Right here in Half 7 of our Miles & Factors for Learners sequence, we’ll proceed taking a look at choices and methods concerning the redemption part of your factors journey.
In Half 6, we went over how one can outline a “whole lot,” how one can assess if the award flights you discover in your searches are offering you with good worth, and how one can steadiness all this data with your personal private journey priorities and needs.
In help of your hunt for good offers, this text will dive into redemption “candy spots” to construct your data on these extremely useful and invaluable award flight choices.
By being tuned-in with current and potential candy spots, you’ll be much more effectively outfitted to make high-value redemptions and to get pleasure from your first (and second and third) enterprise class flight for near free.
Loyalty Applications & Candy Spots
As you start to analysis completely different loyalty applications to put money into, and also you construct your data on how one can discover award flights that characterize a very good deal, one of the essential issues to search for in every program is their candy spots.
Once we say “candy spot,” what we’re referring to is the absolute best means (when it comes to factors or money worth) to e book a selected flight, particularly when in comparison with different applications. To assist in giving you a very good understanding of what a candy spot entails, we’ll go over a lot of examples all through this text.
As you journey additional into Miles & Factors, figuring out and leveraging candy spots inside every program will provide help to maximize your redemptions, save factors, and have some excellent experiences besides.
In a lot of our loyalty program guides, we checklist candy spots and how one can e book them with factors, however on this article, we’ll focus completely on a couple of of our favorite applications which can be simply accessible, have wonderful award pricing, and stable candy spots.
We’ll additionally offer you some perception into how one can determine candy spots on the whole, which builds properly on Half 6’s lesson on “what’s a very good deal.”
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada’s Aeroplan is a flexible program that’s notably straightforward to entry in Canada since there are many co-branded bank cards, and since you may switch your American Categorical Membership Rewards factors (MR factors) to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.
Aeroplan additionally enjoys the good thing about over 45 airline companions, so there are redemption choices in almost all corners of the globe.
As a hybrid distance- and zone-based program, Aeroplan redemptions grow to be costlier the additional the overall distance of the flights in your itinerary.
Accordingly, for those who can prepare to your flights to stay inside the first few distance bands of Aeroplan charts’ geographic zones, there are many candy spots to be discovered.
As we talked about in Half 6 of this sequence, Aeroplan makes use of a dynamic pricing construction for Air Canada redemptions, so candy spots are sometimes award flights that price as near the low finish of the factors vary as potential and fly as near the utmost variety of miles for any given distance band.
For redemptions with accomplice airways, Aeroplan makes use of mounted pricing, and the candy spots depend upon award availability current within the first place, and for redemptions to varied components of the world.
An instance of a short-haul candy spot inside Canada is 12,500 factors for a cross-country flight in financial system, 19,000 factors for a cross-country flight in premium financial system, or 25,000 factors for a cross-country flight in enterprise class. Typically, you may even discover flights for lower than that.
For a medium-haul candy spot within the Aeroplan program, you possibly can search for alternatives within the North America to Atlantic zones chart.
Flights from Jap Canada to Europe are inclined to measure beneath 4,000 miles, which signifies that a one-way enterprise class flight may be booked for as few as 60,000 Aeroplan factors on a accomplice airline, or typically with Air Canada (if yow will discover flights on the decrease finish of the dynamic vary).
When it comes to long-haul candy spots, Aeroplan has a couple of notable alternatives between North America and Asia.
For less than 55,000 Aeroplan factors, you possibly can doubtlessly fly ANA enterprise class from Vancouver or Seattle to Japan.
(On the time of writing, these can solely be booked over the cellphone, so that you’ll want to search out ANA award availability on one other Star Alliance program web site (e.g., United MileagePlus), after which name Aeroplan to e book it utilizing Aeroplan factors.)
In the event you’re versatile and may wait till inside a month of journey for last-minute award availability, you can too discover United Airways Polaris enterprise class to fly from San Francisco to Tahiti for 55,000 factors too.
In the event you’re feeling a bit extra adventurous, you need to be conscious of the so-called “Asia 3” candy spot on the “Between North America and Pacific zones” chart, which refers back to the third distance band on the chart.
Leveraging the third distance band on this chart offers you as much as 11,000 miles to fly between North America and wherever in Asia or the South Pacific, which is an exceedingly beneficiant distance for the related factors vary. By preserving your flight distance inside this band, you’ll pay simply 87,500 Aeroplan factors to fly in enterprise class with accomplice airways.
This implies that you could fly from North America to Australia over the Pacific, or take the great distance round to Asia by flying by means of Europe or the Center East, and also you’ll nonetheless pay simply 87,500 factors (or typically much less, if dynamic pricing skews in a beneficial path).
Moreover, for those who’d wish to discover a brand new nation or metropolis alongside the best way, you may add a stopover for simply Aeroplan 5,000 factors extra.
