Air Canada Departs Aeroplan – 3 Things You Must Know

Aeroplan and Air Canada

The Date – The first thing you need to know is June 30, 2020 is that date when Air Canada terminates its contract from Aimia, which is the parent company of Aeroplan. After this date you will not be able to use Aeroplan to earn or redeem Air Canada or any other Star Alliance members’ points.

Aeroplan Points – The second thing you need to know is that your Aeroplan points after June 30, 2020 remain intact. Aeroplan points or miles will remain the same and they are not going anywhere. However, what you are losing is access to Air Canada or Star Alliance flights. Why this is so important? That’s in #3.

Flight Redemptions – The third and most important thing is that after June 30, 2020 you will not be able to redeem Aeroplan for flight resumptions for Air Canada or any Star Alliance members. Star Alliance is the world’s largest alliance and it has partners such as Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss Air and many others—28 total. Because Air Canada is a part of this alliance, Aeroplan has access to any alliance members for flight redemptions, especially for business class flights. Once Air Canada departs Aeroplan, you will lose that privilege and will not be able to redeem points for flights. You will still be able to redeem Aeroplan for gifts and merchandise but you will not get value out of your points.

Let me give you an example. My business class flight for my upcoming trip from Toronto to Dhaka gave me 7 cents per point return. You will never get this type of return redeeming for non-flight categories. So the best use for Aeroplan would be to redeem them for business class flights before the termination.

But be careful redeeming for business class flights, as some of the Star Alliance members charge hefty fuel surcharges. I have a video discussing the details of everything I mentioned here:

| Aeroplan & Air Canada Departure | 3 Things You Must Know Now |

Tuesday Is Not The Best Day to Buy Plane Tickets

Best Days to Buy Flight Tickets

For decades, we have been told that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to buy plane tickets. However, recent research shows otherwise. The reason in the past Tuesdays and Wednesdays were the best days because that’s when sale fares came out and airlines were trying to beat each other with manual intervention and flash sales.

New data and research from airfare forecasting company Hopper shows that Thursdays are the best days to buy tickets. The same research mentions that Sundays are the worst day to buy tickets. However, a lot of other research points towards different directions.

Another research from Texas A&M University shows that weekends are the best days to book tickets. The reason behind this is that airlines try to lower fares on the weekend to catch leisure travelers.

Research from the Wall Street Journal mentions that Sundays are the best days to buy tickets. The same research points out that Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays are the most expensive days to plane tickets.

Research from Expedia and the Airlines Reporting Corporation shows that Sundays are the best days to buy plane tickets when you buy at least 21 days in advance. Weekends are also a good time to buy tickets, but not Fridays.

All these findings can be confusing. So the best thing to do is to keep an eye on your fare for longer and usually fares are lower six weeks prior to your departure date. So keep an eye out and grab whenever you feel they are the lowest. And in general, check them often on Saturdays and Sundays.

Some websites you can use to check your fares are Google Flight, Kayak, Hipmunk, and Skyscanner.

How to Apply for Indian Tourist Visa

India Tourist Visa from Canada

For my upcoming trip to Asia in November, I just finished going through the process of applying for an Indian tourist visa. And I decided to write about it to give those who will be visiting India in the future some ideas. I will only mention my own experience obtaining a regular tourist visa.

There are other types of tourist visas (such as e-Visa, medical visa, etc.) and/or different procedures for obtaining them, which I am not talking about here. This process is applicable in Canada and possibly very similar to other European countries or the USA. The process and links mentioned below to obtain a visa from the country you are reading from could be very different. For that matter, the process in Canada may have totally changed by the time you are reading this. So check the Consulate General of India website first before starting your application.

To break it down to its simplest terms, here are the steps you need to go through to obtain an Indian tourist visa:

1. Except for a handful countries, citizens of most other countries require a visa before arriving in India. See the BLS link for those countries whose citizens can be issued a visa upon arrival. Link 1: http://www.blsindia-canada.com/touristvisa.php

2. You need to fill out and submit an online visa application and get a printout. Link 2: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/index.html Obtain other documents, such as an appropriate picture, passport, fees, and anything else mentioned under the Requirements tab on the Link 1 website.

3. BLS International, an outsourcing company, looks after India visa processing, and you need to submit everything required to BLS Centres assigned to your area. You can find your BLS Centre by visiting the Contact section under Link 1. If you have any questions, call BLS to clarify before going there.

4. Once you submit, your passport with visa will be mailed out to you or you can pick it up at BLS once available.

There is the option to mail out everything to BLS instead of physically going there, but I do not recommend this because everything will be delayed if they found any mistakes on your application. The benefits of physically submitting an online printout at BLS is that if there are any errors, BLS will tell you right away and you can correct it by submitting another online application on the same day if time permits.

My application was declined the first time, as I put Canada as place of issue instead of Gatineau. I had one hour left before the cut-off time for that day. I rushed to a computer store next door to resubmit online with a new printout (once you apply online it cannot be modified if there was a mistake and you need to redo the whole thing again) and was still able to make it.

