airlines for May 2018. there were 0 spaces departing from Toronto for all of last summer and fall. Then, checking again in December, there were suddenly business class seats on almost every single flight departing in May and June.

twotterdhc6 wrote: ↑ Economy class awards in general are what you see is what you get. So book as soon as spaces are available is usually advisable.
Premium award spaces can get more complicated - some airlines do have their own schedule for releasing business and first class seats.
For example, in my experience booking on Turkish Airlines for May 2018. there were 0 spaces departing from Toronto for all of last summer and fall. Then, checking again in December, there were suddenly business class seats on almost every single flight departing in May and June.

Thanks for the tip.

I think we will most likely do economy and the flight is to South America during winter so I assume it's busy season down there. I will most likely do one way when 365 opens up and then do the one way in March for returns when they open up.

speedyforme wrote: ↑ Thanks for the tip.

I think we will most likely do economy and the flight is to South America during winter so I assume it's busy season down there. I will most likely do one way when 365 opens up and then do the one way in March for returns when they open up.

Where exactly are you looking to go? The aeroplan tool isn't always the best way to understand if you can get somewhere. I say work backwards.

Find the airport you want to arrive at, visit that airports website and learn what flights land/leave from there that are star alliance. You may be better off learning when there is availability on the south American airport united flight to the US, then figuring out a connection to / from your home airport.

You will need to call in to book it, but that's what I would do.

Ideally you will want all united flights to keep taxes low. However if you mix an air Canada flight into a hub US airport it may not be so bad.

Good luck!

speedyforme wrote: ↑ Thanks for the tip.

I think we will most likely do economy and the flight is to South America during winter so I assume it's busy season down there. I will most likely do one way when 365 opens up and then do the one way in March for returns when they open up.

problem with doing one way, is that you lose the opportunity to have stop overs which is where Aeroplan is most valuable

foreigncontent wrote: ↑ problem with doing one way, is that you lose the opportunity to have stop overs which is where Aeroplan is most valuable

Same could be said for Economy tickets

foreigncontent wrote: ↑ problem with doing one way, is that you lose the opportunity to have stop overs which is where Aeroplan is most valuable

I don't see stopovers as an opportunity. I want direct as possible and cheap. I don't plan to spend a ton of time flying.

GangStarr wrote: ↑ Where exactly are you looking to go? The aeroplan tool isn't always the best way to understand if you can get somewhere. I say work backwards.

Find the airport you want to arrive at, visit that airports website and learn what flights land/leave from there that are star alliance. You may be better off learning when there is availability on the south American airport united flight to the US, then figuring out a connection to / from your home airport.

You will need to call in to book it, but that's what I would do.

Ideally you will want all united flights to keep taxes low. However if you mix an air Canada flight into a hub US airport it may not be so bad.

Good luck!

Hm that is a very good point, I should check that out.

This is for Antarctica. And I have to be in Ushuaia. However, I don't think it will work on Aeroplan so I have to fly to Buenos Aires first. I'll work backwards, thanks!

Also we are trying to avoid United and US altogether with any stopovers and connections, as direct as possible; prices pending.

speedyforme wrote: ↑ This is for Antarctica. And I have to be in Ushuaia. However, I don't think it will work on Aeroplan so I have to fly to Buenos Aires first. I'll work backwards, thanks!

Also we are trying to avoid United and US altogether with any stopovers and connections, as direct as possible; prices pending.

Are you going to Antarctica by boat, or wanting to go by plane. There is no *A flights you can book to Antartica.

By now you'll have figured out there is no direct flight yyz to ush. You'll need stopover/connection. Well, there's also no *A flight to ush.

By avoiding UA, you'll also pay more in scamcharges. When we flew to eze or scl, we used COPA, or UA hub in US, and saved a lot from AC scamcharges.

Copa and Avianca are your best bets. You should be able to get to Buenos Aires with minimum 1 stop, and neither has surcharges.
There have been issues booking Avianca on Aeroplan since middle of last year though. Hopefully they have resolved it by now...

