Air Canada has upgraded one of their two daily flights between Vancouver and Halifax to an internationally configured Boeing 787-9 aircraft with lie flat business class seats. With the addition of this widebody aircraft has come a lot of Aeroplan award availability! There are days we see 2, 4 or even 7 seats open for business class redemptions!
Which flights are operated by the 787?
From Vancouver to Halifax it is flight AC362 (Dep 0830 Arr 1759) and from Halifax to Vancouver it is flight AC363 (Dep 1925 Arr 2131). These flights are operated with a 787 every day of the week except Saturday and are available until September 4 (Source: Aeroroutes)
Examples of Availability
Here is one date in August for each direction:
Aeroplan typically requires between 35,000 to 70,000 points one way in business class for this route and as you can see these are actually pricing below that range. The points requirement shown above are before any preferred pricing discounts provided if you have an Aeroplan co-brand credit card and/or elite status.
Recommended reading: Air Canada Aeroplan reward flight pricing compared: no status no credit card pricing versus elite status + credit card Preferred pricing
Most days that I checked saw the requirement in that 34,000 point range (34,100 to 34,700 to be more specific) with plenty of seats available from Halifax to Vancouver (seven seats for each date I checked) and a little less from Vancouver to Halifax (two to five seats typically available)
Redemption value
If you are someone who likes to check the value they are receiving for their points redemptions, this is a pretty good one! The cash price for the same flights above was $2486.39 round trip. Subtract the $82.17 in fees and you are redeeming 68,200 points for $2,404.22 of the ticket value. That works out to just over 3.5 cents per point. This is well above the minimum 1.5 cents valuation we place on Aeroplan points!
Transferring points from American Express
If you don’t have enough points in your Aeroplan account this is prime opportunity for transfers from American Express Membership Rewards. Points transfer almost instantly on a 1:1 basis and if you happen to have earned those as 5x points from the American Express Cobalt Card you are looking at a return of over 17% for each dollar you spent! Simply amazing!
Wrapping it up
As one of the longest domestic routes in the country, the flight duration for these routes aren’t far off from flying to Europe yet the points requirement is nearly half of those Transatlantic flights. That makes this an excellent opportunity to enjoy Air Canada’s international business class without requiring a six figure Aeroplan points balance!
Visit AirCanada.com to book your flights
Images via Air Canada