Aeroplan is one of my all-around favorite frequent flyer programs, thanks to the huge variety of airline partners, the ability to have stopovers on one-way awards for 5,000 points, and the generally great online booking experience.
Well, Aeroplan has just gotten even better, thanks to some additional award space with a popular partner airline. I first wrote about this in late November, but there were some technical glitches with availability, so it had to be pulled. I’m happy to report that this availability is now back.
In this post:
Book Singapore Airlines business class awards with Aeroplan
Singapore Airlines is known for being one of the best airlines in the world. The catch is that Singapore Airlines has historically only released most long haul business class award space to members of its own KrisFlyer frequent flyer program.
Most partner frequent flyer programs historically haven’t had access to this award space… until now. Air Canada Aeroplan now has access to an impressive amount of Singapore Airlines long haul business class award space, which wasn’t previously the case (and this isn’t available through most other partner programs — Alaska Mileage Plan and Lufthansa Miles & More sometimes have extra award space, but it doesn’t represent as good of a value).
For example, take a look at the amount of award availability between New York and Singapore, where you have the choice of flying business class nonstop on the world’s longest flight, or can travel through Frankfurt.
Similarly, take a look at the amount of award availability from Los Angeles to Singapore.
This can also be a great way to cross the Atlantic, with plenty of award space on Singapore Airlines’ fifth freedom flight between New York and Frankfurt.
Now, admittedly Singapore KrisFlyer is transfer partners with most major transferable points currencies, so you can also book Singapore Airlines through KrisFlyer. However, the beauty of Aeroplan is that you can combine these flights with any of Aeroplan’s other partners on a single award, you can have stopovers, etc.
So whether you want to fly Singapore Airlines from New York to Singapore with a seven day stopover in Frankfurt, or want to fly from New York to Hanoi via Frankfurt on a combination of Singapore Airlines and Bamboo Airways, this is a pretty exciting opportunity.
This award availability is not a mistake
While I can’t guarantee that Aeroplan’s award availability on Singapore Airlines will always be as good as it is now, I have been able to confirm that this award availability isn’t a mistake. That’s to say that someone at Aeroplan obviously worked hard to make this happen.
While I don’t know how Aeroplan negotiated this, all I can do is use my imagination, and point out that the folks at Aeroplan are both really committed to building a great program, and also somehow really convincing with their airline partners.
Aeroplan isn’t perfect — phone hold times can be bad, and ironically award availability on Air Canada is hard to come by at reasonable costs. However, there’s almost no arguing that the folks at Aeroplan are unrivaled in terms of the effort they’re putting into building a great program, especially for partner redemptions.
It’s clear that Aeroplan isn’t just focused on the breadth of airline partner relationships (that’s something Aeroplan has very much proven in the past couple of years), but also the depth of relationships.
Bottom line
Air Canada Aeroplan now has access to long haul Singapore Airlines business class award seats. These awards are bookable directly on Air Canada’s website, and award availability is excellent.
This is an exciting opportunity, since you can add stopovers on awards for just 5,000 points one-way, and you can also combine multiple Aeroplan partners on a single award. Well done, Aeroplan!
What do you make of Aeroplan’s access to Singapore Airlines award seats?
No Singapore Airlines Flights Bookable ex Australia any longer - current situation
Just booked SIN-JFK business through Aeroplan for end of July - 87.5K and 100 in taxes. Very excited!
I’m having trouble figuring out how to use aeroplan miles on the other airline websites (eg singapore or phillippines). If I try direct through air Canada it doesn’t allow me to search for business class. Any tips on transferring to one of these?
I just picked up with miles two business class seats one way from LAX to Sydney on Singapore using Alaska miles. Never seen that before and stoked.
Great, this is going to mean SQ availability is decimated now - one of the benefits was you could at least be pretty sure of getting seats with Krisflyer.
Booked SQ business from SIN-LAX for 107K plus same tax amount last week on KrisFlyer. A second ticket was on hold due to not enough points. Points transferred from Chase still did not post for four days now.
Well Mark Nasr is the CEO of Aeoplan. He used to be one of the kids on FlyerTalk back in mid-2006 to 2010 when CO had the DO's He was 19 then. Ben, I think you used to run around with him.
Others like Scott O'Leary (CO Insider on FT) work at Aeroplan. These guys know what people want in a FF program. I am guessing they negotiated the SQ deal to get people to earn Aeroplan points - so they could redeem for J - since block on UA.
The only SQ business class availability I am seeing is on routes not involving the U.S.
What dates are available? I tried looking in May and can't seem to find anything
I wonder if only certain flights show or if you have to call? I see multiple dates where MAN-IAH is available for a business class award on the SQ app, but it's only showing coach available on AC for an award.
A Mirage?!
