Round the world on Aeroplan points, priced by direction

Six directions, twelve segments and a 2x cap: the limits as Aeroplan prints them

Aeroplan's Flight Reward Policy, checked November 3, 2026, opens its itinerary rules with "Flight Rewards may be reserved for one-way, round-trip, open-jaw, or multi-city travel." The size limit follows: "A single Flight Reward reservation permits up to 6 flight segments per direction of travel. A reservation may have between 1 and 6 directions of travel, however the maximum number of flight segments on a single reservation is 12." The policy, the chart and Air Canada's 2026 chart notice do not contain the phrases round the world, around the world or world tour. The product is the multi-city reservation, and the only world-sized ceiling is that arithmetic: six directions averaging two segments each, or two directions carrying six apiece.

Stopovers decide how many cities a direction can hold, and the policy words them in two paragraphs: "Stopovers are permitted once per direction of travel, including on one-way travel. Stopovers are subject to a maximum duration of 45 days. An open-jaw is not permitted at a stopover point as travel must continue with a departure from the previous arrival city. Additional points are required for stopovers." Then: "Stopovers are not permitted within Canada, the United States, or China." The clause-by-clause treatment, with the open-jaw and stopover rules of other programs, is in the stopovers, open jaws and multi-city guide. Here the stopover matters for one reason: it lets two legs be priced as one direction, and what that does to the points is the main arithmetic of a world loop.

The routing section is the one that shapes a circle. The section's five sentences read: "All Flight Reward routings are subject to final validation and approval by Aeroplan and the operating airline(s) on the itinerary." "Flight Reward itineraries built in a circuitous manner may be permitted so long as the cumulative flown distance between the origin and destination does not exceed twice the non-stop distance for a given direction of travel. Within a single direction of travel, backtracking via the same connecting airport, city or country is not permitted." "Flight Reward itineraries with a direction of travel wholly operated by Air Canada, or operated by Air Canada and Aeroplan partner airlines, may be subject to the routing rules of the equivalent retail fare." "To provide additional flexibility, certain exceptions to this policy may apply for travel between an origin and destination which are close in non-stop distance."

Three consequences follow from that wording. The cap is twice the nonstop distance between the two ends of a direction, so a direction that begins and ends in the same city has a nonstop distance of zero and a cap of zero; as written, a loop back to the starting city cannot be one direction and has to be cut. The backtracking ban applies within a single direction, which leaves the cut points free to touch the same airport or country twice across the whole reservation. And the sentence about retail routing rules means a direction flown wholly on Air Canada, or on Air Canada plus partners, can be held to the routing rules of the equivalent paid fare instead of the 2x cap, which the policy does not print. The policy's one illustration of the close-in exception is a Canadian routing from Fort St. John through Vancouver and Edmonton to Fort McMurray, with legs of 497, 508 and 240 miles, priced in the 0 to 500 mile band although it flies more than that; it concerns short-haul pairs, so no exception is assumed for the long legs of a world loop.

Two zone rules sit beside the cap. For a direction whose two ends are in one zone, "connecting via a third travel zone is not permitted", with limited exceptions for cities that border a zone, and where no exception applies "the single direction of travel will be priced as two separate rewards." For a direction between two different zones, "connecting via a third zone is generally permitted if it meets the other conditions outlined in this document." The exceptions are three: "North America to/from Europe: must travel across the Atlantic Ocean", "North America to/from Middle East: must travel across the Atlantic Ocean" and "North America to/from South America: must travel wholly within the Western Hemisphere." A world loop leans on both rules, because they decide where a circle may be cut and which side of the planet each direction may take.

What a direction is, and how Aeroplan's own example prices one

The chart footnote fixes the unit: "Points required for flight rewards are based on the actual distance flown between origin and destination." Air Canada's 2026 chart notice defines the zones: North America includes Canada, the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean; Atlantic includes Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India; Pacific includes Asia, Australia and New Zealand. South America is a fourth zone and plays no part in the loop priced here. A direction is priced on its two end zones and on the total distance flown along it, whatever zones it passes through on the way.

