Air Canada Will Restart Vancouver–Osaka Route (New Aeroplan Sweet Spot!)

Following the addition of direct flights from Vancouver to Bangkok, Air Canada has further ramped up their West Coast offerings by relaunching the direct Vancouver–Osaka service.

Needless to say, these new flights will be bookable via Aeroplan points, and spoiler alert: the availability is much better than the Bangkok flight!

Air Canada’s New Vancouver–Osaka Route

Beginning June 2, 2023, Air Canada once again be will be flying direct from Vancouver to Osaka.

Based on the preliminary schedule listing, this flight will be operated four times weekly, with the following planned schedule.

• AC23 Vancouver (YVR) to Osaka (KIX), departing 1:10pm and arriving 4:05pm one day later
• AC24 Osaka (KIX) to Vancouver (YVR), departing 5:40pm and arriving 11:05am

Vancouver–Osaka: Another Amazing Aeroplan Sweet Spot!

The resumption of the Vancouver–Osaka route means that we have yet another option of taking advantage of one of Aeroplan’s best sweet spots: flying between the West Coast and Japan.

From Vancouver, Osaka falls within the first distance band of under 5,000 miles on Aeroplan’s North America–Pacific reward chart:

Thus, a direct flight at the lowest dynamic level would cost just 55,000 Aeroplan points in business class. 

Indeed, next summer’s Vancouver–Osaka flights are already loaded and bookable, so we’re able to get a sense of Air Canada’s dynamic pricing upon launch. And in this case, the news are almost overwhelmingly positive.

In business class, the Vancouver–Osaka flight appears to release four seats at the lower level of the dynamic pricing band. 

Some bookings are even pricing at the extremely affordable level of 54,400 points one-way – less than the fixed-level pricing of 55,000 points on partners!

If you have Aeroplan Elite Status and/or hold an Aeroplan co-branded credit card, then you’d be able to unlock further discounts by logging in.

Don’t forget, if you book in Business (Flexible) for an extra 10,000 points or so, you’d have access to the Air Canada Signature Suite Vancouver prior to your flight.

(Amazingly, some dates even have more than four seats available at this price, which I recommend snagging right away should you be looking for a family trip to Japan in the summer.)

In economy class, however, the prices upon launch are somehow more expensive than in business class, pricing out in the region of 72,500 points one-way in the Standard fare category and 92,500 points in Latitude.

There’s a decent amount of eUpgrade space sprinkled across the board, but we can’t recommend the “Latitude Attitude” strategy when booking into business class directly is more affordable.

Another Useful Option for Getting to Japan

The Vancouver–Osaka route will be operated by a Boeing 787-8, which features 20 Signature Class “pods” across five rows in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration.

Comparing Air Canada to other transpacific airlines that also fly to Osaka, ANA would be the only major Star Alliance competitor, operating a singular route to Chicago. Meanwhile, Japan Airlines offers an alternative West Coast route between Osaka and Los Angeles. 

In terms of the flight experience, I’d choose both ANA and Japan Airlines over Air Canada in a heartbeat, thanks to the uniformly stronger food and service that you’ll find on Japan’s home-grown airlines. 

However, award space on these products doesn’t appear to be quite as plentiful as Air Canada’s direct Osaka route at the moment, and ultimately the convenience of a non-stop flight into the Kansai region simply can’t be beat. 

If you’re even a little bit interested in a Japan trip next summer (pending the nation reopening its borders to tourists, of course), I’d jump on these award seats in a heartbeat.

Conclusion

Air Canada has loaded direct flights from Vancouver to Osaka next June, showing their intent to restart this route for the Summer 2023 tourist season. 

The direct flight from Vancouver to Osaka will operate four-times-weekly, with an afternoon departure in both directions. 

With ample award availability at the lower end of the dynamic scale and a reliable Signature Class onboard product, Air Canada’s direct Osaka flight promises to be a very popular route, and I’d recommend locking in seats for next summer as soon as you can.