Aeroplan is updating its award chart on January 01, 2014 and the changes are both good and bad.
The Good: One-way awards at half the round-trip cost
Right now Aeroplan charges 67% of the r/t price for a one-way award. Starting on 01/01, that rate will drop to 50%. That means a one-way trip between Europe and North America in business class will be only 45K miles. If you travel on Lufthansa or Air Canada you will be hit with heavy fuel surcharges, but there are a number of Star Alliance partners with low or zero fuel surcharges.
Note that this “good” still has an asterisk next to it. Aeroplan only allows one-way awards for flights to/from North America. Unfortunately, that severely limits the utility of one-way awards for travelers outside the U.S. and Canada.
The Bad: Higher rates for Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and North Africa
Currently Australia is 135K miles r/t in business class and Asia, depending on the country, is 125-130K r/t in business with routings via Europe allowed to Asia. On 01/01, the chart becomes much less attractive. Oddly, going to northern Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, and Morocco) will be more expensive than southern Africa. I cannot figure that one out, but the old chart remains in effect for three more days.
Still, it will be “competitive” with United’s new award chart that take effect on February 01, 2014.
Yes, just cashed in my remaining AE miles yesterday (as I desert the program completely after 25 years of being an AC elite for the fairer fields of MileagePlus and AAdvantage) for an itinerary that boggled the mind of the res agent: YYZ-IAD(UA)-CPH(SK)-AMS(SK) s/o AMS-IST(TK)-KIX(TK) s/o KIX-TPE(BR)-CDG(BR0-BRU(SN) s/o BRU-IAD(SN)-YYZ(UA) all in business for 125K AE miles and $281 in taxes and fees, but no fuel surcharges! Will miss doing such routings, this being my fifth or sixth in either J/C or F. Had considered holding onto the miles to see how the one-ways worked out…the way I usually book my MP or AA awards, greater flexibility to mix STAR with OW airlines…but as pointed out, even the new chart will be too restrictive. Not to mention the overall increase in miles required for Asian/Australian destinations (after a significant increase two years ago) and the outrageous fuel surcharges on the majority of key STAR airlines (LH, OZ, NH, TG).
Of course now will have to focus on some long haul F awards using my MP miles before that chart increases. Already lucked out on some sweet SQ F/Suites awards when the “back door” opened up two summers ago!
But oh how we vets yearn for the good old days of our FF programs, when in Aeroplan we could get two award tickets in F to any AC or partner destination (when it had an F cabin) for just 140K AE miles! Plus 7 nights in a Hilton/Sheraton/Westin suite AND a 7 day rental from Avis/Hertz/Budget! (And those were the days of very lucrative double and triple RDM bonuses.)