The policy's own round-trip example shows the second half of that sentence at work. Direction one runs Seattle, Toronto, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, with a seven-day stopover in Abu Dhabi, and the policy prints one pricing cell beside all of it: "North America to Pacific (11,001+ miles) + Stopover Fee in Points + applicable taxes, fees and charges". Abu Dhabi sits in the Atlantic zone, yet the direction is not priced as a North America to Atlantic award plus an Atlantic to Pacific award; it is priced once, on its end zones and its whole length. Direction two runs Hong Kong, Frankfurt, London (a ten-day stopover), Vancouver, Seattle, and its cell reads "Pacific to North America (7,501 - 11,000 miles) + Stopover Fee in Points + applicable taxes, fees and charges". Measured between airport reference points, the two directions come out as in the table, both inside the printed bands and both inside the 2x cap, so the method used throughout this page reproduces the policy's own labels.

The connection clock that cuts directions

Direction breaks are the tool that turns one long journey into the several directions a world loop needs, and the policy explains when they happen in its connecting-time section. For reservations made through the Aeroplan Contact Centre, a maximum connecting time applies between two segments: 4 hours between two Canada or U.S. points ("unless otherwise permitted"), and 24 hours for Canada or U.S. to international, international to Canada or U.S., and international to international. The consequence is stated in one sentence: "If exceeding the maximum connecting time, a flight reward may break into two or more unique directions of travel or an Aeroplan stopover may be triggered."

The word may matters for a world loop, because the two outcomes have different prices. A three-day stay in London entered as a break makes London the end of one direction and the start of the next, priced separately. The same stay entered as a stopover keeps the direction whole, priced once on its end zones and total length, plus a stopover fee in points. The tables below show that the break can cost tens of thousands of points more than the stopover, though not at Sydney in select-row economy when San Francisco is kept as a stay, where the two are equal before any stopover fee is added. The policy does not say which treatment the booking tools choose for a stay that could be either, so the entry method and the total on the screen decide, and the total is the number to compare with the arithmetic here. The policy also prints no limit on the time between one direction and the next, only the 45-day limit on a stopover inside a direction; Air Canada's general ticket rules are outside this page and may still bound the trip.

The loop: five legs and 24,120.6 miles eastbound

The loop used for every price below runs New York (JFK), London (LHR), Singapore (SIN), Sydney (SYD), San Francisco (SFO) and back to JFK. It is eastbound all the way: longitude advances from 73.8 degrees west to 0.5 degrees west, then 104.0 degrees east, 151.2 degrees east and across the date line to 122.4 degrees west, and 73.8 degrees west again, which is 360 degrees of eastward travel. That is a true circumnavigation, and each leg is an ordinary city pair with its own nonstop distance and its own chart line.

Distances are great-circle miles between airport reference points taken from the public-domain OurAirports data file (downloaded November 3, 2026). With latitude φ and longitude λ in radians, the haversine formula is a = sin²(Δφ/2) + cos φ1 × cos φ2 × sin²(Δλ/2), and the distance is 2R × arcsin(√a) with R = 3,958.8 miles. Every airport pair used on this page was recomputed with the spherical law of cosines, R × arccos(sin φ1 sin φ2 + cos φ1 cos φ2 cos Δλ), which agreed to a tenth of a mile, and with Vincenty's inverse formula on the WGS-84 ellipsoid, which differs from the sphere by up to 0.27 percent on the five legs of the loop and moves no leg or direction in the pricing tables into another band. Aeroplan's own mileage source is not published, and the chart says only that points follow "the actual distance flown", so a booking engine can still differ from these figures; the band-edge section shows where that matters.

Zones and bands come from the Flight Reward Chart dated 2026-08, which Air Canada's server shows as last modified on August 19, 2026. The Atlantic-Pacific page prices London to Singapore; the within-Pacific page prices Singapore to Sydney; the North America and Pacific page prices Sydney to San Francisco; the within-North-America page prices the closing hop home. Premium economy is left out because the chart prints it only for travel that touches North America, and two of the five legs do not.

Loop one: five directions, priced leg by leg

Cut at every city, the loop is five one-way directions, and the table prices each from its chart line. Every chart page prints two rows per band. The first row covers Air Canada and select partners, which the chart lists as United Airlines, Emirates, Flydubai, Etihad Airways, Canadian North, Calm Air, Bearskin Airlines and Provincial Airlines, and it prints a starting price. The second covers all other partners and prints one price. Both rows are shown, because the chart does not say which row prices a direction that mixes a select partner with a partner outside the list, and no claim is made here about which airline flies which leg. Budget on the other-partners column until the booking screen shows a lower number. How Aeroplan prices partner flights, and which banks reach it, is covered in the Aeroplan partner awards guide.

