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Emirates and Air Canada originally started teasing plans of a strategic partnership back in July 2022; however, it wasn’t until December of last year that they actually finalized the deal. The new partnership gave Aeroplan members the ability to earn points for Emirates-operated flights and Skywards members the ability to earn Miles for Air Canada-operated flights.
On top of that, travelers with 50K, 75K or Super Elite status with Air Canada Aeroplan can now enter the Emirates Business Lounge in Dubai and travelers with Gold or Platinum status with Emirates Skywards can now enter the Maple Leaf Lounges and Air Canada Cafe in Toronto.
But, while Aeroplan members have been able to purchase Emirates flights with Aeroplan points since the deal was finalized, Emirates Skywards members haven’t been able to purchase Air Canada flights with Skywards Miles up until recently. On January 4, 2023, Emirates published a distance-based award chart for Air Canada-operated flights on their website (despite the fact that they don’t have an award chart for their own flights) and is now offering Air Canada-operated award flights through Emirates Skywards.
As Air Canada also uses distance-based award charts to price their own award flights, you can compare the prices of Air Canada award flights in Skywards Miles and Aeroplan points fairly easily. All you have to do is find the distance of your desired award flight and then reference the award charts published by both programs.
In some cases, award flights may be offered at more favorable rates through Emirates while other award flights might be more affordable through Air Canada. It depends on the specific distance of the flight.
Let’s take a look at this new partnership between Air Canada and Emirates and when you might want to purchase Air Canada awards with Skywards Miles instead of Aeroplan points.
Earn Skywards Miles on Air Canada Flights
While the ability to redeem Skywards Miles for Air Canada-operated flights is new, the option to earn Skywards Miles on Air Canada flights has been available since the partnership between the two airlines was finalized. If you wish to earn Skywards Miles on your next Air Canada flight, you can search for your flight on Air Canada’s website and then enter your Emirates Skywards account number during the checkout process. The amount of Skywards Miles you’ll earn depends on the fare class and the distance of the flight. Here’s how to calculate how many Miles you’ll earn in each fare class:
- Economy class: 1 Skywards Mile per mile flown
- Economy premium class: 1.1 Skywards Miles per mile flown
- Business class: 1.5 Skywards Miles per mile flown
You should also be aware that not all Air Canada flights are eligible to earn Skywards Miles. Tickets with the following fare classes are not eligible to earn Skywards Miles:
- Within Canada: S, T, L, K, G, I, N, X, F and R
- International (including flights between Canada and U.S.): I, N, X, F and R
However, most paid Air Canada flights are eligible to earn Skywards Miles. Award flights from Air Canada are not eligible to earn Skywards (or, for that matter, any other rewards currency). So, if you frequently fly with Emirates, then this new option to earn Skywards Miles on your occasional Air Canada flight is great. However, if you typically fly with Air Canada more often, then you’re probably better off electing to earn Aeroplan points on your next Air Canada flight.
Use Skywards Miles to Book Air Canada Flights
As of Jan. 4, 2023, the option to book Air Canada-operated flights through the Emirates Skywards program is now available. And, as previously mentioned, the question of whether you’re better off booking these flights through Air Canada or through Emirates Skywards depends on the specific mileage of the flight in question.
If you want to know how much a specific Air Canada flight is going to cost in Emirates Skywards Miles, you first need to look up the distance of that flight in miles. There are many online tools, such as the Great Circle Mapper, that can help you do this easily. Once you know the mileage of your flight, you can refer to the distance-based Air Canada award chart published by Emirates below (which is also published on the Emirates website):
Zone | One-ay distance (miles) | Economy class rate (Skywards Miles) | Business class rate (Skywards Miles) |
1 | 0 – 250 | 8,000 | 16,000 |
2 | 251 – 500 | 10,000 | 20,000 |
3 | 501 – 1,000 | 14,000 | 28,000 |
4 | 1,001 – 2,000 | 20,000 | 40,000 |
5 | 2,001 – 3,000 | 26,000 | 52,000 |
6 | 3,001 – 4,000 | 32,000 | 64,000 |
7 | 4,001 – 5,000 | 38,000 | 76,000 |
8 | 5,001 – 6,000 | 44,000 | 88,000 |
9 | 6,001 – 7,000 | 52,000 | 104,000 |
10 | 7,001 – 15,000 | 60,000 | 120,000 |
As you can see above, Air Canada awards through Emirates start just 8,000 Skywards Miles for flights under 251 miles in economy class. As Emirates Skywards Miles are valued at about 1.3 cents apiece, that would put the equivalent dollar cost of this flight right around $104.
