Air Canada (Aeroplan)

"Flexibility when redeeming points" should rank ease and cost of redemptions for travel by a third-party. I book for friends and loved ones, from my account, using my points, in premium cabins. Aeroplan used to be excellent for this. Now it's trash, with huge overreaching redemption prices in premium cabins. For those who use their own points for their own travel, especially those who have elite status, the new program seems good. But eUpgrades cannot be used for another traveller, only for the named member. This change has effectively lowered Aeroplan from my Go-To first choice, to my fifth, after AAdvantage, British, Flying Blue, Delta. Remember when listening to all the Aeroplan fanboys, that they are booking for themselves only. If they were booking for someone else, they'd be disgusted, like me.

Aeroplan has been massively devalued, is insanely easy to waste miles via stupid redemptions that end up with massive bs fuel surcharges, and in general is just a bad program with a horrid website that almost never works. Altitude is among the absolute worse frequent flier programs too, with it being harder than any other in star alliance to get full status, and once your there, you still won't get many upgrades where others will give you near unlimited guaranteed.

Used to be good but fuel surcharges... Only *A partners

If you live in Canada, this program has countless offers for redeeming points, whether it be by upgrading tickets, free flights, huge amount of retail offers, charity donations.. whatever you'd want. Star Alliance network is very large and therefore the ability to earn points is available when going to almost all destinations. I mostly like the fact that points can be earned through other things such as online and in-store shopping and through partner credit cards.

So I needed to book a US domestic flight on miles today. United had a seat in economy class for 50,000 points (last minute planning). Since I don't have a United miles plan I called Aeroplan (Air Canada), United's partner airline. The agent apologized all they had was first class----for 40,000 points--same flights! So, free tip...get an Aeroplan account and compare when booking US based flights! Whether or not you live in Canada or use Aeroplan a lot it is a great way access point to the Star Alliance (especially with AMEX points) and you can often get better seats than directly with a US carrier.