This trip introduction outlines how I was able to put together a great value redemption through Air Canada’a Aeroplan, gaining great access to Canada’s remote Northern Territories. Air Canada’s Aeroplan frequent flier program offers redemptions on Canadian North, an exclusive airline that services Canada’s northern regions and territories. By using a little creativity, I was able to build a ticket that allowed a redemption on its famous “square” routing. The square routing offered the ability to gain access through one territory, travel across the Arctic Circle, then down from the Northern Territories. This ticket allowed travels up one side of the arctic and down the other. This post outlines how I was able to put this trip together.

Trip Introduction: Three Stops in the Canadian Tundra – Northwest Territories and Nunavut via Canadian North

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I have been wanting to get into Canada’s arctic area for quite some time. While I have visited Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory on several occasions for work, the two other Canadian Territories consisting of Northwest Territories and Nunavut had escaped me on both a professional and personal basis. They were the last two areas of Canada that I had yet to visit. In some strange counting country way, these became conquests of areas to get to.

The territory of Nunavut is only commercially accessible through Canadian North. Within Canada, most of our travel is in the lower region of the country, in geographic areas quite close to the Canada / United States border. There is something that is aspirational about the Canadian North oute map, as it offers a glimpse into areas that don’t see a lot of traffic.

Canadian North happens to be an airline partner with Air Canada’s Aeroplan, in addition to running its own program called Aurora Rewards.

When Aeroplan announced it planned on raising redemption rates on Canadian North, I decided it was time to book this weekend trip.

Booking Flights:

The city of Iqaluit, Nunavut is a tremendous distance from my home airport of Vancouver International Airport. It is a distance of almost three thousand miles each way.

Canadian North has a virtual monopoly on all flights out of Nunavut. As a result, comparable cash tickets are always clocking in at around two thousand Canadian dollars.

Using Air Canada’s Aeroplan miles was the way to go. Canadian North does not offer a business class cabin, meaning that economy class is the only available class of service of travel for paid or redemption travel.

At the time of this post, Canadian North normally released two economy seats per flight into Aeroplan reward inventory. I looked up Canadian North reward space inventory using Air Canada’s Aeroplan search engine.

Given that I was booking this flight about three months before travel, and had planned to visit during the summer months, most of the high season reward inventory was already gone. I did also end up dealing with some phantom space challenges, with inventory that would disappear. Fortunately, the inventory usually re-appeared after about forty eight hours.

Making matters a little more challenging, is that my flights had to have access to both Canadian North and Air Canada award inventory. I was relying on space for both carriers in order to put the award together. Since Air Canada offered dynamic pricing, it was easy for the awards to get expensive really quickly.

After a few solid hours of research, I was eventually able to locate saver space routing on Canadian North’s square routing. The square routing would take me up from Vancouver, through Yellowknife, Northwest Territories on Air Canada, then onto Canadian North from Yellowknife over to Rankin Inlet and onto Iqaluit, Nunavut.

The outbound flight would take me from Iqaluit down to Ottawa on Canadian North. I would then switch over to Air Canada for the last flight from Air Canada onwards back to Vancouver.

The whole flight ended up being one large square, which was pretty cool from the award geek traveller perspective.

Canadian North flights weren’t really set up to be timed to connect with the Air Canada network. I found many Canadian North flights that led to no obvious Air Canada connections under two hours. For my travels home, I ended up locating one that connected on the last flight of the day out of Ottawa.

There was also an odd ball Canadian North flight that flies from Iqaluit – Kuujjuaq – Montreal. However, I wasn’t able to get onto that flight without a mandatory overnight stop in Montreal.

I ended up booking a Air Canada Aeroplan standard reward, saving about five thousand five hundred miles per direction over a flex reward. It wasn’t clear if I would get any partner benefits by booking the more expensive reward category. It turned out that I would get free seat selection on Canadian North with the Standard Reward fare.

As I was an Aeroplan Elite member, I was able to use one of the Priority Rewards to get 50% off my reward redemption price. This cut the cost of my redemption from 35,000 Aeroplan points to 17,500 points.

In the end, my round trip ticket looked like this. The schedule would have an overnight in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, along with two full days in Iqaluit, Nunavut prior to my return travels home.

The two thousand dollar trip came to 17,500 Aeroplan points and $106.12 CAD in taxes and fees for five flights. It was a pretty solid Aeroplan redemption at approximately 11.6 cents value per point.

