Aeroplan recently made a change to how awards are priced. Before, when booking an award, each city pair had a published maximum permitted mileage and Aeroplan allowed members to exceed the published maximum of miles by five percent when booking an award through Aeroplan’s call center. Now, all awards will automatically be priced out via computers.

Bottom line: This is proving to be disadvantageous for members when booking many award flights, but Jeff of the “Travel, miles, and tips with a Canadian Perspective” blog says the best way to maximize the new rules is to make sure your point of turnaround is as far away from your origin as possible.