Right here in Half 7 of our Miles & Factors for Inexperienced persons sequence, we’ll proceed choices and techniques concerning the redemption part of your factors journey.
In Half 6, we went over learn how to outline a “whole lot,” learn how to assess if the award flights you discover in your searches are offering you with good worth, and learn how to steadiness all this data with your personal private journey priorities and wishes.
In help of your hunt for good offers, this text will dive into redemption “candy spots” to construct your information on these extremely useful and invaluable award flight choices.
By being tuned-in with current and potential candy spots, you’ll be much more properly outfitted to make high-value redemptions and to get pleasure from your first (and second and third) enterprise class flight for near free.
Loyalty Packages & Candy Spots
As you start to analysis completely different loyalty applications to put money into, and also you construct your information on learn how to discover award flights that signify an excellent deal, one of the vital issues to search for in every program is their candy spots.
Once we say “candy spot,” what we’re referring to is the absolute best means (by way of factors or money worth) to ebook a selected flight, particularly when in comparison with different applications. To assist in giving you an excellent understanding of what a candy spot entails, we’ll go over various examples all through this text.
As you journey additional into Miles & Factors, figuring out and leveraging candy spots inside every program will make it easier to maximize your redemptions, save factors, and have some excellent experiences as well.

In lots of our loyalty program guides, we record candy spots and learn how to ebook them with factors, however on this article, we’ll focus solely on just a few of our favorite applications which might be simply accessible, have wonderful award pricing, and stable candy spots.
We’ll additionally provide you with some perception into learn how to establish candy spots on the whole, which builds properly on Half 6’s lesson on “what’s an excellent deal.”
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada’s Aeroplan is a flexible program that’s notably simple to entry in Canada since there are many co-branded bank cards, and since you possibly can switch your American Categorical Membership Rewards factors (MR factors) to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.
Aeroplan additionally enjoys the good thing about over 45 airline companions, so there are redemption choices in almost all corners of the globe.

As a hybrid distance- and zone-based program, Aeroplan redemptions develop into costlier the additional the entire distance of the flights in your itinerary.
Accordingly, in case you can prepare in your flights to stay inside the first few distance bands of Aeroplan charts’ geographic zones, there are many candy spots to be discovered.
As we talked about in Half 6 of this sequence, Aeroplan makes use of a dynamic pricing construction for Air Canada redemptions, so candy spots are sometimes award flights that price as near the low finish of the factors vary as potential and fly as near the utmost variety of miles for any given distance band.
For redemptions with companion airways, Aeroplan makes use of fastened pricing, and the candy spots rely on award availability current within the first place, and for redemptions to numerous elements of the world.
An instance of a short-haul candy spot inside Canada is 12,500 factors for a cross-country flight in economic system, 19,000 factors for a cross-country flight in premium economic system, or 25,000 factors for a cross-country flight in enterprise class. Generally, you possibly can even discover flights for lower than that.
For a medium-haul candy spot within the Aeroplan program, you might search for alternatives within the North America to Atlantic zones chart.
Flights from Jap Canada to Europe are inclined to measure beneath 4,000 miles, which signifies that a one-way enterprise class flight could be booked for as few as 60,000 Aeroplan factors on a companion airline, or generally with Air Canada (if you could find flights on the decrease finish of the dynamic vary).
When it comes to long-haul candy spots, Aeroplan has just a few notable alternatives between North America and Asia.
For less than 55,000 Aeroplan factors, you might probably fly ANA enterprise class from Vancouver or Seattle to Japan.
(On the time of writing, these can solely be booked over the telephone, so that you’ll want to search out ANA award availability on one other Star Alliance program web site (e.g., United MileagePlus), after which name Aeroplan to ebook it utilizing Aeroplan factors.)

In case you’re versatile and may wait till inside a month of journey for last-minute award availability, you can too discover United Airways Polaris enterprise class to fly from San Francisco to Tahiti for 55,000 factors too.
In case you’re feeling a bit extra adventurous, try to be conscious of the so-called “Asia 3” candy spot on the “Between North America and Pacific zones” chart, which refers back to the third distance band on the chart.
Leveraging the third distance band on this chart provides you as much as 11,000 miles to fly between North America and wherever in Asia or the South Pacific, which is an exceedingly beneficiant distance for the related factors vary. By conserving your flight distance inside this band, you’ll pay simply 87,500 Aeroplan factors to fly in enterprise class with companion airways.
This implies which you can fly from North America to Australia over the Pacific, or take the great distance round to Asia by flying by means of Europe or the Center East, and also you’ll nonetheless pay simply 87,500 factors (or generally much less, if dynamic pricing skews in a beneficial path).
Moreover, in case you’d wish to discover a brand new nation or metropolis alongside the best way, you possibly can add a stopover for simply Aeroplan 5,000 factors extra.
For these and plenty of different causes, Aeroplan is extensively thought-about to be among the best loyalty applications obtainable, particularly in case you’re prepared to place the time in to study the way it works and the numerous candy spots that lie inside.
British Airways Government Membership
One other of our favorite applications is British Airways Government Membership.
This program is sort of accessible in Canada since you possibly can simply earn British Airways Avios by means of the RBC® British Airways Visa Infinite† or by transferring RBC Avion factors or American Categorical MR factors at a 1:1 ratio.
Avios factors are versatile factors that may make it easier to entry award flights inside the oneworld alliance.