The full process is not that difficult. However, with a Canadian passport I am not used to getting a visa because I can travel most places without a visa. For those few countries where a visa is required, I feel slightly weird about going through the process of obtaining it. I have a video on this as well for which I will provide a link on the top left of this article.

What Is IHG Points Break?

Photo Courtesy: IHG.com

How to Travel Cheap Using IHG Points Break

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) Rewards Club is the loyalty program of hotels such as InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Candlewood Suites, and Staybridge Suites. IHG has over 5000 hotels across the globe.

Usually it costs to stay 10,000 to 60,000 points per night. However, IHG runs a promotion every three months (called IHG Points Break) that lets members to stay in hotels for 5000 points only. About 170 IHG hotels participate in this program.

A participating hotel can be booked for a maximum of two stays/reservations for unlimited nights. For example, you can book 2 rooms in the same hotel or book 2 different dates to stay as many nights as you want (if it’s available) and they will be considered 2 reservations. However, that same hotel cannot have more than two reservations/bookings. You can view the list of hotels under points break here.

There are several ways you can accumulate IHG points. I will not go into detail on all of the possible ways to accumulate IHG points in this article. You can find out easily by searching online. My favourite way to earn IHG points is to buy them when they are on sale. At the regular rate, 5000 IHG points cost $67.50 US. However, IHG runs points sales often with 100% bonus points, making it 5000 points for around $34. This means that you are staying at a hotel for $34 per night.

If you act right away when IHG announces their next segment points break, you maybe able to get a hold of an expensive hotel for 5000 each night. The steep discount sometimes can be as high as 90%. To make the most out of IHG points or their points break, learn the ins and outs of the IHG Rewards Program and here is a good article to get you started: The Complete Guide to IHG Rewards

Mileage Plan 101– Tips, Tricks, and the Basics

Alaska Mileage Plan - What You Need to Know

Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan is one of my favourite frequent flyer programs and I use this program to fly Business class across the globe paying very little. It’s no wonder Alaska Airlines and its loyalty program rank at the very top on customer satisfaction year after year.

This Mileage Plan is dynamic in the sense that it’s not part of any 3 alliances; rather it has a pool of partners from all 3 alliances and some non-allied airlines. Here are Alaska Mileage Plan partners:

- Aeromexico

- Air France

- American Airlines

- British Airways

- Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)

- Delta Air Lines

- Emirates (Dubai)

- Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific)

- KLM (Netherlands)

- Korean Air

- LAN (South America)

- PenAir (Alaska)

- Ravn Alaska (formerly Era)

- Qantas (Australia)

Now, let’s look at some basics of Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan frequent flyer program.

Stopover Allowed on One-Way Trip - This is one of the most sought-after features in Mileage Plan rewards. It allows stopover on one leg of the journey or 2 stopovers on a round trip. So you can visit 2 countries instead of one on a one-way trip or 4 countries on a round trip if you use this feature wisely. However, some partners do not allow stopover. Visit alaskaair.com for more info.

No Mix and Match – The Mileage Plan does not allow more than one partner on a one-way flight or on one leg of the trip in a round trip. However, it is allowed to combine with one partner + Alaska Airlines.

Generous Mileage Chart – Unlike other programs, the Alaska Mileage Plan has different redemption charts for different partners and different regions. Usually required miles are a lot less to travel business class compared to other loyalty programs. I will provide some examples below.

Avoiding Fuel Surcharges – Avoid British Airways, as their Mileage Plan collects fuel charges on BA flights, which can be hefty (in the area of $500, for example) on even short flights.

Cancel, Change, and Phone Booking - Alaska allows you to cancel or change within 60 days of departure for a $125 fee and no fee if before 60 days. The phone booking charge is $15 per ticket.

How to Search/Book Flights – You can search and book all partners’ award space on the Alaska website except for Cathay Pacific or LAN. For these, you need to search on partners’ websites such as British Airways, Qantas Airways and then call Alaska to book over the phone. You can learn more on how to search for Alaska award flights by searching more online.

Collecting Alaska Miles – Bank of America and MBNA Canada offer Alaska credit cards with other perks and features. From time to time they will also offer Alaska sales miles on discounts.

Some Alaska Rewards Flights Examples

- Cathay Pacific (CP) to Asia on business class for 50,000 miles with a stopover in Hong Kong

- You can fly to Africa for 50,000 as well with a stopover in Hong Kong on CP. This is real, not a dream.

- CP to Australia or New Zealand with a stopover in Hong Kong for 60,000.

- Qantas business class to Australia or New Zealand for 55,000 miles. Or you can fly to Auckland and have a stopover on Sydney.

- Japan Airlines luxury first class to Asia with a stopover in Tokyo for 70,000 miles.

- Fiji Airways business class to Australia or New Zealand with a stopover in Fiji for 55,000 miles.

- Fly Air France business class for 60,000 miles to Tahiti from LA.

There are so many other possibilities the Alaska mileage plan offers that I find it hard to believe. With proper planning and research, you can see the world in style with Alaska miles.