Right here in Half 7 of our Miles & Factors for Novices collection, 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 stability all this info with your personal private journey priorities and wishes.
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 priceless award flight choices.
By being tuned-in with current and potential candy spots, you’ll be much more properly geared up 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 symbolize a superb deal, one of the crucial necessary issues to search for in every program is their candy spots.
After we say “candy spot,” what we’re referring to is the absolute best method (when it comes to factors or money worth) to guide a specific flight, particularly when in comparison with different applications. To assist in giving you a superb 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, realizing and leveraging candy spots inside every program will show you how to maximize your redemptions, save factors, and have some excellent experiences as well.
In a lot of our loyalty program guides, we checklist candy spots and how one can guide them with factors, however on this article, we’ll focus solely on a number of of our favorite applications which are simply accessible, have wonderful award pricing, and stable candy spots.
We’ll additionally offer you some perception into how one can establish candy spots typically, which builds properly on Half 6’s lesson on “what’s a superb 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’ll be able to switch your American Categorical Membership Rewards factors (MR factors) to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.
Aeroplan additionally enjoys the advantage of over 45 airline companions, so there are redemption choices in practically all corners of the globe.
As a hybrid distance- and zone-based program, Aeroplan redemptions turn out to be costlier the additional the overall distance of the flights in your itinerary.
Accordingly, when you can prepare in 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 collection, 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 elements 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’ll be able to even discover flights for lower than that.
For a medium-haul candy spot within the Aeroplan program, you would search for alternatives within the North America to Atlantic zones chart.
Flights from Japanese Canada to Europe are likely to measure underneath 4,000 miles, which signifies that a one-way enterprise class flight will be booked for as few as 60,000 Aeroplan factors on a accomplice airline, or generally with Air Canada (if you could find flights on the decrease finish of the dynamic vary).
By way of long-haul candy spots, Aeroplan has a number of notable alternatives between North America and Asia.
For under 55,000 Aeroplan factors, you would 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 guide it utilizing Aeroplan factors.)
When you’re versatile and might wait till inside a month of journey for last-minute award availability, you too can discover United Airways Polaris enterprise class to fly from San Francisco to Tahiti for 55,000 factors too.
When you’re feeling a bit extra adventurous, try 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 provides you as much as 11,000 miles to fly between North America and anyplace in Asia or the South Pacific, which is an exceedingly beneficiant distance for the related factors vary. By maintaining 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 good 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 generally much less, if dynamic pricing skews in a beneficial route).
Moreover, when you’d wish to discover a brand new nation or metropolis alongside the best way, you’ll be able to add a stopover for simply Aeroplan 5,000 factors extra.
For these and plenty of different causes, Aeroplan is extensively thought of to be the most effective loyalty applications obtainable, particularly when you’re prepared to place the time in to find out about the way it works and the numerous candy spots that lie inside.
British Airways Government Membership
One other of our favorite applications is British Airways Government Membership.
This program is kind of accessible in Canada since you’ll be able to 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 show you how to entry award flights inside the oneworld alliance.
There are a variety of wonderful candy spots inside the British Airways loyalty program, which principally contain continuous flights. That’s as a result of British Airways makes use of additive award pricing, which signifies that you pay for every section that you just guide.
One candy spot in this system exhibits up while 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 costs. You can additionally select to pay extra in money and fewer in Avios, since British Airways permits you to customise your redemptions.
A singular 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’ll immediately convert them from one “flavour” to a different at 1:1 ratio.
This characteristic permits you to 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 crucial sought-after candy spots – Qatar Airways Qsuites.
By transferring factors to Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, you would entry the next redemption candy spots on the planet’s finest 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 because of the power to switch Avios between completely different flavours is with Iberia Airways.
By transferring Avios to Iberia Plus, you’ll be able to guide a one-way enterprise class flight from the Japanese US to Madrid for under 34,000 Avios.
The power to switch Avios additionally allows you to make the most of reserving award flights with airways which have taxes and costs which are decrease than these charged by different airways.
For instance, when you had been to guide a one-way enterprise class flight from Finland to North America utilizing Finnair Avios, it will price 62,500 Avios, plus $140 or so in taxes and costs.
When you had been to guide the identical flight utilizing British Airways Avios, the taxes and costs would soar as much as round $1,400.
That signifies that the little further step of transferring your Avios can prevent actually a thousand {dollars} or extra.
It’s additionally necessary to notice that there are sometimes switch bonuses at play while you transfer your factors from RBC Avion or Amex MR factors to British Airways Government Membership.
By timing your factors switch, you’ll be able to leverage these bonuses to successfully guide your award flight for much less.