The loop's totals are 165,000 (select row) or 185,000 (other partners) points in economy and 295,000 or 315,000 in business. Two lines are identical on both rows (New York to London and San Francisco to New York, in both cabins) and three differ: London to Singapore by 10,000 economy and 12,500 business points, Singapore to Sydney by 5,000 and 7,500, and Sydney to San Francisco by 5,000 economy points and nothing in business. Medians are printed only where a leg starts or ends in North America, and they sit above the floor each time: 40,800 against 32,500 on New York to London, 55,000 against 45,000 on Sydney to San Francisco and 17,000 against 12,500 on the closing hop. The chart builds those medians from member redemptions on Air Canada and select partners between January 2025 and December 2026, so they describe what members have paid, not what any one date will cost.

Business medians can sit much further above the floor. In the North America to Pacific 0 to 5,000 mile band, which holds none of the loop's legs, business starts at 55,000 points and the printed median is 170,700, about 3.10 times the floor. The chart calls each starting amount one that is not guaranteed with all carriers and builds the median from redemptions, which is why every total on this page is described as a floor and why the screen, not the chart, settles what a seat costs on a given date.

Which stops to make stopovers: five workable ways to keep all four stays

Every city between New York and the return can be treated one of three ways. It can be a direction break: the stay ends one direction and starts the next, and each is priced on its own. It can be a stopover: the stay sits inside a direction, which is priced once on its end zones and total distance, with a fee in points on top. Or it can be a connection within the policy's maximum connecting time, which adds no stay. Keeping a stay in all four cities leaves San Francisco a break, because stopovers are not allowed in the United States, and London, Singapore and Sydney each a break or a stopover. Of the eight combinations, five obey the one-stopover-per-direction rule; the three that would put two stopovers in one direction (London with Singapore, Singapore with Sydney, or all three) drop out. The table prices the five.

London is the stop with the largest saving. Making London the only stopover turns New York to Singapore into one North America to Pacific direction in the 7,501 to 11,000 band, 50,000 economy points on the select row where the two separate directions cost 82,500. The all-break loop falls from 165,000 to 132,500, a saving of 32,500 points on the select row, 27,500 on the other row, 55,000 in business on the select row and 50,000 on the other, before the fee. Singapore as the only stopover (London to Singapore to Sydney) gives 150,000 and Sydney as the only stopover gives 165,000, which is no saving at all in select-row economy. In select-row economy the order is London, then Singapore, then Sydney.

The second stopover is where the arithmetic turns. With London already a stopover and San Francisco kept as a stay, adding Sydney leaves select-row economy at 132,500: Singapore to Sydney to San Francisco is 11,336.0 miles in the open-ended 11,001-and-over band at 70,000 points, exactly the 25,000 for Singapore to Sydney plus the 45,000 for Sydney to San Francisco, so any fee makes it worse. On the other row the Sydney stopover saves 10,000 points (157,500 to 147,500), and in business it saves 25,000 on the select row and 22,500 on the other. The same stop can be worthless in one cabin on one row and valuable in another, which is the argument for pricing both rows and both cabins before choosing.

The policy leaves the fee blank, and it does not say whether the fee is the same at every stop, in every cabin or in every band. A stopover pays only if the fee on the booking screen is below the points it saves. For this loop that means a London stopover is worth taking at any fee under 32,500 points in select-row economy, and a Sydney stopover only on the other row or in business, at any fee under the savings in the table. A flat fee quoted elsewhere is not in those three documents, so the screen is the check.

Skipping the San Francisco night: absorbing the closing hop

A traveler who does not need a night in San Francisco can let it be a connection within the maximum connecting time, which the policy's table sets at 24 hours for an international flight followed by a Canada or U.S. flight. The Pacific direction then runs on to New York, and the closing hop of 2,579.8 miles stops being a separate direction. The price check is the same as before: Sydney, San Francisco, New York is 10,005.1 miles flown against a 9,950.4-mile nonstop, North America to Pacific in the 7,501 to 11,000 band, and Singapore, Sydney, San Francisco, New York is 13,915.7 miles in the 11,001-and-over band. With no stopovers at all, absorbing the hop moves select-row economy from 165,000 to 157,500, a saving of 7,500 points, and 25,000 in select-row business.

With stopovers the picture shifts, because the best single-stopover structure changes. London as the only stopover now gives 125,000 points in select-row economy, a 32,500-point saving over 157,500, with Singapore to Sydney a direction of its own and Sydney, San Francisco, New York the last. Adding the Sydney stopover brings the whole Pacific half into one direction and the total to 120,000, a further 5,000 points on the select row, 25,000 on the other row, 25,000 in select-row business and 40,000 in other-row business. A Sydney stopover in this structure clears any fee under 25,000 points in economy on the other row and 25,000 to 40,000 points in business, but only 5,000 points in select-row economy.

