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Get 10% off Air Canada flights for autumn travel

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To promote its move to Terminal 2 at Heathrow, Air Canada is offering a 10% discount on all flights from Heathrow to Canada.

You need to book by September 30th.

The valid travel dates are October 1st to December 15th.

The discount code you need to use on their website is 10LHR.  The code does not work from Manchester or any other UK airport, just Heathrow.

What is amusing is the way that Air Canada handles the discount.  Air Canada makes British Airways look like a saint in the way it drowns the base fare in taxes and surcharges.

For a typical trip to Toronto in October, the base fare is £85 return.  That is then swamped by a crazy £397 of taxes and surcharges to get to a headline price of £482.

In theory, the discount code should have knocked off just £8.50, ie 10% of the base fare.  Even Air Canada realises how ridiculous this would be.  In reality, it knocked off exactly £40, taking the cost from £482.46 to £442.46.  Not quite 10% but substantially more than I expected.

You can book on the Air Canada website here.


How to earn American Airlines miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (September 2024)

None of the Star Alliance airlines currently have a UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn Star Alliance miles from a UK credit card

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to over 40 airlines at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 airline miles per £1 spent on the card.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2 : 1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

The Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Comments (7)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mark2 says:

    Can anyone give me advice about free internal flights in Canada please?
    We shall be going next autumn (using Avios of course) and need to fly between Toronto and Halifax.

    • Rob says:

      I would start by looking at WestJet etc for cash. Even if you got your hand on some Star Alliance miles, in whatever programme, a domestic North American flight is likely to be 25,000 miles return which would be a poor deal compared to cash.

      I have a similar issue as need to do Toronto to Edmonton one way next August. Have not yet decided what to do but I am thinking it will be cash.

      • iancanton says:

        if u have aeroplan miles, then 7,500 aeroplan miles (plus taxes and fees of about CAD 100 for a one-stop redemption) can buy a short-haul one-way on air canada. this is reasonable value because flights to halifax are generally expensive. u’re probably stuck with buying a return or two one-ways because oneworld does not serve halifax, tomy knowledge.

        examples of short-haul are montreal to halifax and boston to halifax (direct or via montreal). if travelling from toronto, then u can use via rail, greyhound or megabus to montreal.

        the snag is that short-haul direct reward flights to halifax are scarce from any big city except montreal, so aeroplan frequently forces an unwanted connection (of under 12 hours for a one-way) at montreal, which adds travelling time and additional airport fees. a real stopover (of over 12 hours) is available on an aeroplan reward ticket, though that probably means paying the aeroplan call centre fee of CAD 30 per person.

        ian. 🙂

        • iancanton says:

          i meant that a real stopover (of over 12 hours) is available on an aeroplan RETURN reward ticket, though that probably means paying the aeroplan call centre fee of CAD 30 per person.

          ian. 🙂

  • Lee Thornton says:

    Westjet are a BA partner in Canada and whilst I’m not sure they offer an Avios redemption route you can certainly earn Tier points and Avios on their flights.

  • Mark2 says:

    Thanks for the advice. Do I have to book Westjet via BA to get the Avios? We shall be going one way from Montreal or Quebec City to Halifax on the Ocean train.

    • Mark2 says:

      Thanks for the info. We shall go the whole journey with a cabin as a major part of the holiday. We do not expect that it will be very spectacular, but we have done the Rocky Mountaineer which certainly is.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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