For these and plenty of different causes, Aeroplan is extensively thought of to be top-of-the-line loyalty applications out there, particularly for those who’re prepared to place the time in to study the way it works and the various candy spots that lie inside.
British Airways Government Membership
One other of our favorite applications is British Airways Government Membership.
This program is sort of accessible in Canada since you may simply earn British Airways Avios by means of the RBC® British Airways Visa Infinite† or by transferring RBC Avion factors or American Categorical MR factors at a 1:1 ratio.
Avios factors are versatile factors that may provide help to entry award flights inside the oneworld alliance.
There are a variety of wonderful candy spots inside the British Airways loyalty program, which largely contain continuous flights. That’s as a result of British Airways makes use of additive award pricing, which signifies that you pay for every phase that you just e book.
One candy spot in this system reveals up whenever you redeem factors for short-haul flights inside Europe (on British Airways or Iberia), inside Asia (on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airways), and inside Australia (on Qantas Airways).
For instance, flying from London to Rome is available in at 11,750 Avios plus $1 (all figures in CAD) in taxes and charges. You may additionally select to pay extra in money and fewer in Avios, since British Airways lets you customise your redemptions.
A novel characteristic of the British Airways loyalty program is that there are a number of loyalty applications (Aer Lingus AerClub, Iberia Plus, Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, Finnair Plus, Vueling Membership, and British Airways Government Membership) that use the identical foreign money (Avios), and you may immediately convert them from one “flavour” to a different at 1:1 ratio.
This characteristic lets you entry candy spots inside every one of many above airways’ loyalty applications.
Most notably, the transferable Avios characteristic opens up entry to one of the sought-after candy spots – Qatar Airways Qsuites.
By transferring factors to Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, you possibly can entry the next redemption candy spots on this planet’s greatest enterprise class:
- North America to Doha: 70,000 Avios
- North America to elsewhere within the Center East: 75,000 Avios
- North America to South East Asia: 95,000 Avios
One other candy spot instance that may be simply accessed due to the power to switch Avios between completely different flavours is with Iberia Airways.
By transferring Avios to Iberia Plus, you may e book a one-way enterprise class flight from the Jap US to Madrid for under 34,000 Avios.
The flexibility to switch Avios additionally helps you to benefit from reserving award flights with airways which have taxes and charges which can be decrease than these charged by different airways.
For instance, for those who had been to e book a one-way enterprise class flight from Finland to North America utilizing Finnair Avios, it might price 62,500 Avios, plus $140 or so in taxes and charges.
In the event you had been to e book the identical flight utilizing British Airways Avios, the taxes and charges would soar as much as round $1,400.
That signifies that the little additional step of transferring your Avios can prevent actually a thousand {dollars} or extra.
It’s additionally essential to notice that there are sometimes switch bonuses at play whenever you transfer your factors from RBC Avion or Amex MR factors to British Airways Government Membership.
By timing your factors switch, you may leverage these bonuses to successfully e book your award flight for much less.
Air France KLM Flying Blue
The Air France KLM Flying Blue program is a bit tougher to entry in Canada because the switch charge from American Categorical MR factors is 1:0.75 and the one co-branded bank card in Canada is the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®.
Flying Blue makes use of a dynamic pricing mannequin, so the price of a route can change from each day; nevertheless, though this makes the costs unpredictable, the profit to this mannequin is that each seat on a flight may be booked with Flying Blue miles.
Flying Blue additionally harmonized all award pricing between Europe and North America in October 2023, which signifies that an extended routing from Vancouver to Istanbul through Amsterdam can be priced in the identical means as a a lot shorter continuous flight from Toronto to Paris.
Regardless of being a bit troublesome to earn in Canada, Flying Blue remains to be a superb program with some nice candy spots.
Specifically, Flying Blue affords the next “beginning at” charges for flights from North America to Europe, that are amongst one of the best within the enterprise:
- Financial system: 20,000 Flying Blue miles
- Premium financial system: 35,000 Flying Blue miles
- Enterprise class: 50,000 Flying Blue miles
In the event you’re capable of rating any of those flights at this low finish of the dynamic pricing vary, you’ll have captured a candy spot (and a superb journey to Europe).
Flying Blue additionally stands out amongst loyalty applications in that it affords month-to-month Promo Rewards which give a 25–50% low cost on the already aggressive award charges.
In the event you’re occupied with studying extra concerning the Flying Blue program, its candy spots, and the month-to-month Promo Rewards, we hold up to date guides on virtually all the main airline loyalty applications.
In every information, we dive into the loyalty program’s greatest candy spots to assist spotlight key methods so that you can get wonderful worth out of your factors.
Honourable Mentions
Along with the most well-liked candy spots listed above, there are a couple of extra that you need to be conscious of as you proceed your journey with miles and factors.
Reserving WestJet Flights with Delta SkyMiles
In the event you’re planning on reserving a flight with WestJet utilizing factors, your first intuition could be to take a look at WestJet’s personal loyalty program, WestJet Rewards.
