“Is it worth it to buy points?” That’s a question I am asked frequently and the answer to that question varies significantly depending on the airline or hotel program and the bonus or discount that is in place at the time!
For example, just a few days ago I reported on WestJet’s 50% bonus on buying points and how I don’t recommend it. And then the next day I posted about the Aeroplan up to 95% bonus on buying points and stated it is worth it if you can pull 2.25 cents per point or more in value.
And that’s what we are covering here in this post. A look at a singular example that provides some amazing value for buying Aeroplan points with the 95% boost being offered right now. The crazy thing is, 95% isn’t even the best bonus in history of buying Aeroplan points, we just saw a 100% bonus at the start of July and in the past we’ve seen offers even greater than 100%.
Nonetheless, if an award flight like the one shown below fits your plans, you have the money for buying points and want a discount on buying business class flights, then find yourself some award flight availability and buy those points.
TL;DR You can get 4.36 cents per point in value for business class flights on SWISS between Montreal and Zurich making it more than worthwhile to buy those points at 2.1 to 2.2 cents each! Click here to buy Aeroplan points
Montreal to Switzerland for 2 in business class for less than $6,000 instead of over $16,000!
When it comes to premium cabin flights, some of the best value in the Aeroplan program comes from partner award flights that are still feature partner (non-dynamic pricing) award charts pricing. Two of those airlines we have covered frequently here on Rewards Canada in our Award Availability Alerts are Austrian Airlines and SWISS. And it’s that latter being featured here!
What makes SWISS the real deal for some amazing value with the Aeroplan program is their Montreal to Zurich route as it falls into the 0 – 4,000 mileage band. This means you only need 60,000 Aeroplan points for a one way business class award ticket.
And like clockwork, as we see every winter, availability for business class award flights on SWISS (and Austrian) are ripe for the picking. And that availability is perfect for buy points bonuses like this one.
Any one up for a ski trip to St. Moritz?
Here’s just one example of that SWISS availability, a round trip flight between Montreal and Zurich for 2 in business class in February. Total cost for two travellers: 240,000 Aeroplan points and $359.02 in fees and taxes.
And those same flights if you were to buy them today from Air Canada would run you $16,419,02:
What about buying them from SWiSS? No dice to getting them any cheaper, also $16,419.02:
That’s where buying points can save you a lot of cash!
As you can see, a pair of round trip business class flights are being sold for over $16K or 240,000 points and just over $350 in fees. So that brings us to buying points, can buying 240,000 points with the 95% bonus save you some coin on these flights? Yes, you better believe that it can!
Seeing as this flight example originates in Montreal, let’s look at buying the points if you live in Quebec. You can buy points at the 130,000 level and the 95% bonus will push that to 253,500 points. The total cost for buying slightly over a quarter million Aeroplan points? $5,605.03. If you are quick at math (or even if you aren’t) you should be able to see that’s significantly less than $16,419!!
And just in case you are someone willing to take positioning flights, here’s the price of buying the same level of points if you live in Ontario:
And finally, the places that get the best deal (within Canada that is) Alberta and the Territories who could buy the points for $5,118.75:
With those three buy points examples you are buying more than enough Aeroplan points for two round trip business class flights for $5118.75 to $5605.03 and paying $359.02 in taxes and fees on the actual award flights. All in, that’s under $6,000 for these flights that the airlines are charging $16,402 for! (And you’ll have 13,500 Aeroplan points leftover 😉 )
In terms of cents per point, the above business class flights provide a value of 4.36 cents per point! And, if you recall from my original article on this 95% bonus for buying Aeroplan points that if you can find a redemption with a value of 2.25 cents or more it makes sense to buy the points. Well, here you have almost double the value!
On a totally unrelated note – if you have enough points in your Aeroplan account where you don’t have to buy points and happened to have earned them thanks to the 5x points earning in the American Express Cobalt Card, well with this award flight example you are looking at a 21.8% return on that 5x points spending! Tell me… does your PC Financial or BMO credit card give you the opportunity for 21% returns?
Solo traveller? Still an excellent value!
If you are travelling solo, the flight award cost is half the amount at 120,000 points for the round trip and $179.51 in fees. But, as you only need 120,000 points you would buy points at the 70,000 points level which has a 70% bonus and that would put you at 119,000 points! 1,000 points shy of the award flight! So you simply would need to buy the lowest level of points, which is 2,000 and those are $75. All in for the two purchases it would be $3,014 if you are in Quebec, less in Ontario, Alberta etc. Still a good deal as you are paying about 2.5 cents per point and redeeming them for 4.36 cents each.
What about business class flight pricing from other airlines?
Using Google Flights I did search to see what other business class options were available on the same dates between Montreal and Zurich and the best price came in at just around $10,800 however it was with multiple airlines and connections. Even with this cheapest and more painful routing option, buying Aeroplan points with a bonus would save you upwards of $5,000 for a pair of tickets! Heck, thinking about this even more, the business class fares from airlines like Air France and KLM when they have seat sales would probably come in at $7,000 to $8,000 for a pair of tickets, so you would still end up saving at least $1,000 with the buy points bonus.
Wrapping it up: a word to the wise
If opportunities like this appeal to you, don’t go off and buy the points blindly. Find availability of award flights that meet your needs or wants first and then buy the points! You don’t want to be stuck with the points if you don’t have to be. Yes, you’ll be able to use them no matter what at some point in the future. However, you may not find deals like these and you may end up not getting more value out of the points than if you had just bought flights with cash or waited to buy points in the future with an even bigger bonus.
Click here learn more and to buy Aeroplan points
Images via SWISS and Air Canada
