Aeroplan Star Alliance Award Taxes and Fees – Part 2

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View other current offers here.

This is Part 2 in my series calculating the cost of various Star Alliance awards using Aeroplan miles. In Part 1, I priced out awards on Air Canada, United, Lufthansa, Brussels Air, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, ANA and South African Airways. In this installment, we’ll look at some other popular Star Alliance carriers including: Air China, Asiana, EgyptAir, LOT Polish Airlines, SAS, Swiss, TAM, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and US Airways (for now).

Although Aeroplan is the frequent flyer program of Air Canada, flyers based in other countries and even those who have been accruing their miles with a different Star Alliance carrier would do well to take another look at this program due to its many potentially valuable facets.

Aeroplan is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards – which you earn on cards like the Premier Rewards Gold and the Platinum Card – as well Starwood Preferred Guest, for which you get a 5,000-mile bonus when transferring points in increments of 20,000. It has also offered some very lucrative transfer bonuses and promotional bonuses in the past for things like converting other points to Aeroplan miles, a 75% mileage bonus for flying certain routes, and shopping through its e-store.

Some other interesting features of Aeroplan include flexible routing rules so you can build in stopovers, some very well-priced awards, and its useful engine for searching for Star Alliance availability. On the negative side, Aeroplan does levy some high fuel surcharges on some Star Alliance carriers including Air Canada flights so I wanted to take a closer look at these and give you ballpark estimates of what you can expect to pay on partner awards by pricing out itineraries on Aeroplan’s Star Alliance partners.

AIR CHINA

DOMESTIC
Route: Beijing-Shanghai
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 20,000
Taxes and Fees: $16 USD

Route: Beijing-Shanghai:
Class: Business
Miles Required: 30,000
Taxes and Fees: $16 USD

TRANSPACIFIC
Route: Los Angeles-Beijing
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 75,000
Taxes and Fees: $75 USD

Route: Los Angeles-Beijing
Class: First
Miles Required: 175,000
Taxes and Fees: $75 USD

ASIANA

INTRA-ASIAN
Route: Tokyo-Seoul
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 20,000
Taxes and Fees: $109 USD

Route: Tokyo-Seoul
Class: Business
Miles Required: 30,000
Taxes and Fees: $109 USD

TRANSPACIFIC
Route: Los Angeles- Seoul
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 75,000
Taxes and Fees: $396 USD

Route: Los Angeles- Seoul
Class: Business
Miles Required: 125,000
Taxes and Fees: $396 USD

EGYPTAIR

EUROPEAN
Route: Cairo-Paris
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 50,000
Taxes and Fees: $94 USD

Route: Cairo-Paris
Class: Business
Miles Required: 75,000
Taxes and Fees: $143 USD

TRANSATLANTIC
Route: New York-Cairo
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 80,000
Taxes and Fees: $84 USD

Route: New York-Cairo
Class: Business
Miles Required: 135,000
Taxes and Fees: $84 USD

LOT POLISH AIRLINES

INTRA-EUROPEAN
Route: Warsaw – Barcelona
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 20,000
Taxes and Fees: $84.40 USD

Route: Warsaw – Barcelona
Class: Business
Miles Required: 30,000
Taxes and Fees: $84.40 USD

TRANSATLANTIC
Route: Chicago – Warsaw
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 60,000
Taxes and Fees: $198.10 USD

Route: Chicago – Warsaw
Class: Business
Miles Required: 90,000
Taxes and Fees: $198.10 USD

SAS

INTRA-EUROPEAN
Route: Stockholm-Amsterdam
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 20,000
Taxes and Fees: $67 USD

Route: Stockholm-Amsterdam
Class: Business
Miles Required: 30,000
Taxes and Fees: $67 USD

TRANSATLANTIC
Route: Chicago-Stockholm
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 60,000
Taxes and Fees: $86 USD

Route: Chicago-Stockholm
Class: Business
Miles Required: 90,000
Taxes and Fees: $86 USD

SWISS

INTRA-EUROPEAN
Route: Zurich-Madrid
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 20,000
Taxes and Fees: $73 USD

Route: Zurich-Madrid:
Class: Business
Miles Required: 30,000
Taxes and Fees: $73 USD

TRANSATLANTIC
Route: Zurich-New York:
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 60,000
Taxes and Fees: $106 USD

Route: Zurich-New York:
Class: Business
Miles Required: 90,000
Taxes and Fees: $106 USD

TAM

SOUTH AMERICA
Route: Sao Paulo – Buenos Aires
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 25,000
Taxes and Fees: $93.78 USD

Route: Sao Paulo – Buenos Aires
Class: Business
Miles Required: 40,000
Taxes and Fees: $113.74 USD

INTERNATIONAL

Route: Miami – Manaus (returning Copa)
Class: Business
Miles Required: 95,000
Taxes and Fees: $97.00 USD

THAI AIRWAYS

INTRA-ASIAN
Route: Hong Kong – Bangkok
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 20,000
Taxes and Fees: $132.26 USD

Route: Hong Kong – Bangkok
Class: Business
Miles Required: 30,000
Taxes and Fees: $153.26 USD

INTERNATIONAL
Route: Bangkok – Rome
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 75,000
Taxes and Fees: $453 USD

Route: Bangkok – Rome
Class: Business
Miles Required: 105,000
Taxes and Fees: $546 USD

TURKISH AIRLINES

INTRA-EUROPEAN
Route: Istanbul – Zurich
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 30,000
Taxes and Fees: $58.70 USD

Route: Istanbul – Zurich
Class: Business
Miles Required: 45,000
Taxes and Fees: $58.70 USD

TRANSATLANTIC
Route: Houston – Istanbul
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 75,000
Taxes and Fees: $72.40 USD

Route: Houston – Istanbul
Class: Business
Miles Required: 105,000
Taxes and Fees: $72.40 USD

US AIRWAYS

DOMESTIC
Route: Phoenix – Philadelphia
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 25,000
Taxes and Fees: $14.00 USD

Route: Phoenix – Philadelphia
Class: First
Miles Required: 70,000
Taxes and Fees: Approx $14

INTERNATIONAL
Route: Philadelphia – Frankfurt
Class: Economy
Miles Required: 60,000
Taxes and Fees: $163.30

Route: Philadelphia – Paris, Charles De Gaulle
Class: Business
Miles Required: 90,000
Taxes and Fees: $172.60 USD

Stay tuned for the next part in the series in which I’ll pull together the taxes and fees on the remaining Star Alliance carriers including: Adria, Aegean, Austrian, Avianca/Taca, Copa, Croatian, Ethiopian, Shenzen and TAP.