If you want to book an Air Canada award flight through Emirates, you can simply log into your Skywards account through the Emirates website and go to the “Spend Miles” page. Then, you have to select “Book a flight” and put in your departure and arrival cities and your desired dates. If the parameters that you put in match a flight operated by Air Canada, then that Air Canada-operated flight will appear in your search results alongside its cost in Skywards Miles.
Emirates also list some other rules that apply to Air Canada-operated award flights on their website:
- All award tickets are subject to availability.
- Award tickets are available only on Air Canada-operated flights with the flight code AC.
- All Air Canada award flights must be confirmed when Skywards Miles are redeemed. Waiting lists are not permitted.
- Award tickets are valid for 12 months from the original date of issue with a maximum stay of three months.
- Award values are exclusive of taxes, fuel surcharge and other charges, which must be paid separately.
- Children and infants need to pay the same number of Skywards Miles for award tickets as adults.
All of these rules are pretty standard and apply to most award flights offered by Emirates Skywards.
Is It Better to Book Air Canada Awards With Aeroplan Points or Skywards Miles?
The question of whether it’s better to book an Air Canada flight using either Aeroplan points or Skywards Miles has no cut and dry answer. In order to find out which rewards currency is better for a specific flight, you first need to look up the distance of that flight. Both Emirates and Air Canada use distance-based award charts to price Air Canada award flights. So, once you have the distance of your desired flight, you can reference the award charts from both programs and compare their respective rates.
While Emirates has a single award chart to price all Air Canada flights, Air Canada has a series of award charts based on four different zones used to price Air Canada-operated awards. These four zones are North America, South America, Atlantic zone and Pacific zone.
For each zone, Air Canada has published an award chart for flights within that zone as well as award charts for flights from that zone to each of the other zones. For instance, they have award charts for flights within South America, between North America and South America, between Atlantic and Pacific zones, within the Pacific zone and so on. If you want to see all of these charts, you can do so on the Flight Reward Chart page on Air Canada’s website.
Once again, if you want to determine whether it’s better to book a specific flight with Skywards Miles or Aeroplan points, you’ll need to find the distance of that flight and then reference the Air Canada award chart published by Emirates and one of the award charts published by Air Canada.
For example, let’s say you want to fly from New York City (JFK) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) in Air Canada economy class. First, we can start by searching the distance using the Great Circle Mapper tool, which came out to be 1,069 miles.
Then, we can reference the Emirates award chart for Air Canada flights and see that a flight of this length would cost 20,000 Skywards Miles in economy class.
After that, we can reference the Air Canada-published award chart for flights within North America below:
As you can see, this flight would cost between 10,000 and 15,000 Aeroplan points in economy class, according to this chart. So, in this case, it would probably be best to book this flight through Air Canada Aeroplan because yu’d pay a maximum of 15,000 Aeroplan points compared to the 20,000 Skywards Miles it’d cost through Emirates.
As another example, let’s say that you want to take a flight from Austin (AUS) to Moscow (SVO) in business class. And, after checking the Great Circle Mapper tool, you discover that the distance of that flight is 5,937 miles.
According to the Emirates award chart for Air Canada flights, that flight would cost 88,000 Skywards Miles in business class.
If we refer to the Air Canada-published award chart for flights between North America and the Atlantic zone, then we see that this flight in business class would cost somewhere between 70,000 and 180,000 Aeroplan points.
In this case, there’s a good chance that you’d be better off booking with Skywards Miles. However, if you want to know the exact number of Aeroplan points you’d have to pay for this flight, you can always search it on Air Canada’s website.
As you can see, in deciding which rewards currency to book Air Canada-operated flights with, it really comes down to the distance of the specific flight. It’s also worth noting that Skywards Miles and Aeroplan points have different valuations, which can also affect your decision when deciding which one to book with.
While Aeroplan points are usually valued at between 1.5 and 2 cents apiece, Skywards Miles are worth considerably less at about 1.3 cents apiece. This is something you may want to factor in when calculating which rewards program offers a better deal.
The Bottom Line
It’s always good to have options. And the fact that members of the Emirates Skywards program now have the option to book Air Canada flights with their Skywards Miles means that it’ll be easier to find high-value redemptions on Air Canada metal. If you’re a member of both Air Canada Aeroplan and Emirates Skywards, you now have the ability to compare rates from both airline loyalty programs and assess which one offers the most value.
Since both programs use distance-based pricing for Air Canada awards, it’s fairly easy to find out the distance of your desired flights and then reference the award charts published by both programs to determine their respective rates. And it’s definitely worth doing this research as redemption rates can vary heavily from one program to the other in certain cases.
On top of that, this new partnership between Air Canada and Emirates comes with tons of other benefits for travel enthusiasts, including reciprocal earnings on paid flights as well as reciprocal airport lounge access for elite members. All in all, this new partnership seems to be a good thing for members of both Emirates Skywards and Air Canada Aeroplan.
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