I have an award flight booked on SQ using SQ miles to fly EWR-SIN the week first of January 2023.
The ticketed flight is for Premium economy, which cost me 73K SQ miles. I am waitlisted for Business.
With this report of "amazing" SQ award availability, I decided to check it out.
Initially, I did the award search as non-Aeroplan member because I was no member, and found biz awards costing...
A Mirage?!
I have an award flight booked on SQ using SQ miles to fly EWR-SIN the week first of January 2023.
The ticketed flight is for Premium economy, which cost me 73K SQ miles. I am waitlisted for Business.
With this report of "amazing" SQ award availability, I decided to check it out.
Initially, I did the award search as non-Aeroplan member because I was no member, and found biz awards costing 470.5K miles one way on a couple of days during my travel week, but none on my travel date.
Thinking that one would probably have to be an Aeroplan member to have access to the advertised SQ awards, I got an Aeroplan account, signed in and searched for EWR-SIN award for my travel date... and there it was...a biz award ticket for 87.5K one way just as advertised! I decided to book it, but I first needed to transfer some points into my empty Aeroplan account. I'd transferred 100K Chase UR points, which have yet to show up in my Aeroplan account, and redid the search. Unfortunately, like a mirage, the 87.5K biz award ticket that I found earlier was gone, and only biz award tickets costing 470.5K one way that I'd found initially as a non-Aeroplan member were available. No economy or premium economy awards.
A one-way biz award ticket for 470.5K is not a bargain at all, and that is the only thing that is now available. Until there is widespread evidence that the advertised "amazing" SQ award availability is for real, I suggest tempering one's expectations...
Another question is whether SQ awards would be more available (and cheaper) when booked with Aeroplan miles than with Krisflyer miles. My sense is that there would me more availability and the cost would be better booking as a Krisflyer member...
I'm wondering where you are getting these results? I noticed you aren't showing dates. Can you break down, as of today, what dates you are seeing availability (provide a few examples, please?) I've spot-checked numerous dates and see zero availability. Also, unless you know a better way to search, Aeroplan's search engine is slow and monotonous.
Back online
If the availability issue was due to technical glitches, it should have been resolved by now. Is there any update from Aeroplan on this?
I think this was a technical glitch in that SQ flights were being shown.
Sadly I've lost hope that we will see the SQ flights again.
@ George H -- I can assure you the availability wasn't a glitch. While this isn't resolved yet, the space is coming back, it just takes a bit of time.
Thanks Ben.
Are your contacts at Aeroplan giving you a timeframe as to when they might return ? Say this week, by the end of the year or unknown ?
About two weeks ago there was a lot more availability but since about Nov 20th almost all the availability was gone from October 2023. I have been checking every day for new availability but so far nothing yet, hopefully the writer of this post is right and this is only a temporary glitch.
I booked one (me and my daughter) on 11/29, after submitting credit card info, it errored out but generated some confirmation#. Tried to call AC couple days always "too many people", finally got one agent today and she finished ticketing.
I was able to book 2 tickets lax-Nrt-sin in business class for June. All the nonstop lax-sin would error out at the last step. At that time, most days have 4 seats available in business class.
Seems like this was just phantom space and there was no technical glitch that's being fixed...sad.
Are you writing that because you have information on the subject? Or is this information being pulled from your behind?
Well it's now been 48 hours since he posted it. None of the award space has shown up again and people got errors when trying to book it originally. So what the hell do you think happened?
always read the comments lol, I would like to thank all of you for saving me a lot of frustration and points.
The award space in Business isnt real.... Ive tried to book several awards..... Danang lax Dps lax Ho chi Mihn lax and the reverse..... availability shows, be errors out as you reserve it before you get to payment screen(to pay taxes)
Tried MANY dates, it always the long leg (Sin to sfo or LAX sin that isnt available)
Please update as many people will be wasting there time!
I booked a confirmed seat in SQ Business Class yesterday from EWR-SIN-BKK, for 87.5k miles (late January flight). What a great deal!
There doesn't seem to be SQ J available at all on any of routes suggested. It seems that this is all phantom space and it is now gone.
@ David S -- It was pulled temporarily because there were some issues with availability confirming. It should be back soon.
Have you confirmed with Singapore/Aeroplan that this wasn't just phantom award space and that it will be coming back at some point?
The space is definitely back. I was able to book 3 seats on LAX-SIN in November 2023 and 1 seat SIN-YVR the week after all in J.
To be fair, Alaska Airlines seems to have very good SQ J availability too...
Sounds like a fine addition to the Aeroplan roster
"Partner frequent flyer programs historically haven’t had access to this award space… until now."
Not quite, you can book SQ Business class through Lufhansa's Miles&More. I'll be flying SQ FRA-SIN-MEL for 97k Miles and about €80 in taxes
Yeah but there's no convenient way to earn M&M miles.