There are a variety of wonderful candy spots inside the British Airways loyalty program, which principally contain continuous flights. That’s as a result of British Airways makes use of additive award pricing, which signifies that you pay for every section that you simply ebook.
One candy spot in this system exhibits up whenever you redeem factors for short-haul flights inside Europe (on British Airways or Iberia), inside Asia (on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airways), and inside Australia (on Qantas Airways).
For instance, flying from London to Rome is available in at 11,750 Avios plus $1 (all figures in CAD) in taxes and charges. You could possibly additionally select to pay extra in money and fewer in Avios, since British Airways permits you to customise your redemptions.
A novel function of the British Airways loyalty program is that there are a number of loyalty applications (Aer Lingus AerClub, Iberia Plus, Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, Finnair Plus, Vueling Membership, and British Airways Government Membership) that use the identical forex (Avios), and you may immediately convert them from one “flavour” to a different at 1:1 ratio.
This function permits you to entry candy spots inside every one of many above airways’ loyalty applications.
Most notably, the transferable Avios function opens up entry to one of the sought-after candy spots – Qatar Airways Qsuites.
By transferring factors to Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, you might entry the next redemption candy spots on the earth’s greatest enterprise class:
- North America to Doha: 70,000 Avios
- North America to elsewhere within the Center East: 75,000 Avios
- North America to South East Asia: 95,000 Avios

One other candy spot instance that may be simply accessed because of the power to switch Avios between completely different flavours is with Iberia Airways.
By transferring Avios to Iberia Plus, you possibly can ebook a one-way enterprise class flight from the Jap US to Madrid for less than 34,000 Avios.
The flexibility to switch Avios additionally helps you to reap the benefits of reserving award flights with airways which have taxes and charges which might be decrease than these charged by different airways.
For instance, in case you had been to ebook a one-way enterprise class flight from Finland to North America utilizing Finnair Avios, it could price 62,500 Avios, plus $140 or so in taxes and charges.
In case you had been to ebook the identical flight utilizing British Airways Avios, the taxes and charges would soar as much as round $1,400.
That signifies that the little further step of transferring your Avios can prevent actually a thousand {dollars} or extra.
It’s additionally vital to notice that there are sometimes switch bonuses at play whenever you transfer your factors from RBC Avion or Amex MR factors to British Airways Government Membership.
By timing your factors switch, you possibly can leverage these bonuses to successfully ebook your award flight for much less.
Air France KLM Flying Blue
The Air France KLM Flying Blue program is a bit tougher to entry in Canada because the switch fee from American Categorical MR factors is 1:0.75 and the one co-branded bank card in Canada is the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®.
Flying Blue makes use of a dynamic pricing mannequin, so the price of a route can change from everyday; nevertheless, though this makes the costs unpredictable, the profit to this mannequin is that each seat on a flight could be booked with Flying Blue miles.
Flying Blue additionally harmonized all award pricing between Europe and North America in October 2023, which signifies that an extended routing from Vancouver to Istanbul through Amsterdam might be priced in the identical means as a a lot shorter continuous flight from Toronto to Paris.