The cost of the shortcut is the stay. Keeping the San Francisco night with London and Sydney as stopovers costs 132,500 points in select-row economy against 120,000 without it, so the night is priced at 12,500 economy points and 25,000 business points on either row. That is the figure to weigh against what a night in San Francisco is worth to the traveler. If the San Francisco connection runs longer than the policy's maximum connecting time, the direction may break into two, which returns the price to the four-stay table above.

How far a direction may wander: the 2x cap in miles

The cap is a distance, so it can be tabulated. A direction may fly up to twice the nonstop distance between its first and last airport. For the two-direction cut, New York to Singapore is 9,532.3 miles nonstop, which gives a cap of 19,064.6; the first direction flies 10,204.9, so it uses 1.07 times the nonstop distance and leaves 8,859.8 miles of slack. The second direction, Singapore to New York by way of Sydney and San Francisco, flies 13,915.7 against the same nonstop 9,532.3, a ratio of 1.46, with 5,148.9 miles to spare. A circle fits inside the rule because the cut is made at a point roughly opposite the start, where the nonstop distance is large.

Slack can be spent on cities, and the open-ended top band is where it costs nothing in points. Adding an Auckland connection to the Pacific direction (Singapore, Sydney, Auckland, San Francisco) brings it to 11,782.7 miles, ratio 1.40, 446.8 miles more than the version through Sydney alone, and it stays in the 11,001-and-over band at the same 70,000 economy points on the select row. That is on paper: the connection has to fit the connecting-time rule and the final validation, and one of Sydney or Auckland has to be the stopover and the other a connection. A detour that pushes a direction into the next band does cost points even when it is far inside the cap, as the band-edge section shows for a London to Singapore connection through Dubai.

The cap also fails quickly. New York to London by way of Dubai flies 10,253.2 miles against a 3,442.3 nonstop, a ratio of 2.98, so it breaks the rule, while New York to London by way of Frankfurt flies 4,252.1, a ratio of 1.24, and fits. Two zone rules catch the other mistakes: a direction from San Francisco to London by way of Asia breaks the requirement that North America to Europe must cross the Atlantic Ocean (and, at 12,898.7 miles against 5,353.8 nonstop, the cap as well), and a Singapore to Sydney direction routed through London breaks the ban on connecting a one-zone direction through a third zone, with a ratio of 4.43.

Where to turn around: a decision rule for cutting a circle in two

Any circle that ends at its start has to be cut into at least two directions, and the cut city is the turnaround. The cap makes the choice a calculation. A turnaround near the start leaves a return direction many times longer than its own nonstop distance: cut at London, the second direction flies 20,678.3 miles against a 3,442.3-mile nonstop, a ratio of 6.01. Cut at San Francisco, the first direction flies 21,540.8 miles against 2,579.8, a ratio of 8.35. Both fail. Cut at Singapore or Sydney, on the far side of the world, each direction stays inside twice its nonstop distance.

The test for any candidate turnaround is a division: flown miles over nonstop miles for each half, both at 2.00 or less. In this loop the cities that pass, Singapore and Sydney, are 9,532.3 and 9,950.4 straight-line miles from New York, 39.5 and 41.3 percent of the 24,121 miles of the whole loop; London and San Francisco are 3,442.3 and 2,579.8. The two that pass price alike. Cutting at Sydney instead of Singapore makes the first direction New York, London, Singapore, Sydney (14,115.5 miles, ratio 1.42) and the second Sydney, San Francisco, New York (10,005.1 miles, ratio 1.01), and the economy total is 120,000 points on the select row and 135,000 on the other, identical to the Singapore cut.

The difference is in the stays and the fees. Cutting at Sydney leaves one stopover available for London or Singapore, not both, because the first direction can hold only one and the second direction passes through a United States connection where a stopover is not permitted. Cutting at Singapore allows London in the first direction and Sydney in the second: two stopover fees and three stays (London, Singapore, Sydney) against one fee and two stays (Sydney, plus London or Singapore) for the same points. Stays equal direction breaks plus stopovers. At the policy's limits, six directions with a stopover in each would give eleven stays (five breaks plus six stopovers) on one reservation.

