Few things shock people more than seeing hundreds of dollars in surcharges on what felt like a points booking. The good news: on a true points award, the big surcharge usually is not there. The confusion comes from what kind of ticket you are actually buying.
Every airline ticket carries a cash portion on top of the fare or the points. It is made of three different things, and lumping them together is where the confusion starts.
This is the part worth holding onto. On an Aeroplan points award flown on Air Canada, Aeroplan does not add a fuel surcharge. You pay the taxes and the third-party fees, which on most routes are modest. The eye-watering carrier surcharge that people associate with award travel on some other programs is not part of an Air Canada Aeroplan award.
Partner awards mostly follow the same pattern, but with one caveat. A small number of partner airlines still pass a carrier surcharge on their own award flights. That is partner-specific, so the same trip routed on a different partner can carry a very different cash portion.
When someone sees a thousand dollars or more in carrier surcharges on an all-Air-Canada trip, the ticket is almost never a points award. It is a cash fare or a companion-pass booking, and both of those are revenue tickets.
A companion pass is a discount on a cash ticket, not a points redemption. The companion's base fare drops, but the surcharges and taxes on a revenue ticket still apply in full. That is why a companion booking can show a small base fare next to a large surcharge line. The pass discounted the fare; it did not remove the surcharge that comes with buying a paid ticket.
Members vent about award bookings landing with $822, even $1,056, in fees, and the real damage is not just the cash. Fees come straight off the value of your points. A redemption that looked great can quietly turn mediocre once a big surcharge is in the mix. Put your numbers in and watch the cents-per-point figure move.
Enter the cash price of the seat, the fees on the award, and the points it costs. Then try raising the fees to see the value drop.
Toggle between the low-fee and high-fee presets and watch the value fall. Same seat, same points, hundreds of dollars in surcharges, and a noticeably worse redemption. The full version of this tool, with more examples, lives on the points-vs-cash guide.
Large surcharges almost always sit on cash or companion-pass bookings, which are revenue tickets, not on points awards. On an Aeroplan points award, Air Canada adds no fuel surcharge, so you usually pay only taxes and modest fees. Check whether you are booking a points award or a cash fare.
On Air Canada's own award flights, no. You pay taxes and third-party fees, usually modest. A few partner airlines can still pass a carrier surcharge on their award flights, so read the cash portion before confirming.
Book a points award rather than a cash or companion fare, favour Air Canada metal or partners that do not pass surcharges, and always check the fare breakdown. If one partner shows a high surcharge, another on the same route may not.
Come in for a free conversation. We can read the fare breakdown with you and work out whether points, a companion fare, or a different routing is the better deal.