Regardless of being a bit troublesome to earn in Canada, Flying Blue remains to be a wonderful program with some nice candy spots.
Specifically, Flying Blue presents the next “beginning at” charges for flights from North America to Europe, that are amongst the very best within the enterprise:
- Financial system: 20,000 Flying Blue miles
- Premium economic system: 35,000 Flying Blue miles
- Enterprise class: 50,000 Flying Blue miles
In case you’re capable of rating any of those flights at this low finish of the dynamic pricing vary, you’ll have captured a candy spot (and a superb journey to Europe).
Flying Blue additionally stands out amongst loyalty applications in that it presents month-to-month Promo Rewards which give a 25–50% low cost on the already aggressive award charges.
In case you’re inquisitive about studying extra in regards to the Flying Blue program, its candy spots, and the month-to-month Promo Rewards, we maintain up to date guides on nearly all the foremost airline loyalty applications.
In every information, we dive into the loyalty program’s greatest candy spots to assist spotlight key methods so that you can get wonderful worth out of your factors.
Honourable Mentions
Along with the most well-liked candy spots listed above, there are just a few extra that try to be conscious of as you proceed your journey with miles and factors.
Reserving WestJet Flights with Delta SkyMiles
In case you’re planning on reserving a flight with WestJet utilizing factors, your first intuition could be to have a look at WestJet’s personal loyalty program, WestJet Rewards.
When you can definitely ebook any WestJet flight utilizing WestJet {dollars}, the reality is that there’s no approach to get outsized worth from this loyalty program. Actually, one of the simplest ways to ebook WestJet flights with factors could come as a little bit of a shock.
To entry an amazing WestJet candy spot, you’ll have to reap the benefits of the WestJet and Delta Air Traces partnership. Via this partnership you possibly can earn and redeem every airways’ miles and factors on the opposite’s flights.
Moreover, the Delta SkyMiles loyalty program is a switch companion with American Categorical Membership Rewards, and factors could be transferred at a 1:0.75 ratio.
With Delta SkyMiles, you’ll pay a hard and fast value of 12,500 SkyMiles for any WestJet routing in Canada or america.
For instance, you’ll pay simply 12,500 SkyMiles (or 16,667 American Categorical MR factors with the switch ratio considered) to fly from Vancouver to Toronto, Calgary to Atlanta, Toronto to Los Angeles, and so forth.
In case you had been to ebook the identical Vancouver to Toronto flight proven above with WestJet {dollars}, you’d have to redeem no less than 225 WestJet {dollars}.
With out going into the trivialities, suffice it to say that it’s a lot simpler to earn sufficient Delta SkyMiles to ebook WestJet flights than it’s to earn sufficient WestJet {dollars}.
Money Candy Spots Exist, Too
As we talked about earlier on this sequence, it’s all the time a good suggestion to check the price in miles and factors with the price in money since generally it makes extra sense to pay money than to redeem factors.
One in all our favorite examples of that is reserving Emirates First Class, which is without doubt one of the most sought-after aviation merchandise on the market.

When you consider the Dom Perignon Champagne, limitless caviar, non-public suite, and even having the ability to take a bathe within the sky, chances are you’ll suppose a flight like this is able to price a small fortune.
Whereas it’s definitely true that long-haul flights in Emirates First Class can price upwards of $10,000, you could be shocked to study that you possibly can ebook this expertise for lower than $2,000, with out utilizing factors.
Emirates has various fifth-freedom flights between cities all around the world. These are typically shorter flights; nevertheless, in addition they supply the identical expertise that you simply’d get with longer flights.
For instance, you possibly can fly in Emirates First Class between Bangkok and Hong Kong for lower than $2,000 round-trip. Whereas that’s quite a bit to pay for a pair of quick flights, it’s additionally one of many least expensive methods to get pleasure from among the best First Class experiences on the market.
In complete, you’d get round six hours of flying time to eat as a lot caviar and sip on as a lot costly Champagne as you presumably can, and also you’d additionally be capable to benefit from the thrill of showering at 36,000 ft on each the flights.
In fact, there are much more candy spots in these and different applications, in addition to many different money candy spots that you simply’ll uncover alongside your points-collecting journey. Your job is to now set forth and immerse your self on the earth of Miles & Factors to get out of it greater than what you place in.
Hold Versatile Factors Versatile
Earlier on this sequence, we checked out why versatile factors matter, and largely, it’s for the sake of diversification.
As a common rule, it’s greatest to maintain your factors as versatile as potential. This implies holding factors in applications that will let you switch these factors to a number of different airline loyalty applications as wanted.
In Canada, the 2 versatile factors applications are American Categorical Membership Rewards and RBC Avion.
With versatile factors applications, when you’ve discovered a flight that you really want primarily based by yourself journey objectives, you possibly can then switch your factors over to your related loyalty account for quick use.

For instance, when trying to find award flights utilizing the applications we talked about above, you may solely discover availability in a single program for the dates that you really want.
By conserving your factors in versatile applications like RBC Avion and American Categorical Membership Rewards, you possibly can shortly and simply switch your factors from the one program to the one with the flight availability relatively than being restricted to a singular program.
That is particularly vital as a result of loyalty applications are continually altering, and the devaluation of airline redemption choices is just about assured over the long-term.
In case you put all of your eggs in a single loyalty basket, you run the danger of shedding worth; nevertheless, by conserving a steadiness of versatile factors round, you possibly can assist defend in opposition to these unavoidable shifts and transfer your factors to the very best basket at the very best time.
Provided that there are fairly just a few loyalty applications and a good variety of candy spots to select from, in case you’re ever in search of assist to nail down the very best deal or in case you’d identical to some assist determining which candy spots are greatest in your particular location and journey desires, our educated Factors Consultants can be more than pleased to assist!
Conclusion
Loyalty program candy spots are the very best methods to leverage your factors for optimum worth.
As you look to make your first large redemption (or your hundredth), figuring out in regards to the candy spots can assist you get essentially the most out of your hard-earned factors.
We hope you are feeling much more outfitted in your Miles & Factors journey and that you simply really feel like you might have the information to make an informed redemption resolution.
Within the subsequent and remaining a part of this sequence, we’ll take a look at learn how to benefit from your small business class flight redemption when you’re able to depart!