After ticketing, I was able to call Canadian North for seat assignments. While it appeared for a moment that there might be an option to select seats on the Aeroplan website, the systems were not that close in terms of integration. I would end up getting directed to Canadian North for seat assignments.

While I tried with the Canadian North reference number, their website would not allow self selection of the seats. I would end up calling into the Canadian North call centre for seat selection. Surprisingly, Canadian North was even able to provide me with free seat assignments, even on a standard Aeroplan redemption.

Purchasing a Last Minute Upgrade:

When it came time to check in for Air Canada Vancouver – Yellowknife, I used the Air Canada app to check in for my flight.

I was given the opportunity to purchase a Last Minute upgrade into Air Canada Business Class Vancouver – Yellowknife for $161.70 CAD. I did a bit of a value computation in my mind. With a flight being about two and a half hours, I would get in dinner on board, along with a few drinks. I’d also get access to the (better) Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Vancouver Domestic, over my usual Plaza Premium Lounge Domestic Vancouver. Given that I had a few upcoming long economy flights across four days, this seemed like a wise investment.

With all that in mind, I ended up making the purchase and enjoyed business class for the first flight of this journey.

Using Air Canada E – Upgrades:

I wasn’t super thrilled on flying on Air Canada Ottawa – Vancouver in economy class. Squeezing into a five hour flight in economy isn’t something I look forward to. As a result, I ended up purchasing an aisle seat assignment in a preferred seat. This cost $50 CAD.

I also hedged my bets for an upgrade by using an Aeroplan Elite E-Upgrade. These were offered on the flights as follows:

• Air Canada Vancouver – Yellowknife
  • 7 credits + $125
• Air Canada Ottawa – Vancouver
  • 11 Credits + $250

While I would list for the upgrade, I would end up being number 11 on the e-upgrade list and would end up in my preferred seat in economy for the ride back. As a result, I didn’t get the opportunity to ride in business class for the last transcontinental flight.

In a last wrinkle for this trip, about thirty days before travel, Canadian North would re-schedule my well timed flight that easily connected to Air Canada Ottawa – Vancouver. As such, I ended up getting stuck in Ottawa for the night on an involuntary basis. I would end up staying one night at the Fairfield Inn Ottawa Airport for a nine hour layover between my flight home. While I have reviewed it previously, I didn’t review it again since my stay experience was mostly similar.

Planning Hotels:

This trip presented the need for hotels in both Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Iqaluit, Canada.

When researching hotels in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, I happened across The Explorer Hotel. The Explorer Hotel happened to be a full service hotel and looked to be the best of the bunch in a limited lot.

Even better, the Explorer Hotel happened to be available for booking on the American Express Travel website. Everything in the North is more expensive. Booking through the American Express travel website, The Explorer hotel was available for $352.61 CAD a night.

I would end up booking this through the American Express Travel website. This would allow me to burn off my American Express $200 Annual Credit that came with the American Express Platinum Card; making the actual cost $152.61 CAD.

I ended up selecting a Deluxe Room with lake views that included free wifi and free self parking.

For a hotel in Iqaluit, I had settled on The Explorer’s sister hotel – The Frobisher Inn, Iqaluit. I had made a refundable booking at this property. However, when I reached out to some work colleagues, I got an offer to stay with friends who were working in the area. As a result, I didn’t end up needing a hotel for my two night stay in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

Overall, my flights and hotels were about as good as I could expect them to be. There isn’t too much choice when flying in northern Canada. As a result, I was about as happy as I could reasonably get given the area and lack of service providers.

Planning Activities:

I didn’t come to this region with a whole list of activities planned. As a result, I went mostly free style. The only real objectives I had were to trek the Apex Trail in Iqaluit, a visit the historic Hudson’s Bay store, and a visit Sylvia Grinnell Park. I was fortunate to have access to a car in Iqaluit, which made it much easier to get around and get to many of the sights.

I would recommend getting access to a car for at least a portion of your travels in Iqaluit, Nunavut. It makes it much easier to get around to some of the more remote destinations.

I found that two days in Iqaluit was just about the right amount of time to take in the city on a superficial introductory basis; allowing a few sights along with getting to know the area.

My Thoughts on Planning a Canadian North Adventure:

It was a little cumbersome to plan the Canadian North adventure. However, most of my challenges were around phantom reward space. The phatnom reward space usually cleared after about 48 hrs.

I found about two days to be the right amount of time in order to get a glimpse into the area. If you were travelling further afield, you’ll need more time.

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Have you travelled to Nunavut, Canada? If so, what tips and tricks did you use ?

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