Back in 2008, Rob and I went to the Canadian Rockies for a week for our 10 year anniversary. We went to Banff and Lake Louise and stayed at The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise respectively.
We did not stay for free on points. In fact, as a member of Fairmont’s President Club, there is no ability to earn hotel points or redeem hotel points for free stays. When you stay at a Fairmont Resort, you can earn airline miles. You can read about how to earn airline miles here.
However, we did fly for free!!!! We flew for free on Air Canada using our Aeroplan miles. If I am remembering correctly, each FIRST CLASS round trip ticket from New York to Calgary was 50,000 Aeropplan miles each.
How do you ask did we have Aeroplan miles? We never fly to Canada…….
Well Air Canada is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner. Membership Rewards points can be transferred to Aeroplan, Air Canada’s frequent flyer program. At the time of this post, 1000 American Express Membership Rewards points equal 1000 Aeroplan points. So, I transferred the American Express Membership Rewards points to my Aeroplan account and redeemed the flights!