The flights I saw on Aeroplan as available earlier in the day are not even available to book on the Krisflyer website. Probably they never existed rather than some technical fault?
I was able to book JFK-FRA for 60K on SQ Biz earlier in the day so it isn't all phantom space
fwiw, i did successfully book two seats LAX-NRT 4-30-2023 for 75k aeroplan each way. Got confirmation email. But it looks like all the availability is gone from the site now, alot of open seats i saw earlier are now not available.
i was able to book 2 tickets
came back to book more and nothing is available anymore
Not one comment confirming a booking. More Aeroplan puff?
@ DenB -- As you can see in the comments posted right after your comment, some people did manage to book these seats.
How to join aeroplane..I am living in Dubai
aircanada.com
I have many miles on Krisflyer and Miles and Smiles. It is almost impossible to find award space on Air Canada. Is there a trick?
OMAAT comments section to the rescue.
Maybe an update to the post is warranted?
Why expect an update? Blogger got his clicks, probably a handful of referrals from suckers who clicked his links to apply for the card. Nothing new. Bloggers are dishonest shills.
It's ok if you transferred Chase points for nothing you can always apply for more Chase using Ben's links :)
Janice, I run a startup and I detest customers like you. Always assuming the worst. Ben works his butt off to produce this blog which costs you $0 to read, yet you decimate him the moment you get the sense you've been done wrong.
Who do you think you are? You don't deserve this blog. You don't deserve business owners like me. You are a stain on the internet.
@ Jance -- If that's how you feel, you're more than welcome to not read. I included zero affiliate links in this post, so if you think anyone applied for a credit card because of this post (or that this was even a motivation), you're wrong...
@ Never In Doubt -- I updated the post as soon as I was back at my computer. I'm only human, and I do occasionally try to go for walks outside (which is what I was doing after publishing this post).
I grabbed 4 seats this morning
LAX to Sydney in Biz w a 5 day Singapore stopover in September
for 120k
I’m thrilled
Had stacked the 30% chase promo and stashed points
84k points?
Beyond crazy deal
Gone!!!!! Nothing showing for summer 2023 our of SFO, LAX or JFK. Looks like its gone folks
@ New to miles -- The space has been temporarily pulled after there were issues with some seats confirming. This is now being worked out, and hopefully availability will be back soon.
I was able to see availability 20min. Ago, but now they disappeared.
Add another name in the hat for somebody that found a great flight I wanted to book, transferred points, then it errored out during the booking process. It looks like the visible space is slowly getting pulled, as many flights I was looking at trying to book now no longer have any space.
At least with the 30% chase bonus I'm not too upset about having miles "stuck" there.
Hoping maybe this is a temporary glitch with the space to come back online soon?
I'm in the same bind as you. Found availability for mid-March on JFK-SIN-BKK, transferred points and got the error. Very frustrating to surrender the UR points.
@ Michael -- I'm sorry for the frustration! Space should be back soon, as it has just been temporarily pulled due to some issues.
Hope it comes online soon. I was looking at booking a 12/3/23 itinerary with "1 Seat Left"!
Doesn' seem bookable... way to good to be true.
Wish I had read the comments before transferring UR points. As with others, I was not actually able to book anything.
Any chance Aeroplan(+ Chase) would allow a points transfer reversal given that Aeroplan was showing false/phantom availability or am I SOL?
And lucky, if you get an update from aeroplan on this, pls do let us know.
I think it remains the case that the only other SQ allows to book its business class awards is...Alaska.
@ RK -- Unfortunately I wouldn't expect a reversal, but this space should be bookable pretty soon, it might just take some patience. My apologies...
I've reached out to Chase and Air Canada this morning to inquire about a reversal. I'm honestly not expecting much, but hopefully Chase can be sympathetic to the fact that one of their partners was misrepresenting availability on their website, and perhaps paying $550 annually for Reserve has some sway. My friend who I'm supposed to travel with has done the same. Can't hurt to get more people reaching out to both parties so they'll...
I've reached out to Chase and Air Canada this morning to inquire about a reversal. I'm honestly not expecting much, but hopefully Chase can be sympathetic to the fact that one of their partners was misrepresenting availability on their website, and perhaps paying $550 annually for Reserve has some sway. My friend who I'm supposed to travel with has done the same. Can't hurt to get more people reaching out to both parties so they'll perhaps view this as a bigger problem.
I found my preferred routing with multiple open seats in business, transferred points from Chase, only to have the checkout error on me and the seat availability vanish. I find it hard to believe that 3 seats would have vanished in the course of 2 minutes so these must have been phantom award spaces. I wish I read these comments before initiating the transfer. :(
Air Canada maybe good.
But just had to spend 226k points for March break trip for the family of 3. Prices went up 60k in 3 days. Toronto to Phoenix on Rouge.
