Aeroplan’s stopover feature simple and a fan favorite: You can turn one trip into two for only 5,000 points.
When you book a flight from one region to another, you can stop in a city and explore to your heart’s content (up to 45 days) before continuing on the same ticket to another city. Instead of buying two separate tickets, this stopover benefit is often possible save tens of thousands of points if used properly.
What’s better? Aeroplan allows you to add stops on a one-way flight. So you can turn a round trip (two-way one-way) into a three-city trip for just 10,000 more points (5,000 one-way).
Sign up for our daily newsletter
Additional points will be easy enough to earn with many of Aeroplan’s transferable points partners, including Rewards for American Express members, Chase the ultimate reward, Capital One mile and Marriott Bonvoy. If you are running out of transferable rewards, get Credit Card Aeroplan® will get you up and running in no time.
But there are times when it makes more sense to book a separate one-way ticket. So consider when you should skip Aeroplan’s stopover feature to save points while still booking your desired route.
It makes more sense to book 2 one-way tickets
One trip that makes sense to book a stopover would be a trip from California to visit Switzerland and Italy.
Book a stopover not too difficult. Simply enter departure city, stopover city (first stop), arrival city (second stop) and stop length in stop city. Then let Aeroplan evaluate your exchange.
This itinerary will include a business class flight from Air Canada’s Star Alliance partner Swiss International Air Lines from San Francisco to Zurich. Then you can explore Switzerland satisfy your heart before proceeding to Rome (also in business class) for 95,000 points.
Compared to the cost of booking this ticket from San Francisco to Rome, connecting at Zurich (and not being able to stop and explore) 90,000 points, this seems like a worthwhile endeavor.
How cheaper is it to book 2 individual tickets
However, while this seems like a good deal, there is still a bit of a story to this redemption. Compare this stopover with booking two one-way tickets: one from San Francisco to Zurich and the other from Zurich to Rome.
In this case, put a business class award from San Francisco to Zurich will cost 70,000 points.
And a flight from Zurich to Rome will cost 15,000 points in business class.
In this case, avoiding Aeroplan’s stopover feature and placing two separate prizes reduced the overall fare from 95,000 points to 85,000 points. TPG is worth 10,000 Aeroplan hits 1.5 coins per point, which means you’ll save about $150. That’s not too bad for minimal effort.
Related: Why Aeroplan’s generous stopover adds value to the Amex card
Why is it more expensive to book a stopover
Doesn’t stopping save you points? In most cases with the Aeroplan program, they have. But this is not always the case.
For this example, Aeroplan’s distance-based award chart is the reason for the increased cost. Below is a ranking of the loyalty program awards for the North American and Atlantic regions, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa as a whole.
Booking a flight from San Francisco to Zurich costs 5,840 miles, placing it second in price for flights between 4,001 and 6,000 miles.
Since the flight from Switzerland to Rome (431 miles) pushes the total distance into the third range from 6,001 to 8,000 miles, it increases the cost by 20,000 points from 70,000 points to 90,000 points.
However, ordering the intra-European segment alone will only cost 15,000 business points, based on the Intra-Atlantic awards rankings. It would also prevent the San Francisco-to-Europe segment from falling into higher prices and eliminate the 5,000-stop stop fee.
Related: Best Ways to Maximize Air Canada’s Aeroplan
Key point
This is not to say that Aeroplan stops are always a bad deal. The ability to book an Aeroplan stop for only 5,000 points is a great offer that opens up the possibility of booking multicolor award at a fraction of the cost. There are many times when it makes sense to use this feature, saving you thousands of points in the process.
But as you have seen in this example, this is not always the case. Sometimes using the stop feature puts you in the next prize chart pricing pool. So you should always do the math and double check that adding a breakpoint is real save you points before booking.