Where a few miles change the price

Bands are lines, and several directions in this loop sit near one. London to Singapore nonstop is 6,762.6 miles, 237.4 under the 7,000-mile line that separates 50,000 from 60,000 economy points on the select row. Routed through Dubai, the same trip flies 7,049.2 miles, 49.2 miles over the line, so the connection lifts the Atlantic-to-Pacific price by 10,000 economy points on the select row, 15,000 on the other row, 20,000 business points on the select row and 37,500 on the other. A connection cheapens a ticket in cash terms and can make it dearer in points, and the chart's footnote that points follow the distance flown is the reason.

The Sydney arrival shows the other edge. Sydney to San Francisco is 7,425.3 miles, 74.7 under the 7,500-mile line on the North America and Pacific page. Sydney to Los Angeles, the other natural arrival, is 7,494.5 miles, 5.5 miles under that line. If the booking engine's mileage came out a few miles higher, the price would move to the 7,501 to 11,000 band: 5,000 more economy points on the select row, 15,000 more on the other, nothing more in select-row business, and 17,500 more in other-partner business. That is why this page ends the loop in San Francisco. A 5.5-mile margin is smaller than the 6.6-mile gap between the sphere and the ellipsoid for that pair; the 74.7-mile margin on San Francisco is not.

One more wrinkle concerns the line itself. Air Canada's 2026 chart notice labels the North America and Pacific business change as the 5,001 to 7,000 mile band, while the chart prints that band as 5,001 to 7,500 and the next as 7,501 to 11,000. The chart is the pricing document and is used here; the notice leaves 7,001 to 7,500 miles unlabelled, which is a reason to confirm a Sydney arrival's band on the screen rather than from either document. As a working rule, a direction within half a percent of a band line (about 37 miles on a 7,500-mile line) stays unpriced until the search shows the number; the sphere and the ellipsoid differ by up to 0.27 percent on the legs here, and Aeroplan's own mileage source is unknown. Every direction in the loop's pricing tables clears that margin, for example Singapore, Sydney, San Francisco at 336.0 miles past the 11,000-mile line and New York, London, Singapore at 795.1 miles under it; the Sydney to Los Angeles row above is the exception, which is why it is shown.

One reservation or separate one-way awards: what actually differs

If a multi-city reservation prices each direction from the chart, which this page infers from the policy's per-direction examples and which no policy sentence states, the points are the same for a given set of directions, so the comparison between one multi-city reservation and several one-way awards is about fees and risk. The policy prints these items. Reservations "may be completed free of charge at aircanada.com, or for a non-refundable $30 CAD fee via the Aeroplan Contact Centre." For reservations that include travel on an airline other than Air Canada, Air Canada Express, Air Canada Rouge or a Landline bus, "a $39 CAD partner booking fee will apply, per ticket." Changes are charged "Per direction, per ticket" and cancellations "Per ticket", in Canadian dollars, with the amounts depending on the fare option: for Economy Standard on aircanada.com the table prints CAD 75 for a change and CAD 150 for a cancellation, and for Economy Flex no change fee and CAD 75 to cancel.

The policy does not say how many tickets a multi-city reservation of several directions produces, so the table gives both ends. If one reservation is one ticket, five directions carry one partner fee of CAD 39, one phone fee of CAD 30 at most and one cancellation fee. If every direction is its own reservation and ticket, those become CAD 195, CAD 150 and CAD 750 (Economy Standard, aircanada.com) for the same five directions. A change costs the same either way, since the fee is per direction, and the policy does not say whether one direction of a multi-city ticket can be cancelled alone.

The risks run the other way. Points are deducted at the time of reservation and reservations must be ticketed immediately, so one multi-city booking takes the whole loop's points at once. The policy also says that "Waitlisting Flight Rewards is not permitted." and "Name changes are not permitted once a Flight Reward ticket has been issued." If a traveler cannot take a scheduled flight, "the member must initiate a change at least 2 hours before flight departure, or the Flight Reward ticket will be forfeited." The forfeited item is "the Flight Reward ticket", and on a five-direction ticket the policy says nothing that narrows that to one direction. Separate one-way awards limit that loss to one award, can be booked as each leg's space appears, and can be cancelled one at a time. Neither route changes the points, and the missed award flight guide and the award cancellation guide cover what each mistake costs.

Mixed cabins: the highest cabin prices the whole direction

The policy's mixed-cabin section is one sentence that a world loop must respect: "Flight Reward pricing is based on the highest class of service in the itinerary, per direction of travel." In the five-direction version a traveler can put business on the two long overnight crossings, London to Singapore and Sydney to San Francisco, and keep economy on the other three, because each direction is its own price. That mix costs 235,000 points on the select row and 252,500 on the other.