Arrgh wrote: ↑ Are you going to Antarctica by boat, or wanting to go by plane. There is no *A flights you can book to Antartica.

By now you'll have figured out there is no direct flight yyz to ush. You'll need stopover/connection. Well, there's also no *A flight to ush.

By avoiding UA, you'll also pay more in scamcharges. When we flew to eze or scl, we used COPA, or UA hub in US, and saved a lot from AC scamcharges.

Yeah I am looking at COPA now and it will stop over at Panama and we are good with that if it will save us like $1000 lol.

And yes, we will end up buying tickets to USH separately. Most likely flying with Aerolinas airlines since I hear negative things with LATAM.

The cruise sets off from USH.

speedyforme wrote: ↑ And yes, we will end up buying tickets to USH separately. Most likely flying with Aerolinas airlines since I hear negative things with LATAM.

Don't know specifically about flights to USH, but Aerolinas Argentinas and LATAM both have their pluses and minuses in general. LATAM is very by the book and sometimes that is unpleasant and bureaucratic; Aerolinas is much more happy go lucky and disorganized, which can be good or bad. I understand both are safe, and both have good days and bad days, but I wouldn't necessarily count out LATAM.

Enjoy your trip.

houska wrote: ↑ Don't know specifically about flights to USH, but Aerolinas Argentinas and LATAM both have their pluses and minuses in general. LATAM is very by the book and sometimes that is unpleasant and bureaucratic; Aerolinas is much more happy go lucky and disorganized, which can be good or bad. I understand both are safe, and both have good days and bad days, but I wouldn't necessarily count out LATAM.

Enjoy your trip.

Thanks. I am only basing this based on the Antarctica Tripadvisor reports I have read. LATAM is much cheaper but I heard in terms of organization, they are worse with little regard for customer service when they just decide to just cancel on you and for a trip to Antarctica, it's not worth the risk. I will review again. Thanks.

speedyforme wrote: ↑ I don't see stopovers as an opportunity. I want direct as possible and cheap. I don't plan to spend a ton of time flying.

I think you're confusing the term layover and stopover.

You're clearly missing the pluses of a stopover. I primarily do Asia routes, so let me run this by you.

YYZ TPE YYZ RT in J is 150,000 miles on AP.

YYZ TPEx NRT (turn) TPE YYZ RT in J is also 150,000 miles on AP. Now if you try and give me grief that you can't go through TPE twice, I'll just say..."you're wrong", and there are ways to pull this off, and yes, I've done it, all on BR.

Or, alternatively, let's try this.

YYZ TPE SIN...YYZ is 155,000 miles in J, RT, or you can do

YYZ TPEx SIN (turn) IST ATHx LHR YYZ, for also 155,000 miles RT in J.

So I can hit up one country, or 3 for the same number of miles.

You may feel stopovers are stupid, but to me, they are great value for money.

superangrypenguin wrote: ↑ I think you're confusing the term layover and stopover.

You're clearly missing the pluses of a stopover. I primarily do Asia routes, so let me run this by you.

YYZ TPE YYZ RT in J is 150,000 miles on AP.

YYZ TPEx NRT (turn) TPE YYZ RT in J is also 150,000 miles on AP. Now if you try and give me grief that you can't go through TPE twice, I'll just say..."you're wrong", and there are ways to pull this off, and yes, I've done it, all on BR.

Or, alternatively, let's try this.

YYZ TPE SIN...YYZ is 155,000 miles in J, RT, or you can do

YYZ TPEx SIN (turn) IST ATHx LHR YYZ, for also 155,000 miles RT in J.

So I can hit up one country, or 3 for the same number of miles.

You may feel stopovers are stupid, but to me, they are great value for money.

No I understand what you mean. If my plans were to visit several places it would certainly be great. But for this specific trip and most others, I usually focus on one place given the amount of time I have to travel

speedyforme wrote: ↑ No I understand what you mean. If my plans were to visit several places it would certainly be great. But for this specific trip and most others, I usually focus on one place given the amount of time I have to travel

Oh I see. My bad, You had said "I want [] and cheap as possible", so interpreted the cheap in a different way than you meant.