Compaired to before when I was able to book toronto to Vancouver back in Feb for augst long weekend, Business class lay flat seats for 221k.
The program is going down pretty fast from what I can see
Just tried to book several different itineraries & dates and all resulted in errors online. I called Aeroplan and the agent confirmed that it is mostly phantom availability.
Last month I transferred 180K points when they showed space on Copa. It errored out also, after calling it couldn't be booked. Phantom space also.
just called to book, and the agent said that he has been getting many calls to book SQ business class seats today and all he is seeing are phantom availabilities that are not actually bookable.
Paid article? Not a single date actually works. I tried multiple destinations. Clickbait
Found space for 4, transferred 525K Amex points to book three biz class tix. Got all the way to checkout and then it errored out. Space is not showing anymore - looks like this was phantom space. Wish I hadn't transferred over half a million points for this!
Thanks for the update Ben. Just booked!
Just transferred 350k Amex points to Aeroplan. Can’t book dates as I get error. Lucky any idea or have I just screwed myself?
Pretty much out of luck. I have done similar thing in the past and now have about 200k aeroplan points that I need to use. Amex wouldn’t allow for transfer back and basically said it’s one way transfer. I can’t find any decent flights on Aeroplan. Basically have to force myself on a vacation so I don’t lose the points.
I don't know about UR, but I have had luck reversing Amex transfers due to error. Doesn't hurt to try.
Don’t get too excited. Intried every date in December where is showed availability from JFK, LAX, SFO,YVR and none of them worked lol.
Maybe it’s still in the process of uploading but i tried 10-15 options all failed
I was going to transfer 170k points from Chase and now see data points here about phantom availability. Would have been stuck. Is anyone able to successfully book these?
In just checked yesterday for SFO-SIN in June/July 2023 and nothing! Even looked for stood in TYP and ICN and NOTHING!
@ RC -- The space was just loaded today, so that would explain why you saw nothing yesterday.
This is mostly phantom space, I've attempted to book several flights. I wish you would do a little research before posting a worthless and misleading article.
Agreed. Online doesn't work, called them, doesn't work.
Yep just a checked yesterday and nothing! Some of these bloggers are desperate for content
I finally reached a phone agent and she confirmed most of the long haul J space we are seeing is phantom. She looked at a lot of the flights showing available online ex-lax and ex-sfo. Lucky should get a new contact at Aeroplan.
@ Meow -- I can assure you that my issue isn't the contact I have at Aeroplan...
@ Meow -- Much of the space was bookable and confirmable. Obviously there are still some issues being ironed out, but availability should be back soon.
Tough crowd Lucky! Do you think “soon” means days, weeks or longer? Thanks.
I see that SIN-AMS in Business on SQ is 80,000 miles, compared to the same flight on AlaskaMP for 110,000. Same for other SIN to Europe destinations.
Also dates are bookable on Aeroplan that are not available on Alaska.
Seems (as suspected for a long time) that Aeroplan has much better negotiators than Alaska!
Looks like there's a lot of phantom space showing. Tried to book NRT-LAX for several of the days, all came back errored out
@Ben
Just as another datapoint- aeroplan has had Etihad availability that American didn’t. On multiple occasions.
Aeroplan sometimes has Etihad award availability that the airline themselves don't have.
Last year I managed to get two award seats via Aeroplan on an Etihad flight that was completely zeroed out for revenue inventory.
Three times I tried to book, three times I get an error when checking out. Different dates too.
Don't forget that Alaska Airlines has access, too
https://viewfromthewing.com/wait-alaska-airlines-miles-can-be-used-for-long-haul-singapore-airlines-business-class/
Don't get too excited -- these aren't actually bookable with AC. I keep getting errors.
SIN to SYD on SQ A380 Business for 45k sounds good to me. Stopover for 5k and Virgin Australia as Aeroplan partner makes this interesting.
Yet it is nearly 6 months since they have had any availability with their Star Alliance partner Ethiopian Airlines. Perhaps a little of that effort could have been used in fixing the "temporary technical glitch" there that has lasted for nearly all of 2022.
What makes you think this issue isn't 100% on the Ethiopian side? Not really fair to blame Aeroplan.
@Mike - Because every other Star Alliance partner is able to access Ethiopian Airlines award availablity.
I think that has been on and off and anecdotally had to do with phantom award space. I have been able to book YYZ-ADD-JRO back in August, though that was after a couple of months of waiting for that “technical glitch” (per Aeroplan agents) to be resolved. Looks anyway that it has been zeroed out yet again. Truly sucks, as there are so many destinations on the continent where ET is the only Star Alliance carrier…
Wow this is so exciting. What about first class?
First Class is strictly reserved for KrisFlyer redemptions only.