In the three-direction version, with London and Sydney as stopovers, the merges change the picture. If any flight in the New York to Singapore direction is business, the whole 10,204.9 miles is priced as business: 85,000 points on the select row and 102,500 on the other. The same goes for the Singapore to San Francisco direction at 105,000 and 115,000. With the closing hop left in economy, the mixed three-direction plan costs 202,500 on the select row and 230,000 on the other. That is 32,500 and 22,500 below the mixed five-direction plan, even though the New York to London flight is now paid at business prices, because the merge saves more than the cabin upgrade of that short leg costs.

The rule cuts both ways. Economy flights inside a merged business direction add no points, since the direction is already priced at business, while a single business flight inside an otherwise economy direction raises the whole direction to the business price. Changes later are subject to availability and may need more points, and the premium cabin playbook works through when the step up in cabin is worth the extra points on a single booking.

The cash the sources state, and the cash they do not

The points above are not the cost of the trip. The policy states three cash items. A CAD 39 partner booking fee applies per ticket to reservations that include non-Air Canada flights. A CAD 30 fee applies to reservations made through the Contact Centre, and "If a Flight Reward reservation cannot be completed online, the reservation will still be subject to the Contact Centre service fee." Reservations "may include a U.S. Tax Recovery Fee", which Air Canada collects as an agent of Aeroplan to recover United States international transportation taxes, and the policy prints no amount for it. For fares paid wholly in points, "applicable taxes, fees and charges may be paid wholly in points or wholly in cash", and they are due at ticketing, though for some international departures they "may be collected at the departure airport."

Beyond those lines, no figure for taxes, airport charges or carrier-imposed surcharges appears in the policy, the chart or the chart notice, so none is priced here. The loop has five departures in four countries, and the airport taxes at each departure and any surcharge on each partner flight are separate items that the booking screen itemizes before the points are spent. The award taxes and carrier surcharges guide shows where those lines come from and how to find them on a quote. Quoted fees are in Canadian dollars, and no exchange rate is applied on this page because none is stated by the sources.

Cash matters twice in the decision. It sets the target the points must beat, and it is the fallback for any single direction where the points price does not clear it. A direction with a poor points price stays in the reservation and its points leave the account with the rest at booking; separate awards leave each direction free to be bought with cash instead.

Building the search in an order that protects the points

Start with the turnaround and the stays, not with the airlines. Decide which cities deserve a multi-day stay, mark any that sit in the United States, Canada or China, where no stopover is allowed, and let those be direction breaks. Choose the turnaround so that both halves fit inside twice their own nonstop distance. Then measure each direction's total flown distance and price it on both rows, keeping a half-percent margin from any band line.

Next, find space direction by direction with the tools in the award availability search guide. A seat that shows in one tool is not a seat on a reservation until the program confirms it, and the phantom award space guide covers a seat that shows in search and will not ticket, a risk that repeats in every direction of the loop. The policy says Air Canada's website and app, like the Contact Centre system, apply the within-zone exceptions automatically, so a multi-city search there is the nearest thing to a validation step; if the search returns a total that differs from the table, believe the search.

When the screen shows a merged direction, compare the total with the sum of the separate directions' prices on the same screen. The difference is what the stopover fee has cost or saved, and the stopover tables above give the break-even point for each merge. Move points last. A transfer is usually irreversible, and the points leave the account at the moment of reservation, so the sequence is to find the booking, confirm the price and the fees, and only then move points, a step the transfer guide lays out. For the individual regions on the loop, the Europe award guide, the Australia and New Zealand award guide and the Southeast Asia award guide price their own legs in more detail than a loop can, and the long-haul economy playbook covers the cash-versus-points test for each long leg.

Loop-building worksheet

• Pick the turnaround city so both halves are under twice their nonstop distance, and note any stay that falls in the United States, Canada or China.
• Measure each direction by total flown distance, and price it on both the Air Canada and select row and the all-other-partners row.
• Keep every direction at least half a percent from a band line, or treat its price as unconfirmed until the screen shows it.
• Test each stopover against the saving in the stopover tables, and compare the fee on the screen with that number.
• Check cabin per direction: the highest cabin in a direction sets its whole price.
• Compare one reservation with separate awards on fees, forfeiture and the ability to cancel one direction.
• Confirm space and the screen total before points are moved or transferred.