Air France KLM Flying Blue
The Air France KLM Flying Blue program is a bit more durable to entry in Canada for the reason that switch fee 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 daily; nevertheless, though this makes the costs unpredictable, the profit to this mannequin is that each seat on a flight will 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 by way of Amsterdam might be priced in the identical method 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 wonderful program with some nice candy spots.
Particularly, Flying Blue provides the next “beginning at” charges for flights from North America to Europe, that are amongst the perfect 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
When you’re in a position to rating any of those flights at this low finish of the dynamic pricing vary, you’ll have captured a candy spot (and a wonderful journey to Europe).
Flying Blue additionally stands out amongst loyalty applications in that it provides month-to-month Promo Rewards which give a 25–50% low cost on the already aggressive award charges.
When you’re enthusiastic about studying extra concerning the Flying Blue program, its candy spots, and the month-to-month Promo Rewards, we maintain up to date guides on virtually all the most important airline loyalty applications.
In every information, we dive into the loyalty program’s finest 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 number of extra that try to be conscious of as you proceed your journey with miles and factors.
Reserving WestJet Flights with Delta SkyMiles
When you’re planning on reserving a flight with WestJet utilizing factors, your first intuition may be to have a look at WestJet’s personal loyalty program, WestJet Rewards.
Whilst you can definitely guide any WestJet flight utilizing WestJet {dollars}, the reality is that there’s no method to get outsized worth from this loyalty program. Actually, one of the simplest ways to guide WestJet flights with factors could come as a little bit of a shock.
To entry a terrific WestJet candy spot, you’ll must make the most of the WestJet and Delta Air Strains partnership. Via this partnership you’ll be able to 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 will be transferred at a 1:0.75 ratio.
With Delta SkyMiles, you’ll pay a hard and fast worth of 12,500 SkyMiles for any WestJet routing in Canada or the US.
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.
When you had been to guide the identical Vancouver to Toronto flight proven above with WestJet {dollars}, you’d must redeem no 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 guide WestJet flights than it’s to earn sufficient WestJet {dollars}.
Money Candy Spots Exist, Too
As we talked about earlier on this collection, it’s all the time a good suggestion to match the fee in miles and factors with the fee in money since generally it makes extra sense to pay money than to redeem factors.
One in all our favorite examples of that is reserving Emirates First Class, which is likely one of the most sought-after aviation merchandise on the market.
When you consider the Dom Perignon Champagne, limitless caviar, personal suite, and even having the ability to take a bathe within the sky, it’s possible you’ll assume a flight like this might price a small fortune.
Whereas it’s definitely true that long-haul flights in Emirates First Class can price upwards of $10,000, you may be stunned to study that you’ll be able to guide 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 provide the identical expertise that you just’d get with longer flights.
For instance, you’ll be able to fly in Emirates First Class between Bangkok and Hong Kong for lower than $2,000 round-trip. Whereas that’s lots to pay for a pair of brief flights, it’s additionally one of many most cost-effective methods to get pleasure from the most effective First Class experiences on the market.
In complete, 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 the planet of Miles & Factors to get out of it greater than what you place in.
Preserve Versatile Factors Versatile
Earlier on this collection, we checked out why versatile factors matter, and largely, it’s for the sake of diversification.
As a common rule, it’s finest to maintain your factors as versatile as potential. This implies holding factors in applications that will let 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’ll be able to 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 may solely discover availability in a single program for the dates that you really want.
By maintaining your factors in versatile applications like RBC Avion and American Categorical Membership Rewards, you’ll be able to rapidly and simply switch your factors from the one program to the one with the flight availability somewhat than being restricted to a singular program.
That is particularly necessary as a result of loyalty applications are continuously altering, and the devaluation of airline redemption choices is just about assured over the long-term.
When you put all of your eggs in a single loyalty basket, you run the danger of dropping worth; nevertheless, by maintaining a stability of versatile factors round, you’ll be able to assist defend in opposition to these unavoidable shifts and transfer your factors to the perfect basket at the perfect time.
On condition that there are fairly a number of loyalty applications and a good variety of candy spots to select from, when you’re ever on the lookout for assist to nail down the perfect deal or when you’d similar to some assist determining which candy spots are finest in your particular location and journey desires, our educated Factors Consultants can be very happy to assist!
Conclusion
Loyalty program candy spots are the perfect methods to leverage your factors for optimum worth.
As you look to make your first huge redemption (or your hundredth), realizing concerning the candy spots might help you get essentially the most out of your hard-earned factors.
We hope you’re feeling much more geared up in your Miles & Factors journey and that you just really feel like you’ve got the data to make an informed redemption choice.
Within the subsequent and last a part of this collection, we’ll have a look at how one can benefit from your online business class flight redemption when you’re able to depart!
