Aeroplan is a versatile award booking program which is unmatched in the world of miles & points in the aspect of most number of affiliated airlines, along with the unique ability to add a stopover on one-way awards for 5000 miles.
Basics of Aeroplan One-way Stopovers
- When you book a one-way flight with Aeroplan points, you can add a single stopover (>24 hours) at a different destination for just 5,000 points.
- You can add up to 2 stopovers on round-trip tickets. However, two one-way bookings are preferred in case of flight cancellations since there is no reduction in total fees or point requirements. Aeroplan also charges a change/cancellation fee of $100/150 CAD per direction of travel so roundtrip cancellation will cost twice the amount.
- Stopovers are not permitted in Canada or the U.S. (can be done in Central or South America).
- You cannot backtrack through the same airport, city or country when traveling in one direction.
- Your stopover cannot exceed 45 days.
- Aeroplan allows one-way awards with up to 6 segments total (including the a singe >24 hour stopover and remaining <24 hour layovers).
- Itineraries booked online with a stopover can have a maximum of 4 segments. If your itinerary contains 4-6 segments, only Aeroplan customer service can complete the booking.
- The distance you fly between your origin and destination in one direction must be less than double the nonstop distance (for example, the non-stop distance from New York to Bangkok is 8677 miles and your total 6 leg flight distance for one-way stopover travel should be less than 17,354 miles).
- You cannot combine a stopover with an open-jaw ticket and must continue flying from the same airport at which you arrived. For example, if you booked a flight from JFK to Bangkok via Frankfurt, you must depart from Frankfurt airport to continue your trip to Bangkok. You cannot choose to stop over in Frankfurt and then leave from Munich to Bangkok.
My Trip to Bangkok
I was planning on a last minute trip to Bangkok during Thanksgiving and was not able to find any business class flights from the NYC area. I wanted to try Aeroplan to see if award flights are available after a brief stopover in Europe. To make the search process easier, I first checked on Seats.aero (https://awardcracker.com/searching-for-partner-airline-award-space/) for the overall availability of business class flights from NYC to Frankfurt and from there to Bangkok.
Aeroplan One-way Stopover Booking
Once I have found the availability, I went to the Aeroplan website where it is very easy to search for one-way stopover award flights (see screenshot below). You will first check the box “Book with Aeroplan points” and then choose “Multi-city/Stopover”.
I am now exploring my options to see if I can extend the trip from Thailand to travel to Seoul and Tokyo (Aeroplan lets you book flights 1 & 2 with stopovers online).
Summary
There are no direct flights from the U.S. to Thailand and connections can be long in many cases. If you are not able to find a reasonable connecting flight, I recommend trying the stopover for 1-2 nights in Europe on your way to Thailand. Aeroplan has recently made one-way stopovers easier to book online without the need to call customer service, unless the journey involves greater than 4 segments.