With another year, another frequent flier point de-valuation came and went. Thankfully, Aeroplan had the courtesy to announce the changes with several months in advance, unlike some other recent frequent flier program devaluations. It seemed like the logical time to burn more miles. I’ve pretty much given up on maintaining status after 8 years, since the miles are easier to obtain through other forms of accumulation. 

---

Trip Introduction: The Khors of Oman, Cherry Blossoms in Japan and Perogies in Poland. Round the World #2 in Star Alliance Business Class via ANA, Thai, Turkish and Lufthansa.

---

Trip Planning:

We had our eyes set on another Africa redemption with our eyes on the Seychelles. But two days before the de-valuation booking deadline, I learned that Ethiopian had outright cancelled their Seychelles flights, leaving Star Alliance without a means of getting to the Seychelles. We had to put together a new plan quickly if we wanted to get in on the lower ticket prices prior to the increase. In 48 hours, I managed to put together an “Middle East” Around the World Redemption with the Aeroplan permitted two stops, calling in on in Tokyo, Japan, Dubai United Arab Emirates, Warsaw Poland booked at about 4 months out. 

Since we had already been to the United Arab Emirates, we decided to add on a short side trip to Oman, courtesy of Etihad Guest frequent flier program miles.

For the first time, I signed up for ExpertFlyer (instead of using the “Guess and Check” method that I learned in high school math) which made for a much easier Aeroplan booking experience as I had the Maximum Permitted Mileage in hand when designing the routing. 

Taxes, fees and fuel surcharges came to $1,035 CAD per ticket, in addition to 135,000 Aeroplan miles per passenger.

YVR-SEA-NRT (Aeroplan Business Award)

NRT-ICN-BKK-DXB (Aeroplan Business Award)

AUH-MCT-AUH, (Etihad Preferred Guest – Business Award)

DXB-IST-ZRH-WAW, (Aeroplan Business Award)

WAW-MUC-YVR (Aeroplan Business Award)

---

In my experience, the African content Award redemptions are super complicated and high on customer demand so I hope you’ll enjoy this trip report as you follow along on how we built and traveled our Aeroplan Frequent Flier Program South African and Safari Adventure.

---