Whilst you can actually e book any WestJet flight utilizing WestJet {dollars}, the reality is that there’s no option to get outsized worth from this loyalty program. The truth is, one of the simplest ways to e book WestJet flights with factors could come as a little bit of a shock.
To entry an incredible WestJet candy spot, you’ll must benefit from the WestJet and Delta Air Strains partnership. Via this partnership you may earn and redeem every airways’ miles and factors on the opposite’s flights.
Moreover, the Delta SkyMiles loyalty program is a switch accomplice with American Categorical Membership Rewards, and factors may be transferred at a 1:0.75 ratio.
With Delta SkyMiles, you’ll pay a set worth of 12,500 SkyMiles for any WestJet routing in Canada or the USA.
For instance, you’ll pay simply 12,500 SkyMiles (or 16,667 American Categorical MR factors with the switch ratio considered) to fly from Vancouver to Toronto, Calgary to Atlanta, Toronto to Los Angeles, and so forth.
In the event you had been to e book the identical Vancouver to Toronto flight proven above with WestJet {dollars}, you’d must redeem not less than 225 WestJet {dollars}.
With out going into the trivia, suffice it to say that it’s a lot simpler to earn sufficient Delta SkyMiles to e book WestJet flights than it’s to earn sufficient WestJet {dollars}.
Money Candy Spots Exist, Too
As we talked about earlier on this sequence, it’s at all times a good suggestion to match the fee in miles and factors with the fee in money since typically it makes extra sense to pay money than to redeem factors.
Considered one of our favorite examples of that is reserving Emirates First Class, which is among the most sought-after aviation merchandise on the market.
When you consider the Dom Perignon Champagne, limitless caviar, non-public suite, and even having the ability to take a bathe within the sky, you could suppose a flight like this might price a small fortune.
Whereas it’s actually true that long-haul flights in Emirates First Class can price upwards of $10,000, you could be shocked to study that you may e book this expertise for lower than $2,000, with out utilizing factors.
Emirates has a lot of fifth-freedom flights between cities all around the world. These are usually shorter flights; nevertheless, additionally they supply the identical expertise that you just’d get with longer flights.
For instance, you may fly in Emirates First Class between Bangkok and Hong Kong for lower than $2,000 round-trip. Whereas that’s loads to pay for a pair of brief flights, it’s additionally one of many least expensive methods to get pleasure from top-of-the-line First Class experiences on the market.
In whole, you’d get round six hours of flying time to eat as a lot caviar and sip on as a lot costly Champagne as you probably can, and also you’d additionally be capable of benefit from the thrill of showering at 36,000 ft on each the flights.
In fact, there are much more candy spots in these and different applications, in addition to many different money candy spots that you just’ll uncover alongside your points-collecting journey. Your job is to now set forth and immerse your self on this planet of Miles & Factors to get out of it greater than what you place in.
Maintain Versatile Factors Versatile
Earlier on this sequence, we checked out why versatile factors matter, and largely, it’s for the sake of diversification.
As a basic rule, it’s greatest to maintain your factors as versatile as potential. This implies holding factors in applications that help you switch these factors to a number of different airline loyalty applications as wanted.
In Canada, the 2 versatile factors applications are American Categorical Membership Rewards and RBC Avion.
With versatile factors applications, when you’ve discovered a flight that you really want primarily based by yourself journey targets, you may then switch your factors over to your related loyalty account for instant use.
For instance, when looking for award flights utilizing the applications we talked about above, you would possibly solely discover availability in a single program for the dates that you really want.
By preserving your factors in versatile applications like RBC Avion and American Categorical Membership Rewards, you may shortly and simply switch your factors from the one program to the one with the flight availability fairly than being restricted to a singular program.
That is particularly essential as a result of loyalty applications are continually altering, and the devaluation of airline redemption choices is just about assured over the long-term.
In the event you put all of your eggs in a single loyalty basket, you run the danger of dropping worth; nevertheless, by preserving a steadiness of versatile factors round, you may assist defend in opposition to these unavoidable shifts and transfer your factors to one of the best basket at one of the best time.
On condition that there are fairly a couple of loyalty applications and a good variety of candy spots to select from, for those who’re ever on the lookout for assist to nail down one of the best deal or for those who’d identical to some assist determining which candy spots are greatest to your particular location and journey desires, our educated Factors Consultants can be very happy to assist!
Conclusion
Loyalty program candy spots are one of the best methods to leverage your factors for max worth.
As you look to make your first large redemption (or your hundredth), figuring out concerning the candy spots will help you get essentially the most out of your hard-earned factors.
We hope you are feeling much more outfitted to your Miles & Factors journey and that you just really feel like you might have the data to make an informed redemption resolution.
Within the subsequent and ultimate a part of this sequence, we’ll take a look at how one can benefit from what you are promoting class flight redemption when you’re able to depart!
