My dislike of Air Canada is no secret. However, I am a fervent collector of Aeroplan points, signing up for offers at every opportunity. Why? Because 15,000 Aeroplan points gets you a 'short haul' return flight which is defined as to an adjacent province or territory. Nunavut is Ontario's northern neighbour so what is usually a $1,800 return flight can be had for as little as $37.56.
Of course you pay in some way:
- You have to fly Air Canada at every opportunity to earn miles,
- You have to plan way ahead and be very flexible with your dates (only 2 seats on each flight between Ottawa and Iqaluit are points seats)
- You have to endure the tedium of telephoning the aeroplan contact centre with the annoying voice recognition call handling computer,
- Finally after being told that it looks like you can book, you have to wait a nailbiting 48 hours to see if your flight is avialable
Happily I survived all these challenges and have a seat on a flight out of here en route to San Francisco for our annual snowboarding holiday at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe. Yes I know it seems a little crazy to leave the arctic in the middle of winter to go snowboarding but we don't have hot tubs here, the snow is hard pack ice and it it ffffreezing whereas SLT will be mild, covered in pow and home to many steaming hot tubs. See you there!
I recently found out that Aeroplan can be used on flights of Calm Air, First Air and Canada North. Was trying to see how many point it cost and I found your blog on Google. Can't believe it only costs 15k! But are 15,000 can just get me to Iqaluit or anywhere in Nuvavut? I guess there is not much to see in Iqaluit? I wanna get a taste of a national park in the far north.
ReplyDeleteThe land around Iqaluit is beautiful and there is lots to see. Come check it out!
ReplyDeleteNot sure about using points to move around the territory, give the Aeroplan travel bookings line a